The Melody Room opened at 8852 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, June 14th, 1951. This photo was taken 1956.) It’s rumored to have served as an illicit gambling den for notorious gangster Mickey Cohen. That particular spot has had quite a history. Before it was the Melody Room, the Cotton Club was there, then the Greenwich Village, the Rue Angel, which burned in 1950. Then it was known as The Last Call, which was closed in April 1951 because it ran afoul of a new law in the county forbidding “lewd or indecent shows” which you and I would these days call “drag shows.” The Melody Room was around for quite some time, and then in the 1970s, it became Filthy McNastys and is now occupied by the world-famous music venue Viper Room. That’s a hell of a history for a place about the size of my back patio.