The Tropicana Motel

"For the lyrics to "Step Right Up" send by prepaid mail a photo of yourself, two dead creeping charlies, and a self addressed stamped envelope to the Tropicana Motor Hotel, Hollywood, California o/o Young Tom Waits.
Please allow 30 days for delivery."

Waits and Chuck E. Weiss had become acquainted in Denver in the early 1970's. The two became close fiends. Around June/ July 1971 Waits had moved from his parent's place in San Diego to a little apartment in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. Waits invited Weiss to move to Los Angeles. Weiss came over, lived at Los Angeles' Silverlake section too for a while, but soon decided to move to the Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Boulevard 8585 (West Hollywood). The reason for Weiss to move there was a little greasy-spoon diner next door called Duke's Coffee Shop. Weiss fell in love with the menu and the atmosphere. It became his favorite hangout.

Chuck E. Weiss (1999): "That's why I moved there, because I was driving from Silverlake to there every day to eat, and I thought I'll just move there.. About seven-eight months later Tom moved in. There were a lot of different people there. Sam Shepard, the playwright, was living there. The Dead Boys were living there. Lee Vi and the Rockats were living there. Pretty soon, Blondie would stay there. I'm sure this was because of Tom. As soon as he moved in, the place started to get an international reputation."⁽²⁾

In June 1976 Waits was still living in the Silver Lake area.⁽²⁴⁾ Shortly after he moved to a larger apartment at 1309 North Coronado Street in Echo Park.⁽²⁹⁾ Apparently he only lived there for a couple of months, because in December 1976 Waits had already moved in the Tropicana.

Tom Waits (1976): "I live in a hotel - I rent a room there. I used to have a little apartment in downtown L.A. but I gave it up 'cause I'd go on the road, come back and find somebody had broken into it and everything. I don't have all that much valuable stuff, but it was a pain, so I moved into the hotel" (The Houston Post. December 12, 1976).

Scan from "The L.A. Musical History Tour"⁽²⁰⁾

Duke's Coffee Shop beneath the Tropicana⁽¹²⁾

Marco Barla (1974) "Tom Waits slouches on the corner stool in Duke's coffee shop, a shamble of newspapers at his feet, his place at the counter cluttered with utensils, ashtray and a package of bound volumes - a kind of spontaneous collage, he is, mirror to three months on the road, then home again on Santa Monica Boulevard, here, underneath the Tropicana Motel - this bright, clattery, bustling, public dining room, his cap and vest and crumpled shirt, his eyes a little weary, bleary, wary - a sly grin rising from a empty coffee cup."⁽³⁰⁾

Waits at Duke's coffee shop, summer 1975. Photography: Barry Schulz/ Retna
as printed in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009

Michael Hacker (2007): "There were no hipster places in LA but Duke's always had a line. LA was a much smaller place then, and everyone went to Duke's. I went there on Sundays for breakfast for a couple of years and I saw Waits pretty much every time I went."⁽³¹⁾

The Tropicana and Duke's Coffee Shop in the 1980's⁽²⁶⁾

Rick Bubov (Troubadour employee, 2007): "They [Weiss and Waits] were in two bungalows next to each other, at the rear of the motel. It was like they became twins, totally inseperable."⁽³²⁾

Paul Body (Troubadour doorman, 2007): "It was like a bungalow off in the back. You'd enter from the back, and it was like a little house. You couldn't see anything because it was filled up with junk that you could barely manoeuvre through."⁽³³⁾

Robert Marchese (Troubadour manager, 2007): "Chuckie [Weiss] said to Waits once, 'I don't think Marchese likes comin' over here. Waits asked why not, and Chuckie said, 'Well, he thinks what you're doing is kind of how you think poor people are supposed to be, and he's very offended by that because he was very poor and one of the things his mother constantly said was, 'They may say we're poor but they're never gonna say we're dirty."'⁽³⁴⁾

