Chinese
 |
The old room is a bit rustic, but it still glistens.
Four giant chandeliers, imported from Versailles, France, hang from the high ceiling.
Appropriately, it is called the Chandelier Room, and it will be a hot spot during the Breeders' Cup at historic Santa Anita Race Track.
The Chandelier Room has been around as long as the track, which opened on Christmas Day in 1934.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Chandelier Room Celebrities at Santa Anita
By Larry Stewart
(Reprinted with persmission from Thoroughbred Times.)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The room's décor also includes four giant, strategically placed gold-plated metal “palm trees,” and there are three smaller versions behind the giant bar, which was once an all-wood classic but now has a marble top.
Much of the furniture, once considered top of the line, is weathered, and the attractive cocktail tables that adorned the room were long ago replaced with plain ones. The candleabra that used to be at each end of the bar were destroyed in the 1971 earthquake.
But much of the beauty of this room remains. It is a major part of the Turf Club, and for decades served as a home away from home for some of the biggest names in Hollywood. John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Clark Gable, Greer Garson, Betty Grable, Harry James, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Walter Mathau and James Darren were among the regulars at one time or other. Elizabeth Montgomery (“Bewitched”) was often at the bar before she died in 1995, sometimes with Liz Sheridan, who played Jerry Seinfeld’ s mother on “Seinfeld.”
Frank Panza, who has been a bartender in the Chandelier Room since 1961, can rattle off name after name. Farrah Fawcett, Mickey Rooney, Mickey Cohen, David Jansen, and Phil Harris are some of the other former well-known patrons.
And Panza has stories too, such as one that involves Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
“Desi was here a lot,” he said. “One day he came up to the bar and said he had lost an expensive cuff link and would give anyone who could find it a $100 reward.
“Lucy had given him the cuff links and he was scared to death what she was going to do to him when he got home without that cuff link. I finally told him, ‘Why don’t you just take the cuff link you still have to a jeweler and have him make you a new one?’
“He said, ‘That’s a great idea.’ That took care of that problem.”
Panza said he had a different kind of problem with Wayne. One day the legendary actor bellied up to the bar, set down a bottle of Mexican tequila and told Panza to use it to pour him a drink.
“I told him, ‘You trying to get me fired?' " Panza said. R
estaurateur Carmen Miceli, who has been a regular in the Chandelier Room since 1947 and celebrated his 85th birthday there last St. Patrick’s Day, was at the bar that day Wayne brought along his own bottle of tequila.
“He got a little huffy when Frank wouldn’t pour it,” Miceli said. “I told him, ‘If you can’t afford to buy a drink, I’ll get one for you.’ That didn’t go over very well, either.”
Miceli also remembers the heyday of the Chandelier Room.
“You had to be somebody if you were in here,” he said. “Just about everywhere you looked was a celebrity.”
Legendary maitre d Jimmy O’Hara, who has worked in the Santa Anita Turf Club since 1975, said, “A few celebrities have threatened to get me fired when they didn’t get the table they wanted, but most of them have been great.”
The Chandelier Room has also been the setting for scenes in a number of movies. One was the 1954 version of “A Star Is Born,” with Judy Garland, James Mason and Jack Carson. Panza, also a part-time actor, coincidentally was in a scene at the bar when Carson’s character punched Mason’s.
“I ended up on the cutting room floor,” Panza lamented.
Panza said a couple came up to the bar during the last meet and told him they had just seen that version of “A Star Is Born" on a cable channel.
“They said the movie is what brought them to the track,” he said. “They wanted to see this room.”
More recently, the room was used to shoot scenes for the 2003 movie “Seabiscuit.”
And according to Randy Fowler, the head of food and beverage at Santa Anita, it remains popular for wedding receptions and special events.
But these days the room no longer bustles with celebrities like it did in the past. Nor does it attract the crowds it used to. On most race days, particularly during the week, the room is nearly empty.
One problem is that many Santa Anita patrons, particularly the younger ones, perfer the more modern and hip FrontRunner restaurant that opened in 2000. It overlooks the race track and provides a bird's eye view for those fortunate enough to get a window table.
Of the Chandelier Room, Turf Club regular Dick Van Patton, the 79-year-old actor, laments, “Most of the people you see in here are my age.”
Van Patton, former star of the TV series “Eight Is Enough,” is one of Santa Anita's most loyal patrons. He hardly ever misses a race day. Want to know what kind of racing fanatic he is?
Well, in January 2006 he spent seven days in at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering a major stroke. The morning he was released, he headed straight for the track.
Now that’s a fanatic.
“I love it here,” he said. “It’s a great way to spend five or six hours.”
Mel Brooks started attending the races regularly after his wife, actress Ann Bancroft, died in June 2005.
“I come here maybe a couple times a week,” Brooks said.
Van Patton was the one who introduced Brooks to horse racing.
“I told him that going to the race track is a great escape,” Van Patton said. “I think it cheered him up.”
Maybe not totally.
“I listen to Dick tout horses and the only winning tickets I have are the ones I find on the ground with tire marks on them,” Brooks quipped.
Jack Klugman is also occasionally seen in the Turf Club. Joe Pesci comes to the track, but when he does he sits in the box seat area of the Clubhouse.
The celebrity list is a far cry from what it once was. But even though many of the stars might be missing, the chandeliers in the Chandelier Room still shine brightly.
A "Shining" Story
Hi Larry !
Great- descriptive story on Santa Anita Race Track's Chandelier Room. Your narrative awakens old memories of my youth, playing three card monty with the limousene drivers in the Turf Club parking area, while their VIP's (Very Important Passengers) enjoyed the ambience and elegant dining in this grand room. I urge all that have an interest in local Arcadia (and race track) history to visit the Chanelier Room. You're in for a memorable experience.
Gene Glasco
Arcadia Historical Society
Post new comment