Lost Tables: Mural Room

Mural Room

Godjo Kovacevich was born in Yugoslavia on November 3, 1902 and immigrated to the United States in 1925, at the age of 22. It's reported he attended the University of Southern California, lettering in wrestling and boxing, but he's absent from USC yearbooks. Claims that he boxed Max Baer to a four-round draw and appeared in a number of motion pictures are undocumented. What is undisputed is that Godjo Kovacevich, aka George "K.O." Koverly, was a world class wrestler.

Wrestling out of Hollywood in the mid 1930s, Koverly was a sensation up and down the Pacific coast, and soon became sought after in the East. He was universally recognized as the outstanding villain of matdom.

One of rassling's authentic villains appears in the village grunt and groan palace tonight.
He is George Koverly, the sadistic Slav, who is, perhaps, the meanest meanie in the business.
Koverly is so mean that some rassling promoters hesitate to employ him. He gets them into trouble, leaves them with lawsuits on their hands.
The guy is forever punching people around . . . going into the gallery to blacken the customers' eyes. He's real bad.
In Santa Monica one night a client in one of the cheaper seats called Koverly "a big bum." It was nothing the ordinary rassler couldn't have taken in stride. Koverly himself had been called worse many times.
But on this occasion, he flew into a violent rage, went up into the gallery and broke the fellow's arm. That cost the management plenty.
Similar outbursts in San Diego, Los Angeles, Buffalo and St. Louis have earned Koverly a black reputation, although in civil life he's really not a bad guy.
He has, however, one unfortunate trait. He is an impatient driver and in heavy auto traffic he uses his car as a battering ram to clear the way of drivers who annoy him. Koverly has paid for many a broken fender.
San Francisco Examiner, November 16, 1943


George "K.O." Koverly

On March 20, 1945, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Koverly, who was then living in St. Louis, had broken more than a fender with his driving.

Eddie Campbell, a professional wrestler, was killed and George Koverly, 1227 Ferguson Avenue, University City, also a wrestler, was injured seriously early today when an automobile driven by Koverly struck a bridge abutment on State Highway 61 near Wentzville.
Campbell, 28 years old, and Koverly, 38, were returning from Hannibal, where they participated in matches last night. Koverly, suffering from head injuries, was taken to Barnes Hospital.
Koverly told police a misty rain and glaring headlights on an approaching machine caused him to lose control as he neared the bridge over McCoy Creek. After striking the abutment, the automobile swung across the bridge and was hit by a machine going in the same direction.
Koverly, a heavyweight, has been a headline attraction for several years. He was scheduled to wrestle "Wild Bill" Longson in a heavyweight "championship" match Friday at Kiel Auditorium.

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In 1922, a new building was constructed at the northwest corner of DeBaliviere and Waterman avenues for the Dorr and Zeller Catering Company. The large two-story structure housed Dorr and Zeller's Chocolate Shop in its corner space.

In December of 1940, the Chocolate Shop closed and the corner space was leased to John M. Vahey and Marshall B. Cowles for a cocktail lounge which they called the Mural Room.

The Mural Room opened at 401 DeBaliviere on December 18, 1940 with "Bud Taylor at the console." From the fall of 1941 though the spring of 1942, the cocktail lounge offered a series of Sunday night coffee concerts by the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis. In August of 1942, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch advertised the venue for "before or after the opera" and for bridge parties. And by 1946, the Mural Room was owned and operated by George "K.O." Koverly.

The Mural Room in the Dorr & Zeller Building, 401 DeBaliviere, 1950
(click image to enlarge)

Koverly continued to wrestle after becoming a restaurateur, although by the early 1950s, he appeared mainly in charity bouts. In 1946 and 1947, the St. Louis Star and Times listed Harold J. Wulff as Koverly's partner. If Wulff remained a partner in the Mural Room beyond that, he was silent.

In March of 1952, the Post Office Department sued to evict the Mural Room from its 401 DeBaliviere space. The Post Office's Bureau of Accounts had rented second-floor offices the prior May on the understanding the cocktail lounge’s occupancy would be canceled on the expiration of its lease, which had occurred the prior month.

"What makes it worse," said a Post Office spokesman, "a neon sign advertising the night club extends above the first floor, making it look as if the post office is in the liquor business."

By November of 1952, Koverly had moved the Mural Room to 415 DeBaliviere in a space which had been occupied by the Hi-Lo Super Market. For the grand opening on March 3 the following year, Koverly advertised new murals by artist Michael Chomyk.

I’m proud of my new Mural Room. Its beautiful murals, painted in fluorescent colors, give a unique and different-from-anything-you’ve-seen effect under the black light. The food is what you expect at The Mural Room – the best. The drinks are perfect. Lunch is served daily . . . food served until closing!
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 3, 1953


Mid 1950s Mural Room Menu - 415 DeBaliviere (click image to enlarge)

In the 1950's, the Mural Room was one of the great places to go for music and dining, to see and be seen. Out-of-town sports teams were frequent guests.

On one occasion, wrestler Bill Longson and his family were present when a man entered the restaurant, brandished a gun in front of alarmed patrons and threatened to shoot Koverly for an alleged dalliance with a woman. Longson's son recalled:

George, in his calm way, said, "Let’s not create a disturbance here. Let’s step outside.” So they stepped outside the door and George knocked him cold with one punch, and told him to be on his way. . . . He was a legitimate tough guy.

George "K.O." Koverly attends to guests
Mural Room, 1950s

At 11:10 p.m. Sunday, June 30, 1957, an explosion blew out a section of the rear wall of the Mural Room and the plate glass in the front of the building. Flames burned fiercely in the restaurant and in the basement.

Three alarms were turned in, with 20 pieces of equipment responding. A large crowd of spectators, many of them homeward-bound from the Municipal Opera, gathered on DeBaliviere and Waterman.

Fireman attributed the blast to gas accumulation in the first-floor kitchen. Koverly had left his second-floor apartment above the restaurant at 6 p.m. and had not returned when the blast occurred. The building and its contents were extensively damaged.

Koverly rebuilt the Mural Room and reopened it in mid November. The restaurant stayed open through 1960. By the spring of 1961, the Mural Room had closed.

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George Koverly had been married in 1938 and divorced in 1956. He remarried on June 1, 1961. His second wife filed for divorce seven months later, claiming Koverly had displayed a violent temper, treated her roughly and threatened to harm her. Koverly married again on October 24, 1962, was separated the following May and divorced in 1965.

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George "K.O." Koverly retired to Santa Monica, California in 1967, where he could often be found playing checkers or pinochle in a local park. He died in 1989 at the age of 86.

K.O. Koverly (right) playing pinochle at Palisades Park in Santa Monica
Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1982