LUMBERYARD LOGS: Boom rises from the dead

I don’t think you can overstate the historic importance of the fact that hunky, G-string-clad guys were again undulating across the old Boom Boom Room bar last Saturday night during a Laguna Beach Democratic Club fundraiser for “No on Prop. 8” — the initiative against same-sex marriages.

Throw in a couple of Sarah Palins, a John McCain, Wonder Woman, “Lucy” and gay activist Fred Karger in priestly garb, and you get the picture. It was political partying on a surreal scale, just in time to usher in Halloween and a historic presidential election.

Now spin on this: Property owner Steven Udvar-Hazy’s plans to redevelop the Boom and the adjacent Coast Inn — minus a restaurant or bar that would likely attract a gay clientele — were handed over to city planners earlier that week.

And two City Council seats are up for grabs; council members who will probably have the final say on the redevelopment.

At least two council candidates — Verna Rollinger, who has been endorsed by the Dems, and Cheryl Kinsman, a Republican whose signs are not up in the Dems HQ — were present when “the Boom Boom Room rose from the dead to kill Prop. 8,” as Karger put it in his announcement to the press.

Rollinger made a speech, which I missed, having pushed my way into the mass just as she was taking her bow.

Kinsman brought her 21-year-old son to the bash — at first not realizing you had to be 21 to get in that night.

Those taking money at the door made it plain that the bar was officially closed, even though you could buy vodka, wine or beer for a $4 donation. But to many it felt like the old Boom was back, even though the ocean-view bar area was cordoned off.

There was a lot of cruising and across-the-bar eyeing going on, not to mention wild dancing by same-sex and opposite-sex couples. And those bar-dancing boys were collecting a lot of paper in their shorts. Ah, the memories.

The Boom Boom Room has been closed now for more than a year, while Karger has tried every method under the sun and moon to induce Udvar-Hazy to hand the property over to a gay-friendly operator, to no avail.

Now it seems Udvar-Hazy is trying to “sanitize” the spot where gays have been gathering since the 1920s by forgoing what would be a lucrative nightspot at the location.

If that doesn’t frost your cookies, consider the fact that Udvar-Hazy’s son, Steven Udvar, donated $1,000 to the pro-Prop. 8 committee on Oct. 14, according to the Secretary of State website. That’s taking a shot across the bow of gay rights.

But that’s not even the half of it.

While the Udvar-Hazy family is spending money to deny civil rights to gays and lesbians, us taxpayers — straight and gay — are footing the bill to keep the older Udvar-Hazy’s firm, AIG, out of hock.

Oh, and by the way that was the same AIG that spent a reported cool $500,000 on a recent weekend to reward its corporate elite for a job well done (i.e. milking taxpayers) with spa treatments and massages at the St. Regis in Dana Point, just down the road.

What is Udvar-Hazy thinking?

If he was running for office in Laguna he’d be in worse shape than George Bush. But then he is, in a way, because he needs the political support of Laguna Beach to push his plan through.

It’s a crazy political season.

Things couldn’t have gotten any weirder for Karger, who has been battling on both the Boom Boom and Prop. 8 fronts this year.

A retired political spokesman who worked on the Republican side of the aisle for many years, Karger thought he had Udvar-Hazy by the proverbial short hairs not too long ago.

That was when the financial meltdown began changing the corporate landscape, and put AIG in desperate straits. Call it a “flip side” to the economic crisis.

That was hopeful news to Karger, who had organized a “march on AIG” in Century City a few months ago, seeking to pressure the then-solvent insurance giant into inducing Udvar-Hazy sell the Boom property. Apparently, when AIG bought Udvar-Hazy’s airplane leasing firm a few years ago, Udvar-Hazy became one of the biggest AIG shareholders — stock which has gone pretty much belly-up.

Now with the downturn, Karger thinks — or hopes — Udvar-Hazy might be in a tad over his head in trying to redevelop the oceanfront lots he bought for $25 million.

With the Coast Inn property deteriorating and rooms there renting for very little, and with the Boom itself being rented as temporary Democratic Club headquarters for the moment, the money stream must be flowing out, not in.

You would think Udvar-Hazy would try to do himself a little good in Laguna’s gay community, but instead he seems to be thumbing his nose at it.

Whether there will be hell to pay when the proposal comes before the Design Review Board after the Nov. 4 election is anybody’s guess.

But I’m betting Karger is already lining up an army of recruits for what will be the last stand for the Boom Boom Room.

CINDY FRAZIER is city editor of the Coastline Pilot. She can be contacted at (949) 494-2087 or [email protected].