Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

The beautiful 'French Norman revival' building was located on the southeast corner of Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights Blvd., just east of the Garden of Allah apartments. The structure faced Sunset Blvd.

Historical Notes

Today, the 8000 Sunset Strip Shopping Center stands at the southeast corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights. The center includes Trader Joe's, CB2 (Crate & Barrel), Sundance Cinema, Crunch Fitness, Subway and several offices.

Historical Notes

Schwab's Pharmacy was a popular hangout for movie actors and movie industry dealmakers from the 1930s through the 1950s. Like many drug stores in the United States throughout the mid-twentieth century, Schwab's sold medicines and had a counter serving ice cream dishes and light meals.

Historical Notes

Schwab's opened in 1932 when Philadelphia natives and brothers, Jack, Leon, Bernard and Martin Schwab, bought a failing pharmacy on the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights boulevards. The pharmacy was located just around the corner from several studios and the brothers set up their pharmacy to cater to the Hollywood crowd. Schwab's was more than just a place to fill prescriptions: there was a grocery store, a make-up counter (Gloria Swanson bought all her cosmetics there) and a restaurant that served all-American fare like hamburgers and meatloaf (Marlon Brando and Orson Welles were fans).*

Historical Notes

1938 - Harold Arlen was working on a movie score for an upcoming film, The Wizard of Oz. He was having a difficult time composing a ballad for one particular scene. Ballads were usually love songs, but this scene was about a lonely farm girl longing for "a place where there isn't any trouble," and it had him stumped. He decided to take a break from writing and catch a movie at Grauman's Theater with his wife, Anya. He sat in the passenger seat with Anya at the wheel. They turned onto Sunset Blvd, heading East, when suddenly he touched her arm and asked her to pull over. Anya parked the car under the neon sign of Schwab's Pharmacy, as Harold scribbled the melody that just came to him. He rushed inside to call his writing partner, Yip Harburg, from the Schwab's payphone.

"Yippers, can you meet me at my house in 10 minutes? I think I got a nugget."

Historical Notes

Sidney Skolsky, a syndicated Hollywood gossip columnist for the New York Daily News who was the first journalist to use the nickname "Oscar" for the Academy Award in print, made Schwab's famous in the 1930s. He used the drugstore as his office, and called his column in Photoplay, the premiere movie magazine in the U.S. at the time, "From A Stool At Schwab's".

Historical Notes

A persistent Hollywood legend has it that actress Lana Turner was "discovered" by director Mervyn LeRoy while at the soda counter at Schwab's. While the 16-year-old Turner was indeed discovered at a soda counter, the actual location was not Schwab's but another Sunset Boulevard establishment, the Top Hat Cafe, and the person who discovered her was not LeRoy but Hollywood Reporter publisher William Wilkerson.^

Historical Notes

Schwab’s became an essential piece not only of Hollywood day-to-day living but of Hollywood lore.  Open from early in the morning until past midnight, the place was a clubhouse, a headquarters, and a hearth fro up-and-comers, never-quite-ever-beens, rubberneckers, and strivers and schemers trying to pry a way into (sometimes back into) the movie business.*

Historical Notes

The 1950 film, Sunset Boulevard, stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, a struggling screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent-film star who draws him into her demented fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Erich von Stroheim plays Max von Mayerling, her devoted butler, and Nancy Olson, Jack Webb, Lloyd Gough, and Fred Clark appear in supporting roles. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by leading silent-film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson.^

Historical Notes

Over the years, Schwab’s became a popular local mini-chain, with locations at 6255 Hollywood Boulevard, 430 N. Roxbury Boulevard and 401 N. Bedford Drive. The Bedford Drive location, which had a special department and phone number reserved for the famous, was where Marilyn Monroe filled her prescriptions. One of her prescription bottles sold for $3,200 in 2014.*

Historical Notes

Schwab's continued to be a popular hang-out well into the 1970s with luminaries like Cher, Linda Ronstadt and Diane Keaton frequenting the Hollywood hot spot.

Historical Notes

In the 1970s and early ’80s, a new set of celebrities began gracing the fountain with their presence, including Eric Estrada, Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone, Goldie Hawn and Jerry Brown. In 1980, Jack Schwab passed away at age 75, and after five decades of service, the Schwab’s on Sunset Boulevard closed down. Leon Schwab stated that the closure was due to family reasons, but the truth was that the company was in financial distress. In 1983, everything that was not bolted down, from the stools and counters to the pharmacy’s famous Rolodex, was auctioned off to the highest bidder. The large red-and-blue neon sign that hung over the front door sold for $650.*

It took the wrecking ball a couple of more years to knock down Schwab's, but in 1988 the building came down, making way for a large retail complex. 

Historical Notes

The origin of the name Googie dates to 1949, when architect John Lautner designed the West Hollywood coffee shop Googies, which had distinct architectural characteristics.  The name "Googie" had been a family nickname of Lillian K. Burton, the wife of the original owner, Mortimer C. Burton.*

The Origins of Googie Architectrure

Alan Hess, the author of Googie: Fifties Coffeeshop Architecture, traces Googie back to three Coffee Dan's restaurants designed by John Lautner in the early forties.

"He selected the vaults and glass walls and trusses and angles of his buildings to fit the original, often unusual, concepts of space he favored," writes Hess.

Lautner originated the style that would be refined and reinterpreted by many others. Unintentionally, he also gave the style a name when, in 1949, he designed Googie's Coffee Shop at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights in Los Angeles.

