I'm having too much fun with the old photos of the Huntington Beach Pavalon that I stumbled across on eBay. This one is from about 1947, and the band playing is George Laughlin and the Melody Crew.Details on this local band are hard to come by. In 1958, Laughlin played with both of his bands -- the Melody Crew AND the Millionaires -- at an event at the Disneyland Hotel. By 1964 he was both the owner and the maitre d' of a restaurant and nightclub called Million-Aires, on West Chapman Ave. in Orange. Not surprisingly, the Millionaires were the house band at Million-Aires, and the versatile Mr. Laughlin sat in on drums.
In a strange twist, there is now another band called the Millionaires based in Orange County. The new Millionaires is a group of young girls from Huntington Beach who play something the Interweb describes as "explicit electropop."
I'm guessing I'd like the old Millionaires better than the new ones.