particularly lifelike.
Other exhibits of note are the dioramas modeled to scale, showing
California scenes from prehistoric times through the Russian, Spanish,
Mexican, and American periods to the present day; the Motion-Picture
Exhibit, which includes costumed models of prominent stars of the
past and present, make-up boxes, props, Klieg lights, old cinema-house
bills, illustrated song slides, and the like; the Harrison Collection of
the work of contemporary American artists; the Regan Collection of
Rembrandt etchings; the Coronel Collection of early California relics;
the Otis Collection of weapons; and the Oriental Collection.
Egyptian mummies, swords, period furniture, snuffboxes, and models
and specimens of early airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, and wearing
apparel are part of the museum's miscellaneous stock. A Research
Library has nearly 20,000 bound volumes and many thousands of un-
bound pamphlets, magazines and newspapers. The Junior Museum, on
a floor below street level with an entrance at the southeast corner of the
building, has models, books, and pictures illustrating history, science,
travel, and art.
119. The LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM (open 6-6),
at the end of the long mall, was designed by John and Donald Parkin-
son. The main entrance is a high, arched peristyle flanked by tall
double arcades and topped by the Olympic Torch, which burned, in the
tradition of the Olympic games, during the two weeks of the Tenth
International Olympiad held in the Coliseum in 1932.
The stadium, with a seating capacity of 105,000, is much larger
than that of the Coliseum in Rome. Notwithstanding the size of the
stadium's crowds, its 108 portals are capable of discharging the entire
attendance within 20 minutes. The coliseum was completed in 1923
after two years of construction, and enlarged to its present size in
preparation for the Olympics. It is used for major football games,
rodeos, track and field meets, pageants, religious ceremonies, and civic
gatherings.
THE SOUTHWEST SECTION IQ3
1 20. In the southwest corner of the park is the LOS ANGELES
SWIMMING STADIUM (open June to Sept. 9:30-5 weekdays,
7-5 Sun. and holidays; children under 16 years of age 10$, adults 2$$ ,
suits free), a concrete and steel grandstand, seating 5,000 in view of
two pools. One of the pools was designed for the aquatic events of the
Tenth International Olympiad upon suggestions made by the swim-
ming-sports leaders of the various participant nations; this pool is ren-
dered extremely "fast" by specially designed sidewalls, splash bunkers,
and water-level variations that eliminate ripples and backwash.
K&z&zg&z^^^^
PART III
Neighboring Cities
mmssm^^
Beverly Hills
Bus Service: Pacific Electric Ry. (2 lines) ; one from Hollywood-land through
Beverly Hills to Westwood, with branch line from Beverly Hills Hotel to
Wilshire Blvd. and Camden Dr.; one from Pershing Sq., Los Angeles via
Beverly Blvd., Santa Monica Blvd., Canyon Dr., and Sunset Blvd. to Cas-
tellammare Beach. Los Angeles Motor Coach Co. (bus No. 82) from Pershing
Sq. to Wilshire Blvd. and Beverly Dr.; transfer privileges to No. 88, N. via
Beverly Dr. to Santa Monica Blvd., thence S. to Wilshire Blvd., connecting
with bus No. 82 to Los Angeles. Fares 6$ in Beverly Hills; 15^ to Los Angeles.
Streetcars: Pacific Electric Ry. (2 lines), both from Subway Terminal Bldg.,
Los Angeles; one through Beverly Hills via Hollywood Junction; one via
S. Hill St. and Vineyard. Fares 6$ in Beverly Hills; 15^ to Los Angeles.
Taxicabs: Yellow and Red Top stands at Pacific Electric Ry. Station. Fare
2otf first Y$ mile, 10^ each y 2 mile thereafter.
Information Bureaus: Chamber of Commerce, room 210, 9437 Santa Monica
Blvd.; Automobile Club of Southern California, 9344 Wilshire Blvd.
Street Numbers: Numbers N. and S. begin at Wilshire Blvd.; numbers W.
on the major thoroughfares begin at San Vicente Blvd. and are continuation
of Los Angeles numbers on same streets (with minor exceptions).
Traffic Regulations: Speed limit 15 m. on curves, passing schools, and at
obstructed grade crossings; 20 m. in business district; 25 m. in residential
district; 45 m. elsewhere. Parking in business district limited to 45 minutes
between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. except Sundays and legal holidays.
Hotels, Apartment Houses: Two internationally known hotels, the Beverly-
Wilshire, 9514 Wilshire Blvd., and the Beverly Hills, 1201 Sunset Blvd.; a
few others at average rates. Numerous furnished and unfurnished apart-
ments, with greater number of furnished apartments nearer Wilshire Blvd.
