Yesterday a demolition crew pretty had much wiped out all that remained of the decrepit old Old Spaghetti Factory Building at 5939 Sunset Boulevard at the corner of Gordon Street. For years the building had been shuttered pending plans to build in its place a new 22-story mixed use project of 305 residential units and 40,000 square feet of commercial space. The owners of this project originally promised to retain at least the facade of the historic old building and incorporate it into their new design, but the big pile of bricks where the building was seems to indicate that these plans have changed. But fear not preservationists! Curbed LA reports the developers are preserving historic elements of the building – a couple of them – the existing trusses, fireplace and mantel. And these we are told, will be incorporated into the new building. It’ll be like it was never even torn down!

(Upper image via Google Earth. Lower via Curbed LA)

I don’t know how many will mourn the loss of this run down old building, but I think it deserves a proper send off anyway. I, for one, will miss it for at least the reason that now I have to drive all the way into the Inland Empire to get my brown butter and Mizithra cheese spaghetti fix. But I will also miss it because it was yet another part of “Old Hollywood,” gone forever. Over its nearly ninety-year history the building at 5939 Sunset lived many lives. It began life not as a low-priced Spaghetti house, but rather a high-end automobile showroom.

The Cleveland-built Peerless was one of the major luxury cars of its day and such a popular one with Hollywood stars there was good cause to bring a dealership directly into the film colony. In 1923, Stanley W. Smith, president of the local Peerless concern took out a ninety-nine year lease on the vacant lot at the northeast corner of Sunset and Gordon and commissioned prominent Los Angeles architect McNeal Swasey to design what would be the “last word” in automobile showrooms. A competent craftsman in the Spanish mode of design, Swasey was known for his fine residences such as the Lionel Barrymore house on Roxbury and the Hotel Constance in Pasadena. Swasey brought his sense of residential design to the $100,000 project creating an automobile showroom/garage that had “home-like” elements, albeit more mansion-like than home-like, but decidedly different from the typical car dealership. Visitors to the Spanish-style Peerless Showroom would arrive by way of a patio entrance framed by six massive columns. Passing through the heavily carved Spanish doors visitors would then enter a soaring two-story space anchored by a handsome fireplace. Heavy beamed ceilings soared overhead while the shiny Peerless cars reflected in the gleaming tile floors. Swasey ingeniously broke up the showroom space into four separate rooms, each with their own look and feel intended, of course, to give each Peerless car on display the “star treatment.”  Additional space was provided for a garage with company offices upstairs.

How the Los Angeles Times covered the opening of the Peerless Showroom.

When the grand new Peerless Showroom opened with a  gala event on the evening of Wednesday, June 25th, 1924, the Los Angeles Times gushed the showroom was “one of the most unique and distinctive to be found anywhere in the country.” As to be expected, the opening had all the trappings of a film premiere with many notables in attendance including Constance Talmadge; Marie Prevost; Edna Purviance; Charles Ray; Patsy Ruth Miller; producers E.M. Asher and John McCormick, all Peerless owners by coincidence. Only screenwriter June Mathis had to send her regrets as she was already en route to Italy for the start of filming on Ben Hur. The highlight of the event was not only the wonderous new building but the unveiling of the new Peerless 6 roadster, earning many “oohs and aahs” no doubt from the famous crowd.

As fine a car as the Peerless was, it did not survive the Depression and in the early 1930′s the company that produced them switched their factory completely over from producing cars to brewing beer, Carling Black Label Beer to be exact. With Peerless becoming beer, a new use was needed for 5939 Sunset Boulevard. For a short time it became the site of a “Tango Game” parlor, but was shut down by the authorities. Then it was reworked into a public events venue known as the Hollywood Auditorium hosting Hollywood’s first (and maybe last) annual food show with another stellar lineup that included Carole Lombard; Cesar Romero; and Pat O’Brien as invited guests.

