0 Inside The Beverly Hills Hotel

The Beverly Hills Hotel, December 20, 1924

Photo: Los Angeles Library Photo Collection

A few weeks ago CBS Sunday Morning ran a colorful segment on the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel, sometimes called the "Pink Palace." If you missed it you can watch the video below. The Beverly Hills Hotel was one of the first major hotels built in Los Angeles. In 1912, when the hotel opened, the area surrounding the hotel was mainly bean fields and empty land. The hotel was actually created to help attract buyers to what was then a new real-estate development. And attract buyers it did!

Some of the first people to check into the hotel were Hollywood's first major stars including Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Ever since the hotel would be popular with the Hollywood crowd and that open land around the hotel would become covered by celebrity mansions. In the 1930s, when polo was all the rage, one of the hotel dining rooms was a popular hangout for post-match drinks. Will Rogers, Spencer Tracy and film mogul Darryl Zanuck were some of the celebrities who could have been seen in what was later to be named the Polo Lounge.

The video features some anecdotes about celebrities who stayed or lived at the hotel.  One of my favorite anecdotes is about eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes who lived in bungalow 4 on the hotel grounds. According to the video the hotel had a staff member tasked with placing roast beef sandwiches in the trees so that Hughes could sneak out for a midnight snack in privacy. Another interesting bit of trivia is that Elizabeth Taylor spent six of her eight honeymoons at the hotel!

The Beverly Hills Hotel has also been used as a filming location. Designing Woman (1957), Who's Got the Action (1962), Move Over, Darling (1963), Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed (1963), Valley of the Dolls (1967), and California Suite (1977) are just a few of the films that feature scenes of the hotel. Some of the earliest movies filmed at the Beverly Hills Hotel go back to the silent era. Comedians Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd both made films at the hotel.

Have you ever stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel or perhaps dropped in to the Polo Lounge for a drink?

Detail: Inside The Beverly Hills Hotel

0 Howard Hughes Headquarters

Howard Hughes Headquarters

7000 Romaine Street, Hollywood, Ca

It was from this art deco building located at 7000 Romaine Street that the multi-millionaire playboy, Howard Hughes, ruled his vast empire of businesses. Other than the deco dressing, the building is quite simple, especially when you think of the impressive entrance gates that were built for the Paramount or MGM studio lots. The building, originally a bakery and then the home of Multicolor, an early color film lab, is a few blocks south of the busy Hollywood and Sunset boulevards in the more factory part of town. Nearby are several other studio lots, film labs, and other industrial buildings associated with the film business.

Hughes made his money from the Hughes Tool Company and with that money he pursued other interests including making movies and building planes. When Hughes purchased the Romaine Street building in 1927 (or 1930 depending on the source) he was already involved with the motion picture business. At that time movies were primarily in black and white, other than a few early experiments in color. Hughes, predicting color films would someday displace black & white films, the same way talking pictures did to silents, purchased Multicolor as a place to experiment with color photography. 

Hughes's most famous film, Hell's Angels, starring Jean Harlow, was filmed at the Metropolitan Studio just down the street, but the film was edited in the Romaine headquarters. In the book "Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel" by Darwin Porter, there is an interesting story about Carol Lombard being cast as a replacement to Thelma Todd in the lead role for Hell's Angels. According to the book, the following explicit exchange took place between Lombard and Hughes the day of her screen test:

"Ben Lyon tells me you like a gal with tits." Right in front of him, she manipulated her dress to expose her left breast. "You're not entitled to look at the right one until you've signed me to play Helen. Then you can have whatever you want. It's all yours, baby!"

"The part calls for a woman to be a bit of a slut," Howard said, standing up from his desk. "At least you qualify for that."

After her screen test, Hughes invited Lombard to dinner at the Brown Derby. Instead they had dinner at the Romaine headquarters where Hughes spent time showing Lombard his color film experiments. In the end, of course, Lombard didn't get the role of Helen, but that didn't stop her from becoming a popular film star.

Other well known Hughes films edited at the Romaine headquarters include Scarface, starring Paul Muni and The Outlaw, starring Jane Russell.

