A mysterious disappearance tied to Johnny Depp.
An illegal poker den for millionaires and A-listers.
You won't believe what happened behind closed doors at Hollywood's infamous Viper Room.
Few nights proved more happening than August 14,1993, on the south side of the Sunset Strip.
It marked the launch of Johnny Depp and his business partners' Viper Room, the site of
some of the most notorious happenings in Los Angeles.
But few in attendance could've predicted the future of the smoke-filled joint, as Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers inaugurated the location.
Soon, the Viper Room's siren call attracted a steady stream of A-Listers and music legends.
But a tragic event brought the club permanent infamy just two-and-a-half months after opening.
On Oct. 31, 1993, actor River Phoenix went into convulsions on the sidewalk in front
of the club, suffering an overdose due to lethal levels of cocaine and morphine.
Samantha Mathis, Phoenix's girlfriend, and his siblings, Rain and Joaquin, witnessed
the heartbreaking event, reports The Guardian, unable to save him despite CPR and a call
to 911.
Following the tragic event, Depp closed the Viper Room every October 31 in commemoration
of Phoenix's death, reports LA Magazine.
Despite the much-publicized death, the Viper Room persisted as a star-studded hangout throughout
the 1990s and early 2000s.
Over the years, it attracted a steady crowd of recognizable faces, including Uma Thurman,
Mick Jagger, Tommy Lee, Pamela Anderson, Charlize Theron, Pink, Juliette Lewis, Cameron Diaz,
and more.
Two theories have circulated about how the Viper Room got its name.
Both have origins in the New Orleans jazz scene of the 1920s and 1930s.
Some say Johnny Depp named the place after a Louisiana jazz club, and others say it refers
to pot-smoking jazz musicians of that era.
The most famous of these vipers, Louis Armstrong, peppered songs with the term, including 1928's
"Muggles," as did Cab Calloway in his iconic "Reefer Man" from 1932.
Despite allusions to the New Orleans jazz scene, the Viper Room catered to rock and
metal bands, both well-known and obscure, with a few notable exceptions.
The club earned a reputation for being one of the few places where the audience often
proved more famous than the entertainers.
But big names made appearances, too.
The mid-1990s and early 2000s proved an especially vibrant time for performers, including Stone
Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Oasis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run-DMC, Counting
Crows, Johnny Cash, and the Pussycat Dolls.
But according to the Chicago Tribune, a violent scuffle would put a negative spotlight on
the Viper Room on September 29, 1996.
Mötley Crüe drummer, Tommy Lee, and his "Baywatch" beauty, Pamela Lee, had an altercation
involving paparazzi outside the club.
According to witnesses, a tabloid cameraman bore the brunt of the attack after Lee allegedly
threw him to the ground, damaging the man's hip.
"You do have a rap sheet for assaults."
"These are situations that, yes, I could have handled them in a different way."
The Viper Room's role in rock 'n' roll debauchery gets all the attention.
But the building boasts a rich heritage as one of the oldest commercial buildings on
the Sunset Strip, erected in 1921.
Historic documents compiled by West Hollywood's Historic Preservation Commission show that
a grocery store originally occupied the site at 8852 Sunset.
By the late 1920s, the stretch of road grew from a farm-to-market route into a vital artery
connecting Hollywood to Beverly Hills.
Daily traffic increases justified paving the highway as the surrounding neighborhood evolved
into a celebrity playground.
Directors, producers, and silver screen stars demanded luxuries and depravities, and so
the Sunset Strip was born.
How could local business owners get away with the mischief?
LA Curbed reports that the 1.7-mile stretch of Sunset Boulevard comprising the strip lay
in an unincorporated region of Los Angeles County, where the LA Police Department wouldn't
have jurisdiction.
The location invited vice.
As early as the 1920s, nightclubs and casinos took advantage of this legal limbo, providing
the perfect foothold for gangsters.
"I'm taking over this territory."
Although illegal in the city of Los Angeles, gambling flourished on the Sunset Strip.
