You’re standing in front of what was once the beating heart of Hollywood’s roaring nightlife-the legendary Café Montmartre. You wouldn’t know it from outside, but in the 1920s, this spot was hotter than a new movie premiere. Imagine velvet ropes, flashes of camera bulbs, and a swirl of perfume and cigarette smoke mixing in the air. It’s 1923, and the doors have just opened. Inside, chandeliers catch the light as the city’s biggest dreamers and brightest stars sweep up those marble steps.
Back then, Café Montmartre was the first true nightclub to claim Hollywood Boulevard, right up there on the second floor. Adolph “Eddie” Brandstatter-the king of making people feel important-opened it at the perfect time, just as Hollywood’s film business was booming. Virtually everyone who was anyone passed through these doors: Charlie Chaplin twirling his cane, Rudolph Valentino showing off that famous tango, and Joan Crawford literally dancing on the tables! Picture Friday nights buzzing with swing music, where the city’s bachelors had their own table, making themselves available to ladies looking for a lunch dance partner. Hollywood sure knew how to break the ice.
This was the place where hopefuls from all over America came, outdressed and perhaps a bit overwhelmed, just hoping to be spotted by a big studio boss. And it actually happened: a young Don Terry was discovered right here by a Fox screenwriter, spun straight from lunch to leading man in the blink of an eye. It’s almost like the building came with its own magic show, if you discount the bootlegger who was also just a little too available behind the scenes. Remember, this was during Prohibition. Hip flasks and a little “liquid luck” were practically standard accessories.
Even though the Café sparkled, it wasn’t all glitz and glamour forever. Brandstatter opened another club-the Embassy Club-in 1929, and most of his famous clientele followed. By 1932 things had fizzled enough that he had to declare bankruptcy, but the show never completely left the building. By the 60s and 70s, the second floor was home to Perry’s Dance Studio. Picture tap dancers, hula, flamenco, jazz, ballet-if it had a beat, it bounced through those walls. Some legends of dance and choreography perfected their moves right above your head.
The building’s architecture is a mosaic of Hollywood ambition. Designed in the Renaissance palazzo style with street-level arches, iron gates, and imported Spanish tiling, old glamour lingers in these details. The marble steps still shine, and if you look up, you might even spot some of the original ironwork. The whole building was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, which means that even if Hollywood’s stars come and go, the city never forgets its iconic past.
Today, the old Montmartre Lounge keeps the memory alive, though a convenience store below offers snacks instead of stardom. But if you want to try dancing the Charleston on a table for old times’ sake, let’s just say you wouldn’t be the first.
