Some of my favorite Curbside Classic posts are those that show the real-world locations of vintage car ads, such as the world travel ads posted by Eric703 this past summer.
In that same spirit, let’s take a look at the famous restaurants featured in 1950’s Cadillac advertisements.
Romanoff’s
Let’s start out with this 1956 Cadillac ad shot outside the famous Romanoff’s restaurant on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. From 1941 to 1962, Romanoff’s was the place to see and be seen in Hollywood.
“Prince” Michael Romanoff
Romanoff’s was founded by Lithuanian immigrant Harry Gerguson. If you’ve never heard of Gerguson, that is understandable. He is better known by his nom de guerre, Prince Michael Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky-Romanoff, or just Michael Romanoff for short. As you no doubt already surmised, Romanoff was a bit of a character, and one of his many outlandish claims was being descended from Russian royalty (he wasn’t) hence the “Prince” Michael Romanoff appellation. Romanoff was also known to prefer the company of his dog to that of his elite clientele.
Where it all began
The original Romanoff’s restaurant, opened in 1941 at 340 N. Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, was a surprisingly humble affair. Still, that didn’t stop the likes of Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Humphrey Bogart from making it a Hollywood hot spot.
Michael Romanoff and Humphrey Bogart (sans tie) in 1952.
Bogie, by the way, regularly refused to comply with the restaurant’s dress code and not wear a necktie.
Romanoff Center, opened in 1951.
Fads are notoriously fickle, and by 1950 foot traffic to Romanoff’s had fallen off substantially. In an effort to recapture Romanoff’s old glory, in 1951 Romanoff opened a new facility at 140 South Rodeo Drive, at a cost of $200,000 (about $2.6 million adjusted). The “Romanoff Center” features not just his eponymous restaurant, but a separate bar, a banquet room, a rooftop garden, and even a gift shop. It is the zebra-striped façade of this new building that is featured in the 1956 Cadillac ad.
So, at least for a while, Romanoff’s was back on top. This iconic photo of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield? Shot at Romanoff’s new location in 1957. Still, Romanoff’s quirkiness would be his eventual undoing. His ultra-conservative political leanings (Romanoff supposedly foisted pamphlets on his customers along with the menus) and friendship with J. Edgar Hoover did him no favors in liberal-leaning Hollywood, and as a result the massive Romanoff Center became increasingly hard to fill. Romanoff’s closed its doors forever on December 31, 1962.
The Romanoff Center lived on as a nightclub for a while longer, but it suffered the same issues under successive owners that it did under Romanoff – it was too large and too difficult to profitably fill. (It was also featured on the cover of Boz Scaggs’ 1977 Down Two Then Left album).
Today, the Romanoff Center has long since been demolished, and 140 South Rodeo Drive doesn’t even exist anymore (the street numbering goes straight from 132 to 150). In its place are some rather generic-looking (especially for Beverly Hills) mixed-use office/residential buildings.
Perino’s
The other hot restaurant we are looking is Perino’s, as featured in this 1959 Cadillac ad.
Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives.
Perino’s was formed by Alex Perino in 1932 on 3927 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Much like Romanoff’s, Perino’s relocated over the years.
Herman Schultheis, Security Pacific Collection/Los Angeles Public Library.
In 1950, Perino’s moved to its new location on 4101 Wiltshire Boulevard (formerly the site of a Thriftmart grocery store), which is the location featured in the 1959 Cadillac Ad.
The transformation wrought by architect Paul R. Williams is pretty remarkable. The new Perino’s, featuring a New Orleans-style canopy (clearly visible in the Cadillac ad) even earned a spread in Architectural Digest magazine.
In 1954, a fire caused by a lit cigarette left on a chair (seriously, how did that not happen all the time?) destroyed much of the interior of the restaurant. It reopened in 1955 even larger and more luxurious than before, with a larger main dining room and two new private rooms.
Alex Perino would sell the restaurant in 1969, which kicked off its long decline. In 1986, after several attempts to relaunch, the Perino’s closed for good, and the building would sit in disuse for several decades. The building, once featured in Architectural Digest, had become an eyesore.
In 2005, the Perino’s restaurant building was demolished and replaced with an apartment complex. Unlike Romanoff’s, there are still vestiages of the old Perino’s in the new building. The apartment building retain the Perino’s name, and the façade of the building is suggestive of the grand awning at the original restaurant (albeit minus the ironwork).