7000 Romaine Street, Hollywood, Ca

Although initially purchased for the color film lab, the Romaine headquarters would become the command center for all things Hughes. He oversaw his tool company, his film projects, and later his airline ventures all from the Romaine offices. Even Hughes's army of personal staff were stationed here. When Hughes needed someone picked up he dispatched a chauffeur from the Romaine building. If anyone needed to contact Hughes they needed to call the Romaine headquarters where a team was in place to transcribe messages and pass them on to Hughes. 

Today, the building looks pretty much the same as it did during Hughes's time there. I'm not sure if or what the building is being used for now, but I would love to take a tour of the inside. Could you imagine sitting in the same screening room space that Hughes once locked himself inside?!

Detail: Howard Hughes Headquarters

0 Robert Mitchum and the Marijuana Charge

Robert Mitchum Sweeps His Jail Cell

Credit: Bettman/Corbis

Long before Charlie Sheen was making headlines for drug busts actor Robert Mitchum was making the front page as Hollywood's bad boy. During his lifetime, Mitchum would have a few encounters with the law. When Mitchum was just a teenager he had left home to live the hobo lifestyle, hopping trains going cross country. On one occasion in 1932, when Mitchum was sixteen,  the young man hopped off a train at a stop in Savannah to get some food and was arrested for vagrancy. Mitchum was sentenced to serve on a chain gang. 

But, Mitchum was lucky that he was only busted for vagrancy. During his hobo days Mitchum picked up a lifelong habit of smoking marijuana. Sometimes during those long train rides the marijuana helped kill the boredom or when passing through northern states during the harsh winter months, smoking marijuana made the extreme weather conditions tolerable. Mitchum got to the point that during his train travels he could distinguish the different varieties of marijuana one could encounter. When Mitchum would make has way west to Hollywood his interest in marijuana went with him and would be the subject of one of his most notorious scandals. 

By 1948, Mitchum had become a recognizable actor, particularly with  the bobby-soxer crowd who liked the bad boy image that he was beginning to be identified with. On August 31, 1948 an event would take place that would only add to Mitchum's reputation. Mitchum and his friend Robin Ford, a real estate agent, visited a young actress named Lila Leeds and her friend Vickie Evans at a house Leeds rented in Laurel Canyon. The four were taking turns passing around a joint when suddenly a crash was heard at the back of the house. A group of cops had made their way into the home and arrested the group for drugs.

Mitchum and the rest of the party would be tried by Judge Clement Nye. Mitchum pleaded not guilty but  Nye found them guilty, sentencing Mitchum to two years of probation, sixty days of which would be spent behind bars.

Los Angeles Hall of Justice

Above is a photo of the Los Angeles Hall of Justice building in downtown Los Angeles located at 210 West Temple Street. The 14-story building was built in 1922 and housed the Los Angeles County Courts, Los Angeles County Coroner, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney. It was also the primary LA County jail until the 1994, Northridge Earthquake. The building was damaged in the earthquake and has sat abandoned ever since, although there are plans to move back into the building. It really is a nice looking building and is a shame that it is not being used.

The Hall of Justice building was where Mitchum served fifty days in jail but Mitchum isn't the only well known personality to stay there. Bugsy Siegel, Charles Manson, and Sirhan Sirhan (Robert Kennedy's murderer) have all spent time at the Hall of Justice in the jails which were located in the top five floors of the building. In the basement of the building was the City Morgue and is where the autopsy of Marilyn Monroe was performed.

Mitchum also served time at the Sheriff's Honor Farm north of Los Angeles. Most of of Mitchum's day was spent working on the farm making concrete blocks. The actor would wake at 5am, have breakfast, work until a short lunch break and then go back to work until the evening. During Mitchum's jail time, Howard Hughes, who was then in charge of RKO studios where Mitchum was under contract, was preparing Mitchum's post-jail career.

While such publicity would kill the career of many actors Mitchum's star would continue to rise. The negative publicity probably boosted his career and in the eyes of some only reinforced the image they already had of the actor.

Detail: Robert Mitchum and the Marijuana Charge