The Daisy in Beverly Hills

The Daisy 

Where could you find Robert Redford,  Jack Lenmon, Natalie Wood, Fred Astaire, Katherine Hepburn  or Buddy Hackett from 9am to 6:30 pm six days a week? On the menu of the DAISY, of course. Where the chic met up to eat and dance the night away. 

On any given day you would have your choice of the Robert Reford: avocado, mushrooms, sprouts, and melted cheese, ($5.95), a Jack Lemmon:fresh fruit, and cottage cheese, a Natalie Wood: fresh salad with chicken and cheese, a Kathrine Hepburn: meat pattie and fresh fruit, and a number of other tasty dishes named after various celebrities. 

The Stars that appeared on the menu, were also Daisy regulars who sat all afternoon in the sun-drenched patio that was so crowded with tables, you literally had to crawl over other diners to find your place in the sun. On any typical afternoon, you might find yourself munching salad and sipping wine with the likes of Suzanne Pleshette, Jack Nicholson, Barbara Streisand, Michellen Phillips, Warren Beatty, James Caan,  or O.J. Simpson (which owner, Jack Hanson claimed got more attention.  than any other movie star). 

      Archival Footage of the Daisy and the celebrity menu

The Allan Car Chicken Sandwich, The David Janssen Chicken with mustard sauce, the Dick Martin fresh fruit & cottage cheese, The Buddy Hackett Bagel with Pastrami, the Jack Lemmon melted port wine cheese & apple, the Jack Nicholson steak Tartare, the Katy Hepburn meat pattie & fresh fruit, the Natalie Wood fresh salad, the Ray Bradbury burger, the Robert Redford avocado, tomatoes and mushroom sandwich, and the Tommy Gallagher roast-beef special.

"The Daisy" bloomed in 1962. It was Beverly Hills' first members only private discotheque located on posh, Rodeo Drive. The Hollywood elite who patronized it had to shell out an initiation fee of $250 and membership was limited to only 400. It was a place were actresses in skin tight pants would dance the Watusi jerking elbows and hips with Steve McQueen or Robert Redford. 

Jack Hanson, bought the property on Rodeo Drive where the original Romanoff's had once stood. Night spots like The Mocambo, Ciro's and The Trocadero were slipping away and discotheques and Go Go clubs were moving in. The timing of the Daisy's infancy was perfect. A new culture of music was just about to arrive from London, mod fashions were featured in all the hip boutiques and a new young Hollywood crowd was taking over the scene in Los Angeles during the early '60's.

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The original Romanoff's before it moved to it's second location and became the Daisy

For a better perspective of where it once thrived, you can see the  original brick structure of this stunning image of the Anderton Court Shops located at 332 N. Rodeo Drive by Architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Photo by the brilliant, Julius Shulman

On any given night you'd see Sonny and Cher on the dance floor, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie canoodling on the brick patio or the Jackson 5 performing a few of their very first sets on stage. 

Glancing around the room, one may have spotted Paul Newman,  Natalie Wood, Peter Falk, Sammy, Tony Curtis, Jay Sebring, Sharon Tate, Angie Dickinson, John Derek and Linda Evans.  The Daisy was also one of the first night spots Frank Sinatra was seen publicly with Mia Farrow. In fact Frank had one of the waiters slap Dominick Dunne over a comment Frank didn't like. 

Shooting 8-ball in another room will be a Richard Conte or an Omar Sharif, properly galleried. Scattered around the tables in the main room, will be the Zsa Zsas, the Joan Cohns, the Oleg Cassini's, the David Hemmingses, the Ryan O'Neals,  and 17 different varieties of teen-agers, each fully capable of saying, "Well, hi," and making it sound like, "Where's the acid?"

                               

Fabian and actress Carol Conner dancing the Watusi in 1965
                                                           
Menu card featuring Jack Hanson 

 

Compared to The Daisy, all other discotheques are slums. And, sitting there one night, a good actor named Norman Alden gazed at the dance floor, swirling with Hanson's scented, glowing human decor, and put it all in perspective with a joke. "Oh, this crazy tinsel town with its popcorn machine for a heart. It's all alabaster and sham," he said. "Think of all those young girls, going from casting office to casting office, willing to sell their souls for a part. I can't tell you how happy I am to be a part of it."

 Vintage Los Angeles member Dave Etchie recalls, " I was on the "Dating Game" and the producers and my date went to the Daisy as part of the prize. Unfortunately my winning date was only on the program for the exposure as an actress. The producers and I enjoyed the Daisy and we didn't see the date the rest of the evening".

