The Cedric Gibbons home, via Google Street View.

Celebrity has often been the cachet for creating style, fashion and cultural trends, especially with the advent of films. Stars wearing a particular designer’s couture, driving a certain car, or a female star wearing pants, started tongues wagging and led average citizens to try to copy their style. Movies themselves fashioned popular trends in music, style and even architecture.

The gorgeous jewel box of a home belonging to 11-time Academy Award-winner MGM art director Cedric Gibbons and his wife, actress Dolores Del Rio, epitomizes Hollywood glamour, and still stands as one of the outstanding examples of home as art in Hollywood. All sleek lines and geometric patterns, it stands as a Streamline-Moderne masterpiece, the perfect representation of one of Gibbons’ MGM luxurious set designs come to life.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

Dolores Del Rio in the home, from Photoplay, 1931.

The son of an architect, Gibbons was born March 23, 1890, in New York, where he was privately tutored and intended to follow in his father’s footsteps. He traveled to Europe on a Grand Tour, studying architecture, and enrolled in New York’s Art Students League once he returned. Gibbons joined his father’s firm, working two years as a draftsman, which quickly bored him.

In 1914, motion picture art director and sculptor Hugo Ballin hired him as an assistant to help design sets for films, and Gibbons’ career trajectory was set. After working as an art director for Goldwyn Pictures in 1916, Gibbons joined the United States Navy in 1917. After the war, he became art director in chief at Goldwyn’s new Culver City lot, where he would go on to work for almost 40 years.

Dashing and urbane, Gibbons — a doppelganger for William Powell — ruled his large department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer like any founding architect of a large firm: he acted as project head, with designers reporting to him with plans for each film, drawn up by illustrators. Gibbons established the vision for each project and then ensured that the designers adhered to that plan.

After attending the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in 1925, Gibbons introduced the Art Deco style in sophisticated, black and white sets for MGM films. As Gibbons told the Los Angeles Times for an April 8, 1928, article, “Motion pictures set the vogue in wearing apparel styles. Fashions always find their way to the screen before they strike Fifth Avenue. So it is with architectural and decorative styles. The screen designer must search them out and be the first to use them.”

Jeffrey Head, in the 2006 Los Angeles Modernism catalogue introduction, notes: “By establishing the streamline art moderne “look” for MGM during the late 1920s, Gibbons effectively introduced modern design to the American public on a popular scale, influencing a generation of home furnishings and interiors. For many people, their only exposure to the art moderne movement was through Gibbons’ set designs.” Gibbons’ work swayed public taste toward Art Deco and Streamline Moderne with its jazzy, striking staircases, ceilings and lines. Gibbons would be among the first in Los Angeles to employ Streamline-Moderne for his residence, built as the ultimate wedding gift for his bride.

From Cine Mundial.

A  shy, quiet man, Gibbons fell in love with the striking Mexican actress Dolores Del Rio at first sight, per the story Del Rio relayed to journalist Gladys Hall in a 1931 Movie Classic magazine article. While she was working at MGM on the film “The Trail of ’98,” Gibbons would come to the set to watch her work, and asked director Clarence Brown to introduce him to what he called, “the most beautiful thing in Hollywood.” Brown refused, stating that she was cold and lifeless, particularly after divorcing her husband, who soon died of illness. Gibbons couldn’t get up the courage to approach her, and whenever he went to cocktail or dinner parties, he hoped to run into her. At a Marion Davies’ party, he finally made an introduction, and supposedly the couple were making out 10 minutes after being introduced. As Del Rio exclaimed to Hall, “All women love a man like that – let them pose and be superior as they will! I loved it! I knew, mysteriously and surely, that I loved him.” Within six weeks the couple were engaged, and quickly married at the Santa Barbara Mission on Aug. 6, 1930.

Gibbons asked fellow MGM designer and architect Douglas Honnold to assist him in a designing a spectacular showcase in which to accentuate the beauty of his lovely wife. While the streetscape at 757 Kingman Ave. in Santa Monica was as reserved as Gibbons, inside, the home was Hollywood fantasy come true—an angular black and white sophisticated vision offering the perfect backdrop for glamorous entrances and appearances by his striking wife.

As Oscar Romoldi points out in Hollywood Studio Magazine, the interior space was ingeniously laid out by a master craftsman, in what Romoldi called “Streamline Moderne meets Bauhaus.” Perfect composition and lighting highlight the theatrical living spaces in the 4,744-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath residence. Setbacks around the front door, fireplaces, and walls, geometric patterns, black terrazzo floors, and white walls reflected the shiny industrial look of moderne in dramatic fashion. The first floor consisted of a library, breakfast room, kitchen, dining room and guest suite, with a two-story brushed steel staircase the center of attention, leading up to the home’s grand public area on the second floor, which featured large windows and dramatic lines overlooking the two-bedroom guesthouse, swimming pool, tennis court with viewing area, and expansive lawns.

The 25 by 45-foot-stylish living room and grand salon served as dramatic backdrop for entertaining, with built-in lighting and furniture by designer Paul Frankel. All-black baths featured stainless steel detailing, with hot and cold running water operated by foot pedals. Mirrors dominated the house, reflecting the shiny surfaces and emphasizing glamour and beauty. Gibbons and Del Rio possessed their own bedrooms on separate floors, but a secret staircase led from one dressing room to the other, and Del Rio’s dressing room also featured a trap door that opened to the stairs.

The couple entertained lavishly for almost 11 years, hosting regular Sunday afternoon parties dominated by tennis, Gibbons’ passion. Unfortunately, on March 15, 1940, Del Rio walked away, filing for divorce that December. The couple settled out of court, with Gibbons retaining ownership of the house, which he sold in December 1946 to actor Van Johnson for $125,000, per the Los Angeles Times.

Over the decades other owners have restored and honored this lovely jewel, including Los Angeles attorney and developer Ira Yellin, and film producer Joe Roth. The home has even been featured in such movies as “To Live and Die in L.A.” and “Twilight” starring Gene Hackman. The current owners succeeded in adding it to Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments list last summer, as HCM No. 1038, a perfect representative for Hollywood’s Golden Age.

After watching a crew build the forms and a couple of cement trucks pouring the concrete, I finally saw the completed concrete house at 747 S. Los Robles Ave. in Pasadena. Unfortunately, it’s not clear who designed the house.

And here’s a closer view.

The home is listed at $2.5 million, according to Zillow.

Leave it to Marc Chevalier to come up with this. Marc took the image of one of the glass panels from the Oviatt Building and turned it into a custom necktie, via Zazzle. The tie is $29.95. You can even create your own design.

March 16, 1936: Times artist Charles Owens and columnist Timothy Turner visit the St. Charles Hotel at 314 N. Main, which was formerly the Bella Union Hotel.

“This was one of the two best hotels in Los Angeles not so long ago as history goes,” Turner writes. “It was the famed Hotel Bella Union, built first of adobe about 1849 and rebuilt in exactly its present form in the late ’50s.”

Marion Davies’ beach house, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst inherited and erected lavish estates for himself around California like Wyntoon, his Northern California retreat, and Hearst Castle, his main residence on the Central Coast, but in 1926 he constructed a mammoth Georgian Colonial home on Santa Monica’s Gold Coast as a present for his companion, Marion Davies. A Hollywood version of a Newport Beach, Rhode Island, “cottage,” Davies’ mansion dwarfed those of fellow film industry notables like Douglas Fairbanks, Harold Lloyd, Harry Warner, and Constance and Norma Talmadge. Davies’ beach house represents the perfect combination of Hollywood excess and elegant architecture.

Marion Davies’ life was never the same after meeting business magnate Hearst. A Ziegfeld Follies girl, Davies’ charming, endearing personality attracted the much older, shyer man. By 1918, the pair were a twosome, though Hearst was married to Millicent, a former showgirl herself. The couple moved permanently to California in the mid-1920s to further Davies’ film career at MGM, and to distance themselves from his wife.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

Marion Davies’ beach house, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Hearst inherited his father’s more than 250,000 acres of ranchland outside San Luis Obispo in 1919, and began transforming the site into La Cuesta Encantada, or “Enchanted Hill.” Assisted by architect Julia Morgan, Hearst erected a lavish palace with 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens over the next two decades, filled with legendary and historic art, sculpture and furniture acquired on his many trips to Europe. This home complemented Wyntoon, the Gothic, medieval castle constructed by his mother outside Mount Shasta.

