MARCH, 1972  Comedian Sammy Shore decides to open a room on the Sunset Strip. He asks his wife Mitzi if she has any idea of a good name for the room. Mitzi, sitting at a kitchen table, looks up and says, "Why not call it The Comedy Store?"

APRIL, 1972  Sammy Shore and Rudy De Luca open The Comedy Store. It's 99 seat sublet room at 8433 Sunset Boulevard, inside a huge building which used to be Ciro's.

MAY, 1972  Johnny Carson moves his show to the west coast.

JUNE, 1973  Mitzi Shore takes over operation on The Comedy Store. She signs comics, oversees the show each night and gives away cigarettes & bubblegum. Mitzi initiates the world's first "all stand-up" comedian show, and The Comedy Store as we know it today is launched.

AUGUST, 1974  A Los Angeles Times article takes note of The Comedy Store. The Original Room expands to 165 seats. After a fourteenth month divorce proceeding, attorney Marvin Mitchelson helps Mitzi to win The Comedy Store in her settlement with Sammy Shore. Mitzi becomes the first woman in California history to win both the house and the business. She now laughs, "That school teacher blouse with the blue flowers really worked!"

SEPTEMBER, 1975  Mitzi opens The Comedy Store West in Westwood to give stage time to the burgeoning number of comedians. Carson's presence on the west coast makes Los Angeles the mecca of stand-up comedy, replacing New York. The number of "baby boomers" graduating from college around this time is at a peak, and the number of hopefuls head west. Once west, they head for The Comedy Store. Mitzi's new room in Westwood comes just at the right time. The success of Jimmie Walker, Freddie Prinze, Gabe Kaplan and Steve Landesberg help put The Comedy Store on the National map. The Comedy Store expands to 180 seats. The new Westwood club holds 220.

MAY, 1976  From May of 1976 to August of 1977, America's first road comedy club was The Comedy Store South Pacific Beach. Mitzi designed the gig as a paid vacation for her comics who then toiled and showcased nightly on Sunset and Westwood. Launched on Memorial Day in San Diego, The Comedy Store Pacific Beach was widely successful and sellouts on Tuesday were common. Some shows had Gallagher, Robin, David and Michael Keaton on the same bill. Nobody knew back then, but the public! They jammed the 180-seat room in total appreciation of both the future stars and of the all comedy concept hatched by Mitzi, in Hollywood, 1973, and delivered first to San Diego, 3 years later.

FEBRUARY, 1977  The Comedy Store is kicked out of its own building. Due to a lease disagreement, Mitzi is unable to run her own workshop in her own building due to legal hassles with Art Laboe, an L.A. disc jockey who held a lease on the main room from the buildings previous ownership. Mitzi takes another mortgage on her home and buys out his lease. Meantime, all the comics perform at Westwood only, and limit their sets to ten minutes apiece.

MARCH, 1977  The building is Mitzi's in total, and redecoration begins, transforming the 450 seat Main Room from a sleazy Rock 'n Roll palace into Mitzi's crown jewel for stand-up comics. In the meantime, she expands the Original Room to 235 seat capacity.

LATE SUMMER, 1977  1977-78 were the Halcyon years of The Comedy Store. A time of unity, enthusiasm and common purpose between Mitzi Shore and a growing family of stand-ups. On any given night, the Original Room would feature David Letterman, Johnny Dark, Tom Dreesen, Elayne Boosler, Jeff Altman, Gary Muledeer, Jay Leno, Kip Addotta, Steve Landesberg, Tim Thomerson, Paul Mooney and Richard Pryor. Johnny Witherspoon hosted the room with assistance from the eloquent Mr. Harris Peet.

Meanwhile, over at Westwood (or Argus' tree-house, as Elayne Boosler nicknamed it) line-ups each night included Robin Williams, Gary Shandling, Howie Mandel, Alan Stephan, Michael Keaton, Bill Kirchenbauer, Ronney Kinney, Vic Dunlop, Dave Tyree and Biff Maynard, Mike Binder, Lois Bromfield, Paul Rodriguez, Gallagher also dropped by frequently at a Westwood atmosphere where, thanks to these hungry young artists, "anything went" during business hours. Thanks to Argus Hamilton and Ollie Joe Prater, who hosted the shows, "anything went" after business hours as well.

All was well in those days. Everyone worked for free, for the atmosphere was "work-shop". Each night the rooms were full of customers and full of show business industry people hiring this talented, eager generation of funny people.

Mitzi's original dream of the Main Room becoming Los Angeles premiere "nightclub" begins to take shape as she books Jackie Mason, Shelly Berman, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory and Andy Kaufman to perform there.

SEPTEMBER, 1978  In a fateful discussion, Mitzi decides to stop using older comics in the Main Room, and switch to using her own, changing the Main Room essentially from an "old timers night" to "The Best of The Comedy Store".

The logic of the growth dictated this epic decision. Her own comics were packing the rooms in Westwood, La Jolla and the Original. Older "professional" comics were hesitant to play the Main room. Mitzi's most beautiful room remained dark most of the time. The situation bewildered Mitzi until she was ready for suggestions. And a fateful conversation she had with Biff Manard and Argus Hamilton would seal the future of the Main room as Mitzi's "in-house pot at the end of the rainbow", not a "drop by" nightclub for outsiders to play.

The Comedy Store would become a series of progressions for each comic. From amateur night to Westwood to Sunset to La Jolla then to the Main room. It sure looked good on paper, except to the comics interested cheifly in green paper. Mitzi still balked at paying, and the first comic she annointed to perform the Main room would be the first to holler "Balk!"

JUNE, 1979  An uneasy peace prevails, Steve Lubetkin dies tragically, separate services are held by differing comics.

JULY, 1979  The Main Room opens for 10:00 shows. "The Best of The Comedy Store" show is born, and the public packs The Main Room Mitzi assigns each comic to perform 30 minute sets to prepare them for "Vegas length" shows with the "Vegas size" crowds. The best comedy room in America is now in business.

NOVEMBER, 1979  ABC-TV signs Mitzi Shore as comedy consultant to the network.

AUTUMN, 1979  "HBO Young Comedians Special" is inaugurated in The Main Room, and Victor Borge hosts. Its success turns the show into an annual event.

 

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