The Cockatoo Inn (site) (Hawthorne, California)

USA / California / Lennox / Hawthorne, California
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Built at Imperial Highway and Hawthorne Boulevard in The Cockatoo opened in 1946 as a chicken-and-rib drive-in restaurant by Andrew J. Lococo, a colorful man who later owned the world's largest tuna-fishing boat.
Reputed Mafia associate Andrew Lococo, Hawthorne's Cockatoo Inn quickly became one of the South Bay's premier hot spots, featuring 210 guest rooms and numerous meeting rooms amid sprawling grounds laid out like a secret garden.
In 1958, a fire destroyed the restaurant. Within months, Andrew Lococo rebuilt it and added a two-story house so he could live next door. Three years later, he opened the first part of hotel that resembled an old half-timbered English house.

But by 1970, the Cockatoo's owner was in trouble with the law. The U.S. attorney general's office identified him as a major organized-crime figure. The same year, he was convicted of perjury in connection with testimony during a grand jury investigation of interstate gambling and horse-race fixing.

In 1972, Lococo he sold the Cockatoo and served three months in prison for lying to a federal grand jury investigating horse-race fixing and bribery. In 1973, he died after a stroke at age 55.

A succession of real-estate companies operated the hotel through the 1970s and '80s, but longtime employees said business suffered without Lococo.

It gained a reputation for fine food, grand banquet halls and elegant European decor, including an L-shaped bar of brass and red leather. Male patrons were not allowed in without neckties.

President Kennedy stayed there, as did his Air Force One pilots and his younger brother, Robert. A photo of the presidential plane, autographed by its pilots, still hangs on a hotel wall.

One rumor has it that the Kennedy brothers brought Marilyn Monroe to Room 200 for a discreet rendezvous. Another is that a secret tunnel, used only by select celebrities, runs from the kitchen basement to the villa in the center of the 4-acre complex.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the hotel grew popular among underworld figures, a Justice Department official testified at the time. Around then, the Daily Breeze ran stories describing an odd relationship among Lococo, police in Milwaukee, where Lococo previously lived, and Hawthorne.

Milwaukee police, the reports said, stayed at the Cockatoo when they came to California to extradite prisoners. One prisoner described a surreal scene in which a Milwaukee detective picked him up at the Los Angeles County jail in a gold Cockatoo Inn station wagon, took him to the hotel for lunch, and then had a Cockatoo bellhop drive him to the Hawthorne jail in a limousine.

The prisoners and others complained that they were left for days at the Hawthorne jail while the detectives partied at the Cockatoo.

After investors bought the property, the hotel shed its Mafia image but continued to be popular among high rollers from Hollywood Park, horse trainers and jockeys. It also catered to military and corporate travelers visiting the South Bay's aerospace facilities, as well as community groups and politicians, who held fund-raisers there.

Former Assemblyman Dick Floyd, who represented Hawthorne, called it "my home away from home."

It witnessed its fair share of behind-the-scenes intrigue, too. In 1985, a Northrop Corp. employee was sentenced to life in prison after trying to sell military secrets to an undercover agent in a meeting at the Cockatoo bar.

In the late 1980s, the owners embarked on a $1 million renovation of the property to help it compete with the new hotels sprouting up on Century Boulevard east of Los Angeles International Airport. But the hotel's glory days were over.

Its fortunes began to decline in the 1990s, when the recession decimated the aerospace industry and surrounding neighborhoods deteriorated. Hawthorne sued the Cockatoo in 1991 for $109,000 in unpaid bed taxes, and the owners declared bankruptcy the next year.

A corporation bought the hotel, and enjoyed some initial success, with occupancy rates climbing to 60 percent during peak tourist seasons. But it, too, gave up on the business two years later, closing the hotel in December 1994.

Just days later, investors from the People's Republic of China bought the property out of receivership for $3.2 million, and reopened it in January 1995. The investors initially planned to turn it into a Howard Johnson hotel, said interim City Manager Charles Herbertson.

While Hawthorne's Kiwanis and Rotary clubs continued to hold their meetings there, the new owners were unable to turn the business into a profitable enterprise and it continued to decay. It shut down for good in 1996.

In the late 1990s, Hawthorne officials learned that people were living there without electricity or running water.

