PANAMA CAFE AND GRILL, LONG BEACH, CA (restaurant)

Name:PANAMA CAFE AND GRILL
Type:restaurant
Street:14 PINE AVENUE
City:LONG BEACH
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:6-0664
Status:defunct

Description:
Circa 1940's South Pacific themed restaurant and bar in Long Beach, CA.

A pre-tiki South Seas themed restaurant named after a Central American country. An Edgar Leeteg velvet painting is pictured on the postcard. The seller estimated it to be from the 1940's. It was open 24 hours a day and it looks like it had a pretty cool neon sign.

Very cool find! Never seen that card before. I do have the matchbook and always wondered about this place.

DC

There is also a black version.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2016-02-03 15:58 ]

DC, I'm glad you posted those. I can't find any information on the place.

Nice find Lori. I am not surprised that you had “stuff” from there Scott. Satellite shows condos or retail building now.
Mahalo to both of you.

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2016-02-03 23:23 ]

Found this old shot of the exterior of the Panama Café in the L.A. Public Library Historical Photographs Collection online (https://tessa.lapl.org/). The neon sign out front is visible on the right side of the picture. Provenance says the picture is from 1954.

Another view of the front of the Panama Cafe. Detail taken from a photo offered for sale on eBay - seller says the picture is from 1964.

Original is here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-Nov-8-1964-Parade-In-Long-Beach-CA-Businesses-Stores-Photo-2121/174177299976

One more view, this one supposedly from the 1940s.

Original is on Shutterstock here: https://editorial01.shutterstock.com/wm-preview-1500/9869665a/118c41c3/view-of-pine-avenue-long-beach-california-usa-shutterstock-editorial-9869665a.jpg

If you look closely you can see the marquee under the Maxwell's Jewelry sign calling it the "Panama Club", which I had never noticed before. Searching by that name, I discovered it was the filming location for a 1975 episode of Starsky & Hutch. Now to find some way to watch that episode! IMDB link below (getting truncated for some reason).

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=Panama%20Club%20-%2022%20Pine%20Ave,%20Long%20Beach,%20California,%20USA

[ Edited by: HotelCharlieEcho 2020-02-14 13:46 ]

Hope this works:

According to this (link to google maps):

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1UEQIAdSKDscYsUWafigAexkq9WI&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=33.75910318142205%2C-118.16771911071777&spn=0.278323%2C0.062463&source=embed&z=14

(you'll have to click on the points in Long Beach to find it)

it's episode 6 from season 1 "Death Notice". In the episode it is a strip joint.

howlinowl

PS. IMDB shows this episode as number 6 of season one. thetvdb.com shows it as episode 7 of season 1. My media server (plex) scrapes metadata from thetvdb.com, so it shows as episode 7 also....

[ Edited by: howlinowl 2020-02-16 08:51 ]

Here's some screenshots....first is of the outside of the club. The rest may or may not be of the inside. Could be a different location or a soundstage.

Outside of club:

Inside of club:

howlinowl

Had a bit more time to watch the episode, found another shot of the outside of the club:

And as a bonus shot, is that a Witco shark on the back wall?:

There are lot of shot of "inside" of the club and in the "alley" of the club, but like the interior, I have no idea if they are real or backlot shots, so I didn't bother to include them.

howlinowl

Nice! I particularly like the nighttime color shot of that neon sign.

Also informative I think as a visual capture of an older pre-tiki/tiki bar falling victim to the urban decline of the late 1960s/early 1970s.