As a follow-up on eminent Hoosier Baron Long I thought I'd mention that his Venice outpost (which I referenced in the
previous post) was the 1905 Ship Cafe at Venice Pier, which Long bought in 1917 (I'm not sure how long he owned it). It was built to resemble Juan Cabrillo's
San Salvador:
boryanabooks
e_r had a great
post on Jean Malin's time at The Ship and
untimely death in 1933 (he accidentally drove off the pier).
LAboomer52 followed up with a
post with many pix of The Ship, including the rebuilt version.
Also in the late teens Baron Long opened The Tavern jazz club and cabaret in Watts at 108th St and Central. Jelly Roll Morton and other greats were regular headliners.
I first heard of Baron Long in reference to his fabulous, absolutely first-class Agua Caliente resort, casino and racetrack just south of Tijuana. In 1927 Long hired 19-year-old, self-trained draftsman
Wayne McAllister to design the resort. The budget was $10 million dollars. McAllister and his future wife Corinne Fuller really came through for Long, the design was universally praised. Agua Caliente opened two months after the stock market crash, but did a roaring business anyway. Rita Hayworth was discovered while working there.
Baron Long used to commute from LA to Agua Caliente on his yacht. That's his wife Martha on the left. They were married 50 years, from 1912 until his death in 1962:
boryanabooks
Long used the McAllisters again after he bought the Biltmore Hotel in 1933. He had them add the Biltmore Bowl and also add a bar to each guest floor.
Biltmore employees partying in the Biltmore Bowl, an annual event:
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Baron Long died in 1962 in his rooms at his beloved Biltmore Hotel.
Baron Long's Biltmore in the 1930s:
usc
(Most of this info came from this
link, "On the Trail of the Elusive Baron Long" by Leslie Evans. There's more. If you have any interest, it's well worth a look. Also good is "How the LA Times After a Hundred-Year Love Affair with the City of Vernon Decided It Really Hated the Place All Along", also by Leslie Evans. It's
here.)