Summary

‘Chez Paulette on the Sunset Strip’ brings together the launch of the European style coffee house in Los Angeles, the experience of Jewish immigration to Hollywood, the influence of Europe on Hollywood, and the blurring of fact, fiction, the real and the reconstructed. In 1958 Max Lewin took over his family’s failing cake shop. Capitalising on its hip location on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip, he turned it into a coffee house called Chez Paulette. With the help of Marlon Brando, who became a regular customer to help build its reputation, Chez Paulette became a popular Hollywood bohemian hangout favoured by actors, poets, folk singers and flamenco guitarists and dancers. At the same time as Chez Paulette emerged, along came 77 Sunset Strip (also 1958–64) one of the first detective television series. 77 Sunset Strip and Chez Paulette were brought together when a set of the café was built on the Studio lot, and featured in the series with Max Lewin as host.