Hollywood Hillview Apartments

Hillview Apartments, 6533 Hollywood Blvd

At a time when Hollywood was a sleepy little town influenced by residents with strong puritan principles, actors arriving from the stages of New York and looking to get into "pictures," often had no where to stay. What few living spaces were available to rent had signs that read, "No Dogs and No Actors." The lack of housing available to actors in Hollywood led movie moguls Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn to build an apartment complex that would cater specifically to the acting community. In 1917, at 6533 Hollywood Boulevard, the Hillview Apartments (now the Hudson Apartments) were erected.

Photo Credit: Hudsonapartments.com

The Hillview Apartments included modern amenities such as a garbage incinerator and automatic elevators, as well as a rehearsal space in the basement to cater to the many actor residents. According to PreserveLA.com there was even a Speakeasy. A Los Angeles Times article from September 20, 2007 further explains that Rudolph Valentino ran the speak-easy, which was accessible by a trap door. Some of the early stars that have filled this 54-unit apartment include Mae Busch, Stan Laurel, Jack La Rue, Barbara LaMarr, Joan Blondell, Jack Dougherty, Clara Bow, and Mary Astor to name a few.

Photo Credit: Hudsonapartments.com

During the 1960s the Hillview Apartments started a decline in safety and appearance along with the rest of Hollywood. Transients and drug dealers took over the area. The building itself suffered damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, sinkage due to the tunneling of the MetroRail subway and a fire in 2002. Fortunately, Jeffrey Rouze, the architect responsible for remodeling the El Capitan Theater further down Hollywood Boulevard stepped in to help preserve this building. The restored building reopened on July 14, 2005.

Photo Credit: Hudsonapartments.com

If you're looking to move into the Hillview Apartments, it doesn't come cheap. Each level of room is named after early silent film stars. The least expensive, "The Greta Garbo," is a 375 Sq. Ft. studio/1 bath that starts at $1400. The priciest apartments, a "Chaplin," will cost between $2200-$2700 for a 2 bed/2 bath, 1054 Sq. Ft space.

Photo Credit: Hudsonapartments.com

Early Hollywood is filled with scandalous stories and it seems that is still true today. Earlier this year, one of the young female tenants of this complex was murdered by her fiance in the 3rd floor hallway. According to the resident forum at hollywoodhillviewapartments.com, there have been other reports of battery, a prostitution ring, and sexual assault.

It is sad to hear that such despicable events are taking place in the Hillview Apartments building, but if the building can be restored to its original beauty, then maybe the environment inside can be restored to something safe and respectable again.

The Letters of Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel

If you didn't get enough reading materials over the Christmas holiday then make your way over to one of my favorite websites, Letters From Stan. The Stan in referance is Stan Laurel, half of the comedy team, Laurel and Hardy. Throughout Stan's life he was known to be an avid writer of letters. He wrote to friends, business associates, fans and just about anyone. Stan simply liked to write and over at Letters From Stan they have created an archive of many of the letters he wrote over the years.

When you read through the letters you get a real sense of what kind of man Stan was. One of my favorites is one letter he wrote in 1927, replying to a fan:

Dear Miss Neal;-

Just a line to thank you for your very sweet letter, which is greatly appreciated. I am mailing you under seperate cover, a photograph per your request. Trust you will receive same alright. I am returning herewith the Twenty Five Cents you enclosed, as the amount of my Fan Mail does'nt warrant any charges.
 Thanking you for your kind thoughts & good wishes,
 Very Sincerely yours;-
Stan Laurel

I like this letter because it shows how much he appreciated his fans. Not only was Stan nice enough to reply to this particular fan, but he also returned the money she enclosed. This is just a short letter you will find over at Letters From Stan - there are many, many, letters of all lenghts and topics. I especially like seeing where the letters were addressed from - to see where Stan was living or staying at that the time.

In today's world of emails, text messages and tweets, after reading some of Stan's letters, it really makes one want to put pen to paper.

Your thoughts?

Laurel and Hardy - The Music Box

932-935 Vendome Street, Los Angeles

One of my favorite Laurel & Hardy comedy shorts is The Music Box, in which the boys are hired to deliver a piano to a house located at the top of a long flight of stairs. The boys struggle to push the piano up the stairs, becoming trampled by the piano in the process. Not until they reach the top do they realize there was a driveway that lead to the top! The film won an Academy Award for best short comedy subject at the 1931-1932 awards.

932-935 Vendome Street "Music Box" Stairs

The stairs that were used in The Music Box are still standing, located between 932-935 Vendome Street, just south of Sunset Boulevard in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Above is a picture of how the stairs look today. Not only were the stairs used in The Music Box but they are featured in an earlier Laurel & Hardy film from 1927, Hats Off. In this film the boys were delivering vacuum cleaners.

Plaque located at base of The Music Box stairs.

At the base of the stairs you will find a plaque ackowledging the significance of these steps. The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board has made this location a cultural landmark. Not only is their plague but there is now also a street sign for this particular location.

Here is a wonderful video that shows The Music Box stairs as they appear today and also, if you watch through to the end, you will see clips from the short itself. The video does a good job of showing the steps from different angles and comparing to footage from the film.

Laurel & Hardy's Culver City

Below is an incredible video of pop culture historian Piet Schreuders recreating the area of Los Angeles known as Culver City through the world of Laurel & Hardy during the 1920s. This video has been around for a while now but if you haven't checked it out yet it is certainly worth viewing. Schreuders creates a computer model of Culver City so we can see how the area looked in the 1920s. Mixed in the video are scenes from Laurel & Hardy films for comparison.

Note: If you saw my earlier post on the Culver Hotel you will recognize this building in the video.

The Culver Hotel - Munchkinland

Culver Hotel - 9400 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA

The Culver Hotel located in downtown Culver City, near the Sony Studios (formerly MGM) and the Culver Studios, has had many famous residents over the years including Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo, Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan. However, the most famous guests to stay at this hotel would probably be the Munchkins from the 1939 film the Wizard of Oz.

The Munchkins were apparently a rowdy bunch. According to Judy Garland, "They got smashed every night and the police had to pick them up in butterfly nets." MGM Studios producer Mervyn Leroy had his own acerbic comment about the munchkins saying, "They got into sex orgies at the hotel. We had to have police on every floor." Bert Lahr, the "cowardly lion" had this to say about the munchkins: "Many of the Munchkins were midgets who, in fact, made their living by panhandling, pimping and whoring. Assistants were ordered to watch the crew of midgets, who brandished knives and often conceived passions for other, larger Metro personnel." Most of the comments were likely untrue or exaggerated, nevertheless, they make for interesting stories.

Another legend has it that Charlie Chaplin who was once a part owner of the Culver Hotel sold the place to actor John Wayne for a dollar during a poker game. I'm not quite sure about the validity of this comment but it makes for another great tale.

Wizard of Oz (C) MGM Studios

In addition to housing visitors the Culver Hotel has also been used for filming. The hotel can be seen in old Laurel & Hardy and Our Gang Shorts and relatively more recently in The Wonder Years and 7th Heaven.

If you want to visit the hotel but don't want to stay the night there is a great bar in the lobby. Stop in to have a drink and check out some of the Wizard of Oz, Laurel & Hardy, and Our Gang memorabilia displayed in the ground floor windows.