Ciro's (London)

Ciro's, often written Ciros, was an exclusive nightclub in Orange Street, Leicester Square, London, "just behind the National Gallery".[1] It was famously closed during WWI for serving alcohol illegally. A fashionable club of the same name later opened[2] at the same location.[3]

Club and restaurant chain

The Ciro’s restaurant chain had branches in Monte Carlo, Paris,[4] London and Biarritz.[5]

In 1897, Ciro, an Italian-born Egyptian headwaiter, in Monte Carlo, opened his first restaurant within the fashionable narrow radius of a hundred yards around the square, fronting the casino, on the Galerie Charles III,[5] next to his former place of employment.

The name Ciro's comes from Italian-born Egyptian Ciro Capozzi who founded the first Ciro's bar in Monaco around 1892,[6] next to the café Riche in the newly built Galerie Charles III. According to the story of James Gordon Bennett Jr., having a difference about a table on the terrasse, he bought the café Riche and gave it to Ciro who named it the Ciro's.[7] In 1911, Ciro Capozzi sold the name to an English consortium (including William Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett as main investor,[8] and Clément Hobson[9]) who open the Deauville Ciro's (still existing as a restaurant belonging to the Groupe Lucien Barrière), the Paris Ciro's in 1912,[10][11] and the London one in 1915. Ciro's became a European high society restaurant chain with branches in Monte Carlo,[12] Paris, London[13] (where Audrey Hepburn danced before her film career[14]), and Deauville. Bartender Harry MacElhone, famous for Harry's New York Bar, first worked at Ciro's in London after World War I.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

In 1911, Ciro sold to an English Syndicate headed by Lord Poulett and Clement Hobson with M.Rizzi as general manager.[24][25]

"Ciro's was a hip London establishment (before another popular one opened up in Los Angeles in 1940), that had as their bartender Harry McElhone (author of ABC of Cocktails), at which Jimmy took over when Harry went off to Paris. ..." (Ross Bolton)[26]

"Louis Adlon, grandson of the proprietor of Berlin’s Hotel Adlon opened Hollywood’s first iteration of Ciro’s in 1934[27][28] (with Erich Alexander[29] and George Sorel[30]) Located on Hollywood Boulevard, the club was informally part of a chain with locations in London, Paris and Berlin. The Hollywood Ciro’s was not a success, apparently, because it soon folded."[31]

London

In May 1915, Ciro’s London branch opened, as a private club, in Orange Street, near the back of the National Gallery.[32]

The producer Jack Haskell staged a cabaret there around 1917, and said that an evening's entertainment at Ciro's would cost at least £10/10.[33][a]

The club came to public attention in 1916 when it lost its licence after a police raid at 11 pm on Sunday 19 November 1916. It was proved they were serving jugs of champagne (sold as "special ginger beer") after hours, and to non-members.[34] This was in the depths of the War, when butter was rationed and petrol unobtainable. A workers' newspaper commented:

... if that's the way to win the war, and denotes a burning enthusiasm, the Tory press is right; Australia hasn't been doing her best, for she has scarcely got past beer by the jugful.[35]

The two managers were each fined £125 (equivalent to £10,705 in 2023) and three directors were fined £25 (equivalent to £2,141 in 2023) each, with costs.[36]

In 1936 two rival bandleaders, Ambrose and Jack Harris (previously of the Embassy Club, Grosvenor House Hotel, Cafe de Paris, London Casino), took a financial stake in the club in an effort to keep it going.[37]

Chicago

Related but not owned by: Ciro's Grill Franco-American, 18 W. Walton Place, Chicago, IL.[38][39]

Notes

  1. ^ If Haskell was referring to 1916 prices, £10/10 would be equivalent to around £900 in 2023.

