Awhile back, when we were taking a look at the apartment buildings of North Rossmore (the Mauretania, El Royale, Ravenswood etc), I came across a few shots of a vanished hotel at #445 (on the site of something new called the Marlowe--whether named after Philip, I don't know). The library tags hint at some juicy, noirish goings-on at the Country Club Hotel (also sometimes referred to as the Country Club Villas), an interesting midcentury hacienda that apparently didn't last much past midcentury. I haven't found much about it online. (And what was there between the Country Club and the Marlowe?) Anyone?
Those bathtub Dodges parked in front definitely enhance the scene...
LAPL
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics40/00054908.jpg
Per the LAPL: "A rousing legal battle loomed today over the future of the swank $2,000,000 Country Club Hotel on Rossmore and Rosewood Avenues, which yesterday was ordered demolished or removed by Judge Vernon W. Hunt. Co-operator Maurice Miller, sentenced to jail on charge of violation of building codes, says he'll seek right to keep hotel open. Photo dated: February 25, 1950."
Penthouse dwellers at the El Royale apparently had quite the floor show across
Rossmore... well, maybe with binoculars.
AP/
Examiner/USC Digital Library
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...OS-ANG-MIS-008
Per USC: "Photograph of the pool courtyard of the Country Club Villa hotel. This is the swimming pool around which he saw 'drunken women fighting,' declared Municipal Judge Vernon W. Hunt as he yesterday ordered complete demolition of the $1,000,000 Country Club Villa at 445 North Rossmore avenue. The newly constructed hotel is an 'architectural monstrosity,' he added. Wrong type of permit has been charged. Dated February 25, 1950."
Also: "This is the luxurious Country Club Villa, completed in Los Angeles recently at a cost of $2,000,000, which an iratic [sic] judge ordered torn down or moved to another location. Two owners, Maurice and Zimmel Miller, were charged with building the place without a permit, failing to obtain a certificate of occupancy, maintaining a public nuisance, and operating a cafe, night club and swimming pool in violation of zoning ordinances. The judge, after a personal survey, termed the hotel a 'glorified quickie motel.'" So apparently no one noticed this huge place going up smack in the middle of Los Angeles without a permit....
LAPL
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics40/00054913.jpg