04/18/2015
In celebration of , here is an album cover photo taken inside the London Fog's neighbor, "The Unicorn". This is what it looked like inside during it's beatnik heyday in 1958. Photo by Hal Adams.
More about the Unicorn: Opened by Herb Cohen and Victor Maymudes in 1955 and located right next to the Whisky (at the time the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music), it was the first beatnik coffee house in Los Angeles. It was a place where the young rebels of the day congregated to drink coffee, listen to live music, conduct poetry readings and play chess. The walls inside of the Unicorn were painted black with paintings of n**e women (hung upside down) and photos of beatnik heroes covering the walls. The waitresses were hip, beautiful, blunt and mean!
It was ground zero of the emerging counter-culture in the late '50s and early '60s and advertised itself with slogans such as "Where casual craznicks climb circular charcoal curbs for cool calculated confabulations". The young kids would come together to discuss poetry, politics and religion, all while sipping their brandy flavored latte's.
In 1963, Lenny Bruce was booked to play a show at the Unicorn and was arrested after the performance for violating California's obscenity law. In 1966, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band recorded a live album at the Unicorn.
After the unicorn closed, it became "Sneeky Pete's", then later on Duke's Coffee Shop, and now the location of "Pearl's"
A big Thank you to Domenic Priore, author of "Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in 60s" for identifying that this photo was taken inside the Unicorn. If you look at the upper right of this photo, behind the chandelier, you can see the "Unicorn" sign on the back wall.
