Last night I was watching an old movie on TCM (which is news that I can’t imagine surprises anyone) called “The Strip.” Produced by MGM in 1951, it starred Mickey Rooney, William Demarest, with Louis Armstrong and his orchestra, and was set on the Sunset Strip. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well … there’s a reason I’d never heard of it. It’s a fairly small-time effort whose highlight came in the first few minutes of the movie. This is a photo I took during the opening credits. It’s of the top end of the Sunset Strip looking east from around Harper Ave. The white building on the left is the Chateau Marmont Hotel. I guess it’s more than possible they made this panning shot on a Sunday morning, but my goodness, was this the last time the Sunset Strip had three automobiles on it?!?!
In this shot we’re looking west past Ciro’s nightclub on the right. This shot is possibly taken from the Sunset Tower Hotel (which back then was an apartment building. It became a hotel in the 1980s.)
In this night shot, we’re looking west from Maxime’s at 9103 Sunset Bvld at the corner of Doheny:
The Players Club – 8225 Sunset Blvd – opened summer 1940
Ciro’s – 8433 Sunset Blvd – opened January 30, 1940
Paul Verlengia Marquis – 8240 Sunset Blvd – opened circa mid-1940s
Mocambo – 8588 Sunset Blvd – opened January 3, 1941
Bublichki Russian Restaurant – 8846 Sunset Blvd
La Rue – 8631 Sunset Blvd – opened April 22, 1944
Villa Nova – 9015 Sunset Blvd – opened 1939
Scandia – 9131 Sunset Blvd – opened 1946
Bravo….
Bublichki? That’s a new one on me.
Best,
Michael D.
It was a very popular and respected Russian restaurant.
In the last Lucy episode of Season 1, Ricky Asks for a Raise, Lucy dresses up as a nightclub customer named Countess Bublichki.
The location was on the south side of Sunset Blvd. at Larrabee Street. After that the location was several other places like a burlesque/strip club called The Classic Cat, Jerry Lewis’s restaurant, Tower Video and now a bank.