Rentals vary with the accommodations offered. Higher-priced units in rental
area W. of Beverly Dr.
Auto and Trailer Camps: Well-appointed camps on outskirts of the com-
munity.
Radio Stations: KMPC (710 kc), 9631 Wilshire Blvd.
Churches: All Saints Episcopal, 504 N. Camden Dr.; Beverly Hills Com-
munity Presbyterian, 501 N. Rodeo Dr. ; Church of the Good Shepherd, Catholic,
Santa Monica Blvd. and Bedford Dr. ; First Church of Christ, Scientist, near
Charleville Blvd. and Rexford Dr.; Beverly Vista Community, Gregory Way
and Elm Dr.
Motion-Picture Houses: Beverly Hills (Warner Bros.), 9404 Wilshire Blvd.;
Beverly, 206 N. Beverly Dr.; Elite, 9036 Wilshire Blvd.; Regina, 8556 Wil-
shire Blvd.; Wilshire, 8440 Wilshire Blvd.
Parks and Playgrounds: Roxbury, Olympic Blvd. and Roxbury Dr. ; La
Cienega, Gregory Way and La Cienega Blvd. ; Coldwater Canyon Park,
Beverly Dr. and Coldwater Canyon Rd. ; Sunset, Beverly and Canyon Drs. ;
Reservoir, Beverly Dr. and Coldwater Canyon Alley; Beverly Gardens is a
197
ig8 LOS ANGELES
2-mile parkway, the SW. end of which is marked by an electric fountain,
at Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvds.
Sports: Tennis courts at La Cienega and Roxbury Parks; swimming pool in
La Cienega Park; eight golf courses within easy reach. Miles of bridle paths
in and near Beverly Hills; information and mounts, riding academy at
101 N. San Vicente Blvd.
BEVERLY HILLS (325 alt., 26,823 Pop-)> a quiet and spotless city,
the Gold Coast of the cinema world, is an independent municipality
less than five square miles in extent. It lies eight miles west of Los
Angeles, into which it fits like a jagged piece in a jigsaw puzzle. Here
lawns are required by law; "For Sale" signs must be no more than
one foot square, and only one to a lot; none of the 28,000 uniformly-
planted pines, acacias, blue-flowering jacarandas, feathery pepper or
scarlet-flowering eucalyptus trees that line the thoroughfares can be
removed without the consent of 51 per cent of the landowners affected,
and then only with a guarantee that they will be replaced by trees of
equal age; strict zoning laws forbid business buildings north of Santa
Monica Boulevard, which slants southwest across the community; shops
are tolerated on few streets outside a small triangle at the junction
of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards.
For two miles along the north side of Santa Monica Boulevard
runs Beverly Gardens, opposite which, at Crescent Drive, is the impos-
ing City Hall, Spanish Renaissance in design, set in landscaped grounds.
South of the parkway, on the level coastal plain, are pleasant streets
bordered with attractive and less elaborate houses, although the cost of
many ran to five figures. From the other side of the gardens, gently
curving streets extend, tendril-like, into cool shaded canyons and up
the steep pitches of the Santa Monica foothills, a section of large and
often lavish estates, the homes of movie stars whose meteoric careers are
currently in the ascendant or at the zenith.
Although Beverly Hills is young, its site was occupied more than a
century ago by the 4,5OO-acre Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas (gathering
of the waters), also known as the Rancho San Antonio. In the early
1 830*5, Senora Rita Villa, nee Valdez, granddaughter of one of the
first settlers of Los Angeles and widow of another, maintained a home
here and another in Los Angeles. In 1854 tne rancho was sold to two
Americans, Benjamin (Don Benito) Wilson and Major Henry Han-
cock, of the adjacent Rancho La Brea. Attempts were made to found
a settlement in 1869, and again during the boom of the late i88o's.
