Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — Spooky, Ooky Witch’s House Haunts Beverly Hills

Posted on October 30, 2019 by lmharnisch

Willat-Lescalle House

A sketch of the “The Witch’s House” by Charles Owens from “Nuestro Pueblo,” courtesy of Mary Mallory

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

 

Once upon a time, home design and architecture saluted fantasy and make-believe, and not just in fiction. Bilbo Baggins and lucky leprechauns resided in twee little bungalows, short, off-kilter, hutch-like, but so did imaginative and childlike Los Angeles residents of the 1920s. Storybook architecture, dreamed up and promoted by film industry veterans, flourished near movie studios, magical little Brigadoon-like structures.

A strong proponent of storybook design was Hollywood art director Harry Oliver. Noted for his work as art director on films “7th Heaven” (1927) and “Street Angel” (1928). Oliver merrily dreamed up colorful structures on the side, like the famous Van de Kamp’s windmills and Los Feliz’s Tam-o-Shanter restaurant. Another whimsical structure, however, remains his most famous design, the Witch’s House in Beverly Hills.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland:Tales Lost and Found” is available as an ebook.

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Black Dahlia: Who Can Spot the Mistake?

Posted on October 28, 2019 by lmharnisch

Spot the mistake

Every so often, a Black Dahlia researcher cites Morgan Korzik’s blackdahlia.web.unc.edu, presumably on the theory that any source ending in edu is somehow reliable.

It’s not. See if you can spot the mistake.

ps. You cannot trust anything on the Black Dahlia that uses Wikipedia, as Korzik did.

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Sixth Street Chocolate Shop Offers Sweet Treats

Posted on October 28, 2019 by lmharnisch

Hope Chest Chocolate Shop

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

Note: This is an encore post from 2014


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.

 

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Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 28, 2019 by lmharnisch

Nov. 2, 2019, mystery photo, title

This week’s mystery movie was the 1959 film “The Devil’s Disciple,” with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott, Eva Le Gallienne, Harry Andrews, Basil Sydney, George Rose, Neil McCallum, Mervyn Johns, David Horne, Erik Chitty, Allan Cuthbertson, Percy Herbert, Phyllis Morris and Brian Oulton.

Screenplay by John Dighton and Roland Kibbee, based on the play by Bernard Shaw, by special arrangement with the estate of Gabriel Pascal.

Photography by Jack Hildyard, music by Richard Rodney Bennett, music director John Hollingsworth, executive production manager Gilbert Kurland, costumes by Mary Grant, supervising editor Alan Osbiston, art direction by Terrence Verity and Edward Carrere.

Unit production manager John Palmer, assistant director Adrian Pryce-Jones, costume supervision Emma Selby Walker, set decorations by Scott Slimon, camera operator Gerald Eisher, chief makeup artist Paul Rabiger, hairstylist A.G. Scottilan, sound by Leslie Hammond, technical adviser Alan Binns.

Made at Associated British Elstree Studios, England.

Produced by Harold Hecht.
Directed by Guy Hamilton.

“The Devil’s Disciple” is available on Blu-ray from TCM and on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.

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Posted in 1959, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 21, 2019 by lmharnisch

Oct. 26, 2019, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie was the 1956 film “The King and Four Queens,” with Clark Gable, Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes, Barbara Nichols, Sara Shane, Roy Roberts, Arthur Shields and Jay C. Flippen. Also starring Jo Van Fleet.

Photographed in CinemaScope, color by DeLuxe, editorial supervision by Louis R. Loeffler, screenplay by Margaret Fitts and Richard Alan Simmons, based on a story by Margaret Fitts,  music composed and conducted by Alex North, photographed by Lucien Ballard.

Production designer Wiard Ihnen, production manager Joseph G. Behm, assistant director Tom Connors Jr., film editor Howard Bretherton, sound by Jack Solomon, sound effects by Bill Naylor, orchestrations by Hershy Kay, costume design by Renie, men’s wardrobe by Oscar Rodriguez, ladies’ wardrobe by Marjorie Henderson.

Music editor Robert Tracy, makeup Don Roberson and Frank Prehoda, hairstylists Kay Shea and Helene Parrish, set decorator Victor A. Gangelin, master property man William Sittel.

Russ-Field Corp. Gabco Productions, a joint venture.

Executive producer Robert Waterfield. Produced by David Hempstead. Directed by Raoul Walsh.