Professor Douglas Haskell of Yale was driving through Los Angeles when he and architectural photographer Julius Shulman came upon Googie's. "Stop the car!" Haskell yelled. "This is Googie architecture." While Haskell was dubious about the style, he made the name "Googie architecture" stick by using it in a 1952 article in House and Home magazine.*

The Googie Look

Although Googie buildings were often quite different from one another, Douglas Haskell noted that the style had certain rules:

1. It can look organic, but it must be abstract. "If it looks like a bird, it must be a geometric bird. It's better yet if the house had more than one theme: like an abstract mushroom surmounted by an abstract bird."

2. Ignore gravity altogether. "Whenever possible, the building must hang from the sky."

3. Multiple structural elements. Inclusion is the rule, rather than minimalism. New materials, including sheet glass, glass blocks, asbestos, plywood and plastic gave the architect a whole new palette to work with. Other innovations allowed steel and cement to be used in new ways. Suddenly, architects had more elbowroom for their dreams. A room made of plastic could look like a log cabin, a space ship, or almost anything.*

Googie Architectrure

Googie was about the past, the present and the future -- But mostly the future. It was part of the popular culture, which reinforced a unified vision of a utopian future built on mankind's work and ingenuity.

Historical Notes

Googie’s Coffee Shop was located next door to celebrated Schwab’s drug store, on the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards. It was all the rage among young, up and coming stars in 1950s Hollywood who went to table hop, not necessarily to eat.

Historical Notes

Googie captured the post-war high that made people feel that the future was now and they were living in it. As time passed, Googie came to reflect a very 1950s and ’60s view of what “the future” meant.*

Historical Notes

Like most art forms that told a story or inspired with optimism, Googie went out of fashion in the mid-1960s.*

Historical Notes

West Hollywood, colloquially referred to as WeHo, was incorporated in 1984 and is home to the famous Sunset Strip.  The irregular boundary of the town is featured in the city logo, and was largely formed from the unincorporated area that had not become part of the surrounding cities (Los Angeles and Beverly Hills).*^

West Hollywood owes its existence to one of Southern California's first interurban electric railways, the Pasadena and Pacific. Assembled by Moses H. Sherman and his brother-in-law Eli P. Clark from failed and fragmentary predecessors, the Pasadena and Pacific connected the booming city of Los Angeles with the beach town of Santa Monica. Along the way, it crossed a sprawling coastal plain dotted with marshes, tar pits, and citrus groves. Today's Santa Monica Boulevard traces the railway's route across what was then called the Cahuenga Valley.^

Historical Notes

During the final decade years of the nineteenth century, the first large land development in what would later become West Hollywood—the town of "Sherman"—was established by Moses Sherman and his partners of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, an interurban railroad line which later became part of the Pacific Electric Railway system. Sherman became the location of the railroad's main shops, railroad yards, and "car barns". Many working-class employees of the railroad settled in this town.  It was during this time that the city began to earn its reputation as a loosely regulated, liquor-friendly (during Prohibition) place for eccentric people wary of government interference.

For years, farms and open fields separated the town of Sherman from the neighboring communities of Colegrove and Hollywood (an independent city from 1903 to 1910). Though connected by the tracks of the Pasadena and Pacific—later bounded on each side by paved roadways for motor cars and named Santa Monica Boulevard—it was not until the early 1920s that the growing Los Angeles metropolis met the street grid of Sherman. ^

Historical Notes

In 1896, Sherman and Clark built a rail yard and power plant at roughly the midpoint between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, where today's Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards intersect.

Historical Notes

For many years, the area that is now the city of West Hollywood was an unincorporated area in the midst of Los Angeles. Because gambling was illegal in the city of Los Angeles, but still legal in Los Angeles County, the 1920s saw the proliferation of many casinos, night clubs, etc., along Sunset Boulevard (which starts in downtown Los Angeles and runs westward). These businesses were immune from the sometimes heavy-handed law-enforcement of the L.A. Police Department.

In 1925, In a controversial decision, Sherman adopted "West Hollywood", "...a moniker pioneered earlier in the decade by the West Hollywood Realty Board" as its informal name, though it remained under the governance of Los Angeles County.*^

Historical Notes

Beginning in 1922, Sherman's population boomed. As the town's development began to merge with that of Hollywood, by then a part of the City of Los Angeles, some in both Sherman and the metropolis began speaking of annexation.

Los Angeles promptly annexed several large but mostly vacant tracts surrounding Sherman; the 1,203-acre Fairfax district became part of Los Angeles with the unanimous approval of its 16 residents, and a 7-0 vote joined the 430-acre Melrose district with L.A.

L.A. easily incorporated these vast tracts into its city limits without contention, but Sherman was an established community with an independent identity, and the issue of annexation divided Sherman's population and business interests. Realtors supported it, arguing that future development depended on access to Los Angeles' sewer and fire protection services. Sherman's Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce opposed joining the city, however, fearful of increased property taxes.

Ultimately the anti-annexationist forces prevailed. Instead of relying on L.A.'s utility connections and public services, Sherman financed construction of its own sewer system and relied upon the county for police and fire protection services. ^

Historical Notes

The tracks running down the center of Santa Monica Boulevard became part of the Pacific Electric Railway in 1911 and carried red cars until 1954. They then remained largely unused for decades, serving the occasional Southern Pacific freight train through the 1970s. It was not until 1999 that the West Hollywood segment of the tracks were dug up and replaced by a landscaped median.^

Click HERE to see same view in 2016.

Historical Notes

The building on the NW corner of Santa Monica and Westbourne Drive (8701 Santa Monica Blvd) has some interesting arhitecutral features and history. Click HERE to see more.

