When nightclub pioneer Jewel Thais-Williams took over the building at 4067 W. Pico Blvd. in 1973, it transformed from the kind of venue where Ella Fitzgerald had to enter through the back to not offend white patrons into a spot where disco titan Sylvester could bring a full band out to play odes to black queer love. "Just before [Fitzgerald] passed, she wanted to see the place again," said Thais-Williams, who opened the canonical disco club Jewel's Catch One in the same spot. "She was telling me how it was for her, how she used to have to go up the back steps and go to the back of the bar, she couldn't go through the front door or socialize with patrons."