Post #784589 by HotelCharlieEcho on Fri, Mar 2, 2018 4:32 PM

Name:The Samoa
Type:bar
Street:2727 East 4th Street
City:Long Beach
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
Referenced in Sabu's post on the Mauna Kea in Seal Beach a few years back (http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=33196&forum=2&hilite=samoa long beach). It appears in Tiki Road Trip, but is not on Critiki.

Opened no later than March of 1953, when it briefly became famous as the place where a witness claimed to have been watching singer Anita O'Day through the bathroom window and saw her using heroin. She was arrested, and later served time. The story made the Long Beach Press Telegram several times in the summer of '53, and O'Day told her side of the story in her autobiography "High Times, Hard Times". She described the Samoa as a "jazz club run by the Ashley family" and claimed it was located at 4th and Orange, which is several blocks from the parking lot which would be 2727 East 4th today.

The Samoa was closed no later than May 5, 1967 (see below).

Here's a menu from Pinterest:

And here's an image that was used in Tiki Road Trip (maybe a newspaper ad? or maybe just clipped from the above menu?):

Apparently there was a fire at the location in May 1967, as evidenced by these two images dated May 5, 1967 from the Long Beach Fireman's Historical Museum collection.

Exterior (note the "For Sale or Rent" sign): https://cdm16855.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/LBFiremen/id/4074

Interior (post-fire, obviously, so not much to see):
https://cdm16855.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/LBFiremen/id/4075

Other than that, I haven't been able to find many details about the place. Hoping someone else might have something to contribute?

[ Edited by: HotelCharlieEcho 2018-03-02 16:56 ]