Bowling’s Back!

The place is clean . . . clean, spare and high-tech. But it’s quirky, too--you have to take an elevator to get there, since it’s on the third level above a mall. And, maybe it’s this ‘80s combination of kitsch and tech that makes it appeal so much to the three upwardly mobiles--out for a night of recreational bowling.

Once inside downtown’s Little Tokyo Bowl, the three peruse their surroundings with practiced eyes. “Ooooo, look, the Sugar Bowl Cafe,” enthuses Nance Billington, 31, a former Columbia Studios production assistant and black leather jacket collector, on spotting the alley’s generic coffee shop.

Actor Clayton Rohner, 29, runs his hand across his Don Johnson stubble. “Great,” he agrees. “You want to eat there, John?”

Their companion, writer/director John Lafia, 30, nods. “Let’s do it,” he says.

After dining on the Sugar Bowl’s Japanese-American food combinations, and giggling over the name of the Aloha cocktail lounge, the three get down to the serious business at hand--bowling.

They rent tri-toned shoes and put their names down for a lane. But wait--Rohner, a Hard Rock Cafe regular, already sees someone he knows. He presses palms with the couple--an actor more than a little reminiscent of Mickey Rourke, and his photographer girlfriend, who looks like ‘til tuesday lead singer Aimee Mann.

“Hey man, this place is great,” the Mickey Rourke clone says. “It’s so close to our downtown loft. . . .”

Bowling--that blue collar sport most people associate with yesterday’s TV heroes Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney--has been enjoying a renaissance of sorts and, in some L.A. circles, may be the hippest form of weekend entertainment.

Why the growing fascination? Well, as screenwriter Robert Mundy, 36, puts it: “It just seems a typically inane thing to do.”

“It’s nostalgic--a ‘50s thing,” offers Guber/Peters film production company executive Michael Besman, 29. “After working so hard all day, you want to do something ticky and fun at night.”

Explains Billington, 31: “It’s probably popular now because, for so long, it wasn’t cool--that now it’s cool.”

Los Angeles Bowling Assn. secretary-treasurer Webster Sheridan says his group, which represents league bowlers, doesn’t keep strict track of numbers. But “it’s picking up for the young crowd now,” Sheridan says. “There are several types of bowling events going on, like ‘Moonlight Madness’ at the Sports Center Bowl; they pack that joint.” Edna, who works the desk at Santa Monica’s Bay Shore Bowl and declines to give her last name, has a more sobering view: “It’s like every sport. . . . It goes in and out of favor every 10 years.”

Responded in Kind

Whatever your viewpoint, the renewed interest in bowling has been sufficiently sustained that bowling alleys everywhere have taken note and responded in kind. The Bay Shore Bowl, a ‘50s bowling alley with beautiful, green lanes, has replaced its dingy coffee shop with the Cafe Beignet, a Cajun cookery run by 30-year-old Judy Binder--who apprenticed with chichi chef Wolfgang Puck. “We get every yuppie in town here,” says her mother, Sara, manager of the cafe.

The Sports Center Bowl in Studio City, another ‘50s original, now features “Moonlight Madness” every Friday night from midnight until 3 a.m.

“For $6, it’s all you can bowl,” explains manager Tom Christy, 36, organizer of the event. “And every Friday night, I sell out.”

Says actor/waiter Mike Capellupo, 26: “They turn all the lights off except over the lanes. They have a DJ with music, and he’s fairly obnoxious, so it’s a real nightclub atmosphere.”

On a recent “madness” weekend, it was so dark, it was hard to tell what was going on. Rock music blasted out over the intercom. The soupy, friendly voice of the disc jockey made it seem like a nightclub, as did all the young singles, mingling and chatting, drinks in hand. One young man, a thick-necked college type, loosened his tie and grabbed the hand of a slim brunette. They jumped into one of the few streams of light and began to dance--until they were barely missed by a ball that went whizzing past them.

Sake and High-Tech Scoring

In Redondo Beach, the brightly lit South Bay Bowl coaxes consumers with a Persian restaurant and an ice-cream parlor. And, in downtown L.A.’s Little Tokyo neighborhood, the year-old Little Tokyo Bowl appeals to its New Age patrons with sushi, sake and high-tech, computerized scoring. “It’s so automatic there, they practically roll the ball for you,” screenwriter Mundy muses.

With all this frenzy, it seems only natural that another element would arise: the premeditated “Bowling Party.”

The hip movie “Blood Simple” held its publicity party at the Bay Shore Bowl, Wolfgang Puck celebrated this year’s birthday at the Sports Center Bowl, and pop singer Sheena Easton recently rented out the Little Tokyo Bowl for her extravagant fund-raiser, “Save Marineland.” “It was a charity bowl,” quips Little Tokyo Bowl employee Michael Scott, 24.

