{{short description|American journalist, author and jazz hostess (1935-2013)}} {{Infobox person | name = Mimi Clar Melnick | birth_name = Miriam Clar | birth_date = {{birth date|1935|12|25|mf=y}} | birth_place = Hollywood, California, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age |2013|6|14 |1935|12|25 |mf=yes}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | occupation = Journalist | spouse = Robert Melnick | children = }}
'''Mimi Clar Melnick''' (December 25, 1935 – June 14, 2013) was a journalist, author, and jazz salon hostess in Los Angeles.<ref name=Heckman>{{cite news |last=Heckman |first=Don |date=August 2, 2013 |title=Mimi Melnick dies at 77; author, ex-Times writer held jazz salons |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-xpm-2013-aug-01-la-me-mimi-clar-melnick-20130802-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref>
==Early life and education== Mimi Melnick was born Miriam Clar in Hollywood, California on December 25, 1935.<ref name=Heckman /> Her father, Charles Clar, was a high-end fireplace merchant, and her mother, Reva Howitt, was a dancer.<ref name=Heckman /> Her family was Jewish.<ref>{{cite book |last=Howitt |first=Reva |author-link= |date=2002 |title=Lollipop: Vaudeville Turns with a Fanchon and Marco Dancer |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press |pages=3, 156, 274 |isbn=081084186X}}</ref> She studied classical piano as a child and graduated from John Marshall High School in 1953. Melnick went on to attend UCLA, graduating in 1960 with a music degree.
==Career== Beginning in 1958, Melnick worked as a music critic for the Los Angeles Times, ending her tenure there in 1965 after writing over 200 articles, mostly about jazz musicians and concerts but also covering classical music and theatre events. In addition, she wrote articles for a variety of other publications including ''Vogue'', ''Life'', ''Harper's'', ''Folklore International'', ''Jazz Review'', ''California Historical Quarterly'', and over 70 articles in the journal ''Western Folklore''.<ref name=Heckman /><ref name=Peek>{{cite web |url=https://library.csun.edu/sca/peek-stacks/mimi-melnick |title=The Mimi Melnick Collection |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=October 31, 2017 |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref>
After her career as a music journalist, Melnick developed an interest in other areas as well. She co-wrote two books (and a scholarly article in ''California Historical Quarterly'') on manhole covers as historical artifacts and urban art with her husband, Robert Melnick.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Melnick |first1=Mimi |last2=Melnick |first2=Robert |date=1976 |title=Manhole Covers: Artifacts in the Streets |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/25157664 |journal=California Historical Quarterly |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=352–363 |doi=10.2307/25157664 |jstor=25157664 |access-date=17 December 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Her research and advocacy resulted in the city of Los Angeles officially preserving fifteen manhole covers in 1984 at Heritage Square historic park.<ref>{{cite news |last=Larsen |first=Dave |date=November 12, 1984 |title=Protecting the Jewelry of the Streets: Authority on Heavy Topic Wins Manhole-Cover Battle |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/154015386 |access-date=November 6, 2024|id={{ProQuest|154015386}} }}</ref><ref name=Duersten>{{cite magazine |last=Duersten |first=Matthew |title=Meet Me at Mimi's: How an Urban Archaeologist turned her Encino Home into an L.A. Jazz Hothouse |work=Los Angeles Magazine |volume=52 |issue=8 |date=August 2007 |page=124 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/219702528 |via=ProQuest}}</ref> She also contributed to, edited, and published her mother's autobiography on her life as a vaudeville dancer.<ref name=Heckman /><ref name=Duersten2>{{cite magazine |last=Duersten |first=Matthew |date=June 24, 2013 |title=The Jazz Baroness of Strawberry Drive: RIP Mimi Melnick |url=https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/the-jazz-baroness-of-strawberry-drive/ |magazine=Los Angeles Magazine |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/ref/collection/cmt/id/628 |title= Mimi Melnick Interview, 2003 |last=Martinson |first=Connie |date=2003 |website=Claremont Colleges Digital Library |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref>