References

  1. ^ "Champagne in Jugs". The World's News. No. 787. New South Wales, Australia. 13 January 1917. p. 6. Retrieved 8 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "W.A. Newspapers v. Railways". The Daily News (Perth). Vol. XLIX, no. 17, 332. Western Australia. 22 November 1930. p. 8. Retrieved 8 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "From London Town". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 16111. Queensland, Australia. 19 July 1924. p. 13. Retrieved 8 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "Ciro, Paris 1928 Menu Art". Vintage Menu Art. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  5. ^ a b "The Classy Ciro's Restaurant Chain". Jazz Age Club. 2010-02-17. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  6. ^ "M. Ciro, Italian born Egyptian founder of Ciro's restaurant in Monte Carlo, pictured on the French Riviera in 1909. He sold the restaurant in 1911 to an English syndicate which included the Earl of Rosslyn and Clement Hobson. Other branches were opened in London, Paris and Biarritz". alamy.com. 1909. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  7. ^ "Ciro, Paris 1923 Menu Art". Vintage Menu Art. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  8. ^ "Journal de Monaco" (PDF). Journaldemonaco.gouv.mc. pp. 3–6.
  9. ^
  10. ^ "The interior of Ciro's restaurant, Rue Daunou, Paris". agefotostock. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  11. ^ "The Classy Ciro's Restaurant Chain". Jazz Age Club. 17 February 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  12. ^ "Sem on the Riviera - the famous caricaturist's very latest impressions. A page of caricatures by Sem (Georges Goursat) taken on the French Riviera. Clockwise from top left, Lord Howard de Walden, Mr Gordon Bennett, the millionaire newspaper proprietor at Ciro's, Monte Carlo, Lord Wandsworth, Lord Savile, Lord Westbury, all at the Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo, M. Santos Dumont, M. Henri Rochefort and the Duc de Dino all at the Hotel Metropole, Monte Carlo and the Grand Duke Michael of Russia". alamy.com. 1913. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  13. ^
  14. ^ "Audrey Hepburn: 'Roman Holiday' Star Started as Nightclub Dancer," December 16, 2020, Variety (recapping July 5, 1950 Variety review of her dance show), retrieved February 5, 2022
  15. ^ "Andrew MacElhone Dies". New York Daily News. 20 September 1996.
  16. ^ Pathé, British. "Ciro's Club". Britishpathe.com.
  17. ^ British Pathé (13 April 2014). "Ciro's (1953)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  18. ^ Aaron1912 (20 September 2010). "A Night At Ciro's (1932)". YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)[dead YouTube link]
  19. ^ Williams, Olivia (2014). Gin Glorious Gin:How Mother's Ruin Became the Spirit of London. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4722-1534-5.
  20. ^ Hindson, Catherine (1 June 2016). London's West End Actresses and the Origins of Celebrity Charity, 1880-1920. University of Iowa Press. p. 198. ISBN 9781609384258 – via Google Books.
  21. ^ "Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra". Redhotjazz.com.
  22. ^ "Audrey Hepburn exhibition staged at National Portrait Gallery". Independent.co.uk. 3 December 2014.
  23. ^ "The Coming of Ciro's to London - THE INTERACTIVE WAR NEWS". Illustratedfirstworldwar.com.
  24. ^ https://www.jazzageclub.com/the-classy-ciros-restaurant-chain/370/
  25. ^ "Ciro's Monte Carlo Restaurant Sold". The New York Times. 1911-03-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  26. ^ "JIMMY" LATE OF CIRO'S LONDON (1930). Cocktails. Philadelphia: David McKay. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  27. ^ "Hollywood Filmograph". Hollywood Filmograph. 1934. Feb. 17, 1934 ... Ciro's (formerly the Club New Yorker) threw its doors open Wednesday night to the public. It was one of the swellest turn-outs we have seen in some time. Harold Lloyd dropped in with his wife, Mildred, and ... Mrs. Buckley's party. Mario Alverez's orchestra furnished the music. The place is being operated by Erich Alexander, George Sorel and Louis Adlon, Jr.
  28. ^ "VM-175B". Historic Films. HOLLYWOOD 1935 - 03:11:50 - Montage, Hollywood Landmarks: Ciro's, Earl Carrol Theater, Cocoanut Grove.
  29. ^ "Erich-Alexander Winds". IMDb.com. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  30. ^ "George Sorel". IMDb.com. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  31. ^ "1940: Ciro's Opens". Playgroundtothestars.com.
  32. ^ https://www.jazzageclub.com/the-classy-ciros-restaurant-chain/370/
  33. ^ "The Bing Boys Are Here". The Sunday Times (Sydney). No. 1663. New South Wales, Australia. 2 December 1917. p. 17. Retrieved 8 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  34. ^ "London Night Club". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 13, 732. Queensland, Australia. 25 November 1916. p. 6. Retrieved 8 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  35. ^ "Topical Talk". The Australian Worker. Vol. 25, no. 50. New South Wales, Australia. 14 December 1916. p. 12. Retrieved 8 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  36. ^ "Night Club Struck Off Register". The Age. No. 19, 268. Victoria, Australia. 22 December 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 8 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  37. ^ Melody Maker, Vol XII, No 184, 28 November 1936, front page
  38. ^ Drury, John. Dining in Chicago, New York: The John Day Company, 1931, pp. 90-92
  39. ^ https://www.chicagoancestors.org/place/ciros-grill

51°30′36″N 0°07′48″W / 51.510°N 0.130°W / 51.510; -0.130