By the end of 1934, 5939 Sunset had been revamped by noted Los Angeles architect Earl Heitschmidt into studios and offices for pioneer West Coast radio station KNX.  Heitschmidt’s modernization was so well received it was given a spread in Architectural Digest in 1935. KNX (which had been purchased by CBS in 1936) remained on the site until 1938 when it relocated down the street to the newly completed CBS Columbia Square at 6121 Sunset Boulevard designed by modernist master William Lescaze.

KNX Studio A. The studios were decorated by W & J Sloane & Co.

Studio B

After KNX’s departure, the building got an exciting new use when legendary theatrical Impresario Max Reinhardt took over the space and turned it into his Max Reinhardt Studio Workshop, which provided space to workshop his upcoming productions as well as operating a school with a full range of classes taught by some pretty impressive teachers including acting by Paul Muni; Edward G. Robinson; Constance Collier and Basil Rathbone; music scoring by Erich Wolfgang Korngold; directing by William Dieterle and camera work by Karl Freund!

In 1944, 5939 Sunset returned to use as a radio station when KMPC relocated there from its longtime Wilshire Boulevard base. In 1952, KMPC was purchased by famed singing cowboy/entrepreneur Gene Autry for a reported $800,000 and it became part of his burgeoning Golden West Broadcasting. KMPC remained on the site as a studio until 1968 when Autry moved it across the street to 5858 Sunset Boulevard. After a fire in 1970 nearly destroyed it, the old building at 5939 Sunset found yet another new life as a restaurant with the 1976 opening of the Old Spaghetti Factory and for the next quarter century lived a happily cheesy existence satisfying countless tourists, families, and families of tourists not to mention untold birthday parties with festively presented plates of steaming spaghetti served and consumed in spaces where the likes of Max Reinhardt. Marie Prevost, Gene Autry, Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni once held sway.

So while the march of progress may be unstoppable, it’s still a little sad for me at least to see some of what falls in its wake.

R.I.P. old Old Spaghetti Factory. My arteries will never forget you!

Okay, the brilliant detectives that make up the readers of PARADISE LEASED have had a 100% success rate in solving the mysteries of our HOUSE OF MYSTERY questions and have discovered the locations of some pretty cool houses in the process. So…here we have this week’s mystery house and a very pretty one indeed too, n’cest pas?

I really like the style of this house with its bold Spanish/Mission styling and would love to find its location. It is supposedly Los Angeles, but as we learned from out last Mystery House, it may be somewhere else. I’m not so great a detective, but it’s clear the readers of PARADISE LEASED are. So, what say you of this new House of mystery. Where be it?

There is a note written on the back, which I will reproduce here. As it is hard to read in places I will try to transcribe it as well. Some words were illegible to me. Maybe you’ll have a different interpretation. They mention, if I read correctly, that the house fronts “the golf course.” The printed title “A.L. Weston Lake George Tel. Connection” seems to be the best clue. However, the only Lake George I’ve found in California is up near Mammoth and wouldn’t fit the topography.

This of course doesn’t do the house or the grounds justice. The sun room atop is the work room. Downstairs there is a living room, dining room, kitchen, breakfast room, 3 bedrooms, dressing room and 2 baths. Servant’s quarters over the cutey garage. And (Illegible) little grove of citrus trees which extends to the right. We front a grove and the golf course. It’s ideally located and of course we’re (illegible) everything. 

Travellers up and down the Coast Highway in the mid-1930′s were highly encouraged to stop and take a look at the unusual home of Mr. R.H. Stiles (how could they not?!), which was made, it is said, from “David Copperfield’s boat,” a set piece from the David O. Selznick production of the Charles Dickens classic from 1935 starring Freddie Bartholomew and W.C. Fields and directed by George Cukor. At the completion of the production, the boat was moved from its location at Hueneme Beach near Oxnard “some miles” down the coast where it was upturned and made into this novel dwelling.

The enterprising Mr. Stiles, seen posed here proudly before his handiwork, had announced plans to soon remodel the boat further into a seafood restaurant where steaming lobsters would be served within the bowels of “David Copperfield’s Boat.”

Don’t whirl by on your next trip between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Stop and inspect it and sample the red lobsters cooked nearby.

