Tom Breneman's/Ah Fong's - Locating Tiki

C congawa Member Long Beach, CA Joined: Aug 11, 2008 Posts: 358	C congawa Posted posted on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 11:14 AM A few additional notes I can add on this: Yes, this became Merv Griffin's TAV Theater, where they taped his show and a lot of his big game shows (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune). It's still there, but has partly been converted into a mall and condos (though part of the streamline moderne look is still there). Tom Breneman's Breakfast Club grew out of a Los Angeles businessmen's group called the Breakfast Club, and they greeted each other with the phrase "Hello Ham! Hello Eggs!" The building down from Breneman's at the corner of Sunset & Vine became the famous Wallich's Music City big record (Glen Wallich's was one of the founders of Capitol Records. It was torn down in the late 70's and replaced with a mini-mall (which had a Fatburger and a Golden Bird I used to eat at) which has since been torn down and replaced with a Borders that looks more like the original building. The indoor palm trees look of the interior was a direct ripoff from the famous Cocoanut Grove nightclub (recently razed along with with its parent Ambassador hotel), which had the palm trees with monkeys in them. The Cocoanut Grove was the big celebrity hangout of the early 1930's, when Bing Crosby became famous as the singer of the Gus Arnheim Orchestra there. And I'm pretty sure Harry Arnheim (of Hollywood Tropics) was Gus' brother, so there's another Cocoanut Grove connection. Benson Fong took over as Charlie Chan's number one son in the later mid-1940's Charlie Chan films for Monogram (the ones that have Mantan Moreland as chauffeur Birmingham Brown). Benson played the jive talking son who was confounding his father with hipster lingo and argot that Chan Sr. couldn't understand. While we're on the subject, there was another Asian-American film actor from that same period who had a restaurant: Philip Ahn, who was Korean but frequently played Japanese-American spies and soldiers in World War II era movies (when of course genuine Japanese-American actors were locked up in internment camps). His place was the Moongate Restaurant in Panorama City (north San Fernando Valley) which had a cool industrial mid-century modern look:

A few additional notes I can add on this:

Yes, this became Merv Griffin's TAV Theater, where they taped his show and a lot of his big game shows (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune). It's still there, but has partly been converted into a mall and condos (though part of the streamline moderne look is still there).

Tom Breneman's Breakfast Club grew out of a Los Angeles businessmen's group called the Breakfast Club, and they greeted each other with the phrase "Hello Ham! Hello Eggs!"

The building down from Breneman's at the corner of Sunset & Vine became the famous Wallich's Music City big record (Glen Wallich's was one of the founders of Capitol Records. It was torn down in the late 70's and replaced with a mini-mall (which had a Fatburger and a Golden Bird I used to eat at) which has since been torn down and replaced with a Borders that looks more like the original building.

The indoor palm trees look of the interior was a direct ripoff from the famous Cocoanut Grove nightclub (recently razed along with with its parent Ambassador hotel), which had the palm trees with monkeys in them. The Cocoanut Grove was the big celebrity hangout of the early 1930's, when Bing Crosby became famous as the singer of the Gus Arnheim Orchestra there. And I'm pretty sure Harry Arnheim (of Hollywood Tropics) was Gus' brother, so there's another Cocoanut Grove connection.

Benson Fong took over as Charlie Chan's number one son in the later mid-1940's Charlie Chan films for Monogram (the ones that have Mantan Moreland as chauffeur Birmingham Brown). Benson played the jive talking son who was confounding his father with hipster lingo and argot that Chan Sr. couldn't understand.

While we're on the subject, there was another Asian-American film actor from that same period who had a restaurant: Philip Ahn, who was Korean but frequently played Japanese-American spies and soldiers in World War II era movies (when of course genuine Japanese-American actors were locked up in internment camps). His place was the Moongate Restaurant in Panorama City (north San Fernando Valley) which had a cool industrial mid-century modern look:

Post #427672 by congawa on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 11:14 AM