Davies and Hearst occupied a home in Beverly Hills whenever she worked on films in Los Angeles. However, many members of the Douras’ family dropped in and out, keeping it crowded and busy. While Hearst and Davies picnicked on the beach one day in May 1926, Hearst announced that he would build her a beach house as a place to escape from family. He hired Morgan to design a regal retreat for his mistress, with the architect supervising construction from 1926 to 1938. Morgan drew up plans for a Georgian Colonial mansion, actually almost three homes in one, on the 21 contiguous lots over almost five acres Hearst acquired on Santa Monica’s beachfront, with an address of 415 Palisades Beach Road.

Marion Davies’ beach house, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

The mansion, which many called a “Western White House,” or an “American legation,” closely resembled George Washington’s Mount Vernon as well as the presidential residence, featuring a two-story portico at its front and a U-shaped Colonial revival clapboard appearance. The huge estate contained 118 rooms, 34 bedrooms, and 55 bathrooms inside the house, along with three guest houses, two swimming pools, kennels and tennis courts. Ocean House quickly became Hollywood’s beach retreat and party central.

Sam Watters, in his book “Houses of Los Angeles,” states that in 1928, Hearst hired architect and set designer William Flannery to decorate the home’s interior with rich American and English antiques and design. Flannery had designed Joe Schenck and Norma Talmadge’s beach house, and Cliff Durant’s Beverly Hills house. The first floor functioned as the public area for the house, with a reception room, dining room, breakfast room, library, study, long entrance hall and double staircases. The second floor contained bedrooms, while the third floor contained Davies’ private suite, connected by a private staircase with Hearst’s suite below. The ground floor featured a wine cellar, an English tavern nicknamed the “Rathskellar,” changed into an ice cream parlor after an attack by Sister Aimee McPherson, and pool changing rooms. Hearst imported whole rooms from Europe, wallpaper, Grinley Gibbons paneling, paintings and furniture. White marble terraces lined with black diamond tile surrounded the home and grounds.

Marion Davies home, as shown in “Photoplay,” 1934.

Fred Lawrence Guiles states that the house featured 37 fireplaces, Tiffany crystal chandeliers and a dining room to sit 25 filled with Old Masters in his book “The Times We Had.” The library contained a movie screen that rose out of the floor by pushing a button. The gold room truly sparkled, with gold leaf decorating the walls and ceiling, and gold damask sofas, tasseled curtains and Georgian furniture. The Marine Room, lined with English walnut paneling, served as the game room. Davies’ beach house supposedly cost approximately $3 million to build, and almost $4 million to furnish with European furnishings and art.

In the book, “William Randolph Hearst, The Later Years 1911-1951,” author Ben Proctor notes the piece de resistance: a “110-foot heated swimming pool lined with Italian marble and traversed by a Venetian marble bridge.”

Hearst hired 75 woodcarvers to build balustrades and fireplace mantels in 1930 and selected a $7,500 mural wallpaper for Davies’ suite. English walnut paneling lined many of the rooms. Photoplay magazine in 1933 reported that a staff of 20 ran the house, along with the house manager.

Marion Davies’ beach house, as shown in “Photoplay,” 1934.

While Guiles states Henry Clive painted full-size portraits depicting Davies in roles from the films “The Red Mill,” “Little Old New York,” “When Knighthood Was in Flower” that lined the first-floor hallway, photos of some the paintings show illustrator Howard Chandler Christy posing with them, which strongly resemble his artistic style.

Once completed, the beach house served as the wonderful location for many luxurious parties. Elaborate balls and parties like the Circus Ball and a Night in Heidelberg allowed celebrities to play dress up and relax. The home hosted many MGM photo shoots for Davies, her friends and co-stars.

Costs to run and operate the house soared. On July 27, 1939, Davies applied for a reduction in taxes assessed by the Los Angeles County tax assessor when he valued the home at $220,000 and the land at $90,000. Davies asked for a home valuation of $50,000 instead.

Marion Davies’ house, as shown in “Photoplay,” 1934.

During the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Hearst and Davies lived most of the time at Hearst Castle, and stayed at her Beverly Hills’ Lexington Drive home when in town. Davies sold the home for $600,000 in 1946 to the Hearst Corp., which sold it to hotel and real estate magnate Joseph W. Drown. He turned it into an upscale private beach club called Ocean House, “America’s most beautiful hotel,” which opened May 30, 1948, after months of redecorating. The Sand and Sea Club on the grounds required a yearly $1,000 membership fee, per Variety. Minna Wallace threw a red, white and blue ball there on July 3, where suites cost $75 a day. In December, he reopened it as a hotel at rates of $45 a night, with nightclub and special rooms, with society groups, women’s groups, charities, holding balls, parties, fashion shows and events there. Suites could be rented for $225 a month in July 1949, or $255 a month for two persons. Bands performed every night in the Rathskellar. An ad in the Oct. 13, 1949, Variety promoted it as, “A new kind of holiday! Weekend Ocean House parties”—a package from Friday through Sunday for room and all meals.

In 1950, George Marshall directed Eleanor Parker and Fred MacMurray in scenes shot around the swimming pool for “A Millionaire for Christy,” released in 1951. Also that year, director Otto Preminger and agent Phil Berg took up residence for a short while.

Marion Davies’ beach house, as shown in “Photoplay,” 1934.

In May 1956, Drown took out an application to convert the space into a drive-in motel and restaurant, which would require demolishing the house. That July, Drown put the paneling, chandeliers and other items up for auction. The Nov. 2, 1956, Los Angeles Times describes Santa Monica residents and historic groups suggesting that the residence be turned into a museum that would rival the Huntington, only to see the main house and some of the grounds demolished, but the businesses never built. The state of California took over the Sand and Sea Club, which remained open through the early 1990s under the guidance of the city of Santa Monica. The club closed after the Northridge earthquake. A 7,000-square-foot guest house was remodeled and opened in 2009 as the Annenberg Community Beach House, open to the public. The classic look of the building gives it elegance, hearkening back to its glory days in the 1920s.

Note: This is a repost of a regular feature I did for the 1947project in 2007 in which I tried to find homes listed in The Times’ Sunday real estate section in 1907. Architectural Ramblings was one of my favorite features because it took me into all sorts of neighborhoods that I would have never visited otherwise and it was a pleasant surprise to discover how many 100-year-old homes have survived in Los Angeles despite development and earthquakes. The homes in what is now downtown Los Angeles, are all gone, of course, but those built in what were the outlying areas are still around, although they typically have lost their brick chimneys, and may have aluminum windows, burglar bars and a coating of stucco.

Feb. 18, 2007
Los Angeles

The buildings featured in The Times for this week have been torn down, but in glancing through the listings, I found the sale by the Althouse brothers of a lot at 3006 S. La Salle.

3006 S. La Salle

I can’t say the house was particularly interesting, although I was happy to find it still standing. Still, it was an interesting neighborhood to visit and the house at 2921 S. La Salle cries begs out for rehabbing.

2723 S. La Salle.

2921 S. La Salle

3015 S. La Salle

3027 S. La Salle

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Over the decades, motion picture producers have unknowingly documented historic and outstanding architecture surrounding Hollywood and Los Angeles while filming their movies. These visual representations often stand as the only documentation of long-gone buildings, residences and businesses, a celebration of the historic built environment and daily lives of ordinary citizens of bygone days.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) salutes this sometimes forgotten but hallowed past in an engaging three-hour bus tour of movie locations, highlighting classic and contemporary films, as a way to celebrate its 20th anniversary on-air. The free tour, offered once a day through co-sponsor Starline Tours, celebrates the joys of moviemaking and movie-going as it travels the streets of Hollywood and Los Angeles.

Reserve a TCM tour here.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

After obtaining tickets online a few weeks ago, a friend and I trekked down to the TCL Chinese Theatre on March 21 to participate in the fun event. A gaily decorated tour bus, pastel painted with the TCM Movie Locations Tour logo, pulled up behind the theater. State-of-the-art in every way, with stadium seating, skylight windows, large retractable side windows, and a 65-inch HD monitor on which to view movie clips, the tour bus offers a plush opportunity to sit back and enjoy sightseeing around the city of the Angeles.

The entertaining and relaxing excursion drives through Hollywood on its trek to downtown Los Angeles, traversing Wilshire Boulevard, Angeleno Heights, Echo Park and East Hollywood on its way back to the theater. The friendly tour guide cracks corny jokes and visits with film fans as he spins the history of moviemaking and Los Angeles along the way. Dozens of film clips from movies, serials and travelogues play before and after visiting locations, mainly of films produced after 1950, showing the location as it appears on-screen. Through the magic of television, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz introduces the tour and offers a little history along the way, as he does before films.

