The 2022 Ed-vent Calendar, Day 6: The Cameo Room

The Cameo Room played a key role in the Ed Wood story. Twice!
Two days ago, I shared some B&W publicity stills from The Beach Bunnies (1976), a mostly-forgotten sex comedy that Ed Wood wrote for director Stephen C. Apostolof. Way back in 2014, I fleetingly mentioned a long-gone nightclub called the Cameo Room that is briefly glimpsed in that film. Back then, I complimented the club on its "very cool-looking neon signs" but admitted that I couldn't pin down an exact location for the place.
Well, this week, reader Shawn Langrick let me know a little bit more about the Cameo Room. In a Facebook forum about Ed Wood, he wrote:
The Cameo Room was at 5061 Sunset Blvd. and was around from 1946 until at least 1977. This pic from 1946 is pretty dark, but I'd bet a good dinner at the Brown Derby that it's the same sign.

Here's that pic he's referring to:
An ad for the Cameo Room from 1946.
Shawn also mentioned that the Cameo Room was where Ed Wood met his wife Kathy. And, sure enough, in a chapter of Nightmare of Ecstasy (1992) called "Marriage," Kathy Wood tells this anecdote:
Kathy describes the first three or four times she met Ed Wood.
I knew you'd want to see what the business looks like today. As of right now, 5061 Sunset Blvd. is an office building that's for sale . Astonishingly, though, it looks like the building is intact! The neon is gone, but the stucco walls and Spanish tile remain. And Ed Wood would have appreciated that there's a liquor store in the mini-mall next door.
The former site of the Cameo Room as it looks today.
Thanks again to Shawn Langrick for the cool Cameo Room research!
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Published on December 06, 2022 15:03
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