Opened in 1940 Ciro’s became a popular nightclub and restaurant located on the sunset strip in the very same building that the comedy store now occupies. The restaurant was opened by entrepreneur William Wilkerson who also owned The Trocadero and La Rue both of which were also on the strip.
William Wilkerson created the Hollywood Reporter in the 1930s and wrote a highly influential column called “tradeviews” at the beginning of each issue. He became the most influential person in Hollywood who didn’t own a studio and would work around the clock to either suppress or publish career-threatening stories involving the Hollywood elite. He became known as the Hollywood Godfather and had ties to some of the most powerful monsters of the day such as Mickey Cohen and Bugsey Segal. In fact, he was developing a property called the Flamigo in Vegas and sold out to Segal when he ran out of money. Some say he was muscled out.