These flashbacks to icon’s of earlier times and descriptions of their trajectories from the past to the present are extremely interesting and informative. Who says that we can’t time travel; to me, articles like these say we can! 🙂
Tom, this is great! As you know, I love these random histories, and I often find it tempting to locate the real-world sites of brochure and ad shoots.
I’ve never heard of either of these two restaurants, so their histories are fascinating. Michael Romanoff’s life seems stranger than fiction – I read a bit more about him this morning. Evidently, no one knew where he was really from. Also, everyone knew he was a fraud, yet nobody cared. His obituary in the LA Times carried the revealing quote that:
He found the town, and its self-important social swirl, a willing dupe…
I guess he had the last laugh. He also had absolutely no documented history, used about a dozen aliases, and the US government spent years trying to deport him for immigration and other fraud charges. Nothing stuck, and he made up increasingly fanciful claims of government harassment that only added to his allure. Eventually, in 1958, the US Congress declared him a citizen (presumably that bill was sponsored by Romanoff’s Congressional representative… I’ve read of that happening on other occasions). He awkwardly “renounced” his claim to Russian royalty at his citizenship ceremony.
Incongruously, after his restaurant closed, Romanoff spent the last decade of his life in quiet retirement. And despite his outrageous lifestyle, he was married for 25 years.
“…government spent years trying to deport him for immigration and other fraud charges. Nothing stuck…”
I wonder if that’s where the friendship with J. Edgar Hoover came in?
Great stories Tom! I can never get enough of these sorts of histories.
Your comment about the fire in Perino’s in 1954 struck a cord. When you see movies and other pictures of the inside of these sorts of high end restaurants and night clubs from the time, it’s actually to me somewhat surprising that they didn’t burn more often than they did. The fact that they featured crowded interiors full of very happy and well-liquored patrons where literally just about everyone was smoking means that dropped and unattended cigarettes must have been a constant issue. Combine these with sometimes lax fire and material codes, and well…
Also, smoke detectors not widely available until the ’60s or ’70s
This 1958 Cadillac brochure image was taken in front of Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans. It appears that Antoine’s has not changed at all since 1958. You would not expect St. Louis Street to be so narrow and crowded if you just saw this photograph:
I’m another in the CC crowd who delights in the “what’s the locale?” aspect of the snapshot or advertisement. Great to see these two, and I learned plenty.
A pair of tiny things to toss on the pile:
(1) LIFE magazine visit’s Romanoff’s in postwar 1945:
http://tinyurl.com/LIFE-Romanoffs1945
(2) Romanoff’s menu on eBay (I’ll guess early-mid-1950s):
http://tinyurl.com/RomanoffMenu
Thanks again for this, Tom Halter!
Fun looking thru the entire Life magazine. There is mention of autos and other consumer goods that will be immediately available with the close of WWII. Sacrifices made to support the war effort.
Mostly seems to be alcohol, cigarettes, or clothing. Also (on page 122) a Croton Waterproof Aquamatic watch with a glow-in-the-dark RADIUM dial. Yes, that’s what I want, a *radioactive* substance right up against my wrist all day…
I’ve linked this here before, but all LIFE magazines have been digitized on Google Books for anyone with a few lifetimes to kill.
https://books.google.com/books/about/LIFE.html?id=R1cEAAAAMBAJ
These are examples of the advertising that made me into the car guy I am today. These ads would have been +/- 20 years old by the time I was born, but many car makers still used similar themes up into the 80’s. I recall as a kid going to the dentist or doctors office or nearly any place where we would have to wait. I would quickly go through all the magazines (some quote old) and loved to search for the Cadillac, Lincoln and Chrysler ads. They were so elegant IMO and created a world that would take me into another dimension.
Now in this modern world we live in, everything seems to be about trucks and SUV’s racing around on sand or dirt or a speed track like they are racing. I can’t honestly recall the last advertisement I’ve seen for a vehicle that made me stop and actually look at it and read it.
Jayne Mansfield had such a nice smile.
Parked in front of Romanoff’s in the ads: a Cadillac and a Bentley
Parked in front of Romanoff’s in real life: a Studebaker…
By coincidence, the Hagerstown, MD address on the mailed Romanoff’s menu on eBay that George Ferencz posted above is close to where Peter Studebaker built his house in 1740 after moving to the US from Germany and starting his wagon-building trade; his five grandsons would found Studebaker in 1852. That house still stands today, 284 years later and is operated as a museum: http://www.bakerslookout.com
So where will Boz wind up after walking down the two steps and turning left? I have his previous album Silk Degrees on vinyl (which is excellent) but not this one…
The ‘prince’ kind of looks like the actor Jose Ferrer. Sounds like an interesting guy who had great stories to tell.
