![]() ![]() ![]() The sixties brought demographic shifts and New Chinatown ceased to be a Hollywood nightlife hotspot. (Ibid) The clubs, cultural institutions and restaurants continued to flourish during World War II and afterward. ![]() When the Old Chinatown was demolished and the new developments New Chinatown and China City went up, bars and restaurants preferred by the Hollywood glitterati included the Grand Star Restaurant in New Chinatown. It was not uncommon for studio heads to take meetings at Chinese-American owned restaurants and nightclubs such as the Dragon's Den, which was decorated with murals by Tyrus Wong, an illustrator for Disney and Warner Brothers. (.gov) As Old Chinatown continued to grow as a tourist stop, it became a major meeting site for Hollywood directors, producers, and actors. As the community developed into a tourist destination and community center for new immigrant, vaudeville shows, featuring Chinese performers were quite common. ![]() At the turn of the twentieth century, Old Chinatown included a theater/opera company that hired Chinese born performers. Fine, killjoy.Ĭhinese and Chinese-Americans have a long and storied history of being a part of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. ( accessed 10-21-15) Be that as it may, is reminding the Happy Hour that this is a blog about architecture, historic preservation, urban planning and design. The success of the new wave line up led to a second club in Santa Monica in 1978, which closed in 1991. Some of the bands she chose to play at her club became part of the vanguard of new wave: Oingo Boingo, The Knack, the Go Go's, and the Plimsouls (google them). In 1980, she told a Los Angeles Times reporter, When there's a bad tape, I throw it outside the window.One day I almost hit the Highway Patrol car that was right next to me. The idea came from show promoter Paul Greenstein, who approached Madame Wong, ".proposing a a trial run with rock groups playing evenings for crowds paying $2.50 a head." Esther Wong took it upon herself to choose the bands, listening to growing stacks of cassettes (back in ancient times before Sound Cloud existed) while driving around Los Angeles. By 1978, the audiences for the tropical revues was dwindling and the restaurant began to book unsigned local rock bands. The restaurant was originally conceived as a Polynesian-themed venue, featuring tiki drinks (a favorite of the Happy Hour) and tropical dance shows. In Los Angeles, Madame Wong worked as clerk for a shipping company before opening her owns restaurant in 1970 at 949 Sun Mun Way with her now-deceased Hawaiian born husband Georg Wong. She traveled the world with her importer father before touching down in Los Angeles in 1949, to escape the incoming Communist regime. The question is who was Esther Wong?Įsther Wong was born and educated in Shanghai, China. More importantly, the club was part a rich history of entertainment, arts, and culture in Chinatown. Weekly, takes a critical look at how, if at all, Esther Wong played a role in Los Angeles's underground music scene. Nikki Darling's Aparticle, "Esther Wong: Her Flawed Legacy" for the LA. Her fabled club played host to bands that would eventually become part of the new wave scene in the late seventies and early eighties. Madame Esther Wong passed away in 2005 but her legacy as the "Godmother of Punk" lives on. Today #historichappyhour is taking over the blog to bring you the story of Madame Wong's, one of Los Angeles's fabled punk rock clubs. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |