Gypsy Camp Blog

Today, the Comedy Story sits on the same spot and has for over twenty years. In it’s earlier incarnation it was Ciro’s, and it was for a time the center of the entertainment universe.

From the early 1940’s until it closed on the eve of the 1960’s, Ciro’s launched countless entertainment icons along the path to superstardom. It was one of the first major venues to host Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin before they took over the comedy world in 1950. A year later, an unheralded opening act called the Will Mastin Trio stole the show from the headliner. This was due in large part to a young entertainer that would before long outgrow his membership in the group–arguably the most talented entertainer in show biz history, Sammy Davis, Jr. After the car accident that cost Sammy his right eye, it was the site of his return to live performing. Countless other top entertainers performed there, from Sinatra sidekick comic Joe E. Louis to Nat King Cole.

The names that frequented Ciros were a whos who of the American entertainment pantheon, starting at the very top with Frank Sinatra and including other A list stars like Anita Ekberg, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner, George Burns, Jack Benny, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford and too many others to mention. They came to drink, to see and be seen among a collection of other Hollywood illuminati, served by leggy cigarette girls in short skirts and heels.

During a more civilized time, a network of top nightclubs hosted entertainment, drinking, dining and other hijinx in the major cities of the US. Ciro’s was among this elite group of nightspots dating back to the early 1940’s when the icons of that era including Bogart, Jimmy Cagney, Lauren Bacall and George Raft would frequent the place. It started to ‘cool off’ and by 1942 was forced to close its doors for a time. It didn’t stay closed for long, as Herman Hoover implemented his plan to re-open and revitalize the nightspot.

Hoover had an interesting background–while attending law school at Columbia University he was lured away by the mix of wiseguys and chorus girls at New York’s famed “Silver Slipper”. “The Slipper” was a prohibition era nightspot owned by a group of organized crime luminaries, and Hoover quickly became a valued management asset. He would later work at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club before relocating to the west coast in 1936.

Ciros reopened on December 26, 1942 with longtime Sinatra pal Joe E. Lewis on stage and such stars as Mickey Rooney, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Joan Crawford and Cary Grant in the audience. Xavier Cugat (whod later marry a Latin dancer named Charo) became a regular headliner at the club, preceding the arrival of Martin, Lewis and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Hoover had hosted Dean Martins wedding in 1949 to second wife Jeanne, and Martin and Lewis debuted at Ciros in 1950. They remained loyal to Hoover and his club, and even when they were pulling down an astounding (for the 1950s) $100,000 a week to perform they insisted on holding their fee at Ciros to what they were originally paid–$7,000 a week. Sammy Davis, Jr. got his start at Ciro’s and returned to the stage after his mid 1950’s car accident in what may have been the biggest event ever at the club. Following an introduction by Frank Sinatra, Davis put on a scorching performance before an adoring and emotional crowd of the biggest stars on the planet.

It was the growth of “The Radiant City” in the Nevada desert–Las Vegas–that would eventually seal the fate of Ciro’s and nightclubs like it nationwide. With huge revenues afforded by legal gambling, Nevada casinos were in a position to lure away the best talent for its showrooms. Entertainers liked the fact that they didn’t have to travel, and Las Vegas afforded them a 24/7 playground. By the late 50’s, Ciro’s was forced to close its doors and was sold at a public auction in 1959 for a mere $350,000.

It also represented the end of an era in Los Angeles. Sunset Boulevard remained a vital commercial artery, but the glamorous strip of adult entertainment that became part of American mythology gave way to a tacky mishmash of restaurants, strip clubs, and tattoo parlors intermingled with more upscale businesses. Although another revolution would emerge from Sunset Boulevard”a culinary superstar named Wolfgang Puck, and his restaurant Spago”the world became a little less civilized with the passing of Ciros. The building has been the Comedy Store for the past 26 years, and has started its own crop of stars along the path to fame.

This therapy attributes the well-being of a person, whether it be physical or spiritual, by enhancing the life forces that are within him or that are affected by him from the outside.

