Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Plan 9 Cocktail Lounge Identified (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)

Yes, we're delving into this topic again. I think this is the last time.

NOTE FROM THE BLOGGER: This is the second consecutive Ed Wood Wednesdays devoted to a mysterious cocktail lounge very briefly glimpsed in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957). After musician Mike Hickey attempted to identify this elusive filming location last week, several other Wood fans quickly weighed in with various objections and doubts. 

One such fan, James Pontolillo, has offered his own alternative  conclusion as to the bar's location. That's the piece you're about to read. I very much hope that this settles the matter, once and for all. Thank you. J.B.

Slightly past the 17-minute mark into Ed Wood’s iconic 1957 film Plan 9 from Outer Space we see a montage of Angelenos reacting to flying saucers as they buzz Hollywood with seeming impunity (1). One of the startled citizens is a drunk man who has apparently just exited a cocktail lounge, whiskey bottle in hand. He can't believe what he's seeing and abandons his bottle, convinced that he must be hallucinating. It's a brief scene (~8 seconds split into two parts) that provides us with only a limited view of the lounge: a street number (4092), a portion of a neon "Cocktails" sign set into a framed opening in the building’s facade, a "No Minors Allowed" sign, and a windowless, light-colored facade that noticeably curves upward from the ground toward an angled awning overhead (2). I never thought about the identity of this cocktail lounge, but other Wood-fans have puzzled over it for some years now.

I have to thank Mike Hickey who resurrected the identity issue with his recent Facebook and YouTube posts suggesting that the Plan 9 cocktail lounge was a still-extant building at 4028 Santa Monica Boulevard (3). Since I love researching old buildings and properties, I immediately began digging into this location's history. Unfortunately, the results were not what I was expecting, and each new piece of information that I found undermined the idea that 4028 Santa Monica Boulevard was the Plan 9 filming location (see Blevins’ EWW #240 for details). 

However, a good group discussion occurred on the Ed Wood Jr. Facebook page and elsewhere. Several people suggested 4092 South Broadway as a possibility. I had already briefly looked into that site and temporarily set it aside because a 1956 /1957 Yellow Pages search for it was negative. Film critic Harry Medved, however, chimed in to say that a nightclub was indeed located there at the time when Ed was filming Plan 9. This set me off on a search for further details about that location.

Southeast of L.A. Memorial Coliseum and a short distance from Exit 20 (MLK Boulevard) on the Harbor Freeway (4), 4092 South Broadway was home to El Paissa Mexican Grill for over 20 years (5). It closed earlier this year, and the property is now home to Paseo San Miguel, a Salvadoran restaurant (6). L.A. City records indicate that this building is the original structure erected in 1920. Even when the building's current facade is viewed up close (7), it is difficult to imagine it as the Plan 9 cocktail lounge (8). Nevertheless, they are the same building. The facade of 4092 South Broadway has been radically altered twice during the course of the building’s 105-year history. A unique photograph from the early 2000s (9) shows the building before extensive renovations in 2002 – 2003 gave us the facade that we see today.

Distinct architectural features that Ed captured on film in 1956 were still present nearly fifty years later (10). Most notably, the framed window cutout that once held the neon "Cocktails" sign and the windowless, light-colored facade that curved upward from the ground toward an angled awning overhead (11). A photo overlay created by Brendon Sibley shows the relationship between the entrances as seen in 1956, the early 2000s, and 2025 (12). Why Ed chose to film at this location remains unknown. Although this little building is unremarkable to look at today, it has fed and entertained Angelenos for over a century while serving as witness to pivotal events in the city's history.

In 1920 a one-story building (50 ft x 50 ft; 2,500 ft2) was constructed on a 6,083 ft2 lot sitting at the northeast corner of South Broadway and West 41st Street (13). Its exterior walls were masonry faced with a combination of wood and plaster/stucco. The building originally consisted of three roughly equal-sized business units separated by non-loadbearing interior walls and having independent entrances. They were designated as 4088, 4090, and 4092 South Broadway (from left to right when facing the building) and zoned for use as retail shops or bars, cocktail lounges, restaurants, and taverns. After November 1947 (see below), the three spaces were combined into one business unit which has subsequently been designated as 4088 South Broadway, 4092 South Broadway, or 4088 – 4092 South Broadway at various times.

A Timeline of 4088 South Broadway (1920 – 1947)

• February 1932: Used as an unspecified shop.

• March/April 1932: Home of the E.C. Pelkey Manufacturing Company (handmade wood and fiber furniture built to order).

• May 1933: Home of the Associated Awning Company (canvas awning contractor).