Both failed, but in 1906, with the organization of the Rodeo Land and
Water Company by Burton E. Green, of Beverly Farms, Mass., a new
subdivision was laid out on the level ground between Wilshire and
Santa Monica Boulevards and recorded as Beverly; the subdivision of
Beverly Hills was laid out toward the northwest the next year. The
panic of 1907-8 halted development until 1912, when the Beverly Hills
Hotel was erected in the middle of a bean field. Two years later the
population totaled 500, and Beverly Hills was incorporated as a munic-
ipality, governed by five nonsalaried councilmen, one of whom acted
BEVERLY HILLS 199
as mayor. The 1920 census revealed only 674 residents, but the move-
ment that was to increase the population 2,500 per cent within a dec-
ade had already been instituted in 1919 when Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.,
purchased the hilltop site of Pickfair for $35,000. Other celebrities
followed, some to build modest houses, others fired with an ambition
to exceed the "magnificent" and the "stupendous," heaping up gigantic
establishments that have since become "colossal" stones around their
necks. Pickfair has been offered for sale ; William Powell's house, with
its elaborate gadgets, has been sold; an attempt to auction off John
Barrymore's hilltop mansion brought no acceptable bid. "The Chinese
Tenement," as Barrymore scornfully refers to it, cost the actor $448,-
ooo. "Frankly," he said, "it was a kind of nightmare, but it might
appeal to somebody maybe some actor . . . Yep, three pools. Incred-
ible, isn't it? In one of them I used to keep rainbow trout . . ."
The real estate boom of the early 1920*5 inspired considerable bustle
and excitement, stimulated in part by the late Will Rogers, who was
the city's honorary mayor before his death in 1935, and whose daily
syndicated column usually carried a "Beverly Hills" date line. "Lots
are sold so quickly and often here," he wrote in August 1923, "that
they are put through escrow made out to the twelfth owner. They
couldn't possibly make a separate deed for each purchaser; besides he
wouldn't have time to read [it] in the ten minutes time he owned the
lot. Your having no money don't worry the agents, if they can just get
a couple of dollars down, or an old overcoat or shotgun, or anything
to act as down payment. Second-hand Fords are considered A-i col-
lateral."
More than 150 film stars now live in Beverly Hills, as well as such
notables as Sigmund Romberg, composer; Freeman Gosden and Charles
Correll, the Amos 'n Andy of radio; Grantland Rice, sports writer;
Elsie Janis, former musical comedy star; and motor magnates E. L.
Cord and C. W. Nash. Some reside south of Sunset Boulevard, be-
tween Hillcrest and Walden Drives, but the majority have their houses
on Lexington Road, Coldwater Canyon Drive, Tower Road, and Cove
Way. For the most part, the mansions are pleasantly situated and
unobtrusive, although a few assault the senses and every criterion of
good design. None carry neon lights emblazoning the name and fame
of the occupants; rather, the eager tourist, usually feminine, chiefly
young or of uncertain age, confesses sore disappointment to discover
that the lives of those so glamorously portrayed in movie magazines
and gossip columns are screened from view by high walls and hedges.
Sightseers catch no glimpse of onyx swimming pools, sunken gardens,
private golf courses, Borzoi hounds, and elegant tea and cocktail parties
on terraced lawns, but they never tire of hearing the guides on the
rubberneck wagons shout: "On the right, the home of Jack Benny and
Mary Livingstone; also on the right, Eddie Cantor" . . . Left, Charlie
Chaplin . . . Left, Fred Astaire . . . The vast estate of Harold
Lloyd, with its waterfall . . . Right . . . Left . . . Right."
The city continues to grow rapidly. Stars of screen, radio, and
2OO LOS ANGELES
stage come in increasing numbers, with financiers and industrialists in
their wake, to enjoy Beverly Hills' studied charm and freedom from
the smoke, clatter, and conflicts of industry. In recent years many
business and professional people of comparatively modest means have
come from Los Angeles and other communities to build homes here,
with the result that the construction industry has been greatly stimu-
lated locally and in all surrounding territory, but the predominant
local "industry," and one that employs thousands, remains that of
servicing the manifold, sometimes bizarre, and always expensive needs
of those "in the money."
POINTS OF INTEREST
BEVERLY GARDENS is a block-wide parkway extending almost
two miles along the north side of Santa Monica Blvd., from Doheny
Dr. to Wilshire Blvd. A promenade runs the length of the park
under sweeping elms; pergolas, ornamental fountains, flower beds,
attractively planted groups of trees, rose and cacti gardens, and a lily
pond grace the parkway.
1. The ELECTRIC FOUNTAIN, NW. corner Wilshire and Santa
Monica Blvds., can produce more than 60 effects by changes of spray,
stream, and color. A kneeling figure on a square column rising from
the center of the circular reservoir symbolizes an Indian rain prayer;
the frieze around the base pictures incidents in California's early history.
