The idea for a teen club serving the Palos Verdes Peninsula area came from Elin Vanderlip, the daughter-in-law of pioneer Peninsula developer Frank Vanderlip. Norwegian by birth, she had married Vanderlip’s son Kelvin, who died in 1956.
In February 1967, she told the Palos Verdes Peninsula News of her plans to start a social center for young people aged 15-20 in the newly built Golden Cove Shopping Center in Rancho Palos Verdes.
The 3200-square foot space was situated on the second floor of one of Golden Cove’s office buildings, at 31244 Palos Verdes Drive West, Suite 203.
The teen center’s name, Club Bagatelle, came from the Chateau Bagatelle, an 18th century pavilion built for Marie Antoinette in a rose garden in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.
In her announcement of the club’s founding to area parents, Vanderlip said, ““We hope to create in the Club Bagatelle the beauty, grace and charm of the original which will cause the teenager to be proud of his club and to dress and behave so as to live up to its elegance and warmth.”
Teenage volunteers and new club members pitched in with preparations, including painting and decorating its rooms and furniture. The teens told the Peninsula News that the center filled a need, as “Hollywood is just a little too far and the corner at Peninsula Center is just a little too dull.”
The new club’s first event was very much a high-society affair. The formal College Ball on June 24, 1967 featured a cordon bleu dinner catered by Air France, and music by Joe Moshay and his orchestra. The French consul in Los Angeles was Elin Vanderlip’s guest of honor. Presumably, the high school ball held a week later on July 1 was less stuffy.
With that, the club was off and running. Membership was available to those aged 15-20 for $10 per year. Applications were distributed through the Palos Verdes Peninsula high schools.
Club Bagatelle offered a surprisingly wide variety of activities for teens. In addition to the stage, discotheque and dance floor, its facilities included a library, a game room and a lounge area with ping pong and pool tables.
A steady stream of special speakers delivered programs on teen topics, from fashion to relationships. Lessons on playing backgammon, chess and bridge were offered, and special interest groups on skiing, surfing, tennis, fencing, foreign languages and folk dancing were formed, and various field trips were planned.
The Peninsula News began running a regular column documenting recent events and announcing upcoming ones under the headline “Club Bagatelle News.” It was here that teens could find out about one of the center’s most popular features, its regular concerts and dances.
The club was a prime venue for up and coming local garage bands. Outfits such as the Raving Madd, which drew most of its members from Rolling Hills High, played there regularly.
The Raving Madd eventually recorded a 45 rpm single on the Golstar label which has become a collector’s item among fans of the 1960s garage band genre. Keyboard player and lead vocalist Russ King wrote both songs on the record, “ I Said Oh No No No (What’s In It For Me)” and “Boundaries.”
Other performers who appeared at the Bagatelle included several other bands who released local records: The Innkeepers (Gardena), Chapter VI, Nik of Tyme and Chapter VI. (None of them became hits.) Apparently unrecorded acts who also performed included Fyve of a KInd (Ojai), the Andromeda Breakthrough, the Off Setts, Fair Befall, the Thornes and folk singer Rick McAlary (San Pedro).
In addition to live bands, Club Bagatelle also hosted fashion shows and speakers from magazines such as Vogue and Seventeen discussing the latest mod trends, and a Halloween costume party for which female teens dressed up as young Marie Antoinettes.
In addition to events aimed at its teen membership, Club Bagatelle also promoted itself as a hall for hire for special events, usually club and social gatherings, balls and the like. Community groups such as local PTAs and service clubs often met there as well.
Signs of troubles at the club began to appear in February 1968, when Elin Vanderlip complained to the Peninsula News about petty thefts, acts of vandalism and problems with drug use becoming more commonplace there.
Two months later, while appealing for more adults to act as chaperones, Vanderlip told reporter Betty Lukas that “the amount of promiscuous necking, smoking, common discourtesy and disrespect for the clubs’ property, and the dishonesty and vandalism are appalling.” She threatened to close the club down on June 30 unless conditions improved.
The club continued to operate after that, but Vanderlip’s enthusiasm continued to wane as well. On Nov. 18, 1968, she terminated the club’s operation as a teen center, vowing to only use it as a rental hall.
That’s how the space was used for the next few months. Then, on July 18, 1969, a new operation sprang up on the site, unaffiliated with Mrs. Vanderlip. The Third Eye club held its first concert, headlined by Columbia Records artists Illinois Speed Press and also featuring the bands Charity, Chalice and Mojave Honey.
It was a short-lived last gasp for the site. Vandalism at the club that spilled over to a nearby dress shop was reported a month later, and two teens were arrested for fighting at a Sept. 7 incident there. After those incidents, no more was heard about the club in any form, which today houses health-related offices.
Elin Vanderlip died at 90 on July 20, 2009.
Sources:
Los Angeles Times archives.
Palos Verdes Peninsula News archives.
From Tim Good:
I think you got it wrong.
Despite the puff pieces in the PV News, the club was a flop. I was a student at PV High when Mrs Vanderlip had notices about the club distributed to all of the students. The notices said that the club would provide a social atmosphere that would preclude the need for students to “go steady”. I remember the words as if I read them yesterday.
I attended events at the club only a few times. Every time, the place was practically empty. As I recall, the last time I was there, there were more people (the band) on the stage than in front of it.
Club Bagatelle was never the place to be.
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