And all bowling alleys, it seems, commonly stage bowling “wrap” parties for both movies and television shows. “I get ABC, NBC, you name it,” Sports Center’s Christy says.

Cafe Beignet manager Sara Binder remembers the night the ritzy Century City law firm, Kinsella, Boesch, Fujikawa & Towle, rented out the Bay Shore. “They all pulled up in these big stretch limousines and they were all dressed up in tuxedos and gowns--and they bowled like that! They bowled in their dressy clothes--with bowling shoes, of course. You have to wear those.”

Bowling has become so high-profile with the entertainment industry that a recent “Moonlighting” episode ended with a big finale--in a bowling alley. However, “Moonlighting” producer Roger Director insists that trendiness wasn’t necessarily the influence. “We knew that it would be a good spot to have a chase scene. When we do a chase scene we want to do comic bits, too. And we knew we could do a lot of gags there. It wasn’t so much that it’s trendy . . . although, everyone does like bowling. I like bowling.”

In all this flurry, it’s easy to overlook some very basic reasons why everyone does like bowling: It’s cheap, it’s sociable, and it’s relaxed. With each game averaging under $2 per person--and only a dollar extra to rent shoes--it’s not hard to understand why a night of bowling often replaces a $6 movie or a $15 evening of equity-waiver theater.

And who can argue with the relaxed-sociability factor? Russell Briggs, 25, a rock critic and correspondent for French television, used to bowl every Sunday night, with other music fans, at West L.A.’s late Picwood Bowl. “I just went because my friends went and it was peer pressure,” he admits. “It was an excuse to be sociable, without having to throw a party.”

Flower and costume designer Bonnie Stauch, 31, says: “I only do it when a whole group of people get together. It’s a camaraderie-type sport. Even if you fail miserably, you can still have a good time.” Also, she adds, “It’s basically the people you’re with that makes it fun. Even if you have a bunch of bikers next to you, it’s not threatening.”

“It’s no big deal if you win or lose,” explains actor/writer George McGrath, 33. “It’s like, so what. It’s not a kind of high pressure ‘I’ve got to win’ game. . . . It’s like, ‘Whoops, it went over there. Oh well.’ ”

Celebrity spotting is also a thrill. “Once I got to bowl next to Eve Plumb and I was not really paying attention to the bowling,” McGrath says. “I was just so excited to be bowling next to Eve Plumb--who was Jan Brady, the most lovely of the Brady girls (in the old TV sitcom ‘The Brady Bunch’).”

Briggs echoes a similar sentiment. “One night at the Mar Vista Bowl, I bowled right next to Michael Keaton--and my date got a better score than his date did.”

With comments such as these, it’s hard to believe that any members of the under-40 set actually care about the sport itself. McGrath reduces it to a simplistic “People love to knock things down, it’s much more appealing than trying to pick things up.”

And Briggs admits: “I hate the actual sport itself. I think it’s boring.”

This attitude doesn’t always sit well with serious bowlers and old timers. Bay Shore Bowl’s manager Gary Kajii, 40, says: “They don’t realize that you don’t take mixed drinks out onto the approach--if they have bowling shoes with a little moisture on them, they can hurt themselves. They don’t know anything about bowling etiquette: Usually you have one person at an approach at a time. . . . They just group up there. They walk on the lanes, try to dance. That’s terrible. There’s oil on there.”

Sports Center Bowl’s Christy tries to remedy this conflict by announcing the rules of bowlers’ etiquette before every set of “Moonlight Madness.”

Grant Yamaguchi, 53, who runs his pro shop, the Ball Doctor, out of the Little Tokyo Bowl, has been a serious bowler for 35 years. He also teaches bowling techniques. But he doesn’t mind the influx of yuppies. “Everybody has a purpose. They come here to have a good time,” he says. A former engineer, Yamaguchi likes bowling for its scientific qualities. “It’s a game of physics,” he says.

But serious bowlers need not fret. At least one yuppie seems to be making the crossover. This young actor, known for his work in “Dressed to Kill” and “Back to School,” haunts the Little Tokyo Bowl in a once-a-week get-together with other actors and writers. “I’ve only been bowling a few months,” he says. “Someone on one of the projects I was working on suggested it. We all started going. We come here to gripe about work.”

And, although he jokes: “It’s part of my Italian Bronx heritage--bowling. Afterwards we go out and eat some cake or something unhealthy,” the young actor has started showing up at the Little Tokyo Bowl several other nights--alone. Yes, while blonde heiresses and downtown loft artists sip cocktails around him, this young actor rents out his own lane, and--brow furrowed, eyes determined--repeatedly aims for that center pin: You see, he’s working on improving his score.