And during Prohibition, the back rooms of local businesses never quit pouring booze.
By June 1946, the grocery store vanished, replaced by the Cotton Club, likely named
to copy the famous New York establishment.
It made no bones about attracting and entertaining America's most notorious criminals.
In the late 1940s, Los Angeles experienced significant growth during the post-World War
II manufacturing boom.
The city's growing pains came with a resurgence of interest in the unincorporated Sunset Strip's
dealings.
As stories of West Hollywood's mayhem reached the ears of legislators, the location, now
renamed the Greenwich Village Inn, became the epicenter of the action.
A Sacramento subcommittee on public morals ruled that all eight Sunset Strip establishments
should have their liquor licenses revoked due to "indecent, lewd, and lascivious entertainment."
They also argued that the businesses offered hangouts for immoral and perverted individuals.
Despite the hullabaloo, the subcommittee's recommendations went unheeded for one very
intimidating reason — the influence of organized criminals like Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen.
Mobsters held the Sunset Strip in their grip, making money hand-over-fist from illegal prostitution,
drug sales, and illegal gambling, all while offering financial incentives to local law
enforcement who looked the other way.
In September 1950, the modest building again rebranded as the Last Call, a strip club specializing
in a "Rendezvous of the Stars" and "Strip-Capades."
The Sunset Strip openly snubbed its nose at the early 1930s ban on strip clubs in Los
Angeles.
But everything changed in 1951 when local officials folded to pressure to bring the
Strip's laws into sync with that of the city, and it became official: No stripping on the
Strip.
The day after the Last Call closed, Mickey Cohen received an indictment on charges of
tax evasion.
Coupled with the infamous hit on Bugsy Siegel a few years earlier in 1947, this meant an
end to the stranglehold the mafia had over West Hollywood.
From 1951 to 1969, 8852 Sunset operated as The Melody Room, according to Visit West Hollywood.
On December 26, 1952, another salacious event took place on the sidewalk in front of the
building.
Law enforcement arrested Sam Farkas, Mickey Cohen's bodyguard, on suspicion of robbery.
As for the Melody Room?
The next 18 years saw its rise as a mainstay of the L.A. music scene, but there were more
shocking events to come.
In 1973, 8852 Sunset embraced a rock vibe as Filthy McNasty's, enjoying a long line
of fascinating clientele.
The eponymous nightclub paid tribute to West Hollywood's most eclectic character, Filthy
McNasty, a true man about town.
Besides the lounge, McNasty and his brother also owned the F.M.
Station club.
As Filthy McNasty's, the establishment attracted public figures like Elvis Presley, Phyllis
Diller, Mick Jagger, Evel Knievel, and Tom Waits.
After photography was banned at the club, John Wayne and Little Richard also made appearances.
When nights wound down at Filthy McNasty's, celebs relocated to the F.M.
Station in North Hollywood, where festivities continued into the wee hours to live performances
by Kiss, Guns and Roses, Great White, Motorhead, Metallica, and Mötley Crüe.
As recounted by Visit West Hollywood, the 1980s saw yet another reinvention of 8852
Sunset as the Central, frequented by John Belushi, Rickie Lee Jones, John Entwistle
of The Who, and C.C.
DeVille of Poison.
Filthy McNasty's and the Central effectively set the stage for the mayhem of the 1990s
and 2000s, with the Viper Room acting as a harbinger of hard music, illicit drug use,
and illegal gambling.
"You don't have places like this in the Valley, do you?"
"No, we're just not into slumming it."
A year-and-half after River Phoenix's tragic death outside the Viper Room, another dark
episode unfolded, involving Australian singer Jason Donovan.
Like Phoenix, Donovan maintained a clean-cut image.
But unlike Phoenix, he regularly used cocaine.
Nevertheless, Donovan managed to keep his dependency a secret until receiving an invitation
from Johnny Depp to then-girlfriend Kate Moss' 21st birthday in 1995.
