had some abstract art pieces and things of that nature. It was run by Bob Hare. He later opened The Insomniac in Hermosa Beach.”
“On November 28th, ’58,” recalls Bob Hare, “I opened a coffeehouse in Hermosa Beach called The Insomniac in an old Hudson Shoe store going out of business, and the rent was $150 per month.” Bob Hare’s vision took on bigger ambition than just about any other bohemian gathering place of the period. “My opening act,” continues Hare, “a banjo playing folk singer, didn’t show. So 30 minutes before we opened I found a five- piece band getting gas in a local station. As I remember, it turned out to be dance and polka music. But it didn’t make any difference, because the crowd was so large and loud I knew we had a tiger by the tail. It didn’t take long before The Chambers Brothers, Lord Buckley, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk, Don Randi, Linda Ronstadt and so many others were knocking them out on that weird seven- foot high stage. One night Bessie Griffin and her Gospel Pearls came crashing through the floor, landing in the kitchen.”
“In ’59, [my friend Gayle and I] read Lawrence Lipton’s The Holy Barbarians,” remembers journalist Sandra O’Brien. “Inspired by the description of a cool and different way of life than we knew in St. Louis, we packed our black leotards, black turtleneck shirts and black Capezios, left the ‘squares’ behind and headed to Venice Beach (California) where we could be different (like every one else). We lived and slept on the beach, drank red wine in coffeehouses, listened to flamenco and poetry at The Insomniac and jazz all night
52
in Hermosa Beach at The Lighthouse. For one glorious summer we were part of the beat scene.”
The Insomniac Café was just up from The Hermosa Pier, across the street from the already legendary Lighthouse Jazz Café (30 Pier Avenue). The Lighthouse was a central place for post-bop and West Coast
“We lived and slept on the beach, drank red wine in coffeehouses, listened to flamenco and poetry at The Insomniac and jazz all night at The Lighthouse.”
cool jazz cats to drop in and blow during the ’50s and ’60s. In May of ’49, Lighthouse owner John Levine let bassist Howard Rumsey run a casual Sunday jam session that became the talk of the town, yielding the influential Lighthouse All Stars. Other jazz luminaries who played The Lighthouse include: Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, Art Pepper, Cannonball Adderley, Mose Allison, Ramsey Lewis, The Modern Jazz Quartet and Bud Shank. In fact, amongst Shank’s breezy LPs for World Pacific Records was a set of surf movie soundtracks for Bruce Brown’s Slippery When Wet (’58) and Barefoot Adventure (’60).
Hermosa Beach is located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, bordered to the north by Manhattan Beach and to the south by Redondo. In the late ’20s, The Pacific Electric Railway Company
installed tracks along Hermosa Avenue, positioning a new tourist stop near the beachside nightclubs and restaurants. The “Red Car” system, as it came to be known, was built in the early years of the 20th century, and provided an extensive network of electric trolleys which served the greater Los Angeles area from Santa Monica to Hermosa Beach, all the way down to Newport Beach in Orange
The Stan Kenton Orchestra. The Red Car later fell victim to a vast freeway system during the ’50s. This was heralded as the the fut
wave of the future, but in reality, the the spelled
a progressive city, turning it into into for its
something known equally for its
freeways spelled certain doom for LA as turnin
as
County, where Angelenos frequented The Rendezvous Ballroom to see jazz greats such as Woody Herman, The King Cole Col Trio and in-house entertainment from The Red
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