2. The Roman Catholic CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD,
NW corner Santa Monica Blvd. and N. Bedford Dr., Spanish Colonial
in style, with heavy baroque ornamentation, has two massive buttressed
towers, with low, black-roofed domes above the open arches of the bel-
fries. Reaching half the height of the facade is an atrium, with three
arched doorways, extending from tower to tower. The reinforced
concrete building is covered with ivory-tinted stucco. The ivory walls,
columns, and ceiling of the interior provide a striking setting for the
windows of richly-hued Munich glass that lend the church much of its
distinction. The sanctuary extends the full width of the nave, from
which it is divided by a marble rail. Shrines with colored figures of
the Virgin, angels and various saints, holding staffs that flower into
clusters of candles, flank the main altar. Pulpit and altar are of white
Italian marble.
The rectory is linked to the church by an arcade, with a screen of
similarly designed arches enclosing the formal gardens that surround
the rectory.
3. ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NW. corner Santa
Monica Blvd. and N. Camden Dr., flanked by rose gardens in an ex-
panse of lawn, authentically reproduces the design of the Christian
basilicas of ancient Rome. Constructed of concrete, with walls two
feet thick, the church has a rough-surfaced facade unadorned except
for a line of red tile edging the low-pitched gable. Across the facade,
pierced by a small stained-glass rose window, extends a shed-like
BEVERLY HILLS 2OI
atrium, with a tile roof sloping streetward. Leather-covered doors,
studded with brass nails, open directly into the plain and simple nave;
the brown, hand-hewn timbers of the roof are exposed. Red tiles pave
both nave and sanctuary; in the semi-circular apse at the rear of the
church, the altar is a flash of gold.
The CIVIC CENTER is developing between Santa Monica Boule-
vard, Rexford and Crescent Drives.
4. The NEW POST OFFICE, junction N. Crescent Dr. and Santa
Monica Blvd., is a California-Mediterranean structure of brick and
stone with red-tile roof; the two-story central unit is flanked with one-
story wings at either side.
5. The CITY HALL, opposite the Post Office, dominates the Civic
Center. Spanish Renaissance in style, it was designed by William J.
Gage and built in 1932. From its long, balanced three-story base,
a campanile rises eight stories to a finial and small gold cupola, topped
with a colorful mosaic hemisphere. From the four corners of the main
building project elongated wings one story in front, two stories in
the rear with ornate window and cornice embellishments. From
the Crescent Drive side a wide stairway and promenade leads between
the wings through a forecourt to the classical main entrance. The
building houses the municipal administrative offices, city jail, public
library, and emergency hospital.
6. The FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, 142 S.
Rexford Dr., together with its Sunday School buildings, encloses three
sides of an open court paved with square red tiles. The buildings have
simple roof lines broken at the center by a small lantern, or fleche.
The church has a high pediment supported by slender Corinthian
columns; a commodious foyer leads into the i,25O-seat auditorium,
with stately windows of white cathedral glass. The pews are luxuri-
ous opera chairs, upholstered in soft blue-gray plush. The auditorium
is air-conditioned and lighted indirectly by hanging fixtures in delicate
patterns of blue and gold.
7. The BEVERLY-WILSHIRE HOTEL, 9514 Wilshire Blvd., has
been a rendezvous for wealthy tourists and cinema headliners since its
opening in 1928. The U-shaped building, of concrete, with veneer of
tan pressed brick, has a flat roof with a wide overhang; the facade
reflects strong Italian influence in the arched openings of the first and
top floors and in its low-relief baroque ornamentation.
8. The TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX STUDIOS, 10201 W.
Pico Blvd., is in 1939 the largest motion-picture studio in the country.
Ivy-covered stucco walls surround the 225-acre lot, where are scattered
20 immense sound stages, one with a plant for freezing ice for winter
scenes. There are also wardrobe buildings, containing habiliment for
anything from a Roman tyrant to a Salvation Army general; scattered
buildings, housing thousands of props; a building that once served as
Tom Mix' stables but is now the Arsenal and Sound Effects Depart-
ment, with equipment for every conceivable noise from a mouse squeak
to a volcano rumble; a Norman chateau for writers; and a Hall of
\
\^-
1. Electric Fountain
2. Church of the Good Shepherd
3. All Saints Episcopal Church
4. New Post Office
POINTS o:
5. City Hall
6. First Church of Christ, Scien-
tist
7. Beverly-Wilshire Hotel
BEVERLY HILLS
AND
VICINITY
INTEREST
8. aoth Century-Fox Studios 1 1 . University of California at
9. Veterans Administration Fa- Los Angeles
cility 12. Municipal Park
10. Tropical Ice Gardens 13. Beverly Hills Hotel
2O4 LOS ANGELES
Music with fountained patio, where many successful musical films have
been made.
