Seven Seas

Has this place been fogotton? I used the search and came up blank. Any pictures or information?

Which Seven Seas dude? There was one in Edmonton (where Sweet Daddy Tiki and I are from), but I don't see where you're from so cannot guess..

aloha,
em.

Hollywood? L.A.? Thank you. Any information would help. I read about it on the Tiki Ti website this mornings.

[ Edited by: #54 on 2004-02-01 12:15 ]

This is not the Seven Seas you're looking for #54, sorry about that, it's the one that used to be in Edmonton, mentioned by emspace above:

in 1948

at a different location in the early '60s.

Neither location was 'tiki' but the first location had a fabulous "Eames, atomic, retro space age" lounge and the second location had "Polynesian lite" decor in the dining room with some tapa cloth on the walls and a few large vaguely exotic masks.

Swizzles:

fairly common.

rare.

Sorry to highjack this thread. Hope you find what you're looking for.

-Sweet Daddy T.
Because crap doesn't buy itself.

blog

[ Edited by: Sweet Daddy Tiki 2008-09-17 23:20 ]

No, it's ok. SDaddyT. Thanks you for the information. Maybe the Book of Tiki Sven K. might know something. Someone has got to know something. I guess Ray #1 used to pour tiki drinks there. From reading the Tiki Ti sight today. I know someone who said they used to dance there in the 80's. But the Tiki Ti website says something like the 60's was tiki.

there's one in tempe, arizona that'll get you a rub'n'tug for about $275

Bob Brooks' Seven Seas was at 6904 Hollywood Blvd here in LA. It's on the Walk of Fame; there's a tourist shop in the spot now.

There's a WHAT in Tempe???

oh.

Bob Brooks SEVEN SEAS was right across from the Chinese Theater. It has been written about by Jim Heimann and others (I mentioned it in "Taboo-The Art Of Tiki"). Here's a clip from the upcoming Taschen L.A. guide for which I wrote the Polynesian Pop chapter:

"Bob Brooks had discovered the artistic talent of the painter Edgar Leeteg in Tahiti and decorated his whole establishment with the native portraits of this “Rembrandt of black velvet painting”. He also installed the first “Rain on the roof” effect over his bar, and his Polynesian floor shows were accompanied by Sam Koki and Band, who had played on Bing Crosby’s hit recording of “Sweet Leilani”."

I gave the author of the "Leeteg of Tahiti" book a giant Seven Seas postcard and a B&W photo of Bob Brooks with an unknown band for the interview with Otto part (p.60/61)

There was a teen-age dance club called the Seven Seas in Hollywood in the '80s, & there was a dance club in the location of the old Seven Seas nightclub, but I can't remember if they were the same club. I was interning @ KROQ back then & had to go to clubs with the DJs for apearances sometimes. I remember that they were standard '80s dance club decor, no Tiki.

*On 2004-02-02 22:49, bigbrotiki wrote:*Here's a clip from the upcoming Taschen L.A. guide for which I wrote the Polynesian Pop chapter

Any idea when the book will be coming out?

Mike Sr. was telling me about the Seven Seas last week at the Tiki Ti. He said it eventually got taken over by the mob and there was drug running out of the place. It was de-tiki'd over the years, and I think there was ultimately a murder there or some such. I was a few Mistakes in when he told me the story, so I don't remember all the details. Can someone else fill in?

On 2004-02-03 07:10, freddiefreelance wrote:
[T]here was a dance club in the location of the old Seven Seas nightclub . . ., I remember that they were standard '80s dance club decor, no Tiki.

A good (over 21) dance club - good vibe, although the interior did not have any tiki. I used to go there in my clubbing days on certain nights.

Hope these pics help you #54......



Sorry for the poor pic, looks like at some point it may have changed to "Ray Haller's 7 Seas"

One of my favorite menus......surfboard shape on what seems like verrry thin (and fragile)wood...lotsa rum drinks

In the movie "Wonderland" there is a mention of the Seven Seas. The movie is about porn star John Holmes (Val Kilmer) involvement in a robbery and the brutal slayings of 4 people in 1981. In one scene the police are talking about Eddie Nash (whose house was robbed) and said that he came to this country in the early 1950s and had a hotdog cart near the Seven Seas and by 1960, owned the Seven Seas before selling it and buying nightclubs (1 was the infamous Starwood where many a hard rock band got their start). Any more info out there?