“The King and Four Queens” is available on DVD and Blu-ray from TCM.com.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 37 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: David O. Selznick and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek

Posted on October 21, 2019 by lmharnisch

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Madame Chiang in a film clip at the Hollywood Bowl, beginning at the 4:22 mark on a newsreel posted on YouTube.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Seventy years ago, film producer David O. Selznick staged an over-the-top extravaganza April 4, 1943, at the Hollywood Bowl honoring Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and China Relief, the likes of which will probably never be seen again. Featuring high showmanship and a cast of thousands, this stage show celebrated a woman as beautiful and tough as Selznick’s Scarlett O’Hara.

Selznick served as one of Hollywood’s most prominent supporters of China Relief, a cause championed by his friends Henry and Clare Luce. He agreed to organize two prominent Los Angeles events to publicize and raise funds in support, desperately needed after the vicious attacks by Japanese soldiers for more than six years. These events would occur near the end of Madame Chiang’s 1943 tour of the United States.

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Scotty Bowers 1923 – 2019 | Liar to the Stars

Posted on October 14, 2019 by lmharnisch

Full Service

Scotty Bowers has left the building. Reminder: Everything he said is a lie.

An encore post from 2018.

Scotty Bowers’ mountain of lies is not the hill I care to die on. But be assured that he has told a mountain of lies. Have you seen even one photograph of him with one of his alleged amours? Scotty and Spencer Tracy? Scotty and Katharine Hepburn? Scotty and, well, any A-list celebrity, really? Rin-Tin-Tin? Trigger? Flipper? Nellybelle?

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Posted in Another Good Story Ruined, Books and Authors, Film, Hollywood, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Villa Elaine Courts Tenants

Posted on October 14, 2019 by lmharnisch

Google Street View The Villa Elaine via Google Street View.

Still stylish after 94 years, Villa Elaine has reigned as one of Hollywood’s most popular apartment/hotels in its location on Vine Street just blocks from Sunset Boulevard. Courtly and regal, the building has attracted tenants whether known as the St. George Court or under its current name, Villa Elaine.

On January 4, 1925, the Los Angeles Times announced that Mrs. Edna Henderson had purchased 1241-1249 Vine Street to construct a five-story, Class C arcade store and apartment building in Spanish Revival style featuring four stores and sixteen studio shops beyond its 64 apartments. Some papers estimated the structure to cost $250,000, with architect Lewis (L.A.) Smith designing the building and the Arthur Bard Co. to serve as contractor.

Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 14, 2019 by lmharnisch

Oct. 19, 2019, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie was the 1942 Twentieth Century-Fox film “The Man Who Wouldn’t Die,” with Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Helen Reynolds, Henry Wilcoxon and Richard Derr.

Executive Producer Sol M. Wurtzel. Screenplay by Arnaud d’Usseau, based on a novel by Clayton Rawson and the character Michael Shayne created by Brett Halliday. Director of photography Joseph P. MacDonald, art direction by Richard Day and Lewis Creber, set decorations by Thomas Little, edited by Fred Allen, costumes by Herschel, sound by Joseph E. Aiken and Harry M. Leonard, technical advisor Detective Lt. Frank L. James, musical  direction by Emil Newman. Directed by Herbert I. Leeds.

“The Man Who Wouldn’t Die” is available on DVD from Amazon as part of a Michael Shayne set. It will air on the Fox Movie Channel on Oct. 28-29.

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Posted in 1942, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , | 25 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Bryson Apartments ‘The Finest Apartment Building West of New York City’

Posted on October 7, 2019 by lmharnisch

image
The Bryson Apartments, via Google Street View.

Note: This is an encore post from 2014.


Considered by many to be one of the most attractive apartment buildings in Los Angeles, the regal Bryson Apartment Building at 2701 Wilshire Blvd. stands as a lovely example of 1910s high end apartment living, a stately survivor reflecting the optimistic, go-getter attitude of early Los Angeles residents. Combining superb construction, elegant looks, and luxurious decoration, the Bryson stands as a glorious monument to its builder, Hugh W. Bryson.

Community leader Bryson believed in constructing affordable large scale residential developments filled with beauty and taste. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, August 1, 1868, ambitious Bryson strove for excellence from a young age. After graduating from high school, he worked as clerk for a cotton brokers, working in banking, and selling real estate, before arriving in Los Angeles in 1902. Bryson joined leading contractor, F. O. Engstrum Co., and within a few years, married the owner’s daughter, Blanche. He was named a general manager and director of the company in 104, focusing on major projects. Recognizing the large migration of East Coast and Midwest residents to sunny LA, Bryson began financing and his own projects under his Concrete Appliances Company.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
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Posted in Architecture, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 7, 2019 by lmharnisch

2019_1012_title
This week’s mystery movie was the 1959 Twentieth Century-Fox film “The Man Who Understood Women,” with Leslie Caron, Henry Fonda, Cesare Danova, Myron McCormick, Marcel Dalio, Conrad Nagel, Edwin Jerome, Harry Ellerbe, Frank Cady, Bern Hoffman and Ben Astar.

Screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, from the novel “The Colors of the Day” by Romain Gary. Music by Robert Emmett Dolan, photography by Milton Krasner, art direction by Lyle R. Wheeler and Maurice Ransford, set decorations by Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox, special photographic effects by L.B. Abbott, edited by Marjorie Fowler, executive wardrobe designer Charles LeMaire, makeup by Ben Nye, hairstyles by Helen Turpin, assistant director Hal Herman, sound by Charles Peck and Harry M. Leonard. Song “A Paris Valentine” by Paul Francis Webster and Robert Emmett Dolan, orchestration by Earle Hagen. Color by De Luxe, color consultant Leonard Doss, CinemaScope lenses by Bausch and Lomb.

Produced and directed by Nunnally Johnson.

“The Man Who Understood Women” has never been commercially released on VHS or DVD. Gray market copies are listed on the Internet.

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Posted in 1959, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

L.A. Philharmonic Opens 2019 Season With Some Modern American Chestnuts

Posted on October 4, 2019 by lmharnisch

Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall

The Los Angeles Philharmonic warms up for its 2019-2020 season. Photograph by Larry Harnisch / LADailymirror.com

Under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened the 2019-20 season last night with a concert of familiar light classics. The music was all sufficiently modern, if mostly last century, but also sufficiently nonthreatening to audiences intimidated by more angular, dissonant, less accessible works. This was an all-American concert, though a meal of side dishes without a main course.

——————–
Correction: The Philharmonic, founded in 1919, began its centennial season in September 2018 and ends the celebration this month. A previous version of this review said last week’s concert opened the centennial season.
——————–

I went in part because Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times keeps cheering about the Philharmonic as “the world’s leading orchestra.” (Spoiler: It’s not). And because The New York Times recently referred to “the orchestra’s daring programming.” (Spoiler: It’s not, at least not last night.)

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 30, 2019 by lmharnisch

Oct. 5, 2019, Red Lily
This week’s mystery movie was the 1924 MGM picture “The Red Lily.” The new credits list “an original story written and directed by Fred Niblo.” Modern credits: Ramon Novarro, Enid Bennett (note: Niblo’s wife), Frank Currier, Mitchell Lewis, Risita Marstini, Sydney Franklin, Wallace Beery, George Nichols, Emily Fitzroy, George Periolat, Rosemary Theby, Milla Davenport, Gibson Gowland and Dick Sutherland.

Scenarist was Beth Meredyth, photography by Victor Milner, scenic architect was Ben Carre, edited by Lloyd Nosler, assistant director Doran Cox. Original score by Scott Salinas.

The 1924 New York Times review provides the following credits: Enid Bennett, Ramon Novarro, Wallace Beery, Frank Currier, Rosemary Theby, Mitchell Lewis, Emily Fitzroy, George Periolat, Milly (cq) Davenport, Dick Sutherland, Gibson Gowland and George Nichols, adapted from Anatole France’s story, directed by Fred Niblo; overture, introduction and march from “Le Coq d’Or”; “Neapolitan Fancy”; “I Am a Parisian” by Frank Moulan.

“The Red Lily” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

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Posted in 1924, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 31 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — Yamashiro

Posted on September 30, 2019 by lmharnisch

Bernheimer House
Photo: A postcard of the Bernheimer house, listed on EBay at $6.

Note: This is an encore post from 2011.

In Japanese, Yamashiro means castle on the hill. Standing in its original 1914 location, Yamashiro restaurant, the elegant dowager at the top of Orchid and Sycamore, still preens in all her exotic beauty over Hollywood. The building and grounds have served as a home, clubhouse, scenic garden, military school, and restaurant for just under 100 years. Long may it continue its reign.

Brothers Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer, New York importers of Oriental goods, began constructing a Los Angeles winter home in early 1914, one that would stand out in the conservative little burg of Hollywood. After buying the land from Mr. Whitley in 1912, the brothers conceived a beautiful Oriental mansion to reflect their interest in all things Eastern. As the Los Angeles Times described it in the Jan. 11, 1914 paper, 110 feet square, and “designed after the mansions of lordly Chinese mandarins.” It was arranged around an interior, tiled court.

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Black Dahlia: Halloween Is Coming – Rethink Your Choices

Posted on September 27, 2019 by lmharnisch

image

Seriously. Dressing up like the victim of a grotesque murder doesn’t honor Elizabeth Short – or you.

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 23, 2019 by lmharnisch

2019_0928_credits_06
This week’s mystery movie was the 1966 Proteus Films release “The Shooting,” with Will Hutchins, Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, Warren Oates, Charles Eastman, Guy El Tsosie, Brandon Carroll, B.J. Merholz, Wally Moon, William Mackleprang and James Campbell.