Historical Notes

The huge tank seen above was installed by LA Gas and Electric Company which later evolved into Southern California Gas Company. These large tanks were known as "gas holders" (aka gasometers), and helped supply natural gas to the city. They rose or sank in height depending on the amount of gas being stored.

Historical Notes

The above Gasometer was dismantled in the mid-1970s. Click HERE to see more in Gasometers of Early Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

The building at top center-right in the contemporary view is covered in blue. It is the Formosa Cafe during a remodel located on SE corner of Santa Monica and Formosa. Click HERE to see more.

Historical Notes

When United Artists was formed in 1919 by  Charlie Chaplin,  Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and  D. W. Griffith, the founders never intended the company to be like a regular Hollywood studio. It started solely as a distribution company. Its mission was to release films made by independent producers, therefore it had no studio lot. However, many of the independent producers owned their own property, like the  Charlie Chaplin Studio on Sunset Boulevard.  The closest thing to a studio lot was the property owned by Pickford and Fairbanks on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue in Hollywood. The studio lot's address is now 1041 North Formosa Avenue.

Historical Notes

The 18-acre property on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue was originally owned by Jesse Durham Hampton, and then became known as the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio. As United Artists began to lure independent producers away from the major studios, many of the producers like Samuel Goldwyn and Joseph Schenck rented offices and stages on the property. In the early 1920s, the lot was renamed the United Artists Studio, though it was operated as a separate entity from United Artists the distribution company.*

Historical Notes

Goldwyn and Schenck financed the expansion of the studio, creating an awkward ownership structure. Pickford and Fairbanks controlled the deed to the land, but Goldwyn and Schenck owned the actual facilities on the lot. In 1935 when Scheck left United Artists, Goldwyn took over his share.

Historical Notes

After Douglas Fairbanks died in 1939, leaving his share of the deed to Mary Pickford, Goldwyn sought to rename the lot "Samuel Goldwyn Studio." Pickford and Goldwyn fought over the name and ownership of the property until a court ordered that the lot be auctioned in 1955.

James Mulvey, Goldwyn's most trusted business confidant and president of Samuel Goldwyn Inc., outbid Pickford for the property. The lot officially became Samuel Goldwyn Studio and remained so until Warner Brothers purchased the site in 1980.^

Warner Bros. sold the studio lot in 1999 and the name of this studio lot was changed to "The Lot."

Across the street is the Formosa Cafe, a legendary Hollywood hangout.

Historical Notes

Gas Stations used to be called service stations ... they would rush to your car, check the water and oil, put air in your tires, wash your windows, and pump your gas.

Click HERE to see more Early Views of LA Gas Stations.

Historical Notes

In Feb , 2022 the iconic Tower Records building was demolished.

Here's the Tower building (8801 Sunset Blvd) history timeline
• 1928 - 1935 Magnetic Service Station (Venetian Studio - antique furniture adjacent on west side at 8811 Sunset)
• 1935: Simon’s Drive-in opens
• 1945: Dolores Drive-In opens
• 1952: Jack’s on the Strip drive-in opens. Parking lot shared with Budget Rent-A-Car. Office on the corner across Horn
• 1961: Shoreham Apt sales model unit built in front
• 1962?-1965: Budget Rent-A-Car. Takes over Shoreham unit
• 1964?: Madman Muntz. Possibly moves into the diner buidings behind the Budget/Shoreham building
•  1966: Muntz takes over Budget building. Framing added on west side. 4/8-track car stereo installations done in diner bldg
• 1969: Muntz and Diner buildings all demolished
• 1970: Tower Records opens that September
• 1971: Howard Krumholz is hired!
• 1987: Gary Helsinger is hired in July!
• 2006: Tower files bankruptcy and closes
• 2007-2012: “Live! On Sunset” clothing & gift retail store.
• 2013: Spirit Halloween pop up store
•  Events: Rock of Ages movie set; White Stripes promo; Stranger Things Mall promo; Pam and Tommy movie
• 2016: Colin Hanks repaints store signs and colors for his Tower documentary “All Things Must Pass” premiere after party
• 2019: Gibson Guitars relinquishes its lease
• 2021: Supreme clothing takes over lease
• 2022 (Feb): Supreme demolishes building except for the frame*

Historical Notes

Designed in 1929 by architect Leland A. Bryant, opened in 1931, the Sunset Tower  is considered one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the Los Angeles area. In its early years, it was the residence of many Hollywood celebrities, including John Wayne and Howard Hughes.^

Historical Notes

The building was renamed the Sunset Tower Hotel in 2004, after going through several incarnations as the infamous St. James’s Club and The Argyle. Its dramatic setting and elegant Art Deco architecture, along with its proximity to famous restaurants and nightclubs of the 1930s and 1940s, contributed to its landmark status.

Historical Notes

Originally operated as a luxury apartment hotel, it was one of the first high-rise reinforced concrete buildings in California. When it was completed in August 1931 at a cost of $750,000, the Los Angeles Times reported: "What is described to be the tallest apartment-house in Los Angeles County, rising 15 stories or 195 feet, was completed last week at Kings Road and Sunset Boulevard by W.I. Moffett, general contractor, for E.M. Fleming, owner."^

Historical Notes

In 1933, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about the trend toward luxurious penthouse apartments in the city and noted that Sunset Tower boasted the city's highest penthouse: "It is the highest in the city and due to the location of the fifteen-story structure that supports it, its tenants live on a level with the tower of the Los Angeles City Hall. Imagine the view!" ^

Historical Notes

Marketing the building to Hollywood celebrities, an advertisement in the February 1938 issue of the Screen Actors Guild magazine read: "Faultless in Appointment-The Ultimate in Privacy . . . Hollywood's Most Distinguished Address."