The Seven Seas building still exists in Hollywood across from the Mann Chinese Theater. Here's an article in today's Los Angeles Times telling of recent activity with the property and giving some nice tidbits of history as well:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-holly6feb06,1,6439784.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

A new Hollywood revival
CIM Group has big plans for the Seven Seas building it is buying from Eddie Nash.
By Roger Vincent, Times Staff Writer
February 6, 2007

Efforts to upgrade a key section of the Hollywood shopping and entertainment district, part of a revival that is making the area more attractive to locals and tourists, have taken a major step forward.

CIM Group, the district's largest commercial landlord, said it had agreed to acquire the Seven Seas building, a dilapidated structure that once housed a famous Hollywood Boulevard nightclub. At the request of the city's redevelopment agency, CIM plans to restore the edifice to its 1920s style.

It's the latest example of a wave of investment seeking to improve the formerly blighted neighborhood.

The Seven Seas building "has been a missing piece" in the real estate recovery along Hollywood Boulevard, said Helmi Hisserich, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency's regional administrator for Hollywood. "It's a beautiful historic building, but nobody can see its beauty."

The three-story building, across the street from Grauman's Chinese theater, stands out like a broken tooth in the blocks around Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue that have benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of property improvements in recent years. Further transformation is underway, including new housing, stores and entertainment attractions.

The building's seller, infamous impresario Eddie Nash, agreed to part with the retail and office structure for an undisclosed price.

Nash, who owned the building for almost 50 years, said he finally agreed to sell after a CIM executive "wore me out."

Much of the time Nash owned it, and as far back as the 1930s, the building was the home of Seven Seas, a popular island-themed nightclub that once boasted live floor shows with music and dancers three times a night.

"It was a great hangout during [World War II] for soldiers and sailors on leave from the Pacific, or on the verge of going out," the late Times columnist Jack Smith once wrote. "There was a tin canopy over the bar, and every few minutes an artificial rainstorm would come, drumming on the tin like the rain on the roof of the Pago Pago rooming house in Somerset Maugham's 'Rain.' "

Like many other buildings in Hollywood, this one fell far and hard in the 1980s and 1990s when scores of businesses departed and the neighborhood earned a reputation for being disreputable and even dangerous.

The $650-million Hollywood and Highland retail, hotel and entertainment complex across the street was a financial debacle for its original owners after it opened in 2001. But the project helped spur other improvements nearby, including the creation of a studio next door to the Seven Seas building where ABC television's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" is taped.

Madame Tussauds, the legendary London wax museum, announced last October that it plans to build a flashy $55-million branch next to Grauman's.

With ownership of Nash's building, Hollywood-based CIM hopes to advance its strategy of trying to make the neighborhood appeal to locals and not just tourists, said Shaul Kuba, a principal at CIM who conducted a long campaign to acquire the property.

The company controls 12 office, retail and residential properties in Hollywood, including the Hollywood and Highland complex, the TV Guide building and the Sunset and Vine Tower.

One of the reasons the Hollywood and Highland complex struggled after it opened was that it had too many tourist-oriented businesses, such as fancy boutiques and a duty-free outlet, said Jeff Kreshek, CIM's head of leasing.

CIM is attempting to bring in businesses that would serve the daily needs of people who live and work in Hollywood, such as drugstores and fitness centers, as well as restaurants and boutiques.

CIM's heavy investment in the Seven Seas building may not be profitable in itself, but it could help create the kind of neighborhood that lifts the value of other company assets.

"They have a different way of calculating a return on their investment," the redevelopment agency's Hisserich said. "It's going to have a heavy impact on leasing and who comes into Hollywood as a whole."

Because of its location in a city-designated historic zone, developers who sought to improve the property were required to bring it up to historic standards, and others balked at that prospect, Hisserich said.

CIM agreed to meet federal standards for historic renovation, which are considered especially stringent, she said.

"It will be an example to owners down the boulevard about how to bring new life to these historic buildings," she said.

The property, currently in escrow, is worth about $35 million or more, according to a real estate broker who asked not to be named because he wasn't involved in the deal.

The building is mostly empty, its top two floors of offices boarded up. Ground floor retailers aim for the low end of the tourist market, selling maps to stars' homes, cheap T-shirts and Zippo lighters.

Nash said he wanted to fix up the property, but gave up after vibrations from subway construction damaged the building in the mid-1990s and directions from the redevelopment agency on what could be done with it were unclear.

Nash once operated more than 20 bars and restaurants, including the Starwood, Odyssey, Ali Baba's and the Kit Kat Club. Prosecutors accused him of trafficking drugs out of his clubs and he was suspected of ordering the bludgeoning deaths of four people at a Laurel Canyon drug den in 1981 in a case known as the "Wonderland murders."