Things in our world don’t exist in a vacuum where one can not affect the other. To put this in a more concrete way, isn’t it real that when you think of a happy experience you just had, the tendency is to feel much better even though that moment has already passed? And when you maintain that happy disposition, you also maintain a smiling face which people perceive. Upon perception, there is great possibility that even their own dispositions are affected, and once this happens, they too have the ability to make others smile of feel better.

This lifestyle which is very common to people of the 21st century is accompanied by diseases that surprise even the medical community. However, even if new breeds of illnesses pop up, solutions in the form of pills and technological treatments simultaneously develop. If you have a headache, take an aspirin. There’s no wonder pharmaceutical companies are prospering. But if you have a headache, there is never an assurance that it won’t come back again after taking your medication.What if you try going back to basics and get to the root cause of what’s making you miserable in health or any other aspect of your life? People who have embraced the Eastern philosophy of Reiki, have learned sickness is the product of your life energy being blocked by stress coming from your thoughts, the outside world and the imbalances within your life. From this, the method used to keep the life energy flowing freely is through an alternative form of healing. In Reiki, healing is done where energy is helped to flow through a practice also known as a Reiki Massage. Health is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, it should be one of the priorities of every individual no matter what life he lives. Having good health is having a balanced lifestyle and that includes eating the right diet and having enough time to recuperate or recharge and balance your life force. More than having a sound body, spiritual balance must also be encouraged. Reiki Masters support meditation, it is when you actually release all your negative thoughts, and break away from the things that give you fear and stress. You can meditate anytime you wish, especially when you already feel burdened by all the troubles in your life and you just need to let your chakras or energy centers spin free.

From here, one must understand that Reiki is not just about physical healing but is also a spiritual practice. But as far as it involves healing physical ailments, tenohira or palm healing leaves anybody who is not feeling well a sense of renewed vigor, making this form of alternative medicine effective in some sense.

Reiki, which is a form of therapy originating from Japan, promotes the benefits of having a healthy life through tapping the flow of life energies. More than that, Reiki practices and encourages followers to live meaningful and fulfilling lives.

With this kind of lifestyle there’s no wonder people come up with an array of diseases. But no matter what it is keeping you from functioning well, the world of medicine never stops looking for solutions. Pharmaceutical companies are growing this way, and I’d love to think that their goals are purely humanitarian. Moving on, if you feel sick, you pop a medicine in your mouth, and voila in time, you will be healed. You take some more and your healing is faster.

Work turns people into busy and tired creatures. People who abuse their bodies by pushing their systems to the limit are the favorite hosts of different kinds of ailments. The picture is completed by pharmaceutical companies who provide instant remedies. Healing means those pills you take when you experience physical pain or the series of sessions you attend scheduled by the physician.

The faster you heal the better, everything must happen fast. This is the primary reason why some have turned their backs from the basics which is embraced by the followers of Eastern healing philosophies like Reiki. Followers believe in the concept of balance as the key to having sound bodies and spirits. The reason why people acquire illnesses is because all the stress they face each day block the flow of their life energies, that which is essential in any living creature. And so in reiki therapies, a special kind of massage is used to open the pathways of energy within. More than that, though you can have a healthy body by having a balanced diet and free flowing life energy, there must also be a spiritual balance. This can be achieved through meditation. Reiki masters advocate the importance of cleansing your spirit by taking away negative thoughts and freeing yourself from things that only give off stress, chaos and fear in you. When you meditate, you not only achieve these things that lead to complete relaxation, but you also do your chakras a favor by letting them spin freely.

Reiki has its spiritual advantages but also is an effective alternative medicine through tenohira or palm healing. Although people who have experienced renewed vigor after reiki therapies, this is not the same as saying that sick people should fully depend on it for cure. It is an alternative form of medicine which means that sticking with what the professionals have prescribed is still important. What it offers however is an additional form of healing, which works not only for the physically suffering but for the spiritually burdened as well.