photo Carol Fields/NYTimes.
Alice Schiller, a well-brought-up Midwestern woman who burst into tears the day her husband announced he was opening a burlesque house in Los Angeles, but who rallied to make the place — the Pink Pussycat of Hollywood — one of the most successful, celebrated and profusely feathered nightclubs of its era, died on Dec. 19 at her home in Washington. She was 95.
It was a favorite watering hole of the Rat Pack, and for good reason. Mrs. Schiller shrewdly gave her dancers stage names like Fran Sinatra, Samya Davis Jr., Deena Martin and Peeler Lawford, and the originals soon showed up to inspect their namesakes.
Read the rest here.
I asked Tura about the Pink Pussycat - of course she worked there! - but she mainly worked at The Losers, where she was, natch, the lead gal. Billy Wilder discovered Tura at The Pink Pussycat, or rather, Audrey Wilder did, spotting her and saying to Billy: "There's your Suzette Wong," for "Irma LaDouce." To see some of my Pink Pussycat collection, just click on the "Pink Pussycat" label below.
screenshot from "The Swinger," which is how I first became obsessed with the PP.
6 comments:
OMG, what a goddess she was and what a great article!
My great friend Charlie was just talking about the P.P. Theater last night, when we were having dinner at The French Market, next door. (you know you're real old and real gay, when you wind up having dinner on Xmas night at the French Market!)
Charlie grew up in Hollywood and told me there used to be an old pink Rolls that was permanently parked in the lot that was shared by the PP and the FM (which was then known as Arthur J's.), and when his family would visit his grandma on Laurel Ave. he and his sister would walk down and play in the Rolls Royce!
WV - boyhole. Swear to God.
As soon as I saw this obit in the Times today, I thought, "this will be up on Donna's site . . ."
Felix, that last time I ate there I got sick! I do love "Ruby Slippers" though. We really should get together soon. Damn, you KNOW that was her rolls! The stages are still in there as far as I know - Russian disco.
I was mistakenly informed that she had passed away.
Love this post, Donna.
Side note: Gawd! The French Market. I'm still trying to get the wilted Iceberg lettuce salad and super chewy beef dinner out of my system.
I worked at Peanuts Disco (Pink Pussycat) from 1981 to 1997. Alice Schiller was still there in the early 80's and was a total sweetheart who brought sodas backstage for the drag queens & performers. It was a rough dyke bar in those days and then when they added drag reviews it started shifting towards a young diverse gay crowd especially after the Odyssey burned down in 84. Those were fun times and alot more innocent than today. Plus we had a sense of humor about ourselves and things in general that is lacking today.
Derek Anthony
Thank you! I was with Kitten Natividad and Haji last night and they were talking about the PP (neither one of them worked there, but had many friends that did.)
Post a Comment