The Frolic Room 1960

The Frolic Room, Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, 1960

Timothy and Patrick are eight years old. Their parents drove them all to the Pantages Theater in their white Dodge Valiant station wagon to see “Bye-Bye, Birdie”.

The older children of the families are out on dates. The younger siblings are home with a baby sitter. Only Patrick, Timothy, and their parents were at the show.

After the show Timothy’s Dad suggests that they all go next door to the Frolic Room for a drink.

Timothy’s Dad: The boys can play pool or the pinball machines.

The four parents grab a table and Patrick’s Dad gives the boys some dimes for the pool table and pinball.

Patrick and Timothy go over to the corner of the bar and fire up a pinball machine.

Patrick: That was a cool musical. I liked the dancing.

Timothy: So the show was about Elvis, right? And how all the chicks went crazy for him?

Patrick: Just because you’re a blonde doesn’t mean you have to be dumb. Of course it’s about Elvis. Doesn’t your older sister go crazy over Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show?

Timothy: She always acts that way.

Patrick: And that scene where the girls are on the phone all the time. It drives my mom nuts.

Timothy: Yeah. My sister’s ear gets red and she keeps jabbering away like one of those monkeys at the zoo.

Patrick: Don’t remind me of the monkeys at the zoo.

Timothy: I told you not to get too close to the cage and not to tease the monkeys by eating a banana right there in front of them.

Patrick: That was my favorite Roy Rodgers shirt. I’ll never get that monkey cum out of it.

Timothy: Good thing the cum didn’t land in your hair. You’d never find it.

(Patrick has a large head of fuzzy black hair. In later years he will grow it into an Afro that The Brothers envy.)

Patrick: Well if the monkey cum had landed on your Butch Wax you wouldn’t need any more Butch Wax. Your hair would be stiff and upright forever. Unlike other parts of you I could mention.

The parents are drinking and talking loudly about the great musical they just saw and how it reminds them of their older children, especially the girls. They are having a wonderful time.

Patrick: I like this place. It’s kinda homey.

Timothy: I like it, too. Maybe we’ll come back here when we can drink something stronger than these Nehi orange sodas.

The parents collect their two boys and they all climb into the white Dodge Valiant station wagon headed for their homes in Los Feliz near the Griffith Park Zoo.

Timothy: So, Patrick, do you want to go see the Monkey House at Griffith again tomorrow?
Patrick: You bet. This time we bring our sisters.

Timothy: I’ll bring the bananas.

TJM