Melnick began to host jazz salons (known as the Double M Jazz Salon) in the living room of her Encino home in 1996, attracting dozens of talented musicians (such as Horace Tapscott, Bobby Bradford, and Gerald Wiggins) as well as hundreds of jazz fans including Morgan Freeman, Marla Gibbs, Amber Tamblyn, and Russ Tamblyn.<ref name=Heckman /><ref>{{cite web |last=Sahasrabudhe |first=Varad |title=Jazz in the Archives |website=Peek in the Stacks |publisher=University Library, California State University Northridge |date=10 December 2024 |url=https://library.csun.edu/sca/peek-stacks/jazz-archives |access-date=24 November 2025}}</ref> Her mailing list of invitees grew to 500, and average attendance at the salons was about 70.<ref name=Duersten /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kcet.org/history-society/southern-californias-seven-women-of-vision |title=Southern California's Seven Women of Vision |last=Sonksen |first=Mike |date=July 19, 2013 |website=KCET History and Society |publisher=KCET |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref><ref name=Duersten2 />
==Personal== Melnick died on June 14, 2013, due to complications from open heart surgery. Her husband, engineer and photographer Robert Melnick, died in 1982.<ref name=Heckman /><ref name=Duersten2 />
==Selected publications== Along with hundreds of scholarly journal articles, newspaper articles, book chapters, and magazine articles, Melnick wrote or contributed to the following monographs:
* ''Lollipop: Vaudeville Turns with a Fanchon and Marco Dancer'' (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002). (Contributor and editor)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Malnig |first1=Julie |date=2005 |title=Reviewed Work: Lollipop: Vaudeville Turns with a Fanchon and Marco Dancer by Reva Howitt Clar, Mimi Melnick |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/20444648 |journal=Dance Research Journal |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=106–110 |jstor=20444648 |access-date=17 December 2024}}</ref> * ''Manhole Covers of Los Angeles'' (Los Angeles : Dawson's Book Shop, 1974). (co-written with Robert Melnick) * ''Manhole Covers'' (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994). (co-written with Robert Melnick)<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Iron Age |date=December 1994 |journal=American Heritage |volume=45 |issue=8 |page=126 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/iron-age |access-date=December 17, 2024}}</ref>
==Legacy== Melnick's archives are held in the University Library at California State University, Northridge.<ref> {{Cite web |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8dr31pb/entire_text/ |title=Guide to the Mimi Melnick Collection |last=Teltoe |first=Holli |date=2017 |website=Online Archive of California |publisher=California Digital Library |access-date=November 6, 2024}}</ref><ref name=Peek /> The Double M Jazz Salon lived on even after her death, as jazz concerts and music scholarships were sponsored by her brother Richard Clar and held at the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City, California for several years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.claytonmuseum.org/events/double-m-jazz-salon--mclm |title=Double M Jazz Salon @ MCLM |author=<!--Not stated--> |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://dexterstory.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/july-9-2017-double-m-jazz-salon-presents-kamau-daaood-and-a-band-of-griots-mayme-clayton-library-and-museum-culver-city-ca/ |title=Double M Jazz Salon Presents Kamau Daaood and a Band of Griots – Mayme Clayton Library and Museum, Culver City, CA |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=July 9, 2017 |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=March 13, 2017 |title=Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum Presents Mimi Melnick's Double M Jazz Salon The Azar Lawrence Quartet |url=https://lasentinel.net/mayme-a-clayton-library-museum-presents-mimi-melnicks-double-m-jazz-salon-the-azar-lawrence-quartet.html |work=Los Angeles Sentinel |access-date=December 18, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=June 25, 2015 |title=Clar Family To Present Award to emerging Young Artists |work=Culver City Observer |page=9}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Melnick, Mimi Clar}} Category:1935 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Writers from Los Angeles Category:Journalists from California Category:Los Angeles Times people Category:20th-century American women journalists Category:20th-century American journalists Category:20th-century American women writers Category:20th-century American Jews Category:Jewish American journalists Category:American music critics Category:American women music critics Category:American women writers about music Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:21st-century American women Category:Writers from Hollywood, Los Angeles Category:Mass media people from Hollywood, Los Angeles