Hollywood Country Club
The Hollywood Country Club (also known as Club Rex) was a private social club built by developer Clyde Nelson as part of his Hollywood residential subdivision in 1926. It was located along Shades Creek Parkway across from the site later used for the Brookwood Village mall.
The club was the original meeting place of the Freunde Deutscher Sprache und Kultur.
The 1947 Miss Alabama Dairy Queen pageant was held at the club. The first Homewood Armory was constructed nearby the same year.
In 1948 bandleader Dewitt Shaw leased the club and took over its management. His Spotlight Band began headlining on Saturday evenings.
In the 1950's, with Joe Robino as proprietor, the Cave Room hosted dancing and live music, often featuring performances by "exotic dancer" June Marsh and comedian Al Goody.
The swimming pool was open in the summers all through the 1960's. However, the concrete decking around the pool and the building in general was falling into disrepair.
In 1976, Huffman musician Jimmy Lanier leased the premises from Joe Robino for a nominal fee of $500 per month. Lanier opened the former Cave Room in the basement which was actually a temporary floor covering an indoor swimming pool with an Arabian desert motif on the walls. A local Birmingham band, Angelo Toad, featuring Tom DeVore on vocals and Joe Breckenridge on bass played Monday through Saturdays. The club was called "Hollywood Underground" and was managed by Gene Hollis. Lanier would occasionally play with his musical friends Libba on flute and Spuddy on keyboards. Lanier made an attempt to resurrect the upstairs ballroom but found the task a bit too much. After a year of great success Lanier made a move and opened the "Hello Hello Club" in the space that became the first Sammy's on West Valley Avenue.
In 1977, the Pilliteri brothers, Jake and Charles of Mr. P's now famous Bluff Park grocery/deli, bought the lease and operated the club for about a year.
In 1978, Sam Raine Jr. and Norman Ceravalo, took over running the property and had the ballroom semi-restored with black walls and an electronic dance-floor with a state of the art sound system and DJ-booth. It was again called Hollywood Country Club and even featured a Sunday disco for underage children sans alcohol. This establishment lasted four months and then was sold to Tony Rufino and Dan Nolen who moved in and renamed it Brothers Music Hall. Rufino brought in top acts like the Police, Toto, and many other high profile groups which sold-out most shows. Rufino and Nolen separated as partners with Rufino concentrating on concerts and Nolen opening The Nick on Southside. By 1981 the country club building was vacated and the site began to deteriorate. The vacant club building was destroyed in a 1984 fire. A Courtyard by Marriott hotel now sits on the site.
In 2004 artist Don Stewart created a drawing of the Hollywood Country Club to be featured on the second in a series of Homewood historic Christmas ornaments, sold to benefit the Homewood Chamber of Commerce.
References
- "Club To Go Under New Management." (January __, 1948). The Birmingham News.
- Ryan, Shawn (February 25, 1994) "Exercising some muscle with the clout of New Era behind it, Five Points South Music Hall has strength that its predecessors didn't." Birmingham News
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External links
- Advertisement for the Cave Room October 1959, via Birmingham Rewound
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