Tommy Thomas, Who Developed Tavern Into Palomino Club, Dies of Heart Attack

Tommy Thomas, who took over a floundering tavern on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood in 1952 and turned it into the Palomino, a country music mecca surpassed only by Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, has died of a heart attack at age 61.

“He told his wife he felt ill and was holding her hand when he died,” his friend Bill Boyd, executive director of the Academy of Country Music, said Sunday night. Thomas died Sunday morning, he said.

The “Pal” as it is known to aficionados, was born in 1949 as the Mulekick Club, the brainchild of country singer Hank Penny. Thomas and his brother, Bill, who died of heart failure in 1979, had moved here from Indiana and took over the Mulekick at a time when the San Fernando Valley was inhabited, albeit sparsely, by stunt men, rodeo riders and aspiring actors.

Entertainment at first was more a party than a performance and “everybody just wanted to have a good time,” Thomas recalled in a 1983 interview.

In the mid-1950s the Thomas brothers began booking name entertainment into their rustic, neon-emblazoned club in an industrial section of North Hollywood.

Over the years such country stars as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers and Crystal Gayle appeared there.

The club was credited with enhancing the careers of Linda Ronstadt, Glen Campbell and Barbara Mandrell.

Two Clint Eastwood movies--”Every Which Way But Loose” and “Any Which Way You Can”--were filmed at the club. Several Burt Reynolds movies, including “Hooper,” also used the Palomino for backdrops.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, the Palomino was a favorite haunt of record company executives scouting new talent. Ronstadt, Campbell and Mac Davis were spotted at the Palomino during the club’s celebrated weekly talent contests.

The club, kept pace with the blend between country and rock and became a routine stop for performers on the road.

Among them were Elvis Costello, Elton John, Jerry Lee Lewis (who once shoved a piano off the stage when Thomas asked him to play more quietly) and Roger Miller.

Regular visitors ranged from former California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. (who accompanied Ronstadt), to the diminutive actor Herve Villechaize.

“It was a routine stop for everybody,” Boyd said. “It’s a popular tourist attraction to this day. Even Japanese tour buses go past the Palomino. It was more of a personal club than a business club,” he said. “It was the place to see Tommy. It wasn’t the same without him there. He will be missed.”

Thomas leaves his wife, Sherry, three children and a sister.

A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Thursday in St. Jane Frances Church in North Hollywood, Boyd said. A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday in the church.