Jay S. Jacobs (2000): "The Tropicana was a rock-and-roll landmark. There, music-world banditos rubbed shoulders with groupies, rockstar wannabes, hard-luck cases, and drunken traveling salesmen. Record labels put up touring bands at the Tropicana. Andy Warhol filmed his cult movie Heat at this atmospheric locale, and Jim Morrison lived there for years during the glory days of The Doors - he was a Tropicana resident most of the time between 1966 and 1969, at which point he moved to the slightly more upscale Alta Cienega Motel on La Cienega Boulevard. Van Morrison wrote "T.B. Sheets" and several other songs while staying at the Tropicana. Fred Neil was registered there when he recorded "Everybody's Talkin"' Big Brother and the Holding Company, Rhinoceros, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and Alice Cooper all made the Tropicana their Hollywood base of operations at one time or another. Rumors circulated that all sorts of crimes and misdemeanors - ranging from rampant drug use to deviant sex - were being committed at the Tropicana, but as long as you didn't kill anyone and you paid the rent on time, the management couldn't care less. Even the Hollywood cops didn't want to know about it unless the mayhem started spilling out into the streets."... "In October of 1970 Janis Joplin was found dead in a "suite" at the Tropicana⁽²⁵⁾. The rock-and-blues powerhouse, at one time the lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company, had overdosed on heroin. Tainted by the tragedy, the Tropicana fell on hard times for a while. It became a curiosity, a stop on the tour itinerary of morbid fans eager for a glimpse of the place where Janis drew her last breath." ⁽¹⁾

Chuck E. Weiss and Rickie Lee Jones at Duke's Coffee Shop, 1979⁽¹¹⁾

The Tropicana⁽¹²⁾

Jay S. Jacobs (2000): "Acquiring a new cachet as the living quarters of Tom Waits, the Tropicana filled up with struggling musicians. A pre-Fleetwood Mac Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham holed up at the Tropicana when they came to Hollywood and got their first recording contract; their debut album, Buckingham-Nicks, was released in 1973. Punk and New Wave acts like The Dickies, The Dead Boys, The Ramones, and Blondie all stayed at the Tropicana when they were in town. Tom Petty's Heartbreakers lived there, too, though Petty himself chose a little dive in East Hollywood called the Hollywood Premiere - which he describes as even less "luxurious" than the Tropicana." Somehow, the Tropicana had become the preferred address of the rock scene, and Tom Waits was the establishment's unshaven figure-head."⁽¹⁾

Loren Pickford (2002): "I remember one of my last nights at the Tropicana Motel, where Tom Waits and a lot of rock bands stayed. I was doing the night audit, and in came Tom. 'I want to watch "Spartacus" on TV,' he said. About that time a girl walked in. I didn't think she was a prostitute, so I rented her a room. Two minutes later her pimp pulls a gun on Nick Lowe from Rockpile. "I'm calling the sheriff, and I got Tom Waits on the floor, rocking back and forth with a bottle of cognac. Right then, four gay Fillipinos came in. I gave them the room next to the office, and not 15 minutes later they're having an orgy in there, banging on the walls. "Meantime the sheriff pulled up, and there's a big confrontation in Nick Lowe's room. At that point a Mexican guy pulled in with his six kids in an old car. While they're in the office, his car caught on fire. Went up like a torch. He starts crying. The four guys are still banging on the wall. The cops are arresting the pimp. And, lastly, I got Tom Waits yelling, 'I love the scene of Spartacus on the hill.' "That night I came out so wrong with the audit, the manager came in and sent me home."⁽³⁵⁾

Scan from "The L.A. Musical History Tour"⁽²⁰⁾

Dan Forte (April, 1977): "He surveys his apartment (actually a back room of one of Hollywood's less elegant motor hotels) which is carpeted wall-to-wall with cardboard boxes of books, LPs 78s, skin magazines, empty beer cans, and the like. "I just moved into this place," he apologizes. "I was living out in Echo Park, but I'd be away on tour and the neighbors would start holding garage sales in my living room." ⁽²¹⁾