(Adelbert Bartlett/LA Herald-Examiner)

Great news! Thanks to yet another eagle-eyed reader of PARADISE LEASED our latest House of Mystery has been identified and it’s a good one too. It turns out the house is none other than the George C. Rew Residence (Rew-Sharp House) on Coronado Island at 1124 F Avenue designed by legendary architect Elmer Grey in 1918. Our reader points out that although the house still exists not only has the land around it been subdivided but the house itself. It has been split in two with the former dining/service wing becoming a separate space at 1265 Alameda Aveune.

A Google Earth Street View of the Rew House. Note the Churrigueresque entry.

PARADISE LEASED is deeply grateful to reader “Amateur” for this great find! We will be sure and put up a new “House of Mystery” next week and I have little doubt it will be no match for our perceptive PARADISE LEASED detectives. Thanks again to “Amateur” who did a professional job catching this one. I would NEVER have gotten this one.

A Google Earth Aerial gives a good perspective. The Rew House property once occupied the whole triangle before subdivision.

Then (1930) Mott Studios

Now.

I’m a big fan of Curbed L.A. for so many different reasons, but one of them is they are always on top of finding interesting houses for sale including their post yesterday on the wonderful Spanish home that just came on the market at 2400 Inverness Avenue in Los Feliz for an unmodest $7,500,000. Anyone who’s been reading this blog knows I love all of old Hollywood, but I have to admit, I am particularly partial to the Los Feliz Hills for both its amazing history and beautiful architecture. There are so many treasures found along the winding streets of the Los Feliz Hills, streets so carefully laid out by the tasteful William Mead, and the mansion at 2400 Inverness Avenue is certainly one of them. What particularly pleased me about this house was how well the renovation was done with a real eye to the beauty of history within its walls. In the hands of someone with less vision all those beautiful ornate ceilings would have been glopped over by gallons of Navajo White.

This house was built for the president of a luxury automobile company and it was clear Mr. Fuller (of Auburn-Fuller) wanted a residence that reflected his success in a big way. I think the architect, the talented Harry Hayden Whiteley, was more than up for the task creating a showy, but not garish house. The ceilings, the fireplaces, staircases, the siting of the house on its stunning view lot, everything seems to work (at least for me.) I am particularly taken by the bold, sweeping terrace opening up towards the city lights accessible from the living and dining rooms and the rotunda.

As I am also a sucker for “then and now” photos I’d like to post a few here showing what the O.R. Fuller House looked like in 1930 so you can see what it looked like then and what a great job whoever renovated it did on the place. After checking with my bank I have discovered I am a little short on the $7.5 million so I’m going to have to pass on this one, but hopefully someone who appreciates what a rare treasure this is will buy it and NOT paint the ceilings. How about you? The Curbed LA post may be seen here and the Redfin listing here.

The Rotunda. 1930. The O.R. Fuller House was originally decorated by well-known Los Angeles decorator George A. Sagar. (Mott Studios)

The Rotunda today.

The Recreation Room. 1930. Incredible ceiling and fireplace. (Mott Studios)

The Recreation Room may now be the "Media" Room, but thankfully that's all that's changed.

The ornate ceiling in the Breakfast Room. 1930 (Mott Studios)

When the City first began draining the 21 million gallons of water out of historic Echo Park Lake as part a much-needed, two-year, $65,000,000 rehab there was much speculation over what might be found at the bottom of the 13-acre lake. Amelia Earhart? (Boy, was she lost!) Sister Aimee’s secret diary? A hoard of gangster loot? Alas, nothing has yet turned up so romantic or lurid than rusty shopping carts, barrels and skateboards, but hope does spring eternal.

(Darrell Kunitoni via Eastsider LA)

In spite of the lack of oddities lurking beneath its waves, Echo Park remains a beloved Los Angeles treasure and is well deserving of the much-needed restoration and enhancements it is getting including a leak-proof clay bottom, new pathways and the development of four acres of wetlands at its edge.