The Bradbury Building in “White Cliffs of Dover.”

Pulling out of the Hollywood/Highland shopping center, the tour bus showcases such historic sites as the Roosevelt Hotel, the Chaplin/Henson Studio, the former Pickford-Fairbanks Studio, Howard Hughes’ old studio, a Gilmore gas station on Highland Avenue, General Services Studio, the Red Studio, RKO Studios and Paramount Studios as it makes its way to Western Avenue, offering some Los Angeles history along with movie tidbits.

Once the bus turns left onto Wilshire Boulevard, the guide describes films as he points out such locations as the Wiltern Theatre, Talmadge Apartments, Bullock’s Department Store, the Park Plaza Hotel, and MacArthur Park/Westlake Park on its way to downtown. In downtown, the bus travels through the 2nd Street Tunnel before passing Angels Flight, the Biltmore Hotel, the old Pantages/Warner Bros. Theatre, Cicada Club, Broadway historic theaters, Los Angeles City Hall and Union Station. The bus stops twice while in downtown, once for a quick tour inside the lobby of the Bradbury Building, and again at the Plaza by Olvera Street, allowing for a quick walk over to Union Station.

On its trip back to Hollywood, the bus travels through Angeleno Heights and past such landmarks as Echo Park, Angelus Temple, close to the Music Box Steps, Mack Sennett Studios, and Walt Disney Studios on Hyperion. The guide points out such sights as the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory, the Louis B. Mayer Building, the Pantages Theatre, the Walk of Fame, the Warner Bros./Pacific Theatre, Musso & Frank’s, Miceli’s, the Egyptian Theatre, Grauman’s Theatre and the El Capitan Theatre on the trip back to the Chinese.

Clips, both black and white and in color, flash by driving between stops, or before and after visiting locations. While most show films produced after 1950, other clips from 1940s film noirs, vintage travelogues, serials and even a few silent films appear. In fact, clips from films featuring the three great silent comedians, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd seem to occur in good transition points, either at their studio locations (Chaplin) or at filming sites.

Of course, the tour condenses stories into short, entertaining sound bites, mostly getting its facts straight, but there are a few misidentifications along the way, particularly when it comes to silent film production, such as locations of the original Mack Sennett and Walt Disney Studios.

Throughout the tour, guessing games allow visitors to win prizes, or just join in the fun of answering movie trivia. The colorful bus and its TCM logo drew hearty waves and acknowledgments from passersby, bringing a smile to everyone’s face.

TCM creatively celebrates its 20th anniversary providing classic films on television by saying thank you to viewers with this unique branding opportunity disguised as a delightful location tour.

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Once movie studios moved into Hollywood, life changed in the sleepy, little farming community. Easygoing small town life gave way to the jazzy bustle of a moviemaking metropolis. Office towers, theaters and hotels replaced churches, small businesses and bungalows. Nightlife and nightclubs exploded. Small town went uptown.

Accommodations also experienced a dramatic shift. The relaxing, quaint Hollywood Hotel gave way to the modern, up-to-date Christie, Hollywood Plaza and Knickerbocker hotels. In 1927, the stylish Roosevelt Hotel opened, this time as a central gateway to the entertainment district surrounding it. It served as the ultimate Hollywood party location.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

The TCM Classic Film Festival at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Movie moguls and stars earned huge sums of cash in the 1920s, looking for various ways to invest these riches. Many jumped into the booming real estate market, buying properties all around the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Skyrocketing population growth in Hollywood, thanks to film production, opened many lucrative opportunities to those with available cash.

Film celebrities Joseph Schenck, Sid Grauman, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Fred Niblo and Louis B. Mayer among others, formed the Federal Trust and Savings Bank to manage their cash and help diversify others. Employing it as a funding institution, the partners began buying real estate to develop new projects, working in conjunction with prolific Hollywood developer, C. E. Toberman.

Variety reported on May 20, 1925, that “Sid Grauman and Joseph M. Schenck had purchased from Sims and Zidell ground on a corner in Hollywood for $90,000. The ground has been purchased, it is stated, strictly for speculative purposes.” Both men were already collaborating on United Artists Theatres, which the company constructed and where Grauman managed and supervised the theatrical presentations. Appropriately enough, the newly acquired piece of property, the former Mary Moll House, stood diagonally across the street from where Grauman intended to erect a spectacular theater.

On Nov. 3, Variety stated that Schenck and his Hotel Holding Co. syndicate intended to build a 400-room hotel at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive costing $2.5 million. “It will be of Spanish architecture and will be on a site 160 feet by feet.” The syndicate, composed of people such as Schenck, Grauman, Mayer, Toberman, Pickford, Fairbanks, Lou Anger, Marcus Loew and Niblo, signed Hugh A. Beatson, formerly of the Pike’s Peak Hotel, to a 30-year lease to manage the property. Thirty-six apartments would be leased to stars as a sort of condominium within the complex. Conveniently, construction would begin at the same time as Grauman’s theater across the street.

On Oct. 25, 1925, the Los Angeles Times announced the company’s plans for the spectacular new hotel. H. B. Traver of Fisher, Lake and Traver, was hired to design the 12-story reinforced concrete, Spanish Colonial Revival hotel, featuring art-stone treatment on the first floor and a textured stucco finish above, Spanish tile roof and color effects. The lavish interior would include stone walls, marble floors, Spanish stairways, and a fireplace and fountain in the lobby. Trenwhitt-Shields Co. would construct the building, named for President Theodore Roosevelt.

The elaborate first floor would contain nine stores, each with a lobby entrance, along with a ballroom and dining room to seat 450. The basement would feature barbershop, beauty shop, coffee shop, pool parlor, laundry, kitchens, ventilation, and cafeteria for staff. The thirteenth floor featured special guest rooms and a large apartment for the manager’s use, along with a children’s play area.

Groundbreaking festivities occurred May 24, 1926, with many celebrities in attendance. Director Niblo acted as master of ceremonies, assisted by Grauman. Constance Talmadge buried a parchment on the site where the cornerstone would be laid. Other celebrities taking part included Toberman, Hobart Bosworth, Gertrude Lawrence, Jack Buchanan, Beatrice Lillie, Clara Blow, William Wellman and Mary Brian.

The striking Roosevelt Hotel opened its doors Aug. 3, 1927, and officially opened Oct. 28-29, 1927, with elaborate Halloween parties. Because of its connections to screen notables, “it is expected that the hotel will be a rendezvous for professional folk,” noted the Oct. 23 Los Angeles Times. A large “screen” room would be set aside for their use. A large pipe organ was installed in the supper room, to provide dancing music and a large orchestra was hired for the season. The third floor roof featured a sun parlor.

Thanks to the celebrity connections, motion picture-related businesses quickly flocked to the location for office space. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established an office and meeting room on the mezzanine. Motion Picture News opened its Hollywood headquarters on the same floor in October 1928. A talent agency moved in. Stills photographer Melbourne Spurr located a studio in the edifice in 1930. Fawcett Publications also moved in that year.

The Garden Grill, shown in a postcard listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $3.98.

The Hotel Holding Co. sold the hotel to broker James Long Wright in March 1928, who intended to pay for it by subscription, but was soon forced to turn it back over to the group. Motion Picture Classic called the Roosevelt in spring 1929, “”Hollywood’s hotel, run by Joseph Schenck and a few other movie people who must have an outlet for their profits — that hostelry of hostelries where the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences holds its carefully publicized sancto-sanctorum meeting to discuss naughty fan writers… .”

Centrally located in the heart of the entertainment community, the Roosevelt Hotel hosted stars attending Grauman’s spectacular premieres at the Chinese Theatre across the street. Film companies held press conferences at the facility. The Society of Motion Picture Engineers held sound tests in the building and the American Society of Cinematographers demonstrated lighting tests. In the sound and projection room, AMPAS presented special tests recognizing modern improvements in sound, picture and equipment. Many film-related organizations threw conventions and annual meetings here. Of course, AMPAS gave birth to the annual presentation of Academy Awards by holding its first awards banquet in the beautiful Blossom Room May 16, 1929.

A room in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, shown in a postcard listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $5.24.

Over the next several years, the renovated hotel opened such new amenities as the Roosevelt Hotel Flower Shop, decorated in colors of green orchid and silvery art deco, and the Cine-Grill, a streamline-moderne jazz lounge featuring vocal performances.