Photography by Gregory Sandor, music by Richard Markowitz, production manager Paul Lewis, sound mixer Frank Murphy, assistant cameraman Gary Kurtz, art direction Wally Moon, script supervisor Walter Phelps, assistant to producers John Shaner, wardrobe consultant Bill Milton, technical consultant Maurice Seiderman, key grip Russ Namarillo, sound boom Art Names, music editor Igo Kantor, sound effects Edit-Rite and re-recording by Producers Sound Service.

Written by Adrien Joyce (Carole Eastman). Produced by Jack Nicholson and Monte Hellman. Directed by Monte Hellman.

“The Shooting” is available on DVD from TCM, with its companion “Ride in the Whirlwind.”

Note: “The Shooting” aired at 11:30 p.m. March 31, 1968, on New York’s WNBC. (This will be important later).

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Posted in 1966, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — A. L. ‘Whitey’ Schafer Simplifies Portraits

Posted on September 23, 2019 by lmharnisch

Whitey Schafer "Thou Shalt Not"
“Thou Shalt Not,” “Whitey” Schafer’s most famous image.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

In the very early days of the motion picture industry, stills photographers meant nothing to the moving picture companies. They asked their feature cameramen to work double duty, shooting scene stills after completing filming that very same scene. These companies also hired local photographic studios to shoot portraits of their stars, or allowed the stars themselves to hire photographers to shoot images that could be employed in advertising.

When stars’ names and faces became important tools to sell product, stillsmen became integral in shaping a motion picture company’s or star’s brand that could be sold to consumers. Studios hired their own photographers to shoot scene, production, off-camera and reference stills that could be employed in advertising, while major stars Mary Pickford and William S. Hart signed their own personal cameramen like K. O. Rahmn and Junius Estep to capture their on- and off-camera pursuits. By the middle of the 1920s, each studio established stills departments to shoot, process and manufacture the thousands of stills required for product-hungry newspapers, magazines and consumer tie-ins.

Mary Mallory’s latest book, “Living With Grace: Life Lessons from America’s Princess,”  is now on sale.

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Posted in Books and Authors, Film, Found on EBay, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Black Dahlia: Halloween Costumes – Rethink Your Choices

Posted on September 17, 2019 by lmharnisch

Black Dahlia Halloween

Time for my annual reminder: Dressing up like the victim of a gruesome murder isn’t cool. It isn’t hip, not even ironically. Reconsider your choices; you still have time to be Harley Quinn or Mad Moxxi. Or for a change, Rainbow Dash.

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Homicide | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 16, 2019 by lmharnisch

Sept. 21, 2019, State's Attorney
This week’s mystery movie was the 1932 RKO picture “State’s Attorney,” with John Barrymore, Helen Twelvetrees, Jill Esmond, Ralph Ince, William Boyd, Albert Conti, Mary Duncan, Frederick Burton, C. Henry Gordon, Paul Hurst and Oscar Apfel.

Associate producer James Kevin McGuinness, screenplay and dialogue by Gene Fowler and Rowland Brown, from a story by Louis Stevens. Art director Carroll Clark, photography by Leo Tover, recorded by George Ellis, edited by Charles L. Kimball. Directed by George Archainbaud, executive producer by David O. Selznick.

“State’s Attorney” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

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Posted in 1932, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 40 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: North Hollywood Federal Savings and Loans Funds Business and Housing

Posted on September 16, 2019 by lmharnisch

North Hollywood Federal Savings
North Hollywood Federal Savings and Loan, 1961, Valley Times Collection, L.A. Public Library.

Originally designed to serve as a combination bank and office building, the former North Hollywood Federal Savings and Loan building at Riverside Drive and Lankershim Boulevard in Toluca Lake will be integrated into a proposed apartment/commercial development, thus saving the building through adaptive reuse. The tallest structure in the San Fernando Valley when it opened in 1961, the building has continually operated as a financial institution since its construction.

As the San Fernando Valley, and North Hollywood in particular, saw their populations expand from the 1920s into the 1930s, new financial institutions were established to serve the needs of these incoming residents. The North Hollywood Federal Savings and Loan, established in 1923 as the Lankershim Building and Loan Association, functioned as one of the first savings and loan facilities in the area. Originally located at 5213 Lankershim Blvd., the company expanded its building and updated its name over the years, eventually gaining the new address 5226 Lankershim.  By the late 1950s, the company was cramped and in need of larger space.

Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.

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Posted in 1960, 1961, Architecture, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Preservation, San Fernando Valley | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: North Hollywood Federal Savings and Loans Funds Business and Housing