Five Fascinating Facts about the Cocoanut Grove
Curious about the Cocoanut Grove, one of Old Hollywood’s most famous nightclubs? Below are five facts about the famous celebrity stomping ground:
The palm trees that decorated it were left over from Valentino’s 1921 release THE SHIEK. The Cocoanut Grove opened a little less than four months after the Ambassador Hotel, due to high demand for a nightclub on the property. The famed decor was most likely made up of what was readily available - hence THE SHIEK’s prop palms found a new life and lasting fame.
On Tuesday Nights, dubbed “Stars Nights,” the up and coming starlets came out to compete in the dance contests - Joan Crawford, Carole Lombard, and Loretta Young, (then known as Lucille LeSeur, Jane Peters, and Gretchen Young) all came out to vie for the honor of being named the Jazz Baby of the evening.
“Oscar” made his debut here. While the original Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt in 1929, the statuette dubbed “Oscar” didn’t make his appearance until the 1930 ceremony held at the Cocoanut Grove.
There were monkeys - including a rumored live one! Occasionally, John Barrymore’s pet monkey Clementine could be seen cavorting about the club along with the stuffed monkeys with twinkling lights for eyes dangling from the SHIEK Palm Trees.
The club was was re-created on the Paramount lot for the 1938 film COCOANUT GROVE, starring Fred MacMurray and Harriet Nelson. Paramount photographers went to the real Cocoanut Grove to capture photos used to create the set for the film - the club was in its heyday then and was much too busy to be closed down for filming - ironically, in its last years of existence, the Cocoanut Grove and Ambassador Hotel would be used as little else but filming locations before their ultimate demise in 2005.
