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Originally Posted by Joe Gillis
I've just found out that the Oviatt Building was the model for the Treloar Building in my favourite Raymond Chandler book 'The Lady in the Lake'.
My very nice 1955 Penguin edition just arrived in the post today
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That's correct. The novel's opening scene --with the rubber sidewalk tiles being torn out for a WWII scrap rubber drive-- was based on an actual event which occurred in front of the Oviatt Building in 1942. The "pale, bareheaded man" described on the first page was in fact Lewis Oviatt, the building's manager (and James Oviatt's nephew). The character of Derace Kingsley was strongly based on James Oviatt himself.
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