The historic lake is a lot older than much of the city that now surrounds it. Its origins date all the way back to 1868 when a 20-foot high dam was built across the arroyo to impound runoff from a nearby stream. Some twenty years later, the City wisely engaged the talented Joseph Tomlinson to convert the former reservoir into a park. The English-born Tomlinson modeled his landscape design on fond memories of his boyhood home of Derbyshire. It was Tomlinson who reportedly gave the park its name when one day he called out to his men who were clearing brush on the other side of the lake and was  surprised to hear his own voice echo back at him. Ironically, once the lush vegetation planted by Tomlinson matured it muffled the very effect that gave the park its name.

At the end of the restoration, Echo Park will look the freshest it has since its 1895 opening. In the meantime, however, it is, and will continue to be, surrounded by a high cyclone fence until its metamorphosis is complete. And what’s on the other side is not so pretty for the moment. Therefore, for anyone suffering from Echo Park withdrawals I thought it would be fun to post some of the old postcard images I have so we can all at least take a virtual, if not physical, stroll through Echo Park as it was in days gone by and maybe how it will be in days to come. Enjoy! PS: For more interesting photos of Echo Park drained by Darrell Kunitomi check out the link here to Eastsider LA.

When I got this photo I was told this was “believed to be” a house in Beverly Hills and, yes, it looks like it could be the “Flats.” Further, it is a rather unusual flat-roofed Spanish house of good size on a VERY big lot with curving drive, great Churrigueresque entry and all. With all this, it should be easy. Should, but hasn’t been, at least for me. Adding to the problem is it is likely that this beautiful old house may no longer exist and a McMansion, or two, or three, sits where it once did.

I love the fact there's a workman with a ladder in the photo. See him in this closeup?

OK, PARADISE LEASED detective squad – Where has this house been hiding?

HAPPY HUNTING AND HAVE A GREAT SUPERBOWL WEEKEND FROM PARADISE LEASED!

Young Sol Lesser

In the annals of film history the name Sol Lesser might not be a household one, but it remains a most interesting one to be sure. This veteran producer of more than 100 films had a remarkable career in the entertainment industry that spanned from the age of the Nickelodeon to the age of television. While he may not have produced a lot of enduring classics (Our Town being at least one exception) Lesser nonetheless brought a lot of hearty entertainment to the screen including a series of action packed Tarzan jungle pictures and thrill-a-minute Buck Jones and George O’Brien westerns.  For those of you following at home, you may remember Lesser in my recent postings on the Siege of Fort Anthony. It was he who had been the spearhead and ultimately the scapegoat for the ill-fated Hollywood Museum project of the 1960′s. This venture was a rare failure for the prolific Lesser, who left behind quite a legacy of achievements in his half-century career in motion pictures.

To get a sense of what an irrepressible powerhouse of energy, determination and enthusiasm Sol Lesser was it should be noted that in order for him to “retire” at age 36 in 1926, Lesser had to divest himself of his interest in no less than forty separate corporations including the powerful West Coast Theater chain, Equitable Realty Corporation and Principal Pictures, the latter a busy production concern with its own studio at Santa Monica and La Brea. A true motion picture pioneer, Lesser started in the business in 1909 selling ice cream and taking tickets at his father’s San Francisco Nickelodeon. A decade later he was operating his own studio in Hollywood making successful pictures with such early film heavyweights as Annette Kellerman and Jackie Coogan while at the same time continuing to expand his growing theater chain, buying and building new theaters until it included more than 160 theaters up and down the Coast. During this frenetic period, Lesser continually shuttled between Los Angeles and New York to such an extent the Los Angeles Times humorously (but accurately) described him as the movie industry’s “champion transcontinental commuter.” Through all this he still managed to regularly lend his valuable name and time to a host of worthy causes including United Jewish Relief and the Motion Picture Relief Fund not to mention being a husband and father to two growing children.

A bucolic Uplifter's scene from 1936. (Fred R. Dapprich)

For a man with such an intensive work schedule relaxation was no doubt a premium commodity and Lesser found great pleasure in his membership in the exclusive Uplifters Club. Founded in 1913 by business executive Harry Haldeman and Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum, the Uplifters was a very exclusive “by invitation only” concern made up of some of the city’s most notable male citizenry drawn from the ranks of the prestigious Los Angeles Athletic Club. Hollywood was always well represented in the Uplifters with many top names of the day including Will Rogers; Harold Lloyd; Michael Curtiz; Hal Roach; Edward Everett Horton; Darryl F. Zanuck; George Arliss; Charles Ray; Irvin S. Cobb; Charles Farrell; Leo Carrillo; Edgar Rice Burroughs and many others on the roster of members.

