The Wilshire Bowl nightclub at 5665 Wilshire Boulevard was helped made popular with film folk by popular bandleader Phil Harris. I’ve posted about this place before but this is a better photo of it. It went on to have quite a history. In 1942 it became “The Louisana” but that only lasted a year. In 1943, Slapsy Maxie’s—which had been at 7165 Beverly Boulevard and was named for fighter and sometime bit part actor, Maxie Rosenbloom—moved into the building. Some time around the mid-to-late-1940s, it acquired Mickey Cohen as a backer. Then, in 1950, Van De Kamp’s took over the lease and turned it into their Wilshire coffee shop.

The Wilshire Bowl from the early 1930s to 1942:

Wilshire Bowl, circa 1938:

Interior of the Wilshire Bowl Nightclub (later Slapsy Maxie’s):

Wilshire Bowl Mural Study by John Decker, 1941. Four murals by Decker were installed in the Wilshire Bowl night club on September 1941 to accompany a cabaret production about the golden age of film entitled “The Silver Screen”. This mural study depicts, from left, Bob Hope, Joe E. Brown, Charles Winninger, Charles Boyer, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, Humphrey Bogart, W.C.Fields, Mae West, and George Arliss.

The Louisiana from 1942 to 1943:

Slapsy Maxie’s from 1943 to 1950:

Slapsy Maxie’s circa 1943:

Slapsy Maxie’s after the 1947 renovation:

From 1950, Van de Kamp’s Wilshire Blvd coffee shop: