Quote:
Originally Posted by BDiH
The model was at Lytton all though the 1960s, including in the later years when that area was very popular with the hippie generation. Just across the way was Pandora's Box, Zeidler & Zeidler, Harry's Open Pit, the Steak & Stein and home plate for the L. A. Free Press vendors.
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Thanks for the info,
BDiH! The only one of those "across the way" places I hadn't recognized was Zeidler & Zeidler. A search tells me it's a men's clothing store.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull
[E_R's] link to the West Hollywood History website takes you to Jon Ponder's definitive history of the hotel.
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I hadn't known about this history site/link about the GOA before, dated only a year ago. I thought it might have been something I've just overlooked for quite a while. I'll have to take time to read the whole thing; I've been perusing bits of it for awhile. Glad to hear of it and I recommend it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull
In the early 1970's, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham wrote a history of the place (because she was there a lot when she was dating F. Scott Fitzgerald in the late 1930s). But she wrote it from memory 30 years after the event and apparently nobody thought to fact-check her and just published the book. The result is an interesting but unreliable history of the place. Jon's lengthy account is by far the best way to learn the history of this famously infamous hotel.
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Although in perusing a few sections of this site I did notice a mistake in Jon's text:
Gloria Stuart appeared in a dozen or more films at Universal in the 1930's, notably appearing opposite Claude Rains in “The Invisible Man.” She’s best remembered today, however, for winning an Oscar at age 87 for her role in “Titanic.” [Link
HERE.]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal
If F. Gehry was interested in building a development inspired by the Garden of Allah, I never heard of it, but the development design first envisioned for that location was finally and thankfully rejected. Although I don't totally care for it, the new design (Click HERE) I can live with. What I really don't like about it is that when you've come down Laurel Canyon to that intersection at Sunset, you see the city spread out before you in a pleasing vista and this project takes that signature view away from that entrance after having traversed the winding roads of the canyon.
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From the Jon Ponder site about The Garden of Allah, I'm learning that the new construction on the site isn't the first time mutli-story buildings have been proposed on that site.
As early as 1930, as the depression was underway:
Rendering of proposed buildings to replace the Garden of Allah (June 16, 1930)
When Bart Lytton, CEO of Lytton Savings and Loan, purchased it in 1959 his original plans:
Lytton told the Times that he planned to relocate his S&L’s headquarters from the suburbs to the Garden of Allah site. This meant he would raze the hotel and replace it with a modern bank building. The hotel’s parking lot in the intersection of Sunset and Crescent Heights would be transformed into a plaza and park. An office tower and low-rise row of ground level shops and offices would come later. LINK
At least my complaint about tall buildings on that site was deferred for decades.
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Lots of interesting things to read about. In a section about the opening months of the place in 1927[
HERE], it says: Over the course of the hotel’s first 16 months in business, from January 1927 to April 1928, the Garden was the subject of more than 30 mentions in the Times society columns. It mentions many Hollywood names and other famous patrons who were not "movie people" like
"polo players Tommy Hitchcock and William Tevis."
I guess because the word famous was used, and I had not heard of these two before as I'm not up on my polo history, I looked them up. They are well-known in the polo world. Here's a photo of them not long after their mention of staying at the Garden of Allah:
On the right side of the trophy, Tommy Hitchcock is all buttoned up. In his day, he was simply the best, and his presence on the San Carlos team speaks volumes about the patron’s desire to win. Of him, one writer said, “No one who has not seen a ten-goal player play fifteen-goal polo can imagine the stark power of this youth.” In a literary coincidence, Hitchcock was most probably the model for polo-playing Tom Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. (A Gatsby connection?! -- Fitzgerald had lived at the GOA.)
All the way to the right is William “Willie” Tevis, a Californian who had played on teams with Moore before. Tevis, whose grandfather was a founder of the Pony Express, lived for horses; his ranch had 18 stables, with stalls for 8 horses in each.
I have previously heard before of the man second to left, Averill Harriman, most notably because of his diplomacy work during WWII.
He inherited $100 million from his father, a railroad baron, and had one of the best strings of ponies in polo. After Yale and a successful business career, he served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Governor of New York, and U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Great Britain.
If any of this is of further interest:
A Tale of One Polo Photo
https://kihm2.wordpress.com/2010/01/...ne-polo-photo/
Horses and Polo in Their DNA
http://www.winecountrypoloclub.com/tevis.html