The Uplifters, or “Cuplifters” as it was waggishly described during Prohibition, provided a way for these prominent and busy men to blow off steam, have fun and network all at the same time. The big highlight for the club was its annual outing or “Hi Jinx,” a raucous and rollicking good time filled with food, drink and comedic entertainments, the latter often being written and always performed by club members. And as these were strictly stag affairs, the men happily donned wigs and dresses when the script called for such sacrifices. Lesser would sometimes be called upon to produce the shows, which could be quite elaborate and as enthusiastically anticipated, performed and received as any Hollywood super production.

The LAAC's newsletter, The Mercury, reports on the latest doings at the Uplifters. 1919. (from Our First Century, Betty Lou Young's history of the LAAC)

(Fred R. Dapprich)

One of the great appeals of the Hi Jinx was with its bucolic outdoor setting. No stuffy ballroom or meeting hall would ever do for such robust revels and for the first few years, the Uplifters would take over a nearby resort as the venue for their lusty frolics. In 1919, however, the membership had managed to settle on a permanent spot purchasing forty sylvan acres (later expanded to 120) in Rustic Canyon right near Santa Monica. An existing building on the property was converted into a club headquarters with dormitory space for 100 and other improvements added over time including a swimming pool, tennis courts, riding trails, barbecue and even a polo field. When the original clubhouse burned in 1922 a new and more elaborate building, designed by noted Los Angeles architect and Uplifters member William J. Dodd, was erected (and still exists) at what is now Haldeman and Latimer Roads.

Interior view of the club house as it appeared in the January 1936 issue of Country Life in America. (Fred R. Dapprich)

The enchanting setting in Rustic Canyon was simply too good to use for just one brief period a year and from the start members were encouraged to build cottages on the grounds. Tradition holds that banker Marco Hellman really got the building boom rolling when he had three movie set pieces from Charles Ray’s disastrous 1923 production of The Courtship of Miles Standish brought to the ranch and reworked into weekend cottages by the very talented Alfred Heineman. Whether or not the movie-set legend is true these charming log cabin/lodge style cottages still exist at 36, 37 and 38 Haldeman Road, the latter being Haldeman’s own cabin, and are treasured Uplifters landmarks. Other members followed suit including Sol Lesser and in 1928, he engaged Los Angeles architect Heth Wharton to create a weekend retreat for himself and his family that would harmonize with its rustic setting. Wharton did an exceptional job in relating the house to its canyon setting and his charming design won much praise including an Honorable Mention in the 1929 National House Beautiful Competition and a full layout in the August 1930 issue of California Arts & Architecture. Although it has largely vanished from view owing to walls and the growth of landscaping, the Lesser cottage at 20 Latimer Road remains a hidden little Uplifters treasure that, like the fascinating man who built it, should not be forgotten.

In the shelter of the Santa Monica hills, a simple cottage has been built for Mr. Sol Lesser by Heth Wharton, architect, as a quiet week-end resting place, to secure a rural atmosphere without sacrifice of modern comfort.

-California Arts & Architecture, August 1930

An old wagon wheel, found in a junk shop, was converted into a front gate; rough yellow flagstones form the walk.

The exterior of Mr. Lesser’s cottage at Santa Monica is “Stone-tile,” whitewashed, with porches and “leantos” of wood boards and battens, painted white.

An irregular combination of graveled (sic) patio, open terrace, covered porches, provides a pleasant sheltered out-door living place. The old carriage lamps were found in Canada.

A straight-foward simplicity characterizes the interior of Mr. Lesser’s cottage at Santa Monica. The furniture, all old, was picked up on trips through New England and Canada. A batik hanging by John Hager is a melange of the Oregon Trail and California.

