[URBAN NOTE] "A Brief History of the Legendary El Mocambo"

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist's Jamie Bradburn provides a potted history of Toronto rock club El Mocambo, facing closure.

The El Mocambo has had more lives than most cats. Just when it appears the venerable music venue at 464 Spadina Avenue will close its doors forever—when the crowds line up for a “final show” and the obituaries are published—the music rolls on. Now, yet another change in ownership threatens to bring the final curtain down on the El Mo.

The building was put up for sale in March for $3.95 million, and last week co-owner Sam Grosso announced that it’s been conditionally sold, with the venue set to close in November. Regardless of what the next owners decide to do with the site, Grosso hopes its iconic neon palm tree will survive. “I would love to have that sign stay on the building or moved somewhere else in the city,” he told the Toronto Star. Grosso has also considered donating it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Music historian Nicholas Jennings, meanwhile, wants to see the sign preserved as “a connection to its earlier eras.”

The palm tree reflects the El Mo’s early days as one of Toronto’s first cocktail bars. The venue’s history can be traced back to the Liquor License Act of 1946, which loosened the province’s alcohol regulations, allowing hard liquor to be sold by the glass for the first time since 1917. It also laid out new classifications for licensed establishments, which outraged temperance activists. Especially upsetting was a provision that exempted five cities (Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Toronto, and Windsor) from holding municipal referendums to approve venues such as dining lounges and cocktail bars. Premier George Drew defended the exemptions, arguing that they would help the tourist trade by not forcing visitors to sneak nips in their cars or hotel bathrooms. (This didn’t satisfy the likes of the Star, which called the new rules “thoroughly evil.”)

The new rules were appealing to John and Frieda Lang, who bought the property at 464 Spadina during the Second World War. They envisioned a Spanish-themed club, inspired by their visits to American cocktail bars and trips to South America. The building, whose past tenants included a dry goods store, a barbershop, and restaurants, was transformed with the creation of a dining area on the first floor and a dance hall on the second. Ads placed in the March 23, 1948 editions of Toronto’s daily newspapers promised the El Mocambo’s opening gala, taking place that evening, would include “the finest of food served in pleasant surroundings.” Subsequent ads touted steaks made from Royal Winter Fair award-winning beef, and plenty of “night time gaiety.”