Born in Illinois, Vivian Laird came to California during the state’s oil boom in the 1920s. She married an oil driller and used her $2500 divorce settlement to open the Garden of Allah on East Second Street in Long Beach.

After Prohibition ended, the enterprising businesswoman was allocated one of the first liquor licenses in Long Beach. On opening night, she could still only serve ‘near beer’ – a fermented malt beverage that could be sold legally and could not contain more than one half of one per cent alcohol.

Vivian was surprised when happy customers said it was the best beer they’d ever tasted - then she discovered that her barman had been spiking the beer with pure alcohol.

The name of the restaurant was presumably a tribute to the original Garden of Allah, the famous hotel and villas on Sunset Boulevard where F Scott Fitzgerald lived for several months from 1937-38. Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart and Sergei Rachmaninoff were also residents and Harpo Marx was a frequent visitor.

Laird sold the restaurant in 1936 and opened a new Garden of Allah in Seal Beach. This was followed by the Bohemia Lounge in the Robinson Hotel in 1938, the South Seas in Anaheim and the Brass Rail in Laguna Beach.

In 1947, she opened Vivian’s Laird’s on Alamitos Avenue, Long Beach. 

Laird and her second husband Frank Hill sold their businesses in the late 1950s, went on a round-the- world trip and came back to retire in Long Beach, California.