Other entrepreneurs have offered different proposals for the site - including another hotel, low- and moderate-income housing and senior housing - but those never materialized either.

In 2001, the Hawthorne School District considered buying the site, and several acres of surrounding property, for a new middle school. But state funding for that plan didn't materialize.

City officials believe a better use for the property would be a mixed-use commercial-retail redevelopment.
articles.latimes.com/1994-04-21/news/cb-48774_1_gatheri...
www.insidesocal.com/history/2009/03/the-cockatoo-inn-fo...
www.lataco.com/taco/cockatoo-inn-demolition-lennox



The Inn was torn down in 2005 and replaced by 300 room Candlewood Suites.
The site's main claim to fame since it's closing is the filming of various lounge scenes from the Quentin Tarantino Film, "Jackie Brown, staring Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°55'48"N   118°21'4"W

Comments

  • I remember this place when I was young, there was always rumors of the mob there. I was too young to know better so I guess they thought I wasn't a threat, although it was very neat to drive by(on a bicycle). Still remember Tommy's burgers(in between Chervon and the junk yard). Anyway sorry to hear the cockatoo was torn down. Back then everything was interesting and at least I have some memories, I live in Albuquerque New Mexico now and I have enough fire power to protect me, but I don't have enough to go home. Oh well what the heck.
  • I worked at the restaurant of the hotel in 1968. I encountered Andy Lococo several times. Everybody was scared of him, I still remember his eyes. They were cold as ice. I was so nervous that once I spilled water on a customer one night. A few days later he came in and said hello to me. He had never done this with anyone before. My fellow workers knew that something was wrong. He asked his manager to fire me the same evening. It's the mafia style to be nice to someone before you wacked him.
  • I had my wedding reception there in 1962. My dad was a friend of Andy's and they used to hunt together.
  • My father knew Andy. My father furnished the hotel. My dad said that Andy had camera's in the kitchen so he could keep an eye and what was going on. They had the best fried shrimp ever. My dad also had his Christmas parties for his employees and their wives there. Judy
  • I remember driving by it in the late 90's, hoping it would reopen, especially after Jackie Brown movie, too bad it never turned around, I wou have loved going in there, love the feel of vintage lounges -dim lit & vinyl
  • My Dad worked with Andy as well... during this time Frank Brown.... as a kid I remember rumors..
  • I stayed at the Cockatoo several times in early 90's on business trips. The neighborhood was scary. You would not want to go walking around at night. From the pictures in the lobby, the hotel was at one time popular with celebrities. The wood paneling in the lobby and restaurant was impressive. The beds were old and mattresses were lumpy. The free breakfast was excellent. It didn't hurt that the weekday rate was only $35 a night.
  • My Father also Sicilian was Andy Lacoco's Best Friend. They were childhood friends from Milwaukee. My Father operated a trucking operation in Los Angeles and we lived in Northern California where he also had another type of trucking company. My dad would fly back and forth between the two places. Andy would send the Cockatoo limo to pick my Dad up from or take him to the LAx airport weekly. When the giant Tuna fishing boat was built in Green Bay, WI, my Dad was Andy's personal guest to sail with him on its maiden voyage through the Panama Canal to bring it to San Diego where it would operate. When the Cockatoo was sold, Andy sent my Dad home with some of the Beautiful Italian Clear and Red Crystal Stemware from the elegant dining room. We used it on Holidays and special occasions, as I still do to this day. It was a devastating time when Andy was investigated for Horse Race fixing. He served a short time at Lompoc, where he had the run of the place, I was told. He had a stroke at Thanksgiving dinner a short time later. Andy wasn't as handsome as my Father, he was kind of coarse looking, but he had a huge powerful presence about him and a heart of gold for those he loved.
  • Gina, I am Sicilian. In 1964, my family drove to LA to visit my mother's aunt and uncle (non-Sicilian) who lived in Glendale, CA. (I grew up in West Allis, WI, a suburb of MKE.) While we were there, we ate supper at, someone's house who was affiliated with the Cockatoo Club, maybe it was a son of Andy Lacoco, but he took us to the club during the day to show it to us. He had a cockatoo at his home also. I was 12 years old at the time. We also visited an olive oil factory from which my father used to order our olive oil from time to time. (This is what I remember, not sure how accurate it is.)
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This article was last modified 10 years ago