Tom Waits (1979): "Actually a lot of famous people have lived there. You know that Andy Warhol filmed Trash there, and Jim Morrison lived there at one time. I have an old board that was up in the lobby many years ago with photographs of all the famous people that've stayed there, old movie stars and people like that..." "But I'm starting to think that maybe I should get a house or someplace with a little more privacy. Because every time I go out on the road it's really hectic, and when I get back home there's no break down from that."⁽⁵⁾

Tom Waits at the Tropicana, ca. 1976/ 1977 ⁽¹³⁾

Rip Rense (1999): "Whenever I do an interview with Tom Waits, I wind up thinking about drainboards. Kitchen drainboards . . . It all goes back to my first meeting with him, in the fall of 1976, at the now-fabled Tropicana Motor Hotel in West Hollywood, where he was living. I was a police reporter for a suburban daily, and had wrangled an assignment for the entertainment page, just to break up the daily grind. I seem to remember taking the assignment because Waits' publicist represented Frank Zappa, who I really wanted to interview. If I write a piece about this guy, then maybe I can meet Zappa ... I knew nothing about Waits. I had sort of half-listened to some of the albums that the publicist had sent: The Heart of Saturday Night, and Nighthawks at the Diner. The brand new one, Small Change, would be along in a few days. No matter ... For the hell of it, I took a few friends along that night. (As any publicist will tell you, this is taboo.) One was six-foot-six and had an Afro the size of a tumbleweed. Another could have played linebacker for the Cowboys. We looked ... arrestable. We made our way up the steps between the white stucco-and-wood motel bungalows, there above busy Santa Monica Boulevard, around 9:30 or 10:00 P.M. Waits was leaning against the wall outside his room under a bare white bulb, smoking. He wore pointed black boots, black chinos, and a short-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up above the bicep, revealing an expansive, decorous tattoo. Three-day-old beard. A Mack cap was pulled so far forward over his face that his eyes were in shadow. I thought he looked like Henry Hull in "Werewolf of London" (who despite his lycanthropia, remained stylish in a cap). I introduced myself. "Just woke up," growled Waits, "Come on in." "In" was the kitchen of his bungalow, which was not quite as large as a broom closet. We sorta squeezed inside, and Waits and I sat in a couple of old wooden chairs, at an awkward angle. The other guys milled around, half-in the doorway. Waits kept glancing up at them, like he was wondering if he was about to be mugged and put in a cement overcoat. He crossed his legs, rested his elbow in one hand, and smoked and rocked incessantly. Backward, forward, rocking, rocking. Taking each drag like it was his last breath of life. I noticed that his fingers bent backward at the knuckle, in "double-jointed" fashion. With some panic, it occurred to me that this was probably not going to be a pat interview with a dopey up-and-coming pop star. Obvious and insipid questions ("What are you working on/what inspires you") weren't going to cut it. "Lived here long?" I ventured. (Now that wasn't insipid.) "Uh ... a while," said Waits. The joint was ... homey. If home was a place where you surrounded yourself with absolutely anything that interested you, in no particular arrangement. I seem to remember an automobile bumper on the kitchen counter. "I'm thinking about putting a piano in the kitchen," he offered. "Uh ... piano in the kitchen? Uh ... oh. Why is that?" What is this guy talking about? He said he just liked the idea. His delivery was marked by enigmatic pauses for head-scratching and sandpapery mumbling like, "Uhh ... well ..." and "I dunno, uh ..." Guess I'll uh ... have to saw off the drainboard to get it in, though," he added, rocking. What? "Saw off the drainboard? He nodded, gesturing with his cigarette hand. "Yeah. Uhh ... well .. Dunno ... Yep, gonna have to saw it off. Won't fit!" I read articles later in which the writer referred to a piano in Waits kitchen. It was not until then that I realized that the man had not merely been attempting to discuss ... interior design. That he really did saw off the kitchen drainboard to get a piano inside." ⁽⁴⁾

