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from the Daily Breeze

HAWTHORNE:

She was once a grande dame of society, hosting a U.S. president, A-list movie stars and entertainers, the Mafia and, more recently, aerospace workers, jockeys and horse-racing aficionados. But the years took a toll, and she’s now a forgotten relic – a footnote of a bygone era to some,an eyesore to others.

Her future is anybody’s guess.Built at Imperial Highway and Hawthorne Boulevard in the 1950s by reputed Mafia associate Andrew Lococo, Hawthorne’s Cockatoo Inn

quickly became one of the South Bay’s premier hot spots,featuring 210 guest rooms and numerous meeting rooms amid sprawling grounds laid out like a secret garden. It gained a reputation for fine food, grand banquet halls and elegant European decor, including an L-shaped bar of brass and red leather. Male patrons were not allowed in without neckties. President Kennedy stayed there, as did his Air Force One pilots and his younger brother, Robert. A photo of the presidential plane, autographed by its pilots, still hangs on a hotel wall, Mayor Larry Guidi said. One rumor has it that the Kennedy brothers brought Marilyn Monroe

to Room 200 for a discreet rendezvous.

Its fortunes began to decline in the 1990s, when the recession decimated the aerospace industry and surrounding neighborhoods deteriorated. Hawthorne sued the Cockatoo in 1991 for $109,000 in unpaid bed taxes, and the owners declared bankruptcy the next year.”

from brie:

For a while Whitey was the maitre d for the cockatoo Inn. Whitey had to work an extra shift there. So, we went into a nearby store, where I purchased a plastic model of a V-1 buzz bomb, which I glued together in the car, while Whitey worked his shift. Before the restaurant opened, I went in and was served a Shirley Temple (drink)! The Cockatoo Inn had sterling silverware with “Cockatoo Inn” stamped on the pieces.

Each day whitey would swipe a piece of the flatware. Over the years our stash of the Cockatoo Inn silverware gradually disappeared, until there was only one spoon remaining, and, eventually, that last spoon disappeared too! One time Whitey ripped off some filet mignon — yum! The Cockatoo Inn was in the filming of various lounge scenes from the Quentin Tarantino Film, “Jackie Brown.”

Another time dropped off at Disneyland. started to get bored, since i had  been there so many times. I wanted to see what was behind the scenes, not easy, but I managed to get over to the geyser attraction, which has a small railroad running through it. Suddenly, someone shouts “There she is!”
I take off running,

but the two dudes soon chase me down. “I thought that was a girl!” one of them blurts out. They take me to an office, where I am lectured about not going to restricted areas. I pass through a door, and am on Main Street, where Walt Disney had a secret apartment above the firehouse. On the car radio driving back to San Clemente:

“Tore your dress

What a mess

I confess

danke schoen.”

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bobby-soxer:

bobby-soxing:

brie bobby-soxing:

“There are no homosexuals –just homosexual acts.” (Gore Vidal)

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Rebecca Starr:

&

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brie as Shirley: