Trocadero (Los Angeles)

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The Trocadero

In West Hollywood, California, the Cafe Trocadero was the center of jitterbug in the 1930s. Today, a " new" Trocadero stands as a nightclub at 8610 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. A black tie French-inspired supper club, the original Trocadero, now demolished, was considered the jewel of the Strip in the 1930s and became synonymous with stars, starlets, movie producers, and fun. Founded by William R. Wilkerson in 1934. Wilkerson was the successful publisher of The Hollywood Reporter who also owned other nightclubs nearby on the Sunset Strip like Ciro's and LaRue^[1]. It was also the scene of many famous movie premiere parties. There was a mid 1940's low-budget film about the Trocadero and its history starring Ralph Morgan which bore little with reality.

Among the celebrities who frequented the Trocadero were Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Jackie Gleason, Henry Fonda, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, and Norma Shearer. The Trocadero was featured in the 1937 movie A Star is Born starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. That year, vaudevillian and Three Stooges manager Ted Healy died here in a barroom brawl, alleged at the hands of fellow MGM star Wallace Beery and MGM studio exec Eddie Mannix.

The stylish connotations of the name "Trocadero" derive from the Battle of Trocadero in southern Spain, a citadel held by liberal Spanish forces that was taken by the French troops sent by Charles X, in 1823. The battle was commemorated in the Place du Trocadéro, Paris, and the monumental glamor of the Parisian site has given rise to a variety of locales bearing its name.

In London the Trocadero Restaurant of J. Lyons and Co. opened in 1896 in Shaftesbury Avenue, near the theatres of the West End. It offered magnificent in an Opera Baroque style, and the various Trocaderos of the English-speaking world have derived their names from this original, the epitome of grand Edwardian catering.

Consequently, Trocadero is the name of several restaurants and clubs throughout the world: see Trocadero (disambiguation).