Hollywood Tavern
Known Name(s)
Hollywood Tavern
Address
1318 Springwood Ave. Asbury Park, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Tavern
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
The Hollywood Bar and Grill was on the south side of Springwood Avenue, near the corner of DeWitt, in the center of the business district on Asbury Park’s West. Side (https://tinyurl.com/SpringwoodAveHeritageWalk). The 1930 Sanborn insurance map depicts 1318 Springwood as a narrow, two-story brick structure with a one-story, concrete block section to the rear. This building is gone, and the address is now an empty lot.
Sources: Sanborn Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Jersey Coast, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1930), sheet 201.
Detailed History
The Hollywood Bar and Grill was listed as a tavern in The Green Book from 1938 through 1941 and again from 1946 through 1955.
The 1940 Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory listed Peter Iannicelli as owner of the Hollywood. He and his wife, Anna, both immigrants from Italy, lived above the business, highlighting the Italian-American population of the West Side. Mr. Iannicelli, born in Italy, died in 1946 at the age of 67, having been a United States citizen for 50 years. Identified in his obituary as tavern keeper at the Hollywood, he operated other businesses as well. After his death, his wife, born in Italy as Antoinette Catrambone, was listed in the 1950 and 1955 Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory as operating the Hollywood. Mrs. Iannicelli died in 1967. Her obituary identified her as owner of the Hollywood, and also as a Republican committeewoman for Asbury’s Third District for many years.
The Iannicellis joined other business owners on and around Springwood Avenue in a prominent 1940 advertisement in The Asbury Park Press that urged locals, and African Americans in particular, to patronize their “approved” West Side establishments, rather than be “fooled by downtown propaganda” into traveling east of the railroad tracks to spend their money.
Sources: Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory, 1940, 1950, and 1955; “Mrs. Peter Iannicelli, Ex-Committeewoman,” Asbury Park Press, 12 February 1967; “Peter Iannicelli, Tavern Keeper,” Asbury Park Press, 18 February 1946; “Shop in Springwood Ave. Stores with Confidence. You are Guaranteed: QUALITY MERCHANDISE – LOW PRICES – FAIR DEALING,” Asbury Park Press, 31 May 1940.
J. Shaffer