• March 1938: Home of the Rol-Dri Mop Company, owner Claude Watson.

• January 1943 – March 1947: Home of the Jerry McAllister Manufacturing Company (woodworking). Early on the morning of February 13, 1946, 45-year-old laborer Berlin Webber apparently fainted or suffered a heart attack and fell through the shop window. He was found dead by police a short time later having bled out from a fatal cut to his left femoral artery (14).

A Timeline of 4090 South Broadway (1920 – 1947)

• February 1932: This shop was being used as a rental "sleeping room." The owner, Mrs. A. Parson, had it remodeled into a more serviceable living area.

• May 1935 – September 1940: Home of the White Cross Laundry (15), owned by Don Corrigan. It was previously located at 5004 South Broadway (August 1932).

A Timeline of 4092 South Broadway (1920 – 2025)

• April 1926 – September 1931: Home to a soda shop selling fountain drinks, cigars, magazines, and lunch. A living space was in the back.

• 1934 – October 1935: Home to a beer parlor operated by Mrs. M. Smith.

• November 1935: Home to the Green Dragon Café, a beer parlor operated by Charles A. and Bernice E. Seley. [There are conflicting press accounts as to whether their name was Seley or Seeley.]

• November 1937: Charles Seley advertised three used airplanes for sale. He was an amateur pilot and offered to provide ten hours of free flight instruction to purchasers.

• January 29, 1939: Charles Seley was forced to land his three-seater Waco biplane (16) in a bean field at 106th Street and Central Avenue due to engine problems (17). He had one passenger on board, his employee Joseph Redkey. Seley fixed the engine, took off, and returned to Gotch Airport at 91st Street and S. Western Avenue. The plane had a Hollywood connection: it was previously used in the film version of the life of thrill-seeking American aviator Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan (18). Seley put the plane up for sale after this incident but had no takers.

• April 23, 1939: Charles Seley crashed his Waco biplane with two passengers on board (Edward King and Joseph C. Redkey) near a ranch at Alpine Springs (19). He was flying too low when a downdraft caused him to clip the side of a mountain. All three men were badly burned and rushed to Palmdale Hospital. Edward King died the next day (20). Seley and Redkey recovered but were badly scarred for life (21).

• June 25, 1940: Charles Seley, along with his father (S.L. Seley) and uncle (J.L. Seley), was involved in a fight with off-duty policeman Noel Penrose and his wife Theodora at a 53rd Street and Broadway barbeque stand. Theodora emerged from a restroom to find her husband on the ground being beaten by the Seleys. She grabbed her husband's service revolver out of their car and opened fire, hitting S.L. Seley in the leg. The other two Seleys then beat her until police intervened. Charles Seley and Theodora were both booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon (22).

• October 1940: The Green Dragon Café, now described as a cocktail lounge, was listed for sale. It consisted of four booths and twelve stools, bringing in $60 per day.

• November 1941: The Green Dragon Café was taken off the market and no longer for sale.

• July 1942: Charles Seley was arrested at his cafe for intoxication and creating a disturbance.

• October 26, 1944: Forty-year-old Charles Seley died when he crashed an Army surplus plane into a field near 101st and Alameda Streets during a nighttime flight (23).

• October 31, 1944: Five days after her husband's death, 38-year-old Bernice E. Seeley was killed by Howard W. Stuler in a hit and run incident (24). Mrs. Seeley was in a marked crosswalk at Figueroa and 41st (one long block from the café) when Stuler hit her with his truck, throwing her 106 feet from the point of impact. She was transported to Georgia Street Hospital where she died the next morning. Her funeral arrangements were handled by the Utter-McKinley Mortuary, the same firm that later handled Ed’s arrangements.

• November 1944: The Green Dragon Café closed due to the death of both owners.

• December 29, 1944: The Green Dragon Café was auctioned off in its entirety (25).

• July 1946 – November 1947: Owner Fred Smith remodeled the three separate business units into a unified 2,500 ft2 cocktail lounge with a limit of 60 occupants using the address of 4092 South Broadway. The facade was changed to what we see in Plan 9 and the early 2000s photo (the doorways formerly servicing the 4088 and 4090 storefronts were removed, the glass storefronts of all three units were replaced with a unified wood and plaster construction of unspecified design, and the remaining door was widened by one foot).

• December 1949: Home of Carl's Broadway Club, a cocktail lounge and restaurant owned by Carl and Agnes Writer (26). This club should not be confused with Lane Nicholson's nearby, higher-end New Club Broadway which operated from 1946 – 1957 at 4374 South Broadway.

