The Night Life #1

This is a souvenir photo of my parents at the Cocoanut Grove.

This is the cover of the souvenir 
photo shown above.

     We all have our favorite music genre and favorite musical artists.  Jayme and I have been fortunate to see a number of concerts.  Some artists more than once.  We consider ourselves lucky to have seen our son, Luke, perform with a number of bands and play at numerous venues around southern California.  

Inside the Cocoanut Grove

     Even though we don't think of our parents as party animals, they also had their favorite music and they attended night clubs when they were young.  I guess you could say they were swingers.   In the years around their marriage in Los Angeles John Armstrong and Adele Hugus lived fairly close to downtown Los Angeles and at that time the public transportation enabled them to move around the city without difficulty.  At least one time my parents went to a popular night club in Los Angeles.  

     The Cocoanut Grove, located in the Ambassador Hotel, was the hot spot for nightlife in Los Angeles.  The Cocoanut Grove was frequented by numerous celebrities including Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, John Wayne, and Ginger Rogers¹.  Many stars performed there, including Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.  Bob Hope hosted the 1939 Academy Awards in Feb. 29, 1940.

   The Cocoanut Grove was located less than two miles from the address my father listed on his marriage license.  The Cocoanut Grove remained open until the late 1980s.  The Ambassador Hotel has been torn down.

Note:  Those puffy sleeves on my mother's jacket were made from python.  I remember seeing that jacket in my mother's closet twenty years later.  Yuk!  I am not a snake lover.

1. "Wikipedia." Last modified Feb 24, 2014. Accessed February 25, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel_(Los_Angeles).