Historical Notes

John Wayne, Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Buss and novelist James Wohl lived in the penthouse at different times, and Hughes reportedly also rented some of the lower apartments for his girlfriends or mistresses. Other former residents include Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Caine, Quincy Jones, Roger Moore, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Billie Burke, Joseph Schenck, Paulette Goddard, Zasu Pitts, George Stevens, Preston Sturges, and Carol Kane.^

Historical Notes

In their guide to Los Angeles architecture, David Gebhard and Robert Winter wrote that "this tower is a first class monument of the Zig Zag Moderne and as much an emblem of Hollywood as the Hollywood sign."  It is situated in a commanding location on the Sunset Strip with views of the city and is decorated with plaster friezes of plants, animals, zeppelins, legendary creatures and Adam and Eve.^

Historical Notes

The building is decorated with plaster friezes of plants, animals, zeppelins, mythological creatures and Adam and Eve.

Historical Notes

Architect Leland Bryant specialized in luxury apartments, but the Sunset Tower was his crowning achievement. His work was predominantly in Period Revival, but with this building he proved that he was equally adept with the then contemporary Deco style.*

Historical Notes

To attract a demanding clientele, the Sunset Tower incorporated the latest in both technology and design. There were modern conveniences, like outlets in every bathroom for electric shavers, and the windows were made larger to take advantage of the spectacular views.*

Historical Notes

After a period of decline in the early 1980s, the building was renovated and has been operated as a luxury hotel under the names The St. James's Club, The Argyle, and most recently the Sunset Tower Hotel.

Historical Notes

The building was saved from deterioration and possible demolition when it was purchased in 1985 from architect David Lawrence Gray, FAIA by Peter de Savary who promised to "lovingly restore" the building to its former glory by spending $25 million to convert the building into the first American branch of his luxury hotel chain, the St. James's Club.

The Lancaster Group purchased the hotel from de Savary in 1992, renaming it the Argyle.

In 2004, Jeff Klein purchased the hotel.  Klein hired designer Paul Fortune to renovate the hotel, adding more modern amenities, and restored its original name.^

Historical Notes

The Sunset Tower building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

In the 1990's the Sunset Tower Hotel was known as the Argyle Hotel. Before that it was known as the St. James Club and Hotel, a grand 13 story, the Strip's 1st high-rise (built in 1931), and one of Hollywood 's best examples of Art Deco design. Virtually every star in Hollywood stayed here at one time or another. It was a favorite of Howard Hughes, who kept a number of suites here fore his various girlfriends; other guest included Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne (who is said to have kept a cow on the balcony outside his penthouse suite for fresh milk).

Historical Notes

Sunset Boulevard, a long winding thoroughfare that begins in downtown Los Angeles and runs westward over 20 miles, ends at the Pacific Ocean near Malibu. The best-known portion of the boulevard is the mile and a half stretch between Hollywood and Beverly Hills, known as "The Sunset Strip".*

The Chateau Marmont Hotel was a great castle on the hill inspired by the architecture of the Loire Valley in France was built in 1927, opened in 1929 as an apartment house, and was changed to a hotel in 1931, becoming the "Hotel to the Stars".*

Historical Notes

The Club Casanova opened in August 1936 and lasted only 16 months.  In 1937, it became U-Gene’s Bagdad Café, then two years later, Bow’s Inn.

Today, the Saddle Ranch Chop House stands at this location, on the N/E corner of Sunset and N. Kings Rd.

Historical Notes

In 1940 Preston Sturges, successful Hollywood writer and director, opened Players Nightclub. Stars and writers made it their home base. Humphrey Bogart, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman (writer of several Marx Brothers movies), and Donald Ogden Stewart (screenwriter of 1938’s Marie Antoinette and 1940’s The Philadelphia Story) all got smashed on The Players’ drinks, which were said to be the most potent in town.

Barbara Stanwyck (Sturges’ leading lady in The Lady Eve), Orson Welles (who stayed next door at the Chateau Marmont when he first came to Hollywood), Joel McCrea (who starred in three of Sturges’ pictures), Rudy Vallee, director William Wyler, and writer William Faulkner were all regulars at their friend’s establishment. Multi-millionaire Howard Hughes became a regular guest. He often dined on the top floor, frequently preferring to eat alone.*

Historical Notes

At its peak during WWII, The Players was a three-level extravaganza with a restaurant on each floor. There was a barbershop on the mezzanine level. Sturges also built a dinner theatre/dance floor with a revolving, hydraulic stage. Later still, he added a burger stand  for the tourist trade.*

Historical Notes

The Players never broke even and, by 1953, the burger stand was the only part of The Players still open for business.*

Historical Notes

Player’s Club didn't make it past the late 1950s. It later became the Imperial Gardens, the Roxbury and Miyagi's. In 2012 Harry Morton, oil-slick heir of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morgan, chose the site for the second location of his Mexican restaurant chain The Pink Taco. During renovations his work crews discovered the revolving stage, the dance floor and the infamous secret tunnel connecting to the Chateau Marmont.^

Historical Notes

In 1926 Fred Horowitz, a prominent Los Angeles attorney, chose the site at Marmont Lane and Sunset Boulevard to construct an apartment building. Horowitz had recently traveled to Europe for inspiration and returned to California with photos of a Gothic Chateau along the Loire River. In 1927 Horowitz commissioned his brother-in-law, European-trained architect Arnold A. Weitzman, to design the seven-story, L-shaped building based on his French photos. When deciding upon a name for the building, Chateau Sunset and Chateau Hollywood were rejected in favor of Chateau Marmont, a name conceived by the small street running across the front of the property.*

Historical Notes

On February 1, 1929, Chateau Marmont opened its doors to the public as the newest residence of Hollywood. Local newspapers described the Chateau as “Los Angeles’s newest, finest and most exclusive apartment house ... superbly situated, close enough to active businesses to be accessible and far enough away to insure quiet and privacy.”

