"The Classic Cat Strip Club" on Sunset Strip
The Classic Cat Strip Club Located at 8844 Sunset Boulevard in the heart of the Strip, The Classic Cat was the largest, most luxurious topless club of them all. You can see the Club to the left of this Photo. The club shut down in the 80's and became Tower Video. Scenes from this club were recreated for the Bob Crane movie "Autofocus".
The Strip in 1974 - Before Tower Video
Before The Classic Cat, it was The jerry Lewis Club. It opened it 1959 and closed in 1964. . If you look through the abandoned windows, you can see where The Classic Cat stage was. That is the section of Tower I remember that was raised up higher then the rest of the store. One of the strip poles is still intact as well. You can see a great re creation of The Classic Cat in the movie AUTO FOCUS.
Below is a pic of the property for lease as it stands today. As you can see it's the same drive way as the Jerry Lewis Club- just a lot more brick was added to cover the plaster and apparently Jerry's face!
HI, on the photo of the Strip in '74 is a place with the best name:
ReplyDeleteFilthy Mc Nasty's !!!
Do you know anything about it?
Kudos on your fantastic blog!
Yes! It was there until 1978. Then it became the Central through out the 80's and then it was sold and became the Viper Room. Filthy McNasty's moved to North Hollywood in the late 70's and I think they went out of business in the 90's. And thanks for the compliment on the blog!
ReplyDeleteAlison
The CLassic Cat was the record store "Licorice Pizza" in the 70's before it became Tower Video.
ReplyDeleteDerek
It was built as The Jerry Lewis Club.
ReplyDelete@Da90027 Actually Licorice Pizza was on the corner 2 blocks west. It's now AHHS. It looks exactly the same inside. University Stereo came after the Classic Cat and then Tower Video. If you were ever in those record stores, when you walked in, there was a step up section where all the imports were and sales..that was the original stage from the Classic Cat. If you go there and look through the window where ticket master was located, you will see the stage. I'm sure it's a matter of time before it's demolished. :)
ReplyDeleteI just posted a bit more info on the history of the building...
ReplyDeleteSunset Strip earned its nickname with all the strip clubs.
ReplyDeleteAt this very moment in time I'm at a reunion party in Palm Springs with former dancers from the Classic Cat, Anneke & Cathy May. We also just spoke to the lead dancer & choreographer, Raul, who's in Acapulco, & still entertaining!
ReplyDeleteWas Sherry McCathron there?
DeleteRaul has passed away. Such a good friend.
Delete, my Mom Anneke passed july 10th she probably celebrated her 74th birthday w Raul miss you too..,which would have been on 23 rd of July....
DeleteThe Classic Cat is also in the 70's move Zero In And Scream.
ReplyDeleteIt also appears in the 1973 film 'outside man' with ann margret & angie dickinson, & roy scheider; so does the tower records store. lots of vintage scenes all over L.A. including Venice beach (what a dump then) and the ruins, I think, of Pacific Ocean Park (p.o.p.) which i visited as a kid in the mid 1960s.
ReplyDeleteThere's a good shot of The Classic Cat, right next to the equally famous Aware Inn (in that little building with the two odd porthole windows on the second floor; lime green then, brown/tan now), in James Bryan's ESCAPE TO PASSION (1970). The glass building across the street must've held the offices of a lot of low-rent film companies; I've seen shots taken in that building's glass elevator overlooking Sunset in several films from the late 60s/early 70s.
ReplyDeleteIn junior high, the best endowed girl in our school showed up one day wearing a Classic Cat t-shirt, and the rest of us teenage losers had to imagine how she got it, because we knew full well what went on in that club, even if we couldn't get through the door. I saw her some 10 years later in Santa Cruz, and she had a mustache. Sic transit gloria mundi.
ReplyDeleteYou were at my sister's house , Anneke. I am a younger sister and also danced at The Classic Cat. Still trying to find pictures of all us dancers from those days. Erica There was also Kitten, Roberta, so many. Erica
ReplyDeleteI would love to see those pictures. The strip culture back then was so beaten
DeleteAnneke was my mother and enjoyed working at the Classic cat she recently passed away too soon at 73 looking thru her handmade costumes my grandmother helped make she worked for Grosch studio rentals some leftover beads and such from haha ive been silenced . There's special people who performed back then it wasn't just taking your close off you actually had talent. Respect and love you . Have met amazing people to this day from the. Mansion , Elvis, and Evel all at 7 or 8 yrs old,
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in this life style wasn't easy but I had a big beautiful family!