Retro Friday: Cocoanut Grove Edition

Thanks to Tess Inman for pointing out this one, another Cocoanut Grove clip from 1934. According to the You Tube post, “we catch glimpses of El Brendel, Gary Cooper, Richard Cromwell, Toby Wing, Sir Guy Standing, Jack Okie, Arlene Judge, Ted Fiorito and his Orchestra and Leo Carrillo.”

Retro Friday: Cocoanut Grove Edition

Thanks to Tess Inman for pointing out this one, another Cocoanut Grove clip from 1934. According to the You Tube post, “we catch glimpses of El Brendel, Gary Cooper, Richard Cromwell, Toby Wing, Sir Guy Standing, Jack Okie, Arlene Judge, Ted Fiorito and his Orchestra and Leo Carrillo.”

Tearing Down the Cocoanut Grove

Franklin Avenue reader Tess Inman has also spent a great deal of time in recent years working on productions at the Ambassador Hotel; she’s taken a special interest in the grand, historic building’s destruction.

Tess spent some time today at the site, chronicling the destruction of the last remaining portion of the hotel, the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub. She writes:

I was there for about an hour today, as the west wall was being taken down. You will be able to see the supports on the Eastern wall. They will be putting up a new wall against that one, then finishing the outside to look like this one. (To help hold up the structure safely, while still retaining ” an original wall ” of the Grove.) So far as I know, they are keeping the Circular Drive feature, and will recreate the original opening with the original tile and glass block that was carefully taken down.

Tess took the photo above; here are a few more that she took on Wednesday:

12:47 p.m.: Grove still standing

1:12 p.m.: Clawing the wall

1:23 p.m.: Claw and dust

1:31 p.m.: Water spray and debris

1:43 p.m.: Eastern wall with supports

1:50 p.m.: Circular entrance

Tearing Down the Cocoanut Grove

Franklin Avenue reader Tess Inman has also spent a great deal of time in recent years working on productions at the Ambassador Hotel; she’s taken a special interest in the grand, historic building’s destruction.

Tess spent some time today at the site, chronicling the destruction of the last remaining portion of the hotel, the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub. She writes:

I was there for about an hour today, as the west wall was being taken down. You will be able to see the supports on the Eastern wall. They will be putting up a new wall against that one, then finishing the outside to look like this one. (To help hold up the structure safely, while still retaining ” an original wall ” of the Grove.) So far as I know, they are keeping the Circular Drive feature, and will recreate the original opening with the original tile and glass block that was carefully taken down.

Tess took the photo above; here are a few more that she took on Wednesday:

12:47 p.m.: Grove still standing

1:12 p.m.: Clawing the wall

1:23 p.m.: Claw and dust

1:31 p.m.: Water spray and debris

1:43 p.m.: Eastern wall with supports

1:50 p.m.: Circular entrance

Ambassador Cam, #37

Cocoanut Grove demolition, Feb. 13, 2008, 10 a.m.

The demolition continues today…

Ambassador Cam, #37

Cocoanut Grove demolition, Feb. 13, 2008, 10 a.m.

The demolition continues today…

Ambassador Hotel: That’s All, Folks

(Photo by Tod Tamberg, by way of LA Observed.)

And so it goes. The ghosts of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., the Academy Awards and the hundreds and hundreds of others who once graced the stage of the Cocoanut Grove now have no place to go.

As LA Observed reports, the final tear down of the Ambassador Hotel has begun.

As you’re well aware, the final challenge to the LAUSD wound down at the end of last year, paving the way for the school district to tear down the last remaining part of the hotel. The majority of the Ambassador was torn down in 2006; full coverage can be seen at our Ambassador’s Last Stand blog.

Ambassador Hotel: That’s All, Folks

(Photo by Tod Tamberg, by way of LA Observed.)

And so it goes. The ghosts of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., the Academy Awards and the hundreds and hundreds of others who once graced the stage of the Cocoanut Grove now have no place to go.

As LA Observed reports, the final tear down of the Ambassador Hotel has begun.

As you’re well aware, the final challenge to the LAUSD wound down at the end of last year, paving the way for the school district to tear down the last remaining part of the hotel. The majority of the Ambassador was torn down in 2006; full coverage can be seen at our Ambassador’s Last Stand blog.

Cocoanut Grove Demolition Halted — For Now

Some movement on the Cocoanut Grove (well, what’s left of it) preservation front: The L.A. Times writes that the Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to temporarily halt demolition of the famed nightclub:

The Los Angeles Conservancy sought to halt the wrecking ball until a judge had time to rule on whether the district was breaking the law by tearing the club down…

In a second, related matter, the conservancy dropped its call for an injunction to bar the district from destroying items collected from the hotel’s pantry, the site of the 1968 assassination of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

The district said the matter was moot, as it has no plans to destroy the items, including electrical fixtures.

Demolition is halted until at least February, when a hearing will discuss the conservancy’s allegations.

The L.A. Conservancy has filed suit over the decision to tear down the Cocoanut Grove — which originally was slated to be saved, even as the rest of the Ambassador Hotel was sadly torn down.

Adds the paper:

The district also quietly destroyed the pantry but saved fixtures, sections of the structure, and the ice machine, and 3-D imagery was taken of the room.

Those moves led to the current lawsuit, in which the conservancy alleges that the district hasn’t proven that its only option is to tear down and replicate the club and that it improperly handled the pantry. The district said it discovered that the pantry would crumble if it were moved in one piece and that its method of preservation was better.

Meanwhile, Hensel Phelps has been contracted to build the middle school, high school, auditorium and other structures on the 24-acre site for $566 million.