Socially, the classy Roosevelt Hotel also served as the ultimate entertainment and party getaway. The Blossom Room hosted many elegant soirees as well as regular nightly dancing parties, as their band, Irving Aaronson and His Commanders, rocked the house. Stars came to dance the night away at Hollywood’s hottest dance club. Popular bands played from time to time, and famous dancers like Ann Pennington and Julanne Johnston gave special feature performances. For a short while in 1930, Xavier Cugat and his Tango Orchestra performed on tango nights.

Other social highlights wooed customers. The ladies who lunch crowd adored the Tuesday buffet lunches, with celebrities regularly making appearances. The Blossom Patio Roof Garden, located atop the three-story annex, featured dining, dancing, and nightly performances popular with the cinematic crowd. The Roof featured dining at lunch and dancing nightly. In 1934, the Hotel added Saturday Afternoon Dansants for a more relaxed afternoon out.

Over the years, new owners attempted to adapt the facilities for the times, renovating the look of the interior and replacing the furniture. They switched out entertainment trying to stay up-to-date. Quality, style and usage dropped. After acquiring the National Historic Register property in 2005, Thompson Hotels has restored the Roosevelt back to much of its 1927 roots. They have reintroduced stylish dining opportunities.

Turner Classic Movies recognized the old world elegance of the property in 2010 when organizing its first TCM Classic Movie Festival. It established the festival headquarters at the classy grande dame, saluting classic films and personalities at many of the same location venues visited by the great stars of Hollywood. Their relaxing discussion events called Club TCM occur in the same Blossom Room which hosted the first Academy Awards ceremony. Many stars will be interviewed in the classic lobby lounge of the hotel. Other events will occur poolside, where Marilyn Monroe posed for early cheesecake photos.

The Roosevelt Hotel once again reigns as Hollywood Party central, inviting guests to step back in time to a world of elegance and old world glamour, qualities that never go out of style.

The grand opening of what was then the Warner Western Theater, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

The history of one street corner can often show the growing pains of a burgeoning city. What started out as a rural location can often times become a gorgeous office tower drawing all eyes to its sleek structure. Such is the case with the magnificent Wiltern Theatre, still proudly standing at the southeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, an emblem of a city dreaming of a spectacular future.

Since the 1880s, the 80 acres southeast of Wilshire Boulevard at Western Avenue had been the Germain Pellissier family ranch, green pasture housing merino sheep. As early as 1913, they smartly recognized the economic potential of the area and subdivided their 80 acres southeast of the intersection of Wilshire and Western into residential lots in a district named Pellissier Square, nicknamed “Uptown.” The land included a provision that the area would remain single-family homes until Jan.1, 1925. In 1916, some homeowners attempted to get this covenant overturned so that the land would always remain residential, but lost.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

Heather Angel and Walter Abel promote the Wiltern Theatre, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Los Angeles was exploding in population, and by the 1920s, office towers were growing all over the city. In 1925, the Pellissiers joined with Henry de Roulet to begin planning for business development along Wilshire Boulevard as property values soared and commercial districts spread out. The Los Angeles Times noted on Sept. 2, 1928, that 75,000 cars a day drove through the intersection of Wilshire and Western, with the tract now worth $675,000. De Roulet built a tiny real estate office facing the intersection to begin selling, after Superior Court Judge Collins removed the residential deed restrictions for business construction. Local property owners sued again, but lost.

Even as the Depression hit in 1929, de Roulet pushed sales. The partners announced audacious plans for the busy street corner in 1930. The Feb. 21, 1930, Southwest Builder and Contractor stated that de Roulet intended to establish a large structure called the Pellissier Building containing two show houses, one a legitimate theater and one a motion picture theater, at an estimated cost of $1.5 million to $2 million, replacing his tiny office.

The March 21, 1930, Southwest Builder and Contractor revealed the final decision: the architectural firm of Morgan, Walls & Clements and architect G. Albert Lansburgh were preparing plans for a Class A theater seating 2,500 and a commercial building of large shops and lofts, with individual elevators, to employ reinforced concrete, structural steel, modern-style cast stone work, marble and tile, plate glass, ornamentation, steam heat and a ventilating system. William Simpson Construction Co. would erect the Pellissier Building and theater, one of the first mixed-use structures, starting Oct. 27, 1930, with a height limit 12 stories for the tower and a two-story annex for retail, with a two-story parking garage under the building.

When actual construction was underway, Serrano Corp. served as contractor. Plans revealed the diagonal-standing office tower looming behind the shop area, featuring an l-shaped lobby and circular rotunda, The inviting entrance at the corner would function as a giant funnel leading people toward the theater. Stiles O. Clements of Morgan, Walls & Clements, designed a beautiful decorative facade that extended the skyscraper heights of the building by emphasizing vertical lines. Blue-green terra cotta cladding emphasized the former pasture.

G. Albert Lansburgh’s last major theater design was deemed “delicious” by a colleague and focused on visually arresting Zig Zag Moderne salutes to the beautiful and visionary: the giant sunburst exploding skyscrapers, ornamentally curvy wrought iron staircases, cut-glass stainless steel light fixtures, and blue and bronze terra cotta geometric decoration enveloped audiences into sensual splendor. Anthony J. Heinsbergen’s luscious mural work saluted the pastoral background of the site as well. The theater featured asbestos, main, and title curtains lavishly decorated to match.

Barker Brothers provided the appropriately sleek furnishings: white leather chairs, back-to-back divans, and other luxurious furnishings, which unfortunately didn’t last long.

Warner Bros. operated the Western Theater at 3790 Wilshire Blvd. as a link between its downtown and more western theaters, adding elegance to that stretch of Wilshire. On Oct. 7, 1931, the grand premiere of “Alexander Hamilton” showcased the gorgeous building. Tens of thousands watched glamorously dressed celebrities like Dolores Costello, Loretta Young, Dorothy Mackaill, and Joan Blondell, many clad in clingy white satin and dripping with furs and jewels, walk over the unique “Bridge of Stars,” “a bridge built across Wiltshire (sic) leading to the theatre lobby,” as described by Film Daily in its Oct. 13, 1931, edition. A klieg light-filled sky illuminated the larger-than-life stars crossing single file over the elaborate bridge like angels entering heaven. Making the evening even more special, KFWB, Warner’s own radio station, broadcast the premiere live.

A 1938 program for the Wiltern, listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $9.99.

Once inside, dedication ceremonies opened with a patriotic rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before speeches by Los Angeles Mayor Porter, Sen. Shortridge, Harry Hargrave of the “Uptown” Chamber of Commerce, and Jack Warner, assisted by master of ceremonies William Powell. Next came a newsreel, a “Looney Tunes,” an organ solo by Albert Hay Malotte, short films showing Wilshire Boulevard, Western Avenue, and vicinity “as little more than a cowpath,” as the Los Angeles Times described it in its review. Mrs. Germaine Pellissier was introduced from the audience and Henry de Roulet made a brief talk on screen before the start of the feature.

Edwin Schallert lavishly praised the 2,300-seat theater in the review. “The theater itself, modernistic in style, impresses the beholder by its quiet color tones, pastel green verging on blue and suggestion of mauve and old rose under the lights, with not-too-obtrusive gold.”

The buildings included hollow tile partitions, wrought iron, hardwood and carpeted floors, tile, hardwood trim, marble and tile toilet rooms, mail chute, plate and sand-blasted glass, steam heat, incinerator, sidewalk elevator, automatic sprinklers, and automobile turntable, as the theater was planned for live shows, though not put into practice.

Warners premiered or previewed many of its films here over the next several years, like “Five Star Final,” “I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang,” “Jewel Robbery,” “High Pressure” and “Elmer the Great,” which several members of the Chicago Cubs attended. They ran the theater as a first-run one, giving special performances or one-evening performances, but no live shows, though they occasionally featured short organ concerts by the like of Frank Lanterman on the four-manual, 37-rank organ, one of the largest in the United States. By November 1932, they introduced road shows with Goldwyn’s “The Kid From Spain,” hoping to increase business.

The April 26, 1933, Hollywood Reporter noted that Warners would close the theater indefinitely early in May, after employees were given two weeks’ notice, when bad business forced its closure.

Fox West Coast Theatres reopened it about a year later under the management of Ben Bernstein, showing double features along with trade shows, previews, and the like. Gaylord Carter played the first week of November 1936 as house organist. The name was quietly changed to Wil-Tern.

In October 1939, Warners once again returned to manage the theater, converting it to second run on Nov. 2, 1939. By early 1940, Henry Murtagh gave occasional organ concerts, and it returned as a first-run house.

