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Victor Drai
Victor Drai (born July 25, 1947) is a Moroccan- Franco American nightclub owner, entrepreneur and film producer. Drai rose to prominence in the 1980s, producing the movies '' The Woman in Red'' (1984) and ''Weekend at Bernie's'' (1989), before leaving the industry to open a string of high-profile restaurants and nightclubs. Early life Drai was born in Casablanca, Morocco, to Jewish parents. He dropped out of school at 14 to move to Paris, France, with his family. In 1968, he launched a ready-to-wear line called Vicadam, which featured velvet jeans. In 1974, Drai met Jacqueline Bisset on a flight from Los Angeles to Paris and the two began a transatlantic relationship. Drai sold the fashion line and relocated to the United States to be with Bisset and began a new business flipping Beverly Hills mansions. Film production In 1982, Drai and then-girlfriend Kelly LeBrock traveled to Paris where they saw the movie ''Pardon Mon Affaire''. With the help of David Begelman, Drai produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business center. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a population of about 3.71 million in the urban area, and over 4.27 million in the Greater Casablanca, making it the most populous city in the Maghreb region, and the List of largest cities in the Arab world, eighth-largest in the Arab world. Casablanca is Morocco's chief port, with the Port of Casablanca being one of the largest artificial ports in the world, and the second largest port in North Africa, after Tanger-Med ( east of Tangier). Casablanca also hosts the primary naval base for the Royal Moroccan Navy. Casablanca is considered a Global Financial Centre, ranking 54th g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man With One Red Shoe
''The Man with One Red Shoe'' is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti and starring Tom Hanks and Dabney Coleman. It is a remake of the 1972 French film ''The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe'' starring Pierre Richard and Mireille Darc. Plot An agent of the United States CIA is arrested in Morocco on drug-smuggling charges. The person behind the smuggling operation is CIA deputy director Burton Cooper, who hopes the resulting scandal will lead to the resignation of CIA Director Ross, and Cooper's promotion to Director. Ross is aware of Cooper's complicity, but when questioned by a special Senate committee about the arrest, Ross tells the committee that he has not reviewed all of the facts of the case. The committee orders a full inquiry and gives Ross 48 hours to present with the proper answers. Ross devises a plan for Cooper's downfall. Knowing his house has been bugged for sound by Cooper, he purposely leaks a rumor that a man will be arriving at the airport who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Las Vegas Weekly
''Las Vegas Weekly'' is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Henderson, Nevada, covering Las Vegas arts, entertainment, culture and news. ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is published by Greenspun Media Group. The paper was founded in 1992 by James P. Reza, Greg Ryan and Robert Ringle as a free monthly publication called ''Scope Magazine'' covering Southern Nevada's culture, arts, music and lifestyle from a decidedly Generation X perspective. Distributed freely throughout the greater Las Vegas area at bars, cafes, record stores, and other retail outlets, ''Scope'' published its first monthly issue in April 1992, featuring a familiar format of band interviews, news features, columns, a venue guide, and a 30-day calendar of music and arts events, all geared toward alternative culture. The 2021 documentary "Parkway of Broken Dreams" (directed by Pj Perez) highlights the rise and fall of that alternative culture in Las Vegas, including interviews with Reza and multiple ''Scope'' staffers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cromwell Las Vegas
The Cromwell Las Vegas (formerly Barbary Coast and Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon) is a luxury boutique casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. It was originally opened by Michael Gaughan as the Barbary Coast on March 2, 1979. Several nearby resorts were opposed to its construction, partially due to concerns about increased traffic congestion. The property featured Victorian décor and later became part of Gaughan's company, Coast Casinos. The Barbary Coast would go on to add two popular restaurants, and a nightclub by Victor Drai. Boyd Gaming acquired the Barbary Coast in 2004, when it purchased Coast Casinos. Boyd subsequently traded the Barbary Coast to Harrah's Entertainment, in exchange for other property on the Las Vegas Strip. Harrah's finalized its acquisition in February 2007, and briefly closed the Barbary Coast before reopening it on March 1, 2007, as Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon. The property was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits in the Unincorporated towns in Nevada, unincorporated towns of Paradise, Nevada, Paradise and Winchester, Nevada, Winchester, but is often referred to simply as "Las Vegas". Many of the largest hotel, casino, and resort properties in the world are on the Strip, known for its contemporary architecture, lights, and wide variety of attractions. Its hotels, casinos, restaurants, residential high-rises, entertainment offerings, and skyline have established the Strip as one of the most popular and iconic tourist destinations in the world and is one of the driving forces for Las Vegas's economy. Most of the Strip has been designated as an National Scenic Byway, All-American Road, and the North and South Las Vegas Strip r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a metonymy, shorthand reference for the Cinema of the United States, U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was Merger (politics), consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, having developed first on the East Coast. Eventually it became the most recognizable in the world. History Initial development H.J. Whitley, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the E.C. Hurd ranch. They agreed on a price and shook hands on the deal. Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis (publisher), Harrison Gray Otis, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
