Dana Parsons’ column in Saturday’s LA Times addressed the ongoing saga of the efforts to save the Boom Boom Room/Coast Inn of Laguna Beach.
It can be a blast trying to save a Boom
A P.R. man has a little fun with his cause: preserving an iconic gay bar in Laguna.Fred Karger is having the time of his life. Or so I figured.
How could he not be?
Yes, it’s serious business trying to save the venerable Boom Boom Room in Laguna Beach, but when the effort includes a demonstration on Hollywood Boulevard and entreaties to George Clooney and Brad Pitt, how can it not be fun?
It’s a charge to which Karger pleads guilty  with an explanation.
“I’m having a good time,” he says Friday afternoon, “but it’s a lot more work than I had anticipated. It keeps the good times in check, with long hours and meetings. It has become a kind of political campaign.”
Karger has done just what a former public relations guy is supposed to do  keep the media interested in his cause. And what savvier way to do it than taking out an ad in Daily Variety that said, in addition to a somewhat impassioned narrative, “George and Brad, Please Help Save the Boom!!!”
Not that there’s been any real indication that either has the slightest interest in doing so  a fact that Karger readily concedes. But if you want to enlist Hollywood’s help, why not ask a couple of the coolest cats in town?
The Boom is the room that’s been around since those post-World War II days when things seemed so much simpler. Located a mile south of Main Beach in Laguna, it was a popular serviceman’s haunt and just so happened to attract both a gay and straight crowd home from the war. Read More.