Marc Chevalier
Gone Home
- Messages
- 18,192
- Location
- Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
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In the 1990s, Jim Fittipaldi had the greatest Wednesday night speakeasies at his residential loft on Molino Street in downtown Los Angeles's warehouse district.
By invitation only (sort of). Billiards table, two bars, sofas everywhere, massive poker table -- the works. People still talk about those nights ...
Did any other Loungers attend them?
Jim Fittipaldi: "I was throwing events at my Molino Street loft: mostly art openings and what we called 'speakeasies.' I am drawn to the days of cafe society, when people got together to talk and socialize, exchange ideas. My parties were on a Wednesday night starting at midnight. I served up my version of cafe society to the local artists in my community.
It was a blast to have 200 creative people in one room all discussing art, fashion, film, music and theater. It wasn’t just all visual artists; there were painters, sculptors, writers, black jazz musicians from South Central, actors from both film and theater, dancers, publicists, and the occasional tourist. They were the best parties in town; a room full of creative people that didn’t all do the same thing.
Pretty soon, the word got out, but not to Hollywood. It got out to New York and Europe. I’d have people showing up who’d heard about these gatherings in Germany or London. New York writers and actors would show up after hearing about it only once, and find their way back a week or so later to that urban backwater, Molino Street. Did you know that when the Kor Group started advertising that building as high-end loft condos, their pitch was that the building was a mecca for the creative art hub of downtown Los Angeles, where all the artists meet? That was me."
.
In the 1990s, Jim Fittipaldi had the greatest Wednesday night speakeasies at his residential loft on Molino Street in downtown Los Angeles's warehouse district.
By invitation only (sort of). Billiards table, two bars, sofas everywhere, massive poker table -- the works. People still talk about those nights ...
Did any other Loungers attend them?
Jim Fittipaldi: "I was throwing events at my Molino Street loft: mostly art openings and what we called 'speakeasies.' I am drawn to the days of cafe society, when people got together to talk and socialize, exchange ideas. My parties were on a Wednesday night starting at midnight. I served up my version of cafe society to the local artists in my community.
It was a blast to have 200 creative people in one room all discussing art, fashion, film, music and theater. It wasn’t just all visual artists; there were painters, sculptors, writers, black jazz musicians from South Central, actors from both film and theater, dancers, publicists, and the occasional tourist. They were the best parties in town; a room full of creative people that didn’t all do the same thing.
Pretty soon, the word got out, but not to Hollywood. It got out to New York and Europe. I’d have people showing up who’d heard about these gatherings in Germany or London. New York writers and actors would show up after hearing about it only once, and find their way back a week or so later to that urban backwater, Molino Street. Did you know that when the Kor Group started advertising that building as high-end loft condos, their pitch was that the building was a mecca for the creative art hub of downtown Los Angeles, where all the artists meet? That was me."
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