Larry Davis’ Le Hot Tub Club in Westwood was, in the late ’70s, a somewhat notorious rent-by-the-hour emporium of soaking and well, whatever else customers wanted to do. The onset of AIDS prompted Davis to re-market, so he opened the Splash Relaxation Spa at the corner of West Third and Crescent Heights, a well-lit spa with blue awnings. But the reputation of his other spa, as well as neighborhood anger over a nearby nightclub, resulted in a political controversy over his arrival. Davis spoke with Karen Teitelman about the fallout.

I did a lot of theme rooms (at Splash), like a Jungle room, a Japanese garden suite, a Cave suite, and a Mediterranean suite, to name a few. I have been in business for 20 years now, 18 years at this place.

When I first tried to open at this location, I had opposition from the councilman who was representing the neighborhood. They (the surrounding neighbors) didn’t want me here. (Then city councilman, now county supervisor) Zev Yaroslavsky really put up a lot of roadblocks for me. And there was a stall with the police commission hearing the police had wanted to hear why the neighborhood was objecting to my business.

The police commission said that there was no way they could keep me from opening, but to appease the neighborhood they would put hourly restrictions on me. They wanted to limit my hours so that I had to close by midnight during the week, and by 2 a.m. on weekends. They did this for political reasons, and I eventually had to go to the state Supreme Court. The upshot was that they were going to restrict me and prevent me from doing wrong before anything actually happened. Of course this was unconstitutional. I appealed this all the way up to the state, and they overturned that decision.

Over the 20 years we’ve been here, we haven’t had any problems. Ironically, some of the people who were against us have said that we have made the corner much nicer. I put in an awning and some lights. It seems that the whole thing was just a communications problem. These people really didn’t have any idea what kind of a business this is. None of them ever went to see our other location; it was just the fear of the unknown.