Due to the high rents and inability to keep tenants for long-term commitments during the depression, Fred Horowitz chose to sell the apartment building to Albert E. Smith for $750,000 in cash. The following year, Chateau Marmont was converted into a hotel. The apartments became suites with kitchens and living rooms. The property was also refurbished with antiques from depression-era estate sales.*

Historical Notes

There existed a secret tunnel connecting the Players Club to the Chateau Marmont.

Historical Notes

Designed and constructed to be earthquake proof, Chateau Marmont survived major earthquakes in 1933, 1953, 1971, 1987 and 1994 without sustaining any major structural damage. Nine Spanish cottages were built next to the hotel in the 1930s and were acquired by the hotel in the 1940s. Craig Ellwood designed two of the four bungalows in 1956, after he completed Case Study Houses.*

Historical Notes

With its external appearance of a castle or Gothic fort, combined with its residential past, incredibly thick walls, discreet entry, and highly protective staff who treated guests like members of the family, the Chateau Marmont became the ideal hideout.

European guests found the architecture familiar and comforting, sexual outsiders felt accepted, the emotionally shy were shielded, and anyone else with a reason to hide simply blended into the woodwork—from the start there was the feeling of a shared sensibility. Greta Garbo felt comfortable here, as did Howard Hughes.^

Historical Notes

Members of Led Zeppelin rode their motorcycles through the lobby in the 1960s.

On March 5, 1982, comedian John Belushi died from a speedball injection in Bungalow No. 3.

On January 23, 2004, photographer Helmut Newton, who lived at the hotel, lost control of his Cadillac and crashed into the driveway wall. He was killed.

There is a commonly-denied and non-denied story that Benicio Del Toro and Scarlett Johansson hooked up in the elevator the night before the 2004 Oscars.^

Historical Notes

Lindsay Lohan shacked up at the Chateau in the midst of her (first) drunk driving scandal.

During her public meltdown phase, in September 2007, Britney Spears was temporarily banned from the Chateau for smearing her face with food, disgusting fellow diners.

Historical Notes

When celebrities visiting Los Angeles want to be seen, they often go to the Beverly Hills Hotel. When they wish to keep out of the limelight they often stay at the Marmont.

Historical Notes

In 1976, Chateau Marmont was dedicated LA Historic-Cultural Monument No. 151 (Click HERE to see complete listing).

Historical Notes

The Club Seville opened New Year’s Eve 1935 and featured a crystal dance floor with subsurface fish, fountains and colored lights in its Crystal Marine Room.  In 1940, the building got a face-lift and became known as Ciro’s Nightclub (1940 – 1957).  Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

Ciro's (later known as Ciro's Le Disc) was a nightclub in West Hollywood located at 8433 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip. It opened in January 1940 by entrepreneur William Wilkerson. Herman Hover took over management of Ciro's in 1942 until it closed its doors in 1957.

Co-founder Wilkerson also opened Cafe Trocadero, in 1934, and the restaurant La Rue, both on the Strip, and later originated The Flamingo in Las Vegas, only to have control of the resort wrested from his control by mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.*^

Historical Notes

Ciro's combined a luxe baroque interior and an unadorned exterior and became a famous hangout for movie people of the 1940s and, 1950s. It was one of "the" places to be seen and guaranteed being written about in the gossip columns of Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons and Florabel Muir.*^

Historical Notes

Among the galaxy of celebrities who frequented Ciro's were Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Sidney Poitier, Anita Ekberg, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Joan Crawford, Betty Grable, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Dean Martin, Mickey Rooney, Cary Grant, George Raft, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Judy Garland, June Allyson and Dick Powell, Mamie Van Doren, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, Peter Lawford, and Lana Turner (who often said Ciro's was her favorite nightspot) among many others. During his first visit to Hollywood in the late 1940s, future President John F. Kennedy dined at Ciro's.*^

Historical Notes

In the 1960s, Ciro's became a Sunset Strip rock and roll club, and was the only major venue on the Strip to make such a transition while keeping its original name. The Byrds got their start there in 1964. Accounts of the period (reproduced in the sleeve notes to The Preflyte Sessions box set) describe a "church-like" atmosphere, with interpretive dancing. The club also served as the host during the recording of the 1965 Dick Dale album "Rock Out With Dick Dale: Live At Ciro's"

The site of Ciro's became Art Laboe's circa 1970 and the The Comedy Store in 1972.*^

Historical Notes

The Comedy Store was opened in April 1972 by comedians Sammy Shore and Rudy DeLuca. The building was formerly the home of Ciro's, a popular Hollywood nightclub owned by William Wilkerson, and later a rock and roll venue, where The Byrds were discovered in 1964.

When the venue reopened as The Comedy Store in 1972, it included a 99-seat theatre, where Johnny Carson was one of the first comics to perform. As a result of a divorce settlement, Sammy Shore's ex-wife Mitzi Shore began operating the club in 1973, and she was able to buy the building in 1976. She immediately renovated and expanded the club to include a 450-seat main room.*^

Historical Notes

The Comedy Store has featured performances from every important comedian. The names of its headliners are vaunted on its outside walls.