W Hotel
W Hotels is an American upscale lifestyle hotel chain owned by Marriott International that is marketed towards a younger age group. History W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W New York, a conversion of the former Doral Inn hotel on Lexington Avenue, Manhattan. It quickly became popular as a New York City nightclub. Identifying a gap in the market, Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood Hotels 1995–2005, created the brand that popularized the lifestyle hotel concept of focusing on fashion and design. This included dark, muted colors, brushed metal, hotel staff in black T-shirts rather than white jackets, tasteful photographs, and a trendy bar. His demand for all-white bedding required manufacturers to develop white fabric that stayed clean without weekly dry cleaning. The earlier Ws in the U.S. were cutting edge renovations of existing hotels within the Starwood group. Replacing the lobby with the "living room" concept, where guests could gather at the bar, differed from the trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in the cities of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood (including a portion known as the Sunset Strip), as well as several districts in Los Angeles. Geography Approximately in length, the boulevard roughly traces the arc of mountains that form part of the northern boundary of the Los Angeles Basin, following the path of a 1780s cattle trail from the Pueblo de Los Angeles to the ocean. From Downtown Los Angeles, the boulevard heads northwest, to Hollywood, through which it travels due west for several miles before it bends southwest towards the ocean. It passes through or near Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Holmby Hills. In Bel-Air, Sunset Boulevard runs along the northern boundary of UCLA's W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afterhours Club
An afterhours club (''aka'' after hours club and afterhour club) is a nightclub that is open past the designated curfew closing time for clubs that serve alcohol (which is often an hour long). Such clubs may cease serving alcohol at the designated time, but have special permission to remain open to customers and to sell non-alcoholic sodas and often highly caffeinated drinks. In Western Europe — specifically in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom — 24-hour "music and dance" licences, which do not necessarily have alcohol restrictions, are granted. In North America, afterhours clubs are typically small venues for professional musicians and entertainers to perform after their main gigs and patrons seeking entertainment after their evening's main event. Selected after hours clubs Europe * Canteret, Cullera Valencia 1981 (Probably the first After-hour in Europe) * Chocolate, Valencia 1983 * Spook Factory, Valencia 1984 * Amnesia, Ibiza 1985 * Ku, Ibiza 1986 * Puzzle, Valen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ma Maison
Ma Maison was a restaurant opened by Patrick Terrail in October 1973 at 8368 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, California. It closed in November 1985. Ma Maison is credited with getting Wolfgang Puck's career off the ground and for starting the trend in cuisine known as "California nouvelle". According to the Los Angeles Times, "By using ingredients sourced from the local farmers markets that highlighted the glory of California's produce and pairing it with French technique, they created a new type of cuisine." Ma Maison was also known for being a hot spot for celebrities and Hollywood figures of the time. Celebrity chronicler Robin Leach wrote, "it truly became the favorite culinary playground for Hollywood's rich and famous." Name and history According to founder Terrail, "It was important to me that my restaurant have a French name, but it was equally important that the public be able to say it. ... When I said Ma Maison, I was referring to my home. But each time my guests would say it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur. Early life and career Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname of his stepfather, Josef Puck, after his mother's remarriage. The marriage produced two younger sisters and a younger brother for Wolfgang. He trained as an apprentice under Raymond Thuilier at L'Oustau de Baumanière in Les Baux-de-Provence, at Hôtel de Paris in Monaco, and at Maxim's Paris before moving to the United States in 1973 at age 24. After two years at La Tour in Indianapolis, Puck moved to Los Angeles to become chef and part owner of Ma Maison restaurant. Following the 1981 publication of his first cookbook, ''Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen'', which was based on his Ma Maison recipes, Puck opened the restaurant Spago on the Sunset Strip in 1982. Fifteen years later, in 1997, Puck and Barbara Lazaroff, his ex-wif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chef
A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitchen. Chefs can receive formal training from an institution, as well as by apprenticing with an experienced chef. There are different terms that use the word ''chef'' in their titles, and deal with specific areas of food preparation. Examples include the ''sous-chef'', who acts as the second-in-command in a kitchen, and the ''chef de partie'', who handles a specific area of production. The kitchen brigade system is a hierarchy found in restaurants and hotels employing extensive staff, many of which use the word "chef" in their titles. Underneath the chefs are the ''kitchen assistants''. A chef's standard uniform includes a hat (called a ''toque''), neckerchief, double-breasted jacket, apron and sturdy shoes (that may include steel or plasti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