In 2001 he pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges and was sentenced to 37 months in prison, ending his long contest with authorities. At age 77, he now lives in the San Fernando Valley.

The complete historic renovation, valued at as much as $10 million by CIM, could help lure some sought-after retailers who are waiting to see whether Hollywood's turnaround is real, CIM's Kreshek said.

So far, Spanish clothier Zara has agreed to move into the renovated building next year and Swedish clothier H&M is set to open a store next door this September in space formerly occupied by Hamburger Hamlet.

[email protected]

Tim, thank you, nice to hear from you!
For years there used to be a "Seven Seas" ghost sign in the back of the building, over the whole classic back alley brick/fire escape wall.... did anybody take a photo of it?

The sign is definitely gone for good as of two years ago. Sorry no pictures.

Finally, something positive to read about the peeps with big bugs investing a restoring and making more big bucks. Seven Seas sounds like an interesting place....wow....plan to restore bak to the 20's era....that will be neat. :)

I'm assuming that it means that they are going to restore the building to it's 1920/30's glory (which is cool), but not bring back the seven seas restaurant?

Polynesiac -

That's the take that I get as well. Which is better than could be expected for the old building. The Polynesian club has been closed long enough that I don't think we could ever expect it to be brought back as such.

Now Trader Vics in Beverly Hills, that's another story. Still hope of saving that venerable old institution.

Sabu

Can't wait! This is sensational news...

The last time I set foot in The Seven Seas it looked pretty tragic. Functional, but tragic, and definitely bereft of the class and urbanity that was once its signature style (more like a joint The Terminator was likely to shoot up).

The Demented Menehunes here will all look forward to following this good news.

Cheers and aloha,
SOK

I remember the Seven Seas back in the glorious 80s when it was a dance club and, yes, it did have a light island theme.

Same owner as owned the Odyssey? That was a very, very sad day, when it was bulldozed for a mini-mall. I rember watching TV news covering the protesters picketing with signs saying, "We'll just dance outside" to see if I recognized any.

So can anyone post any Seven Seas images? There doesn't seem to be a thread in locating tiki either.

Life is a state of mind

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-02-16 08:31 ]

The first postcard shows Bob Brooks and in the hall behind the bar what appears to be a Leeteg black velvet. In the second postcard it is now Ray Haller's 7 Seas. The next 2 postcards seem to be from the same era (late 60s early 70s) with a tiki in the background next to one of the dancers. Three shows nightly, seven days a week!

This is from the 1974 Los Angeles Yellow Pages

Great postcard pics. Does anyone know if there are any mugs with the name on it?

The only thing I have ever found is a cool etched glass:

The glass is probably pre-50's but not sure. I've never seen any mugs from the Seven Seas although the Telephone Directory ad clip art implies some sort of mug. Probably some standard PMP mug but who knows what might pop up one of these days.

On 2007-02-17 07:52, bongofury wrote:

This description basically sums up the perfect tiki establishment.

A pretty cool souvenir photo folder with the date APR 5 1947 stamped behind the photo. The front:

Some close ups:

Note the Leeteg Painting on the left side

Anyone know the band?

The not so flattering photo inside:

Also have the same Bob Brooks' postcard as bongofury but with a post mark of 1941. Written on it is " Here again after a lapse of 5 years" which dates the 7 Seas to at least 1936.

I've seen a different Ray Haller 7 Seas postcard from 1937 and i have a feeling that Bob Brooks and Ray Haller are one and the same.

Testing. Is this working?

Hanford, you broke it! Someone get the 'net glue, the big tube this time...

Hanford, its working fine!

Here are a some close ups of a postcard I just got from the Seven Seas. The place looks like it had been upgraded from the older postcards in this era.

Here is another postcard I saw from the 7 Seas. When did the name change from 7 to Seven? Check out the Leeteg painting of Bob Brooks - how cool is that!

DC

USED TO GO TO SEVEN SEAS BACK IN 82-83/84
ON WEEKEND LEAVE FROM TWENTYNINE PALMS..
IT WAS BUT A SHELL OF IT'S FORMER GLORY AND A NIGHTCLUB
WHERE THEY'D PLAY NEW WAVE AND GOTH STUFF...
WE USED TO PICK UP THE FREAKIEST CHICKS THERE!
:wink:

[ Edited by: bananabobs 2008-11-19 02:56 ]

I have a matchbook from "Ray Haller's 7 Seas" with a 6-digit phone number (HO-9978), so I'm guessing mid 30's or older ...