Vintage Hollywood Nightlife Exhibition Closes This Weekend

Hollywood glamour from the 20th century golden age of L.A.’s first wave of celebrity restaurants is on display at the Hollywood Heritage Museum this Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Out with the Stars: Hollywood’s Famous and Forgotten Haunts features Artifacts from long-gone favorites like Trader Vic’s and the Cocoanut Grove are on display along with neon signs from the Brown Derby and the Earl Carroll Theatre. In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s gossip columnists like Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper would often report on the comings and goings of big stars from our famed collection of Hollywood hot spots where anyone, for the price of a cocktail, could gawk at the stars at play.

The museum is housed in a former barn, more than a century old, where Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse Lasky teamed up to make their silent western The Squaw Man. The barn is the birthplace of Hollywood’s first major film company studio and was moved to the Paramount lot where it had roles as a train station and barn in movies and later became the studio gym. It was moved to its current location opposite the Hollywood Bowl and made into a museum in the 1980s. Artifacts from the silent era and a reproduction of director DeMille’s original office are inside, along with a bookstore, gift shop, and rotating displays on early film history.

For now, the bejeweled cape of Peruvian songstress Yma Sumac shines through a display case that typically holds swords and shields and props from movie epics dating back to the silent days. The museum has recently branched out into exploring later eras of film history as well as the neighborhood itself. The current exhibit closes Sunday, September 8.