From the late 1930s through the early 1950s, the Institute of Religious Science regularly held Sunday morning worship services there.

Its cavernous size helped it host several War Bond Rallies in World War II featuring performers like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

Elvis Costello and the Rude 5 at the Wiltern, May-June 1991, listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $5.25.

Attendance began declining after World War II as the neighborhood changed. The theater hosted several special events, like the showing of the first color newsreel in 1948 featuring the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade, 3-D screenings and tests in early 1953, a screening of Super Scope in May 1954, trade shows, previews, and a closed-circuit telecast of the Indianapolis 500 in 1967. Pacific leased the theater in the 1970s. In the 1960s-1970s, the American Guild of Organists held occasional silent film screenings, with Gaylord Carter returning to play the organ.

The de Roulet family sold out to Franklin Life Insurance in 1956, which attempted to make the theater as profitable as the office building, but its gigantic size brought financial problems. Attendance waned. In 1979, the company announced plans to demolish the complex and sell it to something more viable. The City Council even voted to approve a demolition permit. An outraged public fought back and pushed for preservation. Councilman John Ferraro

and developer Wayne Ratkovich stepped in at the eleventh hour in 1982 to save the beautiful theater. Buying the theatre for $6.33 million, he promised to renovate and reopen it, after Franklin allowed Pacific to sell off some of its gorgeous interior. Little did he realize how difficult and expensive the job would be, but thankfully he kept at it, though renovations ended up costing $6 million. The theater reopened to the public in 1985, and remains open as a performance venue to this day.

Over the years, the Wiltern Theatre has been named a city Cultural-Historic Monument as well as being named a National Landmark. Besides screening films, the theater has hosted location filming for such films as “American Hot Wax,” “The Rose,” “La Bamba,” and even “Barton Fink.” It can sometimes be glimpsed in film noirs as characters drive down Wilshire Boulevard. RKO Studios found it so telegenic that it posed Walter Abel and Heather Angel in evening clothes walking down the boulevard to promote their film “The Three Musketeers.”

Los Angeles is incredibly lucky to possess so many jewel box film theaters still in operation. May they and the wonderful Wiltern continue operation for years to come!

This is the last in our series of posts on the 1928 Lon Chaney film “While the City Sleeps.” We have previously looked at the history of the film, the plot (convoluted), the reviews (mixed) the condition of this print (damaged and missing about 20 minutes), and the use of Los Angeles’ then-new City Hall.

Today, we’re going to pull back the curtain on a bit of movie trickery used in the film.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Here’s the beginning of the sequence:

Lon Chaney, playing a New York police detective, climbs up on a roof with the Main Street side of City Hall in the background. Notice the Scribners sign. In case you are wondering, neither the 1927 or 1929 Los Angeles city directories list a Scribners.

Chaney walks out of that shot and into this one. But this location confused me:

There was no skyline like this on North Main in 1928. In fact there still isn’t. Notice that the Scribners sign has moved. Very mysterious.

Then I started wondering about this rather distinctive building:

Which looks a bit like the old City Hall, which was still standing on Broadway between 2nd and 3rd in 1928. Was it possible that the continuation of the shot was a second setup on another building, shooting south on Broadway instead of north on Main? Theoretically yes. But where? And what about the Scribners sign?

A closer examination reveals that the building is not the old City Hall.

But the old City Hall was only building in Los Angeles that had that sort of tower. Hm.

Then there’s this sequence.

This shot from “While the City Sleeps” shows a bit of the Main Street side of City Hall and a sign for Harper & Reynolds.

Unlike Scribners, Harper & Reynolds was an actual business in Los Angeles. The 1927 Los Angeles city directory, thoughtfully placed online by the Los Angeles Public Library, shows that it was at 152 N. Main. So we can be reasonably sure that the building is real.

But if we are looking in that direction, we have a problem, because there were no skyscrapers in that area.

This 1940s aerial view shows City Hall, the Hall of Justice (1926) and the Federal Building  (1940)

In fact, this is what it looks like now, courtesy of Google Earth:

What happened to all those big buildings north of the Civic Center?

Aha! Thanks to “Filming Locations in Los Angeles” by Karie Bible, Marc Wanamaker and Harry Medved, we have proof of what the movie makers did. On Page 10, there’s a publicity shot of the film crew on the roof of a building with City Hall in the background.

Here’s a detail of that photo showing the crew with Lon Chaney, left, and Wheeler Oakman.

And the way the shot appears in the movie.

A closer look.

In a detail from the publicity shot, we see the old Hall of Records behind City Hall.

But in the movie, there are other buildings and the sign for Scribners.  What happened to the Hall of Records?

I’m not an expert on special effects of the 1920s, so I can only speculate on whether this was a model, a “glass shot” (matte painting) or some other technique. But whatever was done, “While the City Sleeps” is an early example of the use of trick shots – remember that the movie was set in New York and required skyscrapers in the background — and can’t be taken as a historical document of Los Angeles as it was in the 1920s.

John Bengtson, who has researched and written so much about early movie locations in Los Angeles, sends this Spence Air Photo of the Civic Center and weighs in on “While the City Sleeps.”

Hi Larry – thank you for the City Sleeps posts.  I too was puzzled by those cityscapes with City Hall in the background, and came to a similar conclusion that it must have been a special effect.  For one thing, City Hall was the tallest building in town. You can see the Harper & Reynolds sign on Main Street in this photo.

The Harper & Reynolds sign in “While the City Sleeps,” with Lon Chaney, left, showing City Hall in the background.

Those towers in the background of the movie frames are reminiscent of Manhattan towers, but with the image quality it’s difficult to tell whether they are copied after true buildings, or are just an artistic approximation of what Manhattan would look like.

Either way, as shown by this photo, there would have been only low buildings in the background of that shot without the special effect.

Thanks John!

I’ll take time to point out that another  part of the photo shows the state office building under construction (this is vacant lot on 1st between Broadway and Spring), the third Los Angeles Times Building with the tower at 1st and Broadway and in the lower left-hand corner, the Hotel Nadeau, the current site of the Los Angeles Times.

Here’s a better look at 1st and Spring. Notice how narrow 1st Street is west of Spring. Once the old Times Building and the adjoining storefronts were demolished, 1st Street was widened. I mention this because traffic congestion in Los Angeles isn’t new. It’s a 100-year-old problem.

Over the decades, towns and cities undergo great change as they evolve from agrarian societies into metropolitan areas. Multi-unit residential properties, modern office buildings and skyscrapers replace older buildings and styles of architecture, now considered too old-fashioned by some.

Many original buildings often survive a city’s transformation, some because they are located in what are now poorer communities that can’t afford to demolish them, while others undergo adaptive reuse. Currently, many buildings in downtown Los Angeles are undergoing gentrification and repurposing, such as decades-old factories seeing conversion as lofts and vintage hotels converted into apartments. Luck also helps some structures survive and continue operation just as originally intended.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

Photograph by Mary Mallory. The Toluca Plaza building today.

  
One such vintage building not only survives, but seems to be thriving as it did when constructed in 1947, the 4418 Vineland Ave. Toluca Plaza building. When it opened back in the 1940s, the builders called it the North Hollywood Medical Arts Building, a structure housing offices for those working in the medical profession.

Sixty-seven years later, the Toluca Plaza still hosts medical offices, housing such businesses as the Center for Vision Care and the Tenacity Women’s Fitness gym. Stucco seems to cover the original brick, and the terrazzo tile entrance has been removed.

Fred Dreckman operated the first pharmacy in the building, documented in photographs taken by his niece. These images show the building looking almost identical today. Once big difference; customers in 1947 could arrive via the Pacific Electric Railway, which ran parallel to Vineland on the east side of the street. The Pacific Electric North Hollywood substation stood across the street at 4475 Vineland Ave., as it had since 1911. Most of the original structure burned in a 1985 fire and was rebuilt.

Humorous captions accompany the photographs, which I found in a photograph album for sale at the Glendale Postcard Show about three years ago. The young woman was an excellent artist, drawing lovely illustrations around the images and captions.

The view of the building across Vineland Avenue and the streetcar tracks contains the following caption: “North Hollywood Medical Arts Building — (Impressive Title Hmm!!). As seen from across the ohh — “Toonerville” Trolley Tracks (Good shot of the tracks, don’t you think??).”

The following caption appears underneath the photograph of the intersection: “Moorpark and Vineland. Where we dash madly across the street — foiling the plans of the motorists who desparately (sic) try to hit us (HaHa — we’re too fast for ‘em).”

