Play It Again, Sam: Searching for the real Rick’s cafe in Casablanca

For Global Post

Three Moroccan bars claim to be the real inspiration for Rick’s Café in the classic movie “Casablanca.” As this story for GlobalPost shows, none of them are right.

Here’s an excerpt:

CASABLANCA, Morocco — On a dingy side street, the smiling landlord pronounced with historical certainty that one need look no further. The real inspiration for Rick’s Cafe in the classic film “Casablanca” stands before you.

“Yes,” said Abdeslamy Labiad, 70, gesturing to an oval sign above an arched doorway. “It’s the same bar.”

The sign was plastic, and smeared with bird scat. It said, “Rex Cabaret.”

Several saloons in this North African country have laid claim to the legacy of the great World War II movie romance, each with varying degrees of plausibility. Steered by locals or guidebooks promising the authentic Rick’s, tourists flock to one after the other. Sorting out which bar best imitates the real thing is complicated by the fact that, by all reliable accounts, no original existed in the first place.

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