In 1950’s “Sunset Boulevard”, the old Perino’s can be glimpsed through the window of the snazzy clothing store where Normand Desmond (Gloria Swanson) takes her young paramor Joe Gillis (Bill Holden) to load up on fancy men’s attire…
“Doomed Joe”.. That flick was just on about a week and a half ago..
“Sunset Boulevard” has some “auto interest”, e.g. Joe Gillis’ II convertible (IIRC a Plymouth) is repossesed, and Norma Desmond’s car is a magnificent old relic, an Isotta Fraschini:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotta_Fraschini
“With the growth of the wealthy middle class in North America in the 1920s, Isotta Fraschini marketed deluxe limousines to the new American aristocracy. Early film stars Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino drove Isotta Fraschinis. A 1929 Tipo 8A Castagna Transformable is featured in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard and another appears in the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday with Fredric March. An Isotta Fraschini also makes a featured appearance in the 1946 film Without Reservations with John Wayne and Claudette Colbert. Also, an Isotta Fraschini was gigolo Lindsay Marriott’s car in Raymond Chandler’s book Farewell, My Lovely (1940) that was made into the motion picture Murder, My Sweet (1944), starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor. The grille of the Isotta Fraschini with the lightning bolt insignia is seen parked in a ravine, right before Douglas Walton’s character Lindsay Marriott is killed. An oversized Isotta Fraschini is also the vehicle of choice for Dick and Nicole Diver in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1933 novel Tender is the Night…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotta_Fraschini_Tipo_8A
“In Sunset Boulevard
A 1929 landaulet limousine example of the car with “coupe de ville” bodywork by Castagna of Milan is featured in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard as the car of lead character Norma Desmond, a forgotten silent movie star who in the film says:
“…we have a car. Not one of those cheap things made of chromium and spit but Isotta Fraschini. Have you ever heard of Isotta Fraschini? All hand-made. It cost me twenty-eight thousand dollars…”
(Adjusted for inflation, and assuming she bought the car in 1929, $28,000 would be equivalent to $477,194 in 2022.) William Holden as Joe Gillis, an unsuccessful screenwriter said, telling the story, “The whole thing was upholstered in leopard skin and had one of those car phones. All gold-plated.” The “Sunset car” has been on display at Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile in Italy since 1972. Gloria Swanson’s character Norma Desmond’s initials are on the rear doors of the car…”
I wonder if this car was an inspiration for the Munster Coach?
Lady in the first “Caddy ad” looks like she has on two/three sets a ‘starched white, sheer curtains”. lol
Yeah, imagine wearing THAT and contending with dropped cigarettes.
A real rabbit hole – thanks!
I skimmed through the LIFE magazine linked by George Ferencz above. Interesting that most of the car makers were running full page ads, presumably to keep their profiles high, but none had any cars to show. There are also pieces about the potential impacts of the use of the atomic bomb a few months previously.
The picture of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield is indeed a classic – people will still be smiling at (and ogling) that 100 years from now. 🙂
I suppose that rich people dressed up in formal clothing and their women wore elaborate gowns. They visited these fancy eateries before a night at the opera. I do love those ads, the kind of lives that regular folks might have imagined the upper crust indulging in. I also liked those ’50’s ads where the Cadillac crest is made up of gemstones, with a footnote identifying the jewelry company that assembled that piece. I would certainly love to have that mint green ’56 Coupe.
I would just drive it to a Black Bear Diner, or take my Wife to the Crackerbarrel, bon vivant that I am!
Agreed on the ’56 coupe (although I’d prefer a ’55 as long as we’re daydreaming). Cadillac ads were some of the best of the 1950s (and early ’60s); I have a ’55 Coupe Deville framed on a wall right now. I’m not sure what establishment the car’s in front of, but it’s swanky.
I’m not impressed by Cadillac’s ad agency’s choice of colors for their cars, but it was the 50s. At least they’re not black, white, or gray.
The Brown Derby is the only famous restaurant we saw in LA in the 14 months we lived in Orange County fifty odd years ago. I just ran across an old photo of its original building (not the one in the 60s) a few hours ago on https://archimaps.tumblr.com/.
I too love the picture of an annoyed Sophia Loren .
The fire truck is wearing a license tag that wasn’t issued until 1963 .
-Nate
I too love the picture of an annoyed Sophia Loren .
The fire truck is wearing a license tag color that wasn’t issued until 1963 .
-Nate
(edited I hope)