More On The Pitt-Clooney Gay Bar (And Because It's Fun To Say 'Boom Boom')
The LAT finds itself knee-deep in Boom Boom today, unearthing further details in the recent sale of landmark Laguna Beach gay bar The Boom Boom Room, which we noted Wednesday. While the involvement of airplane tycoon Steven Udvar-Hazy (so rich he has a Smithsonian building named after him) is undisputed, it's the widely rumored Brad Pitt and George Clooney-stake in the enterprise, and their subsequent denials, that has added a patina of A-list curiosity to your otherwise run-of-the-mill "greedy corporate breeders VS. pop n' pop shop" conflict. A little history:
The Boom Boom Room was a serviceman's bar when it opened as the South Seas in 1927. In the late '60s or early '70s, after the bar had become a haven for Laguna's burgeoning gay community, it was renamed the Boom Boom Room. The dance club became a premiere fixture on the county's gay scene, including weekly drag shows and sightings of celebrities such as Rock Hudson. [...]
An employee at the Boom Boom Room said it had been getting dozens of calls each day asking about the fate of the tavern. "It's very up in the air," she said. "We're still kicking."One person posting online to a message board exclaimed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! For the love of God, why would George Clooney do this to me???? Why? Oh, the humanity of it all. What will I do for my Wed night drag queen fix?"
We were heartened to see the Times judiciously selected only the most measured, mature quotes to tell the gay side of this story. Among the other representative gay reactions that did not make it into the piece: "Worrrrk, supermodel! We got to worrrrk to save the Boom Boom Room," and "Somewhere, over the rainbow, there is a bar and adjoining hotel for all of us."
