The Viper Room is a nightclub and live music venue located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California, United States. It was established under its current name on August 14, 1993,[1] being co-owned by actors and 21 Jump Street co-stars Johnny Depp and Sal Jenco.[2] The Viper Room has undergone several changes in ownership, with the present owner being Viper Holdings, Ltd CEO James Cooper. It continues to host music of multiple genres, including metal, punk, and alternative rock. While predominantly known as a music venue, the Viper Room also has a lower level which is home to a large whiskey bar.
The club became known as a hangout spot for the young Hollywood elite, and gained infamy for its drug-related incidents; actor River Phoenix had a fatal drug overdose in 1993, actor Jason Donovan suffered a drug-induced seizure in 1995 but survived, and singer Courtney Love survived an overdose in 1995 after Depp gave her CPR.[3] In 1997, singer Michael Hutchence played his last public performance in the Viper Room before taking his own life a week later.
History
The location was originally a grocery store from 1921 into the 1940s. In the 1940s, it was converted into a nightclub called the "Cotton Club", entirely unrelated to the Harlem original. This was soon replaced by "The Greenwich Village Inn", the "Rue Angel" and finally "The Last Call" during the 1940s. From 1951 to 1969, the location was a bar called "The Melody Lounge". In 1969, it became "Filthy McNasty's".[4] and in the 1980s, a jazz club called "The Central".[5][6]
"The Central" was best known for its Tuesday jam nights where various well-known musicians such as Joe Cocker, Brian Setzer and Jeff Baxter performed and hung out along with others in the music industry.[7] It also hosted many local music acts such as Chuck E. Weiss who was frequently accompanied by the Goddamn Liars.[8] In 1993, the club was close to shutting down when Weiss suggested to Depp that he should revitalize the spot and rename it "The Viper Room".[9]Tom Waits also had a hand in redeveloping the spot.[10]
The venue
Despite the death of River Phoenix the year the venue opened, the club became and remained a hangout for Hollywood's most popular young actors and musicians. Adam Duritz, the lead singer of Counting Crows, worked as a Viper Room bartender in late 1994 and early 1995 to escape his newfound fame.[11]
Ownership
As part of the settlement of a lawsuit against Johnny Depp and four others, involving allegations of mismanagement of profits, Depp relinquished his ownership of the Viper Room in 2004.[12] The club changed hands multiple times between 2004 and 2016; the club is currently owned by Viper Room Holdings, Ltd. CEO James Cooper.[13][14]
Intellectual property and lawsuits
A nightclub formerly called "The Viper Room" exists in Cincinnati. The club changed its name to "The Poison Room" on January 1, 2006, after they were told by the West Hollywood Viper Room to stop using the name.[15] Another "Viper Room" in Portland was also told to stop using the name under threat of a trademark lawsuit, with the Viper Room's former owner claiming that "every dollar they make is the result of using our name".[16] Abroad, there is also a legal brothel in Brisbane called "The Viper Room" and nightclubs boasting the name (or a similar one) in Harrogate, Sheffield, Stockholm, and Vienna.
Until February 2009, there was a nightclub with the same name in Melbourne; it was closed down due to a spate of violent incidents that included two shootings as well as license breaches and the arrest of a co-owner on drug charges.[17] On April 16, 2011, a nightclub named "The Viper Room" opened its doors in the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The club is named after the club in Hollywood and is decorated in the same style as the American club.[18] In 2016, The Viper Room began issuing cease and desist notices to bootleg merchandise sellers on eBay and other online storefronts.
The original building where the club is currently located is slated to be demolished by 2024, to make way for a replacement club, retail and a five star hotel tower.[19][needs update]
Johnny Cash performed at the venue, debuting material that would later appear on American Recordings (1994).[21] In 1997, the Viper Room was also a place of a few early solo live performances by John Frusciante at the time of his bad physical condition caused by drug abuse.
In the 1983 film Valley Girl, the building (then housing a nightclub called The Central) was used for scenes featuring the new-wave band the Plimsouls.[25]
In Oliver Stone's film The Doors (1991), the building was used as a filming location for scenes depicting the London Fog, also of West Hollywood. London Fog was a lesser-known nightclub halfway up the same block from the Whisky a Go Go where the Doors had their first regular gigs for four months in early 1966.[26]
Several scenes in the 2005 John Travolta film Be Cool were set at or in the club,[27][28] although only the exterior of the site was used in the shoot.[29]
The Viper Room is also featured in the 2004 documentary Dig! when members of the band The Brian Jonestown Massacre began brawling with each other on stage while performing.
The Viper Room was once the base of an underground poker ring, reportedly founded by actor Tobey Maguire. The ring often included other actors such as Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon. The poker ring inspired the 2017 movie Molly's Game, starring Jessica Chastain, in which the club was renamed "The Cobra Lounge".[30]
The Viper Room's latest feature has been in the series 'Pam & Tommy' (featuring Lily James and Sebastian Stan), which details an altercation between Tommy Lee and two other bathroom goers, confirming the bar's popularity among the rock scene in the early nineties which still continues through to this day.
The Viper Room is featured in an episode of paranormal series Ghost Adventures as one of their lockdown locations, where they investigated the building for two days.[31] In 2019, BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural filmed an episode in the club.[32]
The Viper Room basement is the setting for the initial set of poker games Molly Bloom hosted.[33]
In 2021, the Viper Room was the feature of season 1, episode 2 of Vice Media's Dark Side of the 90's entitled "The Viper Room: Hollywood's Sanctuary."[35]
Outsider musician Wesley Willis' song "The Viper Room" (found on the Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 compilation album) is about the club. Willis' performances at the club and the death of River Phoenix outside the venue are referenced in the lyrics.
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