Dan Forte (April, 1977): "Waits' Steinway upright does indeed occupy the far corner of his kitchen. "You'll notice what I had to go through in order to get it in," he says, leading the way. "First of all, I just could barely get it through the threshold. Then I had to saw off the draining board." He motions to the ragged edge of the sink's counter. "My next obstacle," he continues, "was a broom closet. Of course, I made short order of that son-of-a-bitch." The splintered-off corner of the room's entrance testifies to the validity of his statement." ⁽²¹⁾

Tom Waits at the piano in his Tropicana apartment, ca. 1976/ 1977.⁽¹⁷⁾

John Lamb (2002): "I toured Waits' apartment at "The Tropicana" on Santa Monica blvd. in Hollywood in the same time period. He had 2 adjoining rooms with the common wall removed to make the joint bigger. Newspapers, manuscripts, ash trays and empties cluttered up the digs about waist to shoulder high throughout. A path literally led from the fridge to the piano.. piano to the couch.. couch to the bedroom and so on. If it was foliage, you would have needed a machete to hack your way through...the path was just wide enough to maneuver your torso through, sometimes having to turn sideways to navigate a tight turn."⁽⁶⁾

Charley Delisle (1978): "We are alone in Waits' famous room at the Tropicana, a room where your feet never touch the floor. Though some myths have been perpetrated concerning Waits, his apartment deserves everything it gets. Each step is supported by cigarette butts, magazines, album covers, Dixie cups, books, cardboard boxes, and every other product of pulp wood imaginable. All the horizontal surfaces are populated with empty Old Bushmill's and beer cans and bottles. He cautions "Just walk where it looks trampled down."There is a knock at the door. Waits yells, "Who is it?" A voice asks for Tom Waits. Tom calls back, "He's not here, try later."⁽²⁷⁾

Tom Waits at the Tropicana, ca. 1976/ 1977⁽¹⁴⁾

Tom Waits (1979): "The place has termites and bad plumbing, you know, and they've just painted the swimming pool black, probably so they don't have to clean it so often. But they take my messages at the desk and gather my mail and I don't have to pay gas or electricity, so it's not so bad".⁽¹⁶⁾

Tom Waits (1985): "When I moved into that place it was, like, nine dollars a night, but it became a... a stage, because I became associated with it, and people came looking for me and calling me in the middle of the night, so I think I really wanted to kind of get lost in it all... so I did. When they finally painted the pool black, that's when I said this has gone too far. It was a pretty heavy place at times."^(7)(18)

Tom Waits (1985): "I left when they painted the pool black and drained all the water. They got tired of cleaning it. It's like black socks; you never have to wash them. I knew that was my cue."^(8)(18)

Tom Waits (1987): "When I lived at the Tropicana, I wanted to break windows, smoke cigars and stay up late. That was my dream."⁽²²⁾

Tom Waits (1992): "Well you see, now that was a hotel, you know, that was really a businessmen's hotel and started out as a nine-dollar-a-night motel for like four brush men and people who were down the road foron a road trip. It wasn't really any musical first time I came there. Although it had been nearly fixed these. It had fallen into this kind of... I don't know, the people who used to stay there were... you know people of nine dollars a night... you know, you're gonna attract a certain crowd. And slowly it got a reputation for bands. A lot of bands started staying there. And I had a place in the back and I was very happy back there. Eh... fresh towels, clean-up maid, it was very nice. They painted the swimming pool black, that was the last thing I remember they did there." ⁽²³⁾

Tom Waits (1999): "I don't think I got any new towels for the whole like nine years I was there. But I never asked, I didn't wanna upset anybody."⁽⁹⁾

Picture from "Small Change: A life of Tom Waits" (Japanese version)⁽¹⁹⁾

Waits left the Tropicana late 1979 for New York. The Tropicana (and Duke's Coffee Shop) were tore down late 1987 and replaced with a Ramada Inn

"With approximately 1,000 properties coast-to-coast, Ramada is the value choice for the mid-market traveler
seeking great service from a friendly, well-trained staff"⁽¹⁵⁾

Duke's Coffee Shop moved to 8909 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90069 (next to the Whiskey-A-Go-Go).