Photograph by Mary Mallory. Moorpark and Vinland today.

Looking from Landale Street down Vineland, the photograph gets the following caption: “The Building Looking down Vineland.”

The front entrance showing the building’s name on the glass and the original tile, with the caption: “Entrance to the “Workhouse”…and “Aunt” Nell trying to hustle out of the picture.”

The original building seems to have featured two addresses: 4418 and 4420.

While it’s wonderful to see the building still standing and in operation as originally intended, the Toluca Plaza building is listed for sale at $7.495 million per items online, with suggestions of development as commercial condominiums. Hopefully, tenants and patients can convince the management company of the beauty and integrity of the building and preserve it as a lovely medical office building, serving the needs of patients as it has for 67 years.

Mary went on a field trip to visit the Toluca Plaza building (formerly the Medical Arts Building) for her latest post, but some of her photos got caught in my spam filter. Here they are.

This is “Aunt Nell” “trying to hustle out of the picture.”

And here is Mary’s photo from Saturday.

Here’s the photo from the album.

And here is Mary’s photo from Saturday.

The interior of Crossroads of the World, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Long before the Grove or Americana on Brand, the Crossroads of the World existed as a retail center replicating simpler times and more glamorous surroundings. It sprang from tragedy to become an architectural and cultural highlight for more than 77 years. Intended to be an exotic shopping destination, it instead functions as eclectic office suites for independent businesses.

In the early 1930s, 6665 Sunset Blvd. was the location of Charles H. Crawford’s business office. Crawford, a former saloonkeeper and political boss, called the “Underworld Czar” and “Wolf of Spring Street” in a 1986 Los Angeles Times article, possessed gangland connections. On May 20, 1931, he and former police reporter and editor Herbert Spencer were shot and killed in his office by former Deputy Dist. Atty. David Clark, who claimed self-defense.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

An overview of Crossroads of the World, Courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Clark was arrested a few days later by police after they discovered that he had registered at a Santa Monica hotel under an assumed name the night he killed the men, and then registered at a downtown hotel under another name the next night, during which time he hid the murder weapon. Police later found the gun on their own and discovered that Clark had disappeared for a couple of days before the killings. In 1932, Clark went free after a jury could not reach a verdict in Spencer’s killing, and later he was found not guilty by self-defense in a second trial. Clark was convicted of second-degree murder in 1954 however, after shooting and killing the wife of his former law partner.

Crawford’s widow, Ella Crawford, could find no one to move into the building, so she demolished the structure and announced her intentions in May 1936 to build a $12,000 office and store complex on the lot. She hired architect Robert Derrah, designer of the Streamline Moderne Coca-Cola building near downtown, to create the structure. By Sept. 1, 1936, a Los Angeles Times story stated that it had been “planned as an “Olvera Street” for shops of many nations.

The concept evolved from a simple affair into something much more elaborate, what the Oct. 29, 1936, Los Angeles Times called “a permanent world’s fair” with a cosmopolitan atmosphere. “Just as the wares on display come from all the nations of the Earth, so the buildings are patterned after the architecture of foreign countries.” Taking as its name, the Crossroads of the World, the retail center would function as an international bazaar of shops and restaurants intended to lure more sophisticated shoppers.

Construction costs rose to more than $500,000, with the Oct. 18 Times reporting that it would include more than 100 shops, including “importers of foods, a Swedish cafe, an English tea room, Oriental bazaar, an importer of linens and lingerie and a Chinese art and gift shop.”

Crossroads of the World in the opening credits of “L.A. Confidential.”

Derrah once again employed a ship’s design for the gorgeous flagship building of the complex, adding portholes and decks to the structure to resemble an Art Deco cruise ship visiting exotic ports of call. Like a ship’s mast, a large tower soared into the air holding a revolving world globe. Surrounding it were buildings modeled after structures in France, Spain, England, Italy, Cape Cod, as well as a lighthouse, sheltering ports for those visiting.

The opening celebration for what was now 6671 Sunset Blvd. on Oct. 29, 1936, included a world salute as international as the buildings. Universal stars from many nations acted as hosts. Cesar Romero represented Cuba, Binnie Barnes, Wendy Barrie, and Boris Karloff represented England, Tala Birell represented Austria, Henry Armetta represented Italy and Mischa Auer represented Russia.

At 7:30 that evening, the stars welcomed visiting guests. Entertainment included a French Chorus under the direction of Raymond Ricet, a Czechoslovakian dance troupe, “Arabian” singer Robert Travefian, Alpine Troubadours Orchestra, Japanese dancers, and a Balalaika orchestra. The Continental Cafe opened for those looking for European style.

Other businesses included a dipped chocolates store, DuLaine-Bennati fabrics, a French perfume store, Fashion Fold Manufacturing, a Bit of Sweden restaurant, The Cheerful Philosopher, Don’s Beauty Salon and the like. Businesses operated under the address Crossroads of the World, rather than a street address. Stars seemed to enjoy the cafes and restaurants, at least for a short while.

Screen Snapshots, Series 16, number 12 came calling a year later, when it premiered a newsreel focusing on a fan’s view of Hollywood. One shot featured the guest driving down Hollywood Boulevard, lunching at the Brown Derby and visiting the Crossroads of the World, “the famous shopping center for the cinema capital,” per the Oct. 28, 1937, Film Daily.

Crossroads of the World in “Nuestro Pueblo” by Charles Owens and Joe Seewerker.

The Women’s Community Service Auxiliary of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce threw an art exhibit/fund raiser outside in 1937, in what supposedly was the beginning of constructing art studios and a theatre in the complex, which never came to fruition.

The international touch quickly faded away, and entertainment-related businesses moved in. Neely Dickson, a pioneer in commercial theater, opened an office there in 1939. The Commercial Radio Equipment Co. opened a branch office. World Pictures Inc. established an office in 1940. Adverti-Films announced they would make commercial and industrial films out of their office, with advertising, radio, casting, and talent agencies soon opening as well. The Screen Directors Guild, British War Relief, and Screen Children’s Guild operated here during the 1940s, as did the Progressive Citizens of America.

As companies came and went, more office space remained vacant and the structure became somewhat dilapidated and dirty. When the building came up for sale in 1965, many feared it would be torn down and replaced by a high-rise structure. They were deeply reassured when the new owner promised to maintain it.

Unfortunately the building was auctioned off on June 18, 1974, with ads promoting, “suitable for high-rise construction.” Historians quickly went to work and gained it a place as No. 134 on Los Angeles’ Historic Cultural Monuments list. Demolition was thankfully once again averted.

The lovely building still proudly sails the bumpy seas of Sunset Boulevard as office rental space today. While seeming appropriate as a filming location, the site has only been featured in a few TV shows like “Matt Houston” and “Remington Steele,” commercials, and movies “L. A. Confidential” and “Indecent Proposal.”

Hopefully it will some day finally get its close-up and become an international sales bazaar, as it was always intended to be.

Clifton’s Pacific Seas, 618 S. Olive St.

Long before kitschy was cool and themed restaurants like tiki bars, Planet Hollywoods and Rainforest Cafes existed, downtown Los Angeles sported eclectically decorated and festive Clifton’s Cafeterias. Over the top and lavishly theatrical, Clifton’s operated in Los Angeles’ heart, including Clifton’s Pacific Seas and Brookdale, one sporting an exotic, tropical setting and the other looking like a set from a national park.

Even more remarkable than their lavishly decorated interiors was the generous, lovely operating philosophy behind the chain. From the beginning, Clifton’s operated on the policy of “the Golden Rule,” hoping to treat others as kindly as they themselves were treated. Clifford Clinton, son of missionary Edmond Clinton, was born in China while his parents served the poor after the Boxer Rebellion. Seeing the hungry and homeless, his deep compassion filled him with a desire to take care of those less unfortunate.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

His father later operated a chain of restaurants called Dennets in San Francisco, which he bought into with partners. Disagreeing with their business practices, he sold his share and moved his family to Los Angeles in the heart of the Great Depression.

Clinton felt that a cafeteria geared to the working population would fill a need for good and filling food. Naming his restaurant Clifton’s, from combining parts of his name, Clinton worked to better the lives of his patrons. He explained his philosophy in little brochures called “Food 4 Thot” and “In Your Service,” freely given away to customers, containing inspirational and touching anecdotes meant to uplift readers.

Clifton’s “In Your Service,” courtesy of Mary Mallory.

As explained in a May 1, 1952, “In Your Service” pamphlet, its 105^th printing, Clinton explained his principles. “Clifton’s is an Institution planned to provide simple, wholesome food, pleasing atmosphere and worthy community service, at lowest possible prices.

