The Sunset Strip section of Sunset Blvd is known for its nightclubs, restaurants, and gambling backrooms, but for a while – mid-1930s through to the ‘50s – there also was a mortuary. The Utter-McKinley Mortuary offered a 24-hour service, which I’m guessing came in handy if you overestimated your ability to party at 3 a.m. on the dance floor of Ciro’s. It would also have been convenient for mobster Mickey Cohen, who for a few years in the late 1940s owned the building next door. One report I read said that this was the funeral parlor from which director Raoul Walsh and a couple of pals took John Barrymore’s corpse and propped it up in Errol Flynn’s favorite chair as a practical joke they played on Flynn. The rather lovely French Colonial building is long gone and the site is now largely occupied by the Book Soup bookstore.
The Book Soup bookstore on the Sunset Strip now (approximately) occupies the location of the mortuary. This image is from February 2021.
I’ve read that Mickey Cohen owned a high end haberdashery in the building that now houses Book Soup. Is that true? Or was it another building on the same site that he owned. What’s the timeline here?
Yes, largely true. Playground to the Stars is a well-researched source of information about that sort of thing: http://www.playgroundtothestars.com/timeline/1948-08-18-gun-attack-on-mickey-cohen-at-haberdashery/
Great resource!
Thanks.
I’ve bought hundreds of books (and Christmas cards) at Book Soup. I never dreamed I was standing on ground once used to service stiffs created by Mickey Cohen! I love Los Angeles.
I never knew about the Mickey Cohen connection either, so I’ll be thinking the same thing the next time I’m there.