That's a great video
Beaudry! Thanks for the link.
Saturday night
'mystery' house.
old file
If I remember correctly there was a studio worker that built his home out of old props. Could this be it?
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OK, I just found this:
In 1920, John McDermott, a writer for Famous Players-Lasky and Universal, was living in a large rooming house on South Hill Street near Pico Boulevard, with about 25 other boarders, including several other studio employees. One of his fellow boarders and best friends was Norman Z. McLeod, who became a successful director of comedies in the 1930s and 1940s. McDermott decided that he should have his own place, so he found a remote piece of property high up in the Hollywood Hills, on Vale Vista Trail, off Mulholland Highway, which he purchased in 1921.
McDermott started work on his house in 1923. He built the house using an assortment of sets, furniture and props he bought or took from discarded remnants from the various film studios where he worked.
McDermott started with six full rooms he took from the set of "The Song of Love," which starred Norma Talmadge. He took the sets apart, used donkeys to haul the pieces up the hill, and reassembled them. McDermott's house, a jumble of different architectural styles, became a virtual museum with pieces from many of the classic silent films of Hollywood, including girders from "The Thief of Baghdad," which starred Douglas Fairbanks; roofing from Lon Chaney's "The Phantom of the Opera"; a fence from "The Eagle," which starred Rudolph Valentino; three small cannons from "The Sea Hawk," with Wallace Beery; a large table from "Robin Hood," also starring Fairbanks; a goddess statue from Alla Nazimova's "Salome"; and even an assortment of tombstones from the Chaney version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which McDermott used as part of a stone wall.
The inside of the house was just as unique and eclectic -– visitors to the house entered through a tunnel and a shaft leading up to the center of the living room, and pushed aside a manhole cover to enter. The living room chandelier was an inverted baptismal font, stolen by McDermott from a church during renovations. In the bathroom, the handle to flush the toilet also set off a blaring fire alarm. On the outside, the house featured a golden mosque-like dome, surrounded by gold-tipped minarets, and...as mentioned earlier, the cannons from "The Sea Hawk" were on the roof. It also featured pricey tile imported from places such as Italy and France due to McDermott, posing as a tile dealer, contacting tile companies for samples. In this manner, he was able to acquire thousands of dollars worth of free tile. Last but not least, McDermott owned a collection of pigeons-– which McDermott dyed in pastel colors.
The house was partially destroyed by fire in 1947."[/I]
Jack McDermott
McDermott's ruins include the fantastically
noirish 'Spider Pool'! (which we've visited a few times on NLA)
Here's the first spider pool post (it's mine
)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=16193
laist
'quoted' description from
http://cemeteryguide.com/gotw-mcdermott.html
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