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ENTERTAINMENT IN THE 40s

THE GOOD OLE NIGHTS - STARS MIXED WITH COWBOYS AT PHOENIX WATERING HOLES;

Excerpts from The Arizona Republic, June 6, 1988
Photos courtesy of MIG GRAHAM

Family entertainment was primarily confined to the movies, but when someone wanted to go out on the town, he had a wide range of choices. Consider a little spot called the Gilded Cage, which sat where Park Central Mall is now located. Built in the late '40s by Teak Baldwin, it was considered somewhat ''racy'' because the entertainment consisted of strippers. Mig Graham remembers a lot about the Gilded Cage. ''At that time,'' she said, ''you had to have money to go. There were lots of cowboys, but they didn't stay too long. It was a beautiful place. It was high-class. Sure, we had strippers. But in those days, they weren't allowed to get on the floor and wiggle or anything.'' The Gilded Cage was open every night but didn't offer food. ''It was strictly booze and broads,'' according to Graham. ''Joe Hunt (at the Steak House) had the best food in town. He'd send his tourists to us, and we'd send our customers to him.'' <

Less flamboyant was Green Gables, a restaurant at 24th Street and Thomas. A Chinese restaurant called Cathay Gardens also opened in the late '40s at 1830 N. Central, and the Steak House on North Central, later taken over by Joe Hunt, was the spot to eat.

All these places also offered dancing, and most were in central Phoenix. Out in the ''boonies,'' El Chorro had been doing business since 1937 and was one of the more popular nightspots.

Movie stars, including Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon, frequented the Gilded Cage, as well as El Chorro and the Pink Pony in Scottsdale.

The Pink Pony predated LuluBelle's by only a few years. Longtime residents remember when cowboys rode their horses into LuluBelle's and the horses ate popcorn off the bar. And let's not forget the Stockyards out on East Washington in all its bordello-black-and-red glory.

The Gilded Cage, a 'racy' strip joint located where Park Central Mall is today, was a hub of Phoenix night life with its statuesque dancers

Dorothy Kilgallen described a big night in Phoenix. She noted that Phoenix was not a stay-out-late town, but its night life offered something for (everyone).

She was taken first to a place called Cudia City on the north end of Camelback Mountain. Then the group headed to El Chorro, where the group sat outside facing a Mexican fireplace made of adobe, with burning mesquite ''giving off an exotic, wild, sweet aroma.''

Kilgallen's was not prepared for the ''olde English'' atmosphere of the Green Gables restaurant, where the car was met by a knight in armor on a white horse. That was followed by Robin Hood opening the door, one of the Merry Men performing valet parking chores, Lady Guinevere as a cashier and a pianist in modern dress, complete with Lucite slippers.

Their next stop, she noted, was a less educational establishment: the Gilded Cage.

Kilgallen didn't appreciate the entertainment (she described the emcee as ''awesomely unfunny'') that preceded the real star of the show: a stripper who glowed in the dark.

Her evening ended at the Westward Ho Hotel, home of much of the after-dark activities downtown.

Those were the good old days.