A couple of days ago, after I posted a photo of the Warner Bros. Beverly Hills theater on Wilshire Blvd, somebody sent me this shot. It was taken from the Beverly Drive corner looking east. We can see the strikingly tall tower of the theater in the background, but we can also see a couple of places to eat before or after the show. Melody Lane was a mini chain who had an outlet at Hollywood and Vine from 1940 to 1955. Next it (or attached, maybe?) is a place called the Puppet Room. (Does anybody remember the interior décor? I’m picturing walls lined with weird puppets.) And in the middle of the photo is the Pig ‘n Whistle, which also had an outlet next to the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.
** UPDATE **
Libby W says: “I just found something that said the Puppet Room was the cocktail lounge for Melody Lane. They did indeed have marionettes hanging from the ceiling.”
** UPDATE **
Found on Facebook: “Bob Baker recounted that in 1947, “I had some friends help me on the Melody Lane Puppet Room on Beverly Drive and Wilshire. We designed twenty-eight different alcoves of puppets. Millard Sheets got some people to sculpt some of our figures that we were going to make from our designs. Instead of making them puppets he made them solid sculptures. We had five or six alcoves that were real puppets upfront. Millard put the sculptures toward the back to save money. I had taken watercolor classes with him for six months which led to the work.”
Roughly the same view in March 2021. *sigh* Not quite so interesting to look at, is it?
A bit odd….car about to finish left turn, light caught in yellow change-up, and moto-cop just trucking along staring up at the stratosphere like he’s watching for those dern flying saucers that might drop in. Hope he realizes there’s a bunch of V-8’s and straight sixes about to blast off in his path. And almost everything is so mid-century perfected. There’s gotta be a set designer hiding somewhere out of view, or maybe pulling a Hitchcock just in front of us.
Melody Lane was created by the guy running the Pig show…the tune he’s belting out on his whistle. One ad seems to eventually group several of the chains together including Chi Chi Rooms. I would take a wild guess that the puppets had something to do with the pork parade characters, leaving the policeman out of it.
Bob Baker (of the famous Marionette Theater) and artist Millard Sheets are connected to the Puppet Room per…
https://www.facebook.com/groups/45275503652/posts/Bob-Baker-recounted-that-in-1947,-%E2%80%9CI-had-some-friends-help-me-on-the-Melody-Lane-Puppet-Room-on-Beverly-Drive-and-Wils/10153947766953653/
Thanks Bernard! I’ll add this interesting background to this post.