09/01/2024
Sometime in the early 1950s, Arthur Miller went to Hollywood to develop a movie with Elia Kazan, who took him out to a bar with an actress named Marilyn Monroe – changing Miller’s life. But this was not just any bar, this was the bar where F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway drank and where Humphrey Bogart lounged. It was a popular cabaret at the Roosevelt Hotel in the heart of Hollywood called Cinegrill.
Cinegrill originally opened in 1936 and enjoyed a long run as an A-list hot spot before slowly fading from prominence and eventually closing in the early ‘00s. The bright, bold neon encrusted sign that led revellers to this historic hangout outlasted the club, standing at Hollywood Boulevard and Orange until 2009 when “Welcome” was snapped. Peeling, fading and warn it showed its age, but was still magnificent and serving its new purpose of welcoming travellers to the reinvigorated Roosevelt. This photo was one of the last of its kind to capture the raw original beauty of this enduring landmark before it was retrofitted for “new” Hollywood with an oh-so-fitting oversized LED screen flashing insurance ads to passers-by.
We hope you love this moment captured as much as we do.