…Clifton’s, seeking to conform to the law of Nature and the administrative practices of government and business, makes the Golden Rule, rather than the rule of gold, the measure of its conduct.”

Claiming to make a profit of less than half a cent per average meal, the owner described the meal check as the restaurant’s evaluation of what it was providing to guests, but it was up to them to accurately measure service and cost, which they so printed on the ticket as: “Regardless of the amount of this check our cashier will cheerfully accept whatever you wish to pay – or you may dine free.”

The book went on to explain that Clinton had prepared an operations manual during his early association with the restaurant business in San Francisco, based on the principle of “the Golden Rule.” They opened at 618 S. Olive with this manual and $2,000 in 1931, but immediately experienced great testing of this application.

“Several tests of the ‘Golden Rule’ as a principle of business came in the years 1931-1933 when thousands of jobless, hungry men and women walked the streets and again in 1937-1938 when the ‘Golden Rule’ was defied and assailed by “machine rule” in Los Angeles city and county government.”

The family established a “penny restaurant” to serve over a million needy people before the government established federal relief agencies. They teetered on bankruptcy, noting that in one 90-day period, 10,000 people dined free at the cafeteria. “We believe the GOLDEN RULE is a shortcut to happiness for ourselves only as it becomes a channel for useful service which makes for the happiness of others.”

For its day, the chain treated its employees fairly as well, establishing a “Bill of Rights” for associates. Employees received free and fair hearings before an associates’ board on disagreements and discharges; salaries equal to local industry standards; eight-hour days, a six-day work week; time and a half for overtime, paid vacations; discounts for family; group insurance; medical exams; free medical care and prescriptions; sick days; hospitalization; bonuses and other advancements.

The cafeterias’ singers received the same salaries as other employees, along with monthly bonuses and opportunity for outside gigs. Julius Johnston, master organist at Pacific Seas, and Don Patrick at Brookdale served as directors and also provided instructors to improve the singers.

Clifford Clinton desired to serve his customers by providing them as much information and help as possible. In that regard, he offered many complimentary services. With Tanner Grey-Line Sightseeing, he offered four free sightseeing tours through Pacific Seas. The restaurant also ran the Los Angeles Hospitality Service which included “free public information; free radio broadcast tickets; free city maps; Mutual Ticket Agency (tickets to all major entertainment and sports attractions at box office prices); complete sightseeing; Catalina reservations; travel guidance; advance hotel reservations; photo service; Church directory; free listings on housing, employment, transportation, etc.”

The cafeterias also offered free space for group meetings; individuals with personal problems could consult with Jean, Donald or Edmond Clinton, the managers, or any staff member; birthday and anniversary cakes with decorations; “Food-for-Thot” pamphlets; Exchange Services where guests could post wants and needs regarding housing, real estate or personal items for sale or trade, transportation, finding lost friends, and the like; nutrition services; natural foods; low-cost foods; music and entertainment; amateur nights, community sings, and other fun events; air conditioning; family services; “MPF” (multi-purpose food); and Arts and Crafts Center with keepsake photo and a card and gift shop; a restaurant management course; free sherbet at 3 p.m. from the Sherbet Volcano at Pacific Seas; Garden for Meditation; Little Chapel in the Redwoods; “Pet share,” sharing your leftover food with your pets; flowers for sale; and flower leis presented to women.

The multi-purpose food was created in partnership with Caltech biochemist Dr. Harry Boorsook to create a low-cost food item to feed the world’s hungry, especially in famine areas, consisting of dry soybean cakes. Clinton established “Meals for Millions” to help train people to work with countries on becoming more self-sufficient, to research better food and growing methods, and to raise money to buy food.

Clifford Clinton broadcast his message to Southern Californians over the years with programs on radio stations like KEHE, KFVD, and in 1938 on “The People’s Voice,” broadcast daily (except Sunday) 7:30 am to 8:30 a.m. from Clifton’s mezzanine at Pacific Seas on KMPC. As an ad in the Aug. 9, 1936, Los Angeles Times described it, “Listen or Attend. Pro & Con Speakers. Vital Questions. Exciting, Human.”

Clifton’s opened many branches over the years, but its great customer services began slowly disappearing, though the main restaurants’ gaily decorated atmosphere remained. In August 1960, the family sold the Olive Street location, which was torn down and converted into a parking lot. One by one, branches closed, until only Brookdale’s downtown remained.

While Clifford Clinton’s great experiment in serving his fellow man basically failed, his Brookdale Cafeteria still survives. That restaurant was sold to nightclub impresario Andrew Meieran in 2010, who is still renovating the facility, but hopefully removing none of its charm and history.

I was underwhelmed by “Saving Mr. Banks,” but look what I found! It’s Heritage Square, which (for out-of-town readers) is just off the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

Here’s Heritage Square as shown on Google Street View.

Here’s what they actually do in the Bradbury Building.

This ad popped up after a thrilling round of Words With Friends. Could it be the Bradbury Building? Indeed it is.

Isn’t this awesome?

A still from “The Hope Chest,” courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Serving both sweet and medicinal purposes, chocolate has been served up as a special treat since at least 1900 BC and continues as a favored gift and treat today. As it became more mass produced, it gained a wide following in Europe and America. By the early 1910s, the chocolate craze overtook Los Angeles. A gorgeous chocolate shop would be designed and constructed at 217 W. Sixth Street in 1914 to feed this mania. In business for less than a decade, the striking artwork still survives, though somewhat hidden away in downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles businessman Gerhard Eshman bought and sold property in the downtown area from the late 1890s into the 1900s, “a firm believer in the future greatness of this city…,” per his 1915 obituary in the Los Angeles Times. He purchased land on West Sixth Street in 1903 and hired the architectural firm of Morgan and Walls to design a building at 217-219 W. Sixth St. A Sept. 6, 1903, Times article stated he would spend $25,000 to construct a four-story building on the site. Little is known of its earliest tenants, save for ads for the high-class Davis Massage Parlor listed in the Los Angeles Herald from 1906-1909. The Meyberg Co., designers and manufacturers of fixtures, occupied the building from 1910-1913.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

The Nov. 2, 1913, Los Angeles Times notes in an article that the Chocolate Shop Corp., open for three years, had signed a 10-year lease on the building in order to open their fourth location in the Los Angeles area, to join their shops at 207 W. Fifth Street, 20 E. Colorado in Pasadena, and 731-733 S. Broadway. E. C. Quinby and P. W. Quinby served as president and vice president, with W. M. Petitfils serving as secretary and general manager.

The Chocolate Shop Corp. hired Richards-Neustadt Construction Co. to design alterations to the building, with the upper three floors to be turned into modern lofts. “The whole interior is to be refinished and a handsome marble and tile entrance created at the west end of the building. The corporation will install on the first floor one of the finest confectionary shops on the coast.” They intended to spend $40,000 on fixtures and decorations, and $10,000 on renovating the upper floors.

To ensure the beauty of the shop, the company quickly employed the architectural firm of Plummer & Feil to design eye-catching thematic architecture for the establishment, and hired the young Ernest Batchelder Co. of Pasadena to devise and manufacture spectacular original tilework for the interior. Plummer & Feil sent notices to the Copyright Office in January-February 1914 noting their work on the project. The listings note “revised floor plan of dining room for chocolate shop no. 4—revised plan and elevation of front room for chocolate shop no. 4—revised plan and tile elevations for chocolate shop no. 4—revised tile elevation in dining room for chocolate shop no. 4.”

Batchelder himself created chocolate-colored tile to mimic the product to be sold. Featuring rich caramel and chocolate colors, it also featured images of gargoyles in one room, Dutch children and landscapes of windmills, canals, and bridges in another, and also featured Romanesque arches of chocolate tile in the final room.

A redwood box used to pack chocolate, listed on EBay in 2011. 

Work proceeded quickly, and by early July, 1914, Los Angeles Times ads note the business serving a la carte meals in its Old Dutch room, just like the 733 S. Broadway facility. Advertisements promoted all the establishments as places for “dainty” meals or desserts, after theater snacks, or full lunch or dinner meals. They served lunch at noon, dinner at six, and offered dainty desserts from 3-5 pm.

By 1916, the shops packed chocolates in small redwood boxes featuring Dutch girls on the box’s interior to be shipped locally or across the United States. They even announced in newspaper ads that they delivered free to any part of Los Angeles.

