Deja Vu Showgirls
6315 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6315 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
3 people
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The Deja Vu completed a remodel and reopened sometime over the past couple of months.
As of September 2022, the venue has yet to reopen from the 2020 pandemic shutdown. The gated entryway has amassed a great deal of debris and dust, suggesting that there hasn’t been any activity since the closure. However, the club is still listed as “Temporarily Closed” online and the Deja Vu group maintains a webpage for the site.
The Cave is featured in the 1984 movie “Angel”. In addition to showing the exterior, two scenes take place inside; when the killer attempts to hide among seated patrons/is confronted by the manager and in a follow-up scene when he is discovered by police/flees. The giveaway that they actually shot the scenes inside the Cave is a faux stalactite visible to the left of the screen, framing an exit door, when they briefly flash to the movie being played (the 1983 adult film “Sweet Alice”). At the time of filming, the auditorium looked to be small (under 100 seats) and had a red/black color scheme. The exterior entrance was wood paneled, with slats arranged in a diagonal pattern, and the carpeting was brown.
The Cave theatre opened on February 5th, 1971 with “The Ways of the Harlot”, an adult movie. Grand opening ad posted.
On September 3rd, 2011 during a trip that included Los Angeles, I stood waiting at a bus stop in front of a former business with an aging mustard yellow marquee. A folding gate blocked the doorway, where discarded soda cans and fast food wrappers had accumulated in the space between. Some other signage made statements such as “Girls, Girls, Girls” (reminding me of the Motley Crue song)… I thought, “Oh, it’s a defunct movie theater that is now a defunct strip club!”.
For a while as I waited for the bus, two women in their early 20’s stood silently under the marquee holding a handmade cardboard sign that said “Hungry Hobos” and a request for money. Occasionally some people would offer assistance and chat with them, but I got the impression this was possibly a sort of performance/experiment to see how people would respond.
A year or so later I thought it would be fun to try to find the place on Cinema Treasures, but couldn’t remember what it was called or where in L.A. I had been.
Then on February 12th, 2016, I was watching the documentary “David Bowie – Five Years” that was airing on PBS. During a segment describing Bowie’s time in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, an interviewee’s voice says Bowie felt he needed to leave L.A. because the culture was getting too crazy and therefore unhealthy for him, while for a moment the image on the screen is a lit up marquee of a theater called The Cave taken from a passing car. …. I wrote down the name and looked it up on Cinema Treasures: Ha – it just happened to be the theater that I had stood in front of back in 2011! (Apparently with a remodeled exterior and reopened as a strip club.)
I went to the Haunted House Club a few times in the late 1960’s.
Originally opened as Sardi’s restaurant in 1933. After a fire, it reopened as a nightclub. Then, it became the Cave adult book store/theatre. After that, it became the Hollywood Cabaret strip club. Now, it’s the Deja Vu Showgirls strip club. It should probably be listed as “closed”, as the building’s current incarnation doesn’t show movies or even have a screen in place.
In the 1980 movie “DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE!”, there is a nice shot of the Cave theatre between the 39 and 40 minute mark. Many other street scenes are scattered throughout the 95 minute exploitation film.
The Cave, as well as the Hollywood Tatto Studio next door at 6317, is featured prominently in the 1994 film Jailbait. Bring back the “Glory Days” of Hollywood & Vine!
Three videos from the 1960s, courtesy of the Facebook group Vintage Los Angeles, showing The Cave when it was the Haunted House discotheque:
Sonny and Cher visit the Haunted House: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxZyC1_Rjno
You can see the reason for the Cave’s rock-like walls, as it housed the wax museum of monsters that you had to pass through in order to get to the main room.
The opening of the movie “Girl In Golden Boots” from 1968, filmed in the Haunted House discotheque. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isRntFGz14
The album cover of “Pat & Lolly Vegas At The Haunted House” shows the famous dragon stage: http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-House-Pat-Lolly-Vegas/dp/B000I8OMVW
You can see the neon cobwebs on the marquee around the 0:16 mark here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmaX64TWSw
That and Part 2 were obviously taken late at night, so most of the marquees along Hollywood Blvd. are dark, but it’s still fun to see how many you can spot.
More intriguing about this disgusting theatre was that it was a popular restaurant/nightclub in the 50’s. You can tell by the green tile like walls that clash with the more modern marquee and surroundings.
The old Cave Theater as seen in that picture from 1981 was a great place. The interior was all done up like an actual cave. the curved cave ceiling and walls. The uneven cave floors. Some of the seating areas were partitioned off into almost booth like areas with low cave walls.
The atmosphere was very sleazy inside and as far as the management was concerned there was a policy of pretty much anything goes. It was not uncommon to see some pretty wild stuff going on in the audience as well as on the screen.
Here is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cz9hs5
Here is a March 1975 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/3sl9ok
Although Hollywood is not a city per se, the Cave should be listed as being in Hollywood for the sake of consistency.
The Cave Theatre was just one of those remodeled store front type X-Rated theatres that ran Adult features during the 70’s-80’s. The original tenant of at that location was Sardi’s Diner in Hollywood which the architect was Rudolph Schindler. So the Cave Theatre was not a former theatre that started running porno, it was just a remodeled retail space.