• June 1951: The club began running regular want ads in local newspapers for the next decade or so. Their requirements were both racist and sexist, as well as oddly inconsistent at times (27). While I did not perform a comprehensive study of want ads in the Los Angeles newspapers for this time period, my impression from a casual review of them is that such requirements were an unusual occurrence.

• July 1954: A 15 ft x 15 ft (225 ft2) storeroom was added to the back of club. It can easily be seen in current-day overhead photos (28).

• October 1958: Owner Carl Writer and his customers were robbed of their wallets at gunpoint by four bandits.

• February 1962: The club advertised its fixtures and liquor license for sale.

• 1963: Carl's Broadway Club closed sometime this year.

• July - October 1964: Owner Yasue M. Ikeda filed for a change in the building plot plan and performed interior remodeling to increase occupancy from 60 to 100 customers.

• August 1965: A furniture store one block away at Broadway and 41st Place was gutted during the Watts Riots. It is safe to assume that business activities in the neighborhood were disrupted for an unknown length of time.

• Mid-1960s – 1981: I have so far not found any information about businesses operating at the location during this time.

• September 1981: Home to Carl's Dodger Club (aka The Dodger Club), a live music nightspot that the Los Angeles Times called one of the city's best R&B venues.

• June 1982: Owner Hiroko Sei installed a 6 ft x 12 ft non-illuminated, steel sign along the roofline facing Broadway.

• June 1983: The Dodger Club was "newly remodeled and back in action" with a full bar, big dance floor, and live music most nights.

• 1984: Fear reigned as a serial killer operated in the neighborhoods around The Dodger Club. The "Southside Slayer" was a collective name used by the media and police for what was assumed to be a single serial killer responsible for ~200 missing and murdered predominantly black women in South-Central Los Angeles, primarily in the 1980s and 1990s (29). The murders went unsolved for years in a city overwhelmed by a crack epidemic, gang violence, rampant homelessness, and police-community divisions. Advances in DNA technology in the late 2000s eventually demonstrated that the murders were committed by at least six different, unrelated serial killers operating simultaneously in the area from 1979 – 2007.

• June 1986: The Dodger Club was still operating but listed for sale. The steel rooftop sign erected four years earlier was no longer present and illuminated signs adorned the exterior (30).

• October 1, 1987: The Dodger Club was reviewed in LA Weekly ("Best Dodger Blues") – "Though Tommy Lasorda doesn’t run the kitchen here, and Mike Marshall isn’t likely to be seen starting fights in the parking lot, we'd rather see blues perennials like the mighty Charles Barnett or the unbeatable Little Johnny Taylor than a bunch of hapless ballplayers. This lively blues spot is run by Asians and boasts year-round Christmas decorations, and a real neighborhood feel. There's also a good jukebox, a cozy dance floor – and not a sports creep to be found anywhere."

• May 1992: Advertising for The Dodger Club was suspended. It is likely that operations were negatively affected by the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

• April 1996: Advertisements for The Dodger Club resumed.

• July 1996: The last known advertisement for The Dodger Club appeared. The club closed sometime between this date and 2000.

• December 2000: Owner Boonnak Karnsomport replaced the building’s roof.

• August 2002 - October 2003: Owner Victor Rodriguez remodeled the building's facade to its current appearance (two large windows, and a wider main entrance flanked by a smaller window) in order to bring the building into compliance with city safety requirements. The interior and dry storage room were also extensively remodeled (partitions, ceiling, new kitchen and restroom hardware, etc.).

• Late 2003 – 2025: Home of El Paissa Mexican Grill.

• March 2025: The property was sold for $1,000,000.

• August 2025: Home of Paseo San Miguel, a Salvadoran restaurant. With its security awnings lowered, the building’s original configuration as three separate business units is still apparent over a century later (31).

Sources

• Photographs of Paseo San Miguel restaurant (Courtesy of Brendon Sibley, 8/16/2025).

• Associated Press Photo Archives

• Blevins, Joe, “Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 240: Has the cocktail lounge from Plan 9 finally been found?”, August 13, 2025, https://d2rights.blogspot.com/2025/08/ed-wood-wednesdays-week-240-has.html

• California Eagle (Los Angeles)

• Daily News (Los Angeles)

• Getty Photo Archives

• LA Weekly

• LoopNet listing for 4088 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90037

• Los Angeles City Department of Building and Safety (Building Information, Certificates of Occupancy, Permit Information)

• Los Angeles Evening Citizen News

• Los Angeles Mirror

• Los Angeles Times

• Press-Telegram (Long Beach)

• Southgate Daily Press-Tribune (South Gate, CA)

• The Southwest Wave (Los Angeles)