Duke's Coffee Shop on Sunset Boulevard. Summer 2001
(Photo credit N.N./ Tom Waits Library)

Tom Waits (1988): "It wasn't that bad, it doesn't seem that long ago. I guess my life's different now. When I moved into the Tropicana it was $9.00 a night and it was one of those out of the way places, about a block away from the Alta Cienega, which is another one of those "Murder Motels" but it's changed a lot. That bowling alley that used to be there changed hands 4 or 5 times and I think they're selling slacks there now. If you live in Los Angeles things change so rapidly. Places that you used to go, if you leave town for 2 or 3 months, chances are they'll tear down the gas station or the donut shop or the cleaners where you go. The hotel is gone so I guess it kind of stimulates your imagination about it once you tear down the place where it all happened. The stories get taller as the building gets shorter."⁽¹⁰⁾

Tom Waits (2009): "...I was on the road all the time, so when I got home, it just seemed to make sense to stay in a hotel, because that was where I was staying the rest of the time. It became rather famous for being a band hotel, because it was reasonably priced and it was in the center of all the clubs. You could practically walk to all the clubs from there. The Ramones used to stay down there at the Trop. Elvis Costello. Tim Hardin used to stay at the Tropicana. A lot of different bands. But at the time, it really wasn’t a musicians’ hotel. It was mostly itinerant businessmen from the Midwest. Or hat salesmen. Or people trying to break into the children’s-book industry. Or call girls. Or dope dealers... You could imagine you were living like the Orwell book, "Down and Out in Paris and London". You could imagine that you were in some place that’s constantly sweating and heaving and offering up ideas. I was trying to have a genuine authentic artistic experience. That’s what I really wanted. I had a piano in the kitchen, and in those days I’d stay up all night, sleep half the day... Most people were fairly transient. Anyone you’d meet might not be there a week later. Most of the people were passing through. It was a hotel. I was there permanently, but that was an unusual case."⁽²⁸⁾

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Source: "Wild Years, the Music and Myth of Tom Waits", by Jay S. Jacobs. ECW Press, 2000

⁽²⁾ Source: "Chuck E.'s In Love". Jay S. Jacobs. Popentertainment.com, 1999

⁽³⁾ Source: I'm Not the Statue of Liberty: An Interview with Sylvia Miles. Bright Lights Film Journal Online, by Gary Morris. April, 1999

⁽⁴⁾ Source: Intro by Rip Rense for the July/ August, 1999 issue of Performing Songwriter. "Tom Waits: A Q&A About Mule Variations" Epitaph promo interview (MSO), by Rip Rense. Also re-printed in "Performing Songwriter" July/ August, 1999. Date: ca. April, 1999

⁽⁵⁾ Source: "The Neon Dreams Of Tom Waits" New Musical Express (UK), by John Hamblett. Date: London. May 12, 1979.

⁽⁶⁾ Source: E-mail conversations with John Lamb. April 13 - May 24, 2002.

⁽⁷⁾ Source: "The Marlowe Of The Ivories" New Musical Express magazine (UK), by Barney Hoskyns. Date: May 25, 1985

⁽⁸⁾ Source: "The Sultan Of Sleaze" YOU magazine, by Pete Silverton. Date: New York, early 1985.