I’m thrilled to announce that Miss G, an eagle-eyed reader of PARADISE LEASED has spotted, identified and bagged our wily mystery house, which I posted in Where in the Sam Hill(s) is It?, just a few days past. The charming 1927 hillside Spanish-Moorish-Puebloesque Castlette has been hiding in plain sight all along on pretty Hermosita Drive in the Verdugo Woodlands section of Glendale between Don Carlos and Glorietta Avenues. This piece of intelligence is both thrilling and humiliating for yours truly as his apartment of the last five years is exactly 3.2 miles from the site. As the old expression goes, “If it were a snake…”

Look familiar? A Google Maps aerial leaves little doubt, we've found our mystery house! (Thanks Claudio!)

Everyone, please give a big round of cheers for Miss G and her great find! Yay! Now that I’ve got an address I’ll get in touch with Glendale City Records and see if we can’t pull a permit and find the designer of this little bon-bon of over-the-top SPANEESH. Hopefully, an update to follow. Fair guess it isn’t going to be Wallace Neff or Paul R. Williams.

And thanks to everybody who offered a guess on the house too!

AND – since we had such success here, I will post a new mystery house this week and see if you brilliant folk can identify it. I’d love to put a location on this pile of mystery photos I’ve got.

Now, if we could just figure out where this is/was?…Miss G?

Yes, Los Angeles once boasted several spectacular private enclaves where captains of industry and Hollywood royalty intermingled (or as close as you can intermingle across a two-acre lawn) in magnificent homes designed by the architectural legends of the day, that have vanished both from sight and memory and vanished many, many years ago. Who today remembers Westmoreland Place? Yet in its all too brief heyday it was one of the if not the most beautiful and exclusive district in all of Los Angeles with people like Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett, the Talmadge sisters and Buster Keaton all calling it home. Today only one forlorned former mansion remains of what had been a 43-acre garden spot, the rest overrun by block after block of undistinguished apartments.

Charles Whittlesey's stunning 1906 design of the residence of E.P. Bryan at 41 Westmoreland Place is, in my opinion, one of the greatest houses ever built in Los Angeles. All gone today.

A Berkeley Square Mansion (Herman Schultheis)

Even less remains of what was arguably the greatest private neighborhood of all – Berkeley Square. I first discovered this lost neighborhood when I ran into a brief mention of it in a search of homes of Hal Roach and William Gibbs McAdoo. The more I was able to dig up on it the more intrigued I became. It was only a block long, but what a block! Filled with famous names and famous homes designed by the great architects of the day. I was so interested I even made several personal visits to where it was hoping against hope there was at least a small part left for me to see. Even one house. But no. This grand neighborhood was ground into oblivion decades ago, falling in the wake of the construction of Interstate 10 in the 1960′s. There is nothing left and nothing to remember it by.

The grand gates of Berkeley Square designed by Alfred F. Rosenheim (Herman Schultheis)

That is why I was so excited to discover Duncan Maginnis’s amazing Berkeley Square blog. I thought I knew a thing or two about this historic neighborhood until I saw what Duncan has managed to dig up. He has achieved the impossible by singlehandedly resurrecting Berkeley Square and giving readers an “all access” pass behind the gates and into each and every house on the street. It’s an incredible walk through time and makes for compelling reading. Lots of great stories behind those doors! If you aren’t already familiar with this blog already I highly suggest you check it out by clicking the link here. When you read it you’ll agree with me that everyone who loves this stuff owes Duncan a big debt of thanks for the intensive amount of work he put in and the wonderful way he pulled it all together. Amazing work! Duncan’s excellent narrative made me wish Berkeley Square was ten blocks long instead of just one. I suggested he needed to give another old L.A. enclave the same treatment and I was thrilled to discover he’s going to just that, having created a new blog on what looks to be the equally interesting St. James Park. I can’t wait to see what Duncan discovers about this grand old enclave, which still exists, at least in part, down near USC. Check out the link to it here.

Keep it up, Duncan. We’re addicted!

http://berkeleysquarelosangeles.blogspot.com/

http://stjamesparklosangeles.blogspot.com/