The Cockatoo Bowling Club
As we slowly start to open up physical spaces, people are itching to visit places like restaurants, movie theaters and bowling alleys. That got us to remembering something we came across years ago – Andy Lococo’s Cockatoo Inn had an actual, competitive bowling team! The Cockatoo bowling club was simply known as the “Cockatoo Club” in the papers, and featured some accomplished female bowlers.
In 1953, the LA Times detailed the southern California league that featured the Cockatoo Club. Said Don Snyder of the Times, “Furnishing all the big counts were the ‘Ray Rand’s Roundup and Andy Lococo’s Cockatoo Club teams.’” The Cockatoo Club team was comprised of:
- Phyllis Vogel
- Dottie Crouch
- Kay Rupp
- Peggy Farley
- Alyce Mrak – We recently found another clipping for Alyce Mrak. Apparently she was bowling away the competition at the 30th Annual LA City Women’s Bowling Championships in 1956!
The Cockatoo Bowling Club came up with a grand total of 3007 series, which was second in the nation among women. Alas, they were second overall in the Southern California Ladies Major Traveling League to Ray Rand’s Roundups, who advanced to the California State tournament the following weekend.
The World in 1953
- Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
- In the United Kingdom, Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
- Elizabeth II is crowned queen of the United Kingdom. As of May 2021, she is still the reigning monarch of the UK and its commonweatlh realms. That’s an incredible 68 years.
- The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approves color television.
- The Crucible, an historical drama by Arthur Miller written as an allegory of McCarthyism in the United States, opened on Broadway January 22, 1953. Miller was famously married to Hawthorne bombshell, Marilyn Monroe.
- Frank Sinatra and arranger Nelson Riddle began their first recording sessions together at Capitol Records.
- On September 12, former (alleged) Cockatoo Inn patron and future president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.
Do you love the Cockatoo? Show everyone what the best midcentury hotel and restaurant was with the official Cockatoo Inn t-shirt!