This was once the site of Ciro’s, one of Hollywood’s most popular nightclubs during the 1940s and 1950s.

The building is supposedly haunted. TV’s “Access Hollywood” once brought in a psychic, billed her as a “spiritual journalist,” and had her talk about angry mobsters still supposedly trapped in the building’s basement. ^^+

Historical Notes

The Mocambo opened on January 3, 1941, and became an immediate success. It was owned by Charlie Morrison and Felix Young.  The club's Latin American-themed decor designed by Tony Duquette cost $100,000 (equivalent to $1,663,801 in 2017). Along the walls were glass cages holding live cockatoos, macaws, seagulls, pigeons, and parrots. With big band music, the club became one of the most popular dance-till-dawn spots in town. On any given night, one might find the room filled with the leading men and women of the motion picture industry.

In 1943, when Frank Sinatra became a solo act, he made his Los Angeles debut at the Mocambo.

On March 15, 1955 Ella Fitzgerald opened at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking. The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. The incident was turned into a play by Bonnie Greer in 2005.*^

Historical Notes

Among the many celebrities who frequented the Mocambo were Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Errol Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Bob Hope, James Cagney, Sophia Loren, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, Grace Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Howard Hughes, Kay Francis, Marlene Dietrich, Theda Bara, Tyrone Power, Jayne Mansfield, John Wayne, Ben Blue, Ann Sothern, and Louis B. Mayer. Myrna Loy and Arthur Hornblow, Jr. celebrated their divorce there.

The club's main stage was replicated on the TV series I Love Lucy as the "Tropicana" Club. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were frequent guests at the Mocambo and were close friends of Charlie Morrison.

Early in 1957, club operator and co-owner Charlie Morrison died at his Beverly Hills home. The Mocambo remained in business for one final year, before closing its doors on June 30, 1958. The building was then sold, reopened as a supper club called The Cloister, and eventually demolished.*^

Historical Notes

*Eddie Cantor, born Edward Israel Iskowitz, was a comedian, dancer, singer, actor, and songwriter.  He is also known for being the second president of the Screen Actors Guild, serving from 1933 to 1935. He invented the title "The March of Dimes" for the donation campaigns of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was organized to combat polio. It was a play on the The March of Time newsreels popular at the time. He began the first campaign on his radio show in January 1938, asking listeners to mail a dime to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At that time, Roosevelt was the most notable American victim of polio. Other entertainers joined in the appeal via their own shows, and the White House mail room was deluged with 2,680,000 dimes—a large sum at the time.*^

Historical Notes

The Hacienda Park Apartments (renamed Coronet Apartments in late 1930s) was built in 1927 and operated initially as a luxury apartment building catering to the entertainment business. In the 1930s, it became the "most famous brothel in California."  The building declined in prestige in the 1950s and 1960 and was acquired by rock star Rod Stewart in the 1970s. After Stewart's plans to redevelop the building as a luxury hotel ended in a legal dispute, the building was nearly destroyed in a 1983 fire that was found to be of suspicious origin. Since 1986, it has been known as the Piazza del Sol, and it now houses the offices of several production companies, including Miramax Films. The restaurant Katana, co-owned by Ryan Seacrest and Tori Spelling and described by Newsweek as "so hip it hurts," also operates at the building.*^

A check of the Piazza del Sol’s listing in the National Register reveals a quirk in the record. The Register shows its original name as Hacienda Arms Apartments, not the Hacienda Park Apartments – a name that in 1927 connected the building to the neighborhood around it, Hacienda Park. It’s by no means a fatal error, and the rest of the information appears to be correct, but this small mistake has been magnified over the years – picked up and repeated in dozens of articles and books, including, for example, the headline of the building’s Wikipedia page.*

Historical Notes

The Cafe Trocadero was the center of jitterbug in the 1930s. A black tie French-inspired supper club, the original Trocadero, now demolished, was considered the jewel of the Strip in the 1930s and became synonymous with stars, starlets, movie producers, and fun.*^

Historical Notes

Originally known as the La Boheme from 1929 to 1933, the Café Trocadero was opened by William R. Wilkerson in 1934. Wilkerson was the successful publisher of The Hollywood Reporter who also owned other nightclubs nearby on the Sunset Strip like Ciro's and LaRue.*^

Historical Notes

Among the celebrities who frequented the Trocadero were Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Jackie Gleason, Henry Fonda, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Jean Harlow, and Norma Shearer. The Trocadero was featured in the 1937 movie A Star is Born starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.*^

Historical Notes

The streetlights seen above are known as 'Metropolitan Streetlights', predominately found in Hollywood. Click HERE to see more in Early Views of LA Streetlights.

Historical Notes

The building was remodeled in 1938 by new owners Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen.

Historical Notes

After years of serving as one of Hollywood's best evening destinations, the "Troc" closed in 1946.*

Today, a "new" Trocadero stands as a nightclub at 8610 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip.

Historical Notes

Opened in 1924, Sunset Plaza was the first commercial development on the Sunset Strip.

Today it is an exclusive shopping complex that draws an A-list clientele to its designer boutiques and chic sidewalk cafes and restaurants. The Sunset Plaza is located on both sides of Sunset Boulevard between La Cienega and San Vicente at Sunset Plaza Drive.

