Hollywood's Mocambo Night Club

The Mocambo night club in Hollywood was a white's only club that sat on Sunset Boulevard and was as famous for it's clientele as it was for what went on inside. Errol Flynn famously punched Hollywood gossip reporter Jimmie Fidler after Fidler's wife stabbed Flynn with a fork. 

As I said it was a white's only club- that is until in the 1950's when Marilyn Monroe stepped in. In return for allowing Ella Fitzgerald to perform there, Monroe promised the club manager she'd sit front row every night for the first week. And she did. Read about it here: http://www.kplu.org/post/how-marilyn-monroe-changed-ella-fitzgeralds-life 

You just can't make this stuff up.

Here's a 1940's Lion Match cover from the Mocambo club. It was in a box of free stuff I donate to the club. I noticed the writing on the back and although a lot of covers were dated by collectors and souvenir hunters alike, but this seemed strange. There's a date and three different peoples handwriting on it. No, wait...those are autographs.

A little research goes a long way and after about 15 minutes of scouring google, I find out who the autographs belong to.

The top one is Bob Fesler, a future Seattle Rainer's pitching phenomenon whose warm up pitches were described as "rifle bullets" by The Times newspaper. He would have been 17 or possibly 18 at the time, according to the date on the cover, but he, along with his father were sports stars and very well known.

"Fesler became known as the ‘King of the Softball Pitchers,’” Duncan wrote. “Although the moniker wasn’t terribly creative, Fesler was something special. He not only had the fastest fastball, but he had six varieties of curve ball. He made opposing batters in his leagues look foolish at the plate."

For more info on Bob Fesler: http://sportspressnw.com/2129696/2012/wayback-machine-the-bob-fesler-experiment

The other autograph belongs to a then 25 year old Hollywood starlet named Geneva Gray. Gray has performed in movies such as "Gun Talk", released in 1947, in which she portrayed June Forbes, "Angels' Alley" (1948), and "Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad" (1948).

More, but not much, on Geneva Gray here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336647/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

I like to think that Bob Fesler walked into the Mocambo with the very attractive Geneva Gray on his arm, someone saw them and had them autograph this matchbook, but it most likely didn't happen that way. 

One more thing: Why are the autographs so small and written across the short end and not lengthwise? My guess is that there were still matches in it when it was signed.

July 15, 1947 was a Tuesday and almost exactly 66 years ago today.