No Mo’ Blues : Club Owner Sings a Happy Tune After Songwriters Pay Her Debt

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the legendary songwriting team whose career was nurtured in nightclubs and after-hours jazz and blues joints along Central Avenue, last week gave something back to the community that gave them their start.

Laura Mae Gross, the 73-year-old owner of Babe’s and Ricky’s Inn, the last blues nightspot in South-Central Los Angeles, was drowning in a sea of debt, facing a $9,000 judgment for failing to pay royalties to members of the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers.

The debt would have closed the popular, 30-year-old club, which has featured some of the greats of the business.

Leiber and Stoller, who were responsible for scores of 1950s and ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm-and-blues hits including “Hound Dog” and “Yakety Yak,” read about Gross’ plight in a Times article last month and decided to rescue her.

The West Hollywood-based songwriters told ASCAP, which monitors and collects royalties for its members under music copyright laws, that they will pay the judgment and the club’s annual fees to ASCAP as long as Gross stays in business.

Leiber and Stoller--neither of whom had ever set foot in the club--said they were driven by their love for the blues and a sense of nostalgia: Babe’s and Ricky’s is one of the last reminders of a golden era along Central, when the strip was the center of African American cultural life in Los Angeles.

“It’s the roots of our beginning--not only the music but the neighborhood,” Stoller said Saturday night during a brief visit to the club.

“It has something to do with keeping the remnants of the culture intact,” Leiber said in a telephone interview. “Otherwise, it will turn to pinkeye or white bread.”

Gross said: “It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful. I’m so happy and thankful. This will help us keep the club alive.”

Gross ran into trouble with ASCAP because she never took seriously the notion that she was obligated to pay royalties on songs because they were performed on her stage. It was a costly error, which escalated until the club’s bank accounts were attached by a collection agency.

The men who came to her salvation were Los Angeles high school students in the early 1950s--Leiber at Fairfax, Stroller at Belmont--when they began venturing to Central Avenue to sample some of the after-hours joints, ballrooms, hotels and theaters. They soaked up the music scene--the Ink Spots, the Penguins, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday.

Eventually, they began to shape it. Many of their songs, often soaked in humor or poignancy, were recorded by artists who played Central Avenue clubs, and whose records helped build a huge audience for black artists among young whites.

The list of Leiber-Stoller hits reads like a history of the music itself: “Jailhouse Rock,” recorded by Elvis Presley; “There Goes My Baby” and “On Broadway,” by the Drifters; “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me,” by Ben E. King, and “Poison Ivy” and “Charlie Brown” by the Coasters.

In recent years, the songwriters have worked with ASCAP to award scholarships to young, aspiring composers and musicians.

Acknowledging the legal need to collect royalties, Leiber and Stoller said they were troubled by ASCAP’s attempts to go after Gross’ club.

“They were leaning on the wrong people,” Leiber said. “This is nickel and dimes. It’s like putting poor people out of business who are trying to earn a living an honest way.”

“We felt something needed to be done and we are in a position to do that,” Stoller added.

Barry Knittle, director of licensing for ASCAP, applauded the decision by Stoller and Leiber to pay Gross’ debt, but defended the society’s right to collect royalties for members.

“Authors, composers and publishers want their music to be performed and at the same time they expect royalties to be paid for their creativity,” he said. “I don’t think anyone could be asked for more.”

At Babe’s and Ricky’s, the news of the bailout lifted the mood at the club Saturday night.

When Stoller dropped by, he was warmly greeted by several in the house, including an old friend, Don Johnson, a former trumpet player with Johnny Otis’ band who is now a music promoter. Johnson played tambourine on Big Mamma Thorton’s 1953 recording of “Hound Dog.”

“I feel damn good,” Johnson said. “Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber made a mint off the music that was popular in this community. It’s only right that they give something back.”

Stoller agreed.

“The important thing is that we did it to help save the music,” he said.