Stumble It!
Filed under: 1950's, 1970's, Foxes, Matchbooks, Southern California | Tags: Caliteranian, Keith Morris, Madame Wong's, punk rock, Santa Monica, The Fox and Hounds, Wilshire
I know, I posted this matchbook already. But I just used it to make fun of the Santa Monicans. This time I want to elaborate!
The Fox and Hounds, besides having a totally cool matchbook, was a popular restaurant in Santa Monica. I don’t know when it opened, but my educated guess would be the 50’s. I found a menu from 1955 and it just REEKS of Frenchness, and we all know about that big kiss-ass French boom in the 50’s. Here’s a pic of the 1955 menu (courtesy of LA Public Library)
I love the logo! They’re so smoove!
It was still Fox and Hounds in 1972 (according to an old restaurant guide I have). Sometime in the late 70’s/early 80’s, it closed it’s doors and became Madame Wong’s. Actually, it was the second Madame Wongs (the first one being in Chinatown). Both locations held punk rock/new wave shows (yes Keith Morris, I know there’s no such thing as New Wave).
Madame Wongs closed up in the early 1990’s and became a video store. The original building has been torn down and this is what stands at 2900 Wilshire
Talk about fugly! I hate these “Caliteranian” buildings.
So what does all this local history have to do with smoking, you ask. Duh – both are relics of the past that shouldn’t be forgotten! You should always give a shout out to the ghost of Community Past.
6 Comments so far
Leave a comment
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Just to set the record straight. The Fox & Hounds was built in 1947 and closed in 1978. Yes Those were the Years. Yes, we made money on those prices.
The picture of the building that replaced the restaurant is wrong, the land now contains a Pet Depot.
Comment by G. Breitbart May 5, 2007 @ 3:00 amThanks for the memory.
Thank you for the memory jolt. I grew up in Santa Monica and the Fox and Hounds was my mom and step-dad’s favourite restaurant. They always had the same table and sometimes let my sister and me accompany them to dinner.
My step-dad knew a lot of film and entertainment people and one of my F&H highlights was meeting William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) in the lounge bar.
The folks would generally have a few martinis before dinner (I usually got the olive on the second round), my younger sister would get a “Shirley Temple” and I would have a “Hopalong Cassidy” until I got to be around eleven and switched to a much more sophisticated cherry coke.
The head waiter’s name was Cage. He was a distinguished, charismatic, ramrod straight black gentleman from the West Indies who looked as if he could have easily been a film star. He was only a few years older than my parents, but had thick silver-grey hair that made him look even more distinguished. I remember my folks being both happy and sad when Cage left the restaurant to take a job with Schick. He’d been hired by one of his regular diners to head up a newly established department set up to create and sell products to what was known as the “colored” market back then.
The folks were happy that his talents had been recognised and rewarded (he would be making something like ten times what he was earning at the restaurant), but they were sad he was leaving. They’d built up quite a relationship over the years and kept in touch with him and what was going on in his family for several years.
I also remember Caesar salads being mixed on a special cart at the table, shrimp cocktails I haven’t seen the likes of since and, most of all, that splendiferous dessert cart they rolled around after dinner.
The last time I dinned with them at the Fox and Hounds was sometime after I’d graduated from high school (SAMOHI) in 1959. By that time I not only had a job and a car, but also a taste for more exotic food, including Italian, Asian and Cal-Mex. If I remember correctly, only a few years after that the ownership of the restaurant changed hands and my parents felt that standards had dropped as a result. So they stopped going to the Fox and Hounds before it finally faded from the local scene.
For some drawings and photos of Santa Monica Bay during 50’s, 60’s and 70’s visit: .
Comment by Robert R. September 17, 2007 @ 2:12 amRE: Fox and Hounds, Santa Monica
It was still Fox and Hounds through about 1978. I interviewed at a company at 3130 Wilshire, SM in February 78′. They took me to lunch there. It was great.
In 1979 it was very briefly a Disco named “Humperdink’s” before the Suzy Wong thing started about 1980.
Lon
Comment by Lon April 1, 2008 @ 9:19 pmI used to play at Madame Wong’s in the 1980’s – always preferred the downstairs stage. What great times!
Comment by Randy G May 29, 2008 @ 3:53 pmAs a native, I remember Madame Wong’s West at the former Fox and Hounds site. Lots of mediocre bands and a great atmosphere in the early 80s. I inherited two large ashtrays from the Fox and Hounds that have traveled with me back and forth across the US. I am so glad to know that I can get some background on the era. I treasure these ashtrays – and they have NEVER been used or displayed. There is something to be said for being raised in that area at that time. It was great.
Comment by Angel August 5, 2008 @ 3:03 amWe have some menu,s signed by stan laurel from the fiftys. chris
Comment by chris craig December 7, 2008 @ 9:21 am