Hordes of celebrities from the entertainment and sports fields were members. And those that weren't of course still managed to get in like Dean Martin and Wilt Chamberlin.

This rare clip shows the specials at the Daisy in 1978: 

Hanson also owned the wildly cool boutique, "Jax" with his wife Sally located on the corner of Wilshire and Bedford and made beautifully cut pants for Jackie Kennedy, Marlene Dietrich, Ann Margret, Joan Collins, and Audrey Hepburn. He socialized with showbiz players and hobnobbed with all the Hollywood swingers that frequented his club. Jack was extremely fashionable himself. His looks were flashy: tight-jeaned, quiana-shirt, gold chain wearing Playboy type was was heavily associated with the California image back then. In fact, with his shortish hair,  innocent baby blue eyes, open polo shirt, athletic build and relaxed mannor he seemed he would be more at home on a tennis court or a sailboat then cavorting with the fun seekers. 

Below: Cyd Charisse, Dina Merrill and Eva Marie Saint wearing slacks from JAX. 

James Elroy described Hanson as, "Noir Personified!" Jack 'firmly' believed women should show off their best features, so sensations such as Twiggy or Diana Ross would be seen inside "Jax" trying on the latest tight slacks or thigh-high miniskirts before attending a night out.  They specialized in very tight peddle pushers that zipped up the back.

     

The trademark of "Jax" slacks was their extreme tightness (because the pants zippered up the back) which emphasized the female butt. You needed to be very slim to carry this off. One of his best customers in the early days was Marilyn Monroe. The shop  had a number of interesting salesgirls, namely Frank Sinatra's daughters, Nancy and Tina, and Dean Martin's three daughters, Deana, Gina,  and Claudia. 

Photo by Julius Shulman

By day their backyard is headquarters for a Hollywood sport-in. By night his own discotheque became a Beverly Hills drop-in for the likes of Dickie Smothers greeting Jack with Peter Sellers. Nancy Sinatra Jr. once said, "The most important men in America are my father, Hugh Hefner and Jack Hanson."

Above photo taken by DJ Lord Run

A rare store bag from JAX featuring Jack Hanson on one side

Natalie Wood leaving The Daisy in Beverly Hills and getting into a Mercedes-Benz 220SE Coupe 1964

The Chic destination was also where Aaron Spelling met 18 year old, Carole Gene,  also known as, Candy. Their first dance together was to "My Funny Valentine" and that song had been their "song" ever since.

Lovely Jill St. John and the talented Jack Jones were also  seen frequently together at the Daisy Club in Beverly Hills around 1967.

James Garner's character in the Rockford Files referenced the Daisy in an episode I recently watched. " I went to the Daisy and then cruised Rodeo Drive for a half hour”. 

Jack Hanson also put together a celebrity softball team that included, Anthony Franciosa, Peter Falk, Bobby Darin, Mark Goddard, Michael Callan, Ryan O'Neal, Peter Stone, Aaron Spelling, and Danny Thomas.  The team's cheering section consisted of Anne Francis, Suzanne Pleshette and Nancy Sinatra.

Jack Hanson at his Beverly Hills club, THE DAISY. Jill Hayworth dancing behind him. 

Nancy Sinatra with Sharon Alpert at The Daisy

If there is anything that delighted Jack Hanson as much as being in his New World rumble at The Daisy it was the weekly Softball games he had arranged between a couple of power-loaded outfits called Raskin's Raiders and, big surprise, The Daisy. When someone once suggested that Raskin's Raiders perhaps seek a different opponent for a change after they had just won a series, Producer Jimmy Harris (Paths of Glory, Lolita, The Bedford Incident), a Raider mainstay in center field, said, "What? And not get to see Tony Curtis try to pitch?"

A rare documentary of Beverly Hills in 1965 featuring rare film footage of Jax starting at 2:51 (but the entire 8 and 1/2 minutes is worth a watch!)  

 My folks used to frequent The Daisy with Joey Bishop, Gene Barry and Buddy Hackett. This photo was taken at one of Buddy's parties. He had requested on the invitation that everyone show up dressed like construction workers. (which explains my parents overalls). 

Joey Bishop's wife Silvia, my parents Al and Judi Martino and actor Gene Barry in 1969

 

 Mel Brooks also held a cast party for "Young Frankenstein" at the Daisy in 1974 and director,  Paul Schrader" captured a scene on celluloid for "American Gigolo" staring Richard Gere in 1980. 