Fashionable film stars visited the shops, as Picture-Play Magazine noted in May 1916 that the Talmadge and Gish sisters often took tea there.

Two years later, when Dorothy Gish began making films for Paramount, she must have remembered this pleasing place, as it was employed as a location in her film, “The Hope Chest,” starring Richard Barthelmess, Lew Cody, George Fawcett, Sam de Grasse, and Carol Dempster, directed by Elmer Clifton and supervised by D. W. Griffith. The book on which the film was based had the main female character working in a chain of important candy stores, adapted into an upscale chocolate store. The Dec. 28, 1918, Moving Picture World featured an advertisement noting that Gish played a chocolate girl selling chocolate in a store.

“The Hope Chest” in Picture Play Magazine.

According to the Sept. 1, 1918, Los Angeles Times, “The Hope Chest” crew descended on the store a few days previously to film from 11:30 pm (short dinner) to 7 a.m. for the opening scenes of the film, with Gish and three other young women wearing exact replicas of the Chocolate Shop’s waitress uniforms, as ordered by Gish. She was approached by a real waitress at 11:30 who realized there were four more girls than normal and asked when she had come. Gish replied that she had just arrived, and the waitress told her to remove her lipstick, as a previous girl was fired only 30 minutes after starting when discovered wearing lipstick.

Business was booming so much by December 1918 that the Quinbys leased 20,000 square feet in a Santee street building to strictly manufacture their chocolate, leaving all space in their four local establishments for retail purposes only.

The Quinbys bought out Petitfils in 1919 and changed the name of the company to Quinby’s California Chocolate Shops, shipping across the United States and to Hawaii, Cuba, South America, Australia, the Philippines, and China. They promoted their chocolate as high grade and popular with fashionable people across the country, costing $1.50-$2 a pound.

Unfortunately, sugar prices were rising in early 1920, and the country was soon to enter a deep recession. The Quinbys announced special 50-cent lunches and dinners with choice of soups, meat entrees, vegetables, and desserts around this time at most locations, and they also leased the second floor of the Sixth Street location to the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank, which was expanding rapidly.

The Dutch Room at the Chocolate Shop,  207 W. Fifth St., in a postcard listed on EBay with bids starting at $2.

In July 1922, they leased the remaining upper floors to the bank for 15 years at a cost of $270,000, with the bank expected to make alterations on the building’s exterior. The Chocolate Shop would move to a store in the Metropolitan Theatre around Aug. 1, with O. A. Olin paying around $200,000 for a fifteen-year lease on the shop space to open a cafeteria. Within several years, all the Chocolate Shop locations would close.

Over the next 90 years, several businesses occupied the former Chocolate Shop location at 217 W. Sixth St., all lovingly maintaining the gorgeous tile. The Health Cafeteria offered the “Ehret Non-Clogging Diet” of fruits, vegetable salads, meat substitutes, and whole wheat breads and desserts through at least 1928, when their ads disappear.

Finney’s Cafeteria later occupied the site, and local organizations held meetings and luncheons in the establishment, still decorated in gorgeous style. In 1975, the interior was added to the list of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments. Eventually, the cafeteria closed and an arcade took its place, later itself replaced by a Metro PCS store. Many people feared removal of the tile, but businessman Charles Aslan discovered it mostly intact when he ripped down particle board in 2012. He stated in newspaper articles of the time that he intended to renovate and reopen the building, but nothing new has been announced lately.

Downtown Art Walk offers occasional tours to see the delectable Chocolate Shop, a hidden and rich taste of Arts and Crafts beauty for patrons dining at the fashionable establishment, and a perfect example that retail and artistic vision can coexist and thrive.

Weird Al has a new video, “Tacky,” a satire on Pharrell’s “Happy.”

The sign for the Los Angeles Theatre is clearly visible in the shots, pegging this as Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Theatre and the Palace (the old Orpheum Theatre) as shown in Google Street View.

So I’m guessing it was shot in the Palace.

Aha! The little round window clinches it as the Palace.

The Palace via Google Street View.

Yep. It’s the Palace. Congrats to Weird Al for shooting in dtla!

Hollywood First National Bank Building, Courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Soaring to the skies, displaying confidence in Hollywood’s unlimited future, the First National Building, constructed and opened in 1928, brought Art Deco-Gothic beauty to Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Operating as bank and office building for decades, the First National Building celebrated Hollywood’s business success and its glorious potential, a economics temple.

The Hollywood and Highland intersection served as the western end of Hollywood Boulevard’s business district, anchored by the regal Hotel Hollywood. Businesses sprang up around it, two blocks north of Hollywood High School. The First National Bank of Hollywood built a branch here, leasing space on its upper floor to the Frank Meline Co. Meline operated its Hollywood office here at 6777 Hollywood Blvd. from 1920, offering properties in the immediate area for sale. Buster Keaton even filmed a scene from his 1921 short “The Goat” looking south from a garage at 1741 N. Highland Ave. toward the intersection, per John Bengtson on his blog, “Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Film Locations.”

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

A photo of Allen Vincent with the First National Bank in the background, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

In 1927, the First National Bank merged with Pacific South West Trust and Savings Bank, forming the Los Angeles First National Trust and Savings Bank. To recognize their potent economic base, the new company hired prestigious architects/contractors Meyer and Holler to design spacious new headquarters to cost $250,000. Meyer and Holler, designers of the Chaplin Studios, Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Thomas Ince Studios, Montmartre Café, and Hollywood Athletic Club, envisioned a spire shooting to the heavens. The building would rise to height-limit, second only to that of downtown Los Angeles’ City Hall.

The July 24, 1927, Los Angeles Times reported, “Grandeur and scale will be realized through a towerlike formation on the Hollywood Boulevard corner. This effect has been gained by combining the elevator penthouse and those other correlated elements usually relegated to the back corners of the upper roofs, where they will not be seen, and building these elements into one tower embellished at the top by a roof of polychrome tiles.”

By setting the tower back on the building, it freed space for tenants of varying sizes. The wide entry lobby at the intersection served as lobby for both the bank and office building, which would feature a terra cotta and brick facade and flood lights at night to illuminate the tower. They noted, “A series of symbolic or allegorical figures arranged in large niches will represent the various arts and industries of Hollywood.”

Contractors began destroying the old bank to make way for the new in late September 1927, with excavation completed by the end of October. Construction began with the pouring of concrete, before a steel frame rose on the site. On July 1, 1928, The Times noted doors had opened in the Hollywood First National Building’s office tower to occupants, with the first floor branch of the Los Angeles First National Trust and Savings Bank not formally opening until Nov. 17, 1928. The bank occupied the basement level as well, maintaining their safe deposit department here.

A vintage postcard of the time notes on its back: “Hollywood-First National Building — “This limit-height, Class A, office and bank building, at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, because of its beauty and tower construction, is one of Hollywood’s outstanding landmarks. The offices have ultra-modern fixtures and equipment, particularly suited for the professions. The Hollywood Branch Los Angeles-First National Trust & Savings Bank, occupies the entire ground and basement floors. This Bank has resources of more than $300,000.”

Ads in 1929 noted that “its appropriately picturesque design features” led to quick office space rentals, with more than 80% of the building occupied by the summer of 1929. Property values also soared; economists noted that the northeast corner of Hollywood and Highland possessed a $6081 tax valuation in 1919-1920, exploding to $147,860 by 1928-1929.

Many financial firms rented space in the building, including attorneys, investment firms and real estate companies. Willard Clinical Laboratories leased an office in 1930. Doctors also occupied the building, from ophthalmologists to general practitioners to dentists. In fact, G. Floyd Jackman, a former Mack Sennett cameraman, rented space here after graduating from the University of Southern California’s School of Dentistry in 1928. He purchased ads in International Photographer and American Cinematographer through 1934, reaching out to his filming brothers by noting his camera background.

Entertainment industry-related businesses flocked here as well. Talent agent Leo Morrison moved his office from the Roosevelt Hotel to the First National Building in 1932. Showmen’s Trade Review’s Hollywood Bureau operated here from 1942-1949. A casting company by the name of Hollywood Showcase later opened offices here, as did Big Time Records.

By the early 1930s, First National Trust and Savings Bank teetered on bankruptcy. They were acquired and became Security-First National Bank, which later became Security-Pacific and now, Bank of America.

For the last several years, however, the gorgeous bank and office building has set empty and forlorn at Hollywood and Highland, left unkempt and dirty and a place where homeless and protestors camp out in front of. May someone recognize the jewel of this building, and restore and reopen it to its previous splendor, celebrating the another revival of business Hollywood.