Secret Tiki Bar Discovered in Hollywood Hills

The electronica DJ (I think?) Moby just bought an old mansion near the Hollywood sign called "Wolf's Lair" (Efrem Zimbalist Jr. of 77 Sunset Strip used to live there, among others).

He's been posting shots on the LA Curbed site as he's been exploring, and apparently he's just discovered that up a secret staircase behind a tunnel, there's a pretty damn amazing secret tiki bar:

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2010/04/inside_the_secret_tiki_bar_ritz_opening_tomorrow.php

That's amazing. A secret hidden Tiki bar. I do something similar at my house. Before leading guests to my home Tiki bar, I make them put a paper bag over their head.

Dear Mr. Moby,
I love your tiki bar way Coooolll!!
It looks like you are in need of some tiki style lighting.
At this time I have many tiki style lights I can sell you.
Plus I can make you all you need.
Pm me if interested.

video

:o :o

It's stunning!!!!!!!

Isn't it gorgeous? I wrote about that bar on my blog a couple years ago when the house hit the market:

http://blog.humuhumu.com/2008/06/26/hollywood-home-tiki-bar-for-sale-only-75-million

(Fun tidbit: the "robin leach" comment on the blog post really did come from Robin Leach. He's like the Bloody Mary of the internet, you say his name and he appears.)

All yours for ONLY $6.75M

What a magical place! Can only imagine the people and party's that took place there.

Very Cool! I'm really diggin that bamboo, I need a little getaway just like that....But with some of tikiskip's lamps inside though..:wink:
Wish we could see a close up of the paintings... Anyone here friends with Mobi??

Flash back! This thread jogged a memory from my childhood. When I was a kid I cut grass for people, one was a rich guy who started a furniture company in Ohio. Anyway, HE had a secret bar off his basement. It was filled with a sword collection he picked up as he traveled the world. (Good account, he paid me well for postage stamp sized patches of grass.

he's just discovered that up a secret staircase behind a tunnel...

How cool would it be just to find that in your house??? and then a tiki bar at the end??? awesome.
That house must be gigantic.

I'll take it.
:o :wink:

Jeff(btd)

I hate Moby....he gets all the big commercial work.

I hope Moby understands what he has, and doesn't decide to shitcan the bar for a mini studio!

I would venture a guess that that Pre-Tiki rumpus room might have been a contributing factor to the purchase of the place. He has Polynesian pop in his blood:

"Born September 11, 1965 in Harlem, New York City. Given the legal name Richard Melville Hall. Given the nickname 'Moby' at birth due to having Herman Melville as an ancestor."

:)

I read he wanted to decor it the way the house was in the 20's, when built. I'd like to be invited to this lair...
I'm sure the secret tiki bar was the declic to make him buy the house. That would have been for me anyway !

Glad to see that pic again, I remember Humu's write-up. Maybe Moby will be influenced to do an electronic Tiki album...I like some of his stuff. Wonder if he found any hooch stashed away there.

Re: MOBY buys Wolf's Lair

"...Mr Wolf was a chaser of aspiring starlets, hence the secret apartment under the gatehouse. It still has the original south seas decor of the 1920's, including a bamboo piano and a couch that turns into a bed at the touch of a button. Wolf would woo the lovelies while his unsuspecting wife slept in the Castle a few hundred feet away. He would tell the cuties that he had connections in the big house and coulld possibly help their careers..."

I wrote earlier on this thread:

On 2010-04-03 00:43, bigbrotiki wrote:
I would venture a guess that that Pre-Tiki rumpus room might have been a contributing factor to the purchase of the place. He has Polynesian pop in his blood:
"Born September 11, 1965 in Harlem, New York City. Given the legal name Richard Melville Hall. Given the nickname 'Moby' at birth due to having Herman Melville as an ancestor."

Well, as it turns out, that was pure wishful thinking. A disappearing act, so to speak:

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2011/04/moby_turning_wolfs_lair_tiki_bar_into_private_magic_club_1.php

I have it on good authority now that Moby had it all ripped out. What a crying shame. Here are some pics of what once was:

Looking at the decor now, especially the paintings, I would say that it actually was NOT "untouched since the 30s", but RESTORED by its later (pre-Moby) owner, Bob Crane (not the actor):

"It was owned by Bob Crane for many years....he is a renowned dealer and restorer of landmark properties, and the author of a book on Hollywood. Bob's preservationist eye and attention to meticulous detail restored this home to it's original splendor."

Well, original splendor no more. Of the many sad stories I have heard about original home bars being torn out of mid-century homes, this is one is among the most tragic.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2012-03-21 15:57 ]

Now now, J.P., no reason be so extremist, tiz tiz! I would guess it was more indifference than hate.

Turns out that IF he is related to Melville, it is not in a direct line, because Herman's direct line "daughtered out" generations before. Still, bearing a name inspired by the very first American Polynesian pop writer should have elicited more of a sensibility to his heritage.

Even if Moby kept the room ... His music still sucks balls !!

If I made that kinda money that would allow me to buy the Wolf's Lair, I might consider doing that. :wink:

...playing that kind of bad music, I mean!

Just found this, bunch o' hot air:

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2010/03/prohibitionera_bar_in_the_hollywood_hills_clive_wilkinson_in_london.php

Things I wish my condo had Volume I: Secret tiki bar

Hopefully removal of that little paradise was recycled to someone appreciative. What a shame if it was just totally trashed.

That sucks that he tore it out. What an awesome find that would have been. At least it was documented with some cool stories to go along with it.

This has nothing to do with tiki, so bear with me: About 25 or so years ago my dad worked for a movie producer named Ted Field. Field bought the old Harold Lloyd mansion Green Acres in Beverly Hills. While it was being restored, my dad took me on a tour of the place. It was amazing in many ways, but one of the coolest things was when you went downstairs into the basement, you could walk down a corridor that eventually led to a secret bar/lounge. The house had been built during Prohibition, and the story was that when the lounge's fireplace was lit, the smoke from the chimney could be seen by neighbors Charlie Chaplin, DW Griffith, etc. and it was a signal to them that the bar was open.

On 2012-02-09 13:32, arriano wrote:
This has nothing to do with tiki, so bear with me: About 25 or so years ago my dad worked for a movie producer named Ted Field. Field bought the old Harold Lloyd mansion Green Acres in Beverly Hills. While it was being restored, my dad took me on a tour of the place. It was amazing in many ways, but one of the coolest things was when you went downstairs into the basement, you could walk down a corridor that eventually led to a secret bar/lounge. The house had been built during Prohibition, and the story was that when the lounge's fireplace was lit, the smoke from the chimney could be seen by neighbors Charlie Chaplin, DW Griffith, etc. and it was a signal to them that the bar was open.

They planned to make his Greenacers mansion a museum but sadly it never panned out, too bad it had 44 rooms and was basically unchanged since the 1920's, even in the 70's, kind of like Moby's ex-tiki space.

It strikes me a little bit as an irony that Moby is fascinated enough by L.A. architecture to start his own blog on it in order to -in his own words- "document the beautiful weirdness of l.a’s oddball buildings", and because "one of the things that fascinates and baffles me about l.a is the randomness and accidental beauty and strangeness of the architecture here."

http://mobylosangelesarchitecture.com/page/3

He obviously LIKES theme architecture (best case in point is his new home) - but only on the OUTSIDE? He doesn't seem to know much about the genres, I don't think he's ever heard about Storybook Style, for example. Perhaps, as a recent New York transplant, he really did not understand what a gem he had in his basement, and years later will do a face-palm when he realizes it.