The Rag Doll Club was situated at Lankershim, Cross Steet North Victory, Colfax, 11702 Victory, North Hollywood. Through the 1940s and 1950s the Rag Doll was a Jazz and swing dance joint, known as the Rag Doll Cafe (early 1950s) and the Rag Doll Supper Club (mid-1950s). Jazz drummer Roy Porter, best known for his 1940s recordings with Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon, had a combo at the Rag Doll
with members like Sigmund Galloway on sax, Henry McDade on piano and Eddie Davis on bass, and possibly Teddy Edwards. This was probably a 1940s outfit, and it's worth noting that the Los Angeles jazz scene in the 1940s was massive. In the late 50s the club went into R&B with bands like Rickey & The 4 Keys, and Frank Wood And The Groovers. In the 1950s the owners of the venue were reported as Tony Ferra and Joe Gianjuli. Later, Tony Ferra became the sole owner of the venue, during the 1960s he owned the Rag Doll, the Crossbow Inn and the Red Velvet club in Hollywood. His daughter Sandy Ferra dated Elvis (on-and-off) for six years, after meeting him at the Red Velvet around 1961. They were reportedly an item, right up until Elvis married Priscilla in 1967. "I danced in six of his movies because I was going with him. In Viva Las Vegas that's me with Ann-Margaret and Elvis dancing at the roulette table." In the early 1960s the Rag Doll became better known as a country music venue, mostly due to the new house band led by Jimmy Snyder, formerly the featured singer with the Gene Davis Band at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood. Snyder's band played at the Rag Doll around late 1961 into 1964 and included at different times Tom Brumley on steel guitar (later with Buck Owens), guitarist Johnny Davis, and former Sun Records sidemen Jimmy Wilson (piano) and Pat O'Neil (bass). Future solo artist Leon Russell also played piano for Snyder at the Rag Doll. Apparently he was so poor (struggling musician) at the time that he slept in his car out back. By 1965 the Rag Doll had turned into a rock and roll venue. The bands that played a regular slot there were; Cory Wells & The Enemys (for three months), Stark Naked & The Car Thieves, The Ringers and IDon Coates & The Playbacks. Cory Wells & The Enemys where led by Wells, who would later found chart act Three Dog Night. Cory Wells & The Enemys then moved on to The Palomino Club (at the time they were half rock and half country), The London Fog on the Strip, The Red Velvet on the Strip, Gazzari's on the Strip, The Action on Melrose, Danita's in the valley, the Cinnamon Cinder on Ventura Blvd. and Oil Can Harry's. Stark Naked & The Car Thieves where originally from Indiana and had worked at Galaxy in North Beach. They also cut some 60s singles. They played the Rag Doll on a semi-regular basis through 1965-1968, and swapped club gigs with Ike & Tina Turner, one would play the Rag Doll, the other would play the Red Velvet. Don Coates & The Playbacks also played between the Rag Doll and The Red Velvet in 1965. Another rock band, which played around the Rag Doll around this time was an LA garage band called the Ringers. They cut a couple of singles (1965-66) and also worked around the Whiskey A Go-Go, Red Velvet, Ciro's, Coconut Grove, Hollywood Palladium, Stratford On Sunset, It's Boss, and The Galaxy. In 1968 Stark Naked & The Car Thieves and Smith, a white soul-rock band played the club. Smith later signed to Dunhill Records and produced some chart material and issued two albums. Around this time Tony Ferra had sold the club to Henry Brooks, who was the co-owner of the Seven Seas restaurant at 6904 Hollywood Blvd. In November of 1968, Brooks was arrested by the vice squad and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit prostitution. By 1969 the main band at the Rag Doll was an outfit called Night Shift. According to an article in the Windsor Star (May 12, 1969 issue) "footballer Deacon Jones, has got the showbiz bug and is breaking in a band at the Rag Doll in North Hollywood. It's a ten piece band with three female backing singers, billed as The Deacon Jones R***e". During 1969 R&B outfit Night Shift, played the Rag Doll club, backing singer Deacon Jones. When former leader of the Animals, Eric Burdon and Lee Oskar stopped in to hear them play, Jones moved on and the group joined with Burdon and Oskar, evolving into a band known as War. Through the early 1970s R&B legend Richard Berry (Louie Louie) and rock and roll showman-lounge singer Troy Walker became regular performers at the Rag Doll Club.
The Rag Doll Club was a live venue situated in North Hollywood, active through the 1940s into the early 1970s. The Enemys cut a few singles around this time.