Historical Notes

Wil Wright’s was a chain of ice cream parlors that dotted the Southern California landscape up until the mid-seventies.  In addition to the West Hollywood location, they could be found in Beverly Hills (corner of Beverly Drive and Charleville), Westwood Village (corner of Glendon and Lindbrook), Pacific Palisades (San Vicente), Sherman Oaks (corner of Ventura and Van Nuys Blvd). They were the perfect place to take a date after the movie.  The delicate pink and red decor and little marble tables and wire-frame chairs made you feel like you were seated inside a Valentine’s Day card.

Historical Notes

Florence Nightingale Graham (1878 – 1966), who went by the business name Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian American businesswoman who founded what is now Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and built a cosmetics empire in the United States. By 1929 she owned 150 upscale salons across the United States and Europe. Her 1000 products were found in the luxury market in 22 countries. She was the sole owner, and at the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.*^

Historical Notes

Pupi’s, which opened in the mid- to late 1950s, sat on the south side of the Sunset Strip, in the historically upscale portion known as Sunset Plaza. It had a striped awning over sidewalk tables, but the little flagstone patio was the real attraction, along with some Perspex that blocked the wind coming up from the great sweep that separated its patrons from the wider Los Angeles Basin below.^

Historical Notes

Nothing like sitting at the outside tables and wathcing everyone walk by including some famous movie stars.

Historical Notes

Pupi’s is where Jack Nicholson flew into one of his storied rages one night, quarreling with a waitress and threatening to kick in a pastry cart. That is the incident Carole Eastman said she drew on when she wrote the famous “no substitutions” scene for Bobby Dupea (Jack’s character) in Five Easy Pieces.^

Historical Notes

Today, the Sunset Plaza is a two-block cluster of hip outdoor cafes, boutiques, hair salons, and other stores whose prices rival those of Rodeo Drive’s. It is one of the best people watching places in West Hollywood. ^^+

Historical Notes

This restaurant was originally called the Mermaid Cafe built in the late 1920's. In 1933 it premiered as The Villa Nova and taken over by film director Vincente Minnelli and silent film actor-director Allen Dale.

Marilyn Monroe went on her first blind date with Joe DiMaggio here in 1953 and Vincent proposed to Judy Garland at the Villa Nova in 1945. When Elmer Valentine, Lou Adler and Mario Maglieri took it over in 1972, they originally wanted to call it "Over The Rainbow" in their honor - but the city would not allow the sign to reach a certain height, so they shortened it to, "The Rainbow".*^^*

Historical Notes

The Rainbow Bar and Grill was founded in early 1972 by Elmer Valentine, Lou Adler, Mario Maglieri and others, opening on April 16, 1972, with a party for Elton John.  At the time, the word "rainbow" signified peace and freedom. It quickly became known as a hangout for celebrities of all types. John Belushi ate his last meal (lentil soup) at table No. 16.^

Historical Notes

The Rainbow became known as a hangout for rock musicians and their groupies. Notable regulars at the Rainbow in this period include Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Micky Dolenz, Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Neil Diamond. Elvis Presley was known to have occasionally visited the Rainbow. The group of musicians calling themselves the Hollywood Vampires made the Rainbow their home away from home in the mid-1970s. In the last two decades of his life, Motörhead frontman Lemmy was a daily fixture at the Rainbow whenever the band was not on tour, and often played a video poker machine at the end of the bar table.^

Historical Notes

Los Angeles songwriter Warren Zevon referenced the scene at the Rainbow in the last verse of his 1976 song "Poor Poor Pitiful Me".

The musical group Rainbow was named after this club.^

Historical Notes

The Roxy was opened on September 23, 1973, by Elmer Valentine and Lou Adler, along with original partners David Geffen, Elliot Roberts and Peter Asher. They took over the building previously occupied by a strip club owned by Chuck Landis called the Largo. (Adler was also responsible for bringing the stage play The Rocky Horror Show to the United States, and it opened its first American run at The Roxy Theatre in 1974, before it was made into the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show the next year. *^

Historical Notes

Neil Young and his band The Santa Monica Flyers played the Roxy for the first week it was open. Only three months later, the original Genesis lineup with Peter Gabriel played several consecutive days at the Roxy, a run that some band members and many fans consider to be amongst their finest performances (due partially to the intimate atmosphere and good acoustics of the venue, as well as the legendary reputation of "Hollywood" amongst performers around the world).

Paul Reubens, then a struggling comedian, introduced his Pee-wee Herman character in a raunchy revue here in 1981 that included other aspiring comics including Phil Hartman and Elayne Boosler. *^

Historical Notes

The small On the Rox bar above the club has hosted a wide variety of debauchery in its history. The bar was a regular hangout for John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Alice Cooper and Keith Moon during Lennon's "lost weekend" in 1973-74 and hosted parties arranged by Heidi Fleiss in the 1980s. *^

Historical Notes

The Roxy Theatre/Nightclub with a capacity of 500 is owned by Lou Adler and Nic Adler. *^

Historical Notes

Doheny Road and Doheny Drive, named after the early 20th Century oil tycoon – Edward L. Doheny, is a north–south thoroughfare mostly through Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.  It starts a few blocks south of Pico Boulevard in the city of Los Angeles, and travels northwards, crossing Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, and other east/west streets, and ends after crossing Sunset Boulevard.

Historical Notes

This streamline-moderne/classical building was designed by architect Paul Williams for the Berman Fur Company in 1936. Filmaker Hal Roach briefly had a jewelry business on the ground floor. It later housed the offices of agent Paul Kohner.

Historical Notes

The word “smorgasbord” is something we take for granted these days, but back in 1936 when a Swedish restaurant called ‘Bit of Sweden’ opened at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Doheny Drive, it introduced the concept of the smorgasbord to curious Angelinos.

