Club Laurel

Alternate Names
The Laurel Club
Jay's Club Laurel
First Documented
1957
Last Documented
1970

Club Laurel
12319 Ventura Blvd
North Hollywood, CA 91604
United States

Abstract
Jay's Club Laurel, later just Club Laurel, was a gay bar on Ventura Boulevard, which was open from 1954 to 1968. Singer Beverly Shaw (1910-1990) moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s to continue her musical career.  She performed at the Flamingo, a lesbian bar in Hollywood, and later at CLub Laurel in Studio City, which she eventually bought and operated for fourteen years. Information presented here is from a text by Zemula Barr in Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles, 1945-1980, published by ONE Archives in 2011 (p. 31). 

Jay's Club Laurel, later just Club Laurel, was a gay bar on Ventura Boulevard, which was open from 1954 to 1968. "Noted for her sultry style within the 1940s nightclub scene in San Francisco, singer Beverly Shaw (1910-1990) moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s to continue her musical career.  She performed at the Flamingo, a lesbian bar in Hollywood, and later at CLub Laurel in Studio City, which she eventually bought and operated for fourteen years.  During this time Shaw adopted the moniker, 'Beverly Shaw, Sir!' after hearing Groucho Marx refer to Talluluh Bankhead as 'sir' in an interview.  In the late 1950s, or early 1960s, Shaw started her own record label, Club Laurel Records, and recorded her only full-length album, Songs 'Tailored to Your Tastes.' Shaw continued to perform into the 1960s at Joani Presents, a lesbian nightclub in North Hollywood, and at Larry's Supper Club in the San Fernando Valley. 

Citations

Magpie 11-68, Magpie 5-69, Lulu Awards 1969, The Timely Gay Bar Guide 1970, Gay Guide '71