   Scene from "American Gigolo" filmed on location at The Daisy

Selling sportswear on the Daisy patio in 1984

Jack Hanson in 1977. Hanson told the press that year, “Seven nights a week for nearly 10 years, this place was filled with the biggest celebrities in the world.  I was king of the town.”

Jack held court daily at his special corner table with a non stop ringing telephone by his side and he watched the strollers on one of the world's most expensive sidewalks. 

In the 1970s the Daisy reverberated with disco music until the wee hours of the morning with some of the same stars that drop in for lunch. 

The Daisy - Beverly Hills, 1984

And on August 11, 1969 Diana Ross invited Hollywood’s media to come and meet Motown’s newest act,  The Jackson 5  between 6.30p.m. and 9.30p.m. at The Daisy, 326 Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills! Berry Gordy boldly predicted that The Jackson 5′s first three singles would be number one hits (they were) and that they become one of the biggest-selling acts of the decade at the club.

Diana Ross introduced the Jackson5 at their debut at the Daisy 

It was at this party that ten-year-old Michael, just over two weeks away from his 11th birthday, was instructed to tell interviewers that he was only eight years old. Ever the professional, young Michael understood the importance of publicity in show business, and eager to please, he gladly did as he was told. 

Steve McQueen and Sammy Davis Jr. at the Daisy in 1971

Portrait by Artis Lane of designer and nightclub owner Sally Hanson (1931-2002). Adsausage Archives

  

Vintage Los Angeles member, Jeff Jansen recalls this awesome memory. "I remember seeing the amazing stage show of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo at the Daisy. That band eventually morphed into Oingo Boingo and launched the career of the now famous Danny Elfman."

In 1977, Nicole Brown, then 18 and fresh out of high school, landed a job as a waitress at The Daisy. During her very first shift, she caught the eye of O.J., then 30, married, and one of the club’s regulars.  (He, too, had a dish named after him: The “O.J. Simpson” consisted of scrambled eggs and a 'sliced' orange. How Eerie is THAT?

Eddie Bales, another member of Vintage Los Angeles also shared his recollections: "I was one of the Daisy's valet parking attendants.  I was old enough to drive but not enough to go in (though I did on NYE 1983).  I was ALWAYS tipped extremely well. Edy Williams was a regular with her friend, a character named Skip E Lowe. Edy was in "Beyond The Valley of The Dolls", "Batman", and tons of classic TV series of the '60's and '70's. She became known for crashing the Oscars with those scandalous outfits in the late 80s and ALWAYS wore revealing outfits and would flirt with me.  I was barely 18 and beyond nervous and had absolutely no idea what to do". 

As far as MY own personal memories of The Daisy,  growing up in Beverley Hills during the 70’s still had little fragments of elegance and fortunately I took afternoon cotillion classes on Saturdays at 10 years old. But let's face it - our parents enjoyed it way more on those late night evenings dancing the night away, while us kids were stuck home with the babysitter watching "The Love Boat" or "Fantasy Island". But one thing I do remember clearly besides that dance floor was the the food.  This was the first place I ever tried a club Sandwich and The Menu was always naming dishes after dedicated customers and and powerful heavy hitters. 

 I can't help but notice how eerie O.J.Simpson's dish is 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, musician Bryan McLean ran the club. Here's a rare flyer given to me by his sister, singer Maria Mckee, who's mother dated Jack around that time. 

Alison Martino (me) and my pal Nicole Behar on our way to cotillion classes at the Daisy in 1983

Sadly, the Daisy has since been banished from Beverly Hills and felt it needed a worthy tribute. Who knows, maybe one day the Daisy will bloom again one day. 

Now if we could only get the Daisy to bloom again....

Your personal DeLorean of the Internet, 
Alison Martino

Sections of this blog came from an 1977 article in Beverly Hills Premiere written by Mark Silvertsein and a Sports Illustrated article. Click here to read the entire article on Jack Hanson and additional information from members of Vintage Los Angeles.
Photos and memorabilia: Vintage Los Angeles Collection

Alison Martino is a writer, television producer and personality, and L.A. pop culture historian. She founded the Facebook page Vintage Los Angeles in 2010. Alison is currently a columnist for "Los Angeles Magazine" and muses on L.A’s. past and present on Twitter and Instagram.