Historical Notes

This was a Simon’s Drive-in from 1935 until 1945 when Dolores Drive-in took over.  It became Jack’s on the Strip Drive-in sometime in the 1950s.  The building stood until the mid-1960s when it was demolished to make way for a succession of music stores, Muntz Stereo and then Tower Records (1971).

Click HERE to see more Early Views of LA Drive-in Restaurants.

Historical Notes

The Strip’s lone drive-in restaurant at the time, it was originally occupied by a branch of the Simon’s chain. The understated colonial-style building was markedly different that the orbit-shaped, neon-ringed Art Deco Simon’s further east at 6760 Sunset Blvd. near Hollywood High School. It opened as Dolores Drive-in here about 1945, its first Los Angeles location.

Historical Notes

Dolores would only last until the 1950s when it became Jack’s on the Strip Drive-in. The building stood until the mid-1960s when it was demolished to make way for a succession of music stores, Muntz Stereo and then Tower Records (1971).

Click HERE to see more Early Views of LA Drive-in Restaurants.

Historical Notes

The original Dolores Diner is behind the building. Muntz used that space for his car stereo installations. This building was originally built as a model used to sell the condos in the Shoreham building in 1961. Budget Rent-A-Car took it over, and then Muntz added that framing extenstion on the west side of the building.

The above building was a music store and showroom for "Madman" Muntz's Stereo Paks, the first successful car stereo system "and a popular hangout for teenagers in the '60s." (In addition to inventing 4-tracks, Muntz popularized the nickname "TV" for television.

Tower Records moved into the building in 1971.

Historical Notes

In 1935, Marcel Lamaze, founded the original Café La Maze on Sunset Boulevard.  Marcel was a legendary and influential Restaurateur & Maître D in the Los Angeles area during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The Hollywood location was a Movie Star Hangout, where Marcel was well connected with the movie star crowd. Marcel was known to be a good friend of Jimmy Durante and loved to Play Poker with the Marx Brothers.^**^

Historical Notes

In the 1940s the Café La Maze would become Sherry's Restaurant.

Historical Notes

During the 1940s Sherry’s was popular with L.A.’s mafia element. On July 20, 1949 gangster Mickey Cohen and 3 others were ambushed at 3:45 a.m. in front of the restaurant on the Sunset Strip. Mickey's car drove up to the curb and gunmen (hiding across the street under an advertising sign – out of view) opened fire with shotguns. The gunmen then sped away in a gray auto, tossing out the guns a block away. Mickey was the least seriously wounded.*#

Sherry’s later became the famous rock club Gazzari’s on the Strip.

Historical Notes

Mickey Cohen was a well-known mobster with close ties to the Mafia (circa 1940s.) As a front, Cohen operated a men’s clothing store at 8804 Sunset Blvd (on the Strip). His office was in the back of the store where he took care of…ahem…“business.” Cohen always insisted he was simply a small businessman selling men’s clothes. Apparently even Cohen gave up pretending when he closed his store in January 1950.

Historical Notes

Gazzarri's nightclub on the Sunset Strip was most notable as the location where The Doors and Van Halen were featured house bands for long stretches before being discovered. It was also the LA club featured in Huey Lewis and the News MTV video for their hit "The Heart of Rock and Roll."

Historical Notes

Gazzarri's reached its peak of popularity in the late 1960s, featuring Jim Morrison's young new group, along with other LA talent such as The Bobby Fuller Four, Buffalo Springfield, and The Walker Brothers. It then achieved major LA relevance again in the late 70's, featuring the David Lee Roth-led Van Halen nightly for months on end, and then into the 1980s thru the early 90's as one of the top LA glam metal nightclubs. It was owned and operated by the "Godfather of Rock and Roll", Bill Gazzarri. Gazzarri himself was known for dressing up as a Chicago-style gangster and frequenting the club on performance nights. Located near the corner of Doheny and Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, and just several dozen yards from both the Rainbow Bar and Grill and The Roxy Theatre, Gazzarri's became famous as a launching pad for future rock and roll stars.*

Historical Notes

Bill Gazzarri died in 1991 and the club closed down in 1993. In 1994, the building suffered irreparable damage from the Northridge earthquake. It was torn down in 1995 and a new club called Billboard Live was built on the former Gazzarri's site. It opened in 1996. Billboard Live became The Key Club in 1998 (which was the lounge name of the original Café La Maze).*

Historical Notes

The restaurant was run by a black woman named Louise Brooks but owned by Phil Selznick, who was David O. Selznick’s uncle. He also took over the It Café on Vine Street from Clara Bow, and Club Versailles at 8590 Sunset, which was rumored to be a front for Bugsy Siegel and later became Mocambo. Something dodgy was going on because Mammy Louise’s Bayou was raided in the fall of 1938 and subsequently went under. Its next incarnation was an upscale lesbian bar called Cafe Internationale. 

Today the building, after a major renovation, has been converted into a furniture store.  Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

In the 80s and 90s these buildings (as well as the office buildings on the east side up to Doheny) all comprised the headquarters of Geffen Records.  

Historical Notes

The Finlandia Baths were downstairs in the basement of the Crosby Building where a virtual who's who of closeted gay and straight male stars went for a bake or to rub the kinks out or have them rubbed out, as the case may be. Regulars apparently included Kirk Douglas, Cornel Wilde, Humphrey Bogart, Tony Curtis, Hugh O'Brien, Rock Hudson and the Crosby brothers and many others. The building is still there albeit somewhat folded, spindled and mutilated but the bones are still good and still visible. Finlandia Baths have predictably morphed into a tattoo parlor.

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