Although photos of the hedonistic event prove rare, tales from the party remain the stuff
of legends, according to Vogue.
During the party, Donovan overdosed on cocaine with nearly fatal consequences.
According to his autobiography, "Between the Lines: My Story Uncut," as highlighted in
The Mirror, Donovan had a near-death experience at the Viper Room after succumbing to cocaine-induced
seizures.
Despite blacking out and getting rushed to the hospital, Donovan survived the brush with
fate.
Taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Donovan found himself at the same facility where Phoenix
had been pronounced dead.
Yet, Donovan would make a recovery, getting released from the hospital three hours later.
In 2001, Johnny Depp found himself embroiled in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit launched
by one of his Viper Room business partners, Anthony Fox, according to Medium.
Fox accused Depp and four other partners of conspiring to defraud the club of millions.
In late 2001, The Charley Project reports that Fox went missing along with a .38 caliber
revolver and his pickup truck.
On Jan. 6, 2002, Fox's vehicle turned up, abandoned in Santa Clara, California, approximately
330 miles from Fox's Ventura residence.
Over the years, speculation has run wild about Depp's supposed role in the disappearance,
as well as the possibility of murder.
Without a body and minimal evidence, the case remains cold.
In 2004, Depp signed over his share in the Viper Room to Fox's daughter, Amanda, who
sold it in 2008.
But the illicit activities at the Viper Room wouldn't come to an end with Depp out of the
picture.
Beginning in 2005, the Viper Room housed some of Hollywood's highest-stakes poker games,
with buy-ins starting at $5,000 and often going much higher.
The games took place downstairs, overseen by Molly Bloom, a 26-year-old cocktail waitress.
According to an article in Vanity Fair penned by Bloom, she soon took full control of the
high-profile games, becoming the mastermind of the operation and inspiring 2017's Molly's
Game, starring Jessica Chastain.
In the film, the Viper Room was renamed the Cobra Lounge.
"My weekly poker game has moved to the Cobra Lounge.
Tomorrow night, and then every Tuesday night.
You'll help run it."
But not all participants of these underground celeb poker games agree with Bloom's take
on the scene.
Regular attendee and card aficionado Houston Curtis tells it differently in his book, "Billion
Dollar Hollywood Heist," as highlighted by the New York Post.
Curtis claims Tobey Maguire staged the illegal games.
Together, Maguire and Curtis allegedly hand-picked players, eventually making off with millions.
Maguire won nearly every week, and according to Curtis, they used Leonardo DiCaprio as
a lure to draw other players.
Curtis claims he and Maguire used Bloom as a distraction so that players wouldn't get
alarmed by their losses at the table.
While which account proves true may never be known, players supposedly included Ben
Affleck, Matt Damon, A-Rod, and the Olsen twins.
Eventually, events moved to other locations like the Beverly Hills Hotel before coming
to a halt after Bloom's arrest in 2013.
But the so-called "Poker Princess" ducked prison time, according to the New York Daily
News, and still fondly recalls her lucky break at the Viper Room.
In 2018, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported that the Viper Room sold along with
three other Sunset Strip properties for a whopping $80 million to an Arizona-based development
company.
Properties included the blocks of 8850 to 8860 Sunset Boulevard and 8874 to 8878 Sunset
Boulevard.
The properties total 38,000 square feet of land and 16,000 square feet of parking space,
an attractive location for development in an otherwise land-poor city.
A recent slew of development projects along Sunset Boulevard has incited some concerns,
as LA Magazine reported in 2021 that plans had been submitted to demolish the block for
new buildings.
These construction projects include hotels and a planned Arts Club owned by Gwyneth Paltrow,
as showcased by Architectural Digest.
But perhaps the nail in the coffin remains the fact that trendy bands and A-List celebs
grace the club less often these days.
The Viper Room does, however, remain open — a tantalizing relic of Sunset Strip's
debauched and colorful history.
"Once again, it sucks.
There's nothing you can really say about it.
It sucks.
We're losing the Viper Room."
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