⁽⁹⁾ Source: VH1 Storytellers. Los Angeles: April 1, 1999

⁽¹⁰⁾ Source: "KCRW-FM: Morning Becomes Eclectic" Date: October 3, 1988

⁽¹¹⁾ Source: Rickie Lee Jones Official Web Site

⁽¹²⁾ As pictured on the cover for "Step Right Up: The songs of Tom Waits" (Manifesto Records, 1995). Picture credit: courtesy of Art Fein

⁽¹³⁾ Source: Rolling Stone magazine, January, 1977 (also printed in Hit Parader magazine, 1978). Date: Tropicana Motel, Los Angeles, ca. 1977 or earlier. Photo credit: Mitchell Rose

⁽¹⁴⁾ Source: "Creem" magazine. March, 1978. Date: Tropicana Motel, Los Angeles, 1978 or earlier. Credits: photography by Neil Zlowzower. Thanks to Kevin Molony for providing this scan

⁽¹⁵⁾ RamadaPlaza Hotel and Suites West Hollywood/Beverly Hills Area, further reading: the.ramada.com (Copyright C 2001. Ramada Franchise Systems, Inc.)

⁽¹⁶⁾ Source: "Tom Waits: A Sobering Experience" Sounds magazine, by Dave Lewis. Date: August 4, 1979

⁽¹⁷⁾ Source: "Tom Waits - Offbeat Poet And Pianist." Contemporary Keyboard magazine, by Dan Forte. April, 1977. Photography by Neil Zlozower

⁽¹⁸⁾ Pleasant Gehman: "The pool was black because it was all rusty from bands throwing lawn furniture in there." ("Waiting For The Sun". Barney Hoskyns, 1996. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-85021-7)

⁽¹⁹⁾ Source: "Small Change: A life of Tom Waits" (Japanese version) ISBN4-88682-154-5 C0093 p1800E). Photo credit: Masashi Kuwamoto. Thanks to Dorene LaLonde for providing scan

⁽²⁰⁾ Source: Scan from "The L.A. Musical History Tour" (A Guide To The Rock and Roll Landmarks of Los Angeles), Art Fein. 2.13.61 Publications; 2nd edition (October, 1998)

⁽²¹⁾ Source: "Tom Waits - Offbeat Poet And Pianist". Contemporary Keyboard magazine, by Dan Forte. April, 1977.

⁽²²⁾ Source: "Tom Waits Makes Good" Los Angeles Times: Robert Sabbag. February 22, 1987

⁽²³⁾ Source: "Gente de Expressao" Brazilian television interview by Bruna Lombardi. 1992 English & Portugese/ TV appearance

⁽²⁴⁾ "...He lives in one of Los Angeles' less expensive districts (Silverlake), in a home that could be classed by any standards as 'modest'" (Los Angeles Free Press. October 17-23, 1975). "...The Silver Lake court cottage looks like the neglected back room of a slumping thrift shop" (Los Angeles Times. March 14, 1976). "...I live in a little apartment in Silver Lake" (Down Beat magazine, June 17, 1976).

⁽²⁵⁾ Other sources claim Joplin overdosed in the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles

⁽²⁶⁾ Source: Los Angeles Time Machine, 2006. Photo by "Joe of the UK"

⁽²⁷⁾ Source: "Waits Bringing New Band, Same Old Clothes": The Santa Barbara News And Review (USA). Late 1978 by Charley Delisle.

⁽²⁸⁾ Source: "Fifty Years Of L.A. Rock" by Alex Pappadema. men.style.com (GQ magazine blog)/ USA. March 12, 2009.

⁽²⁹⁾ Source: Bobi Thomas interview as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009

⁽³⁰⁾ Source: "Tom Waits: Los Angeles Is Poetry" The L.A. Free Press by Marco Barla. January, 1974

⁽³¹⁾ Source: Michael Hacker interview March 17, 2007 as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009

⁽³²⁾ Source: Rick Dubov interview March 9, 2007 as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009

⁽³³⁾ Source: Paul Body interview March 9, 2007 as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009

⁽³⁴⁾ Source: Robert Marchese interview May 18, 2007 as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009

⁽³⁵⁾ Source: "Beats Set Tempo Of Bop Lover's Life" by Bill Grady. The Louisiana Times Picayune. August 18, 2002