9. The VETERANS ADMINISTRATION FACILITY OF LOS
ANGELES (visited 1:30-3 daily; tubercular wards 3-4:30 daily; psy-
chopathic wards Sun., Tues., and Thurs. 2-4), Sepulveda and Wilshire
Blvds., comprises approximately 175 buildings on 700 acres of land,
most of them landscaped with lawns, trees, and flower beds. The in-
stitution, locally called the Sawtelle Soldiers' Home, provides free
hospitalization for veterans of the Civil, Spanish-American, and World
Wars. The largest (1939) soldiers' home in the country, it has facili-
ties to care for 7,700 veterans who are disabled or in need of medical
care.
Westwood Boulevard, lined with tall palms and green parkways, is
the main thoroughfare of WESTWOOD VILLAGE (388 alt.), a
lo-year-old town within the corporate limits of Los Angeles. It is a
community resplendent with high-towered filling stations, new, dazzling-
white shops under red-tile roofs, and many patios with fountains. It is
a shopping center for the very prosperous Westwood and Bel-Air
residential districts to the north, and for the students of the University
of California at Los Angeles.
10. The TROPICAL ICE GARDENS (skating, daytime 40$, eve-
ning 55$, including skates), just south of the U.C.L.A. campus, at the
end of Weyburn Ave., have an outdoor ice floor the year round. A
gallery (occasional exhibitions; adm. $0$ to $2) seating 8,000, and a
synthetic Alpine village surround the rink.
11. The UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES,
405 Hilgard Ave., stands in extensive lawns crowning a broad terraced
elevation overlooking rolling valleys, plains, and low hills. Behind,
the blue-misted Santa Monica Mountains form an irregular sky line.
The buildings erected since 1929 stand on grounds thicky bordered
with iceplant, but lack the ivy and venerable shade trees of older insti-
tutions of learning; the grouping of these buildings has the efficiency
and orderliness possible only when a full grown institution is trans-
planted to a new site.
An integral part of the University of California, the University of
California at Los Angeles grew out of the Los Angeles State Normal
School, founded in 1881. In 1919 that institution became the Univer-
sity of California, Southern Branch; the present name was adopted in
1927. Two years later it was moved to this campus, which had been
presented by the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Venice, and
Beverly Hills.
With a faculty of more than 300, the university offers instruction in
the humanities, the sciences, business administration, education, and
agriculture to more than 7,000 graduate and undergraduate students.
The four main buildings stand on a low hilltop reached from the
Hilgard Ave. entrance by way of a monumental bridge. These central
buildings, in the walls and roofs of which is much terra cotta, brick, and
tile, are four stories high and display the usual eclectic southern Cali-
BEVERLY HILLS 2O5
fornia motifs and architectural features in their decoration. Roman-
esque and Italian Renaissance influences are particularly apparent. On
the north side of an esplanade is JOSIAH ROYCE HALL, housing the
auditorium, classrooms, and faculty offices, and named for the philos-
opher who was one of the University of California's notable graduates.
With tiled gabled roofs and two massive towers flanking the triple-
arched entrance, the facade of the hall to some extent resembles that
of the Church of San Ambrogia in Milan. On the south side, across
the walk-bordered green, is the vast LIBRARY, housing 322,000 vol-
umes. The central unit of the large structure, which has wings and
rear extensions, is crowned with an octagonal superstructure with a
set-back. Royce Hall was designed by Allison and Allison, the Library
by George W. Kelham. Simpler in detail and treatment are the build-
ings grouped east and south of Royce Hall and the Library Building:
the Chemistry-Geology, the Physics-Biology, the Administration, and
Education buildings. At the west end of the esplanade, a broad low
brick stairway with terra-cotta balustrades descends to the Men's and
Women's Gymnasiums, and their swimming pools. Set apart from the
main group, southwest of the Education Building is KERCKHOFF HALL,
social center for students and faculty, where the traditional Tudor
University note is introduced with a graceful turreted tower and leaded
windows. Overlooking the campus from the north is the President's
residence. Near the south entrance on Westwood Blvd. is the ME-
CHANIC ARTS BUILDING and shops.
12. The MUNICIPAL PARK, Sunset Blvd. and Beverly and Canon
Drs., has wide and carefully kept lawns, stately palms, and a central
fountain that effectively camouflage the great 8,ooo,ooo-gallon water
tank beneath, the city's reservoir.
13. The BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL, 1201 Sunset Blvd., set back
on a gentle hillside on 10 acres of ornamental shrubbery, lofty fan
palms, and spreading date trees, is a diffuse, four-story concrete and
stucco structure, with tile roofs and arched entrances reminiscent of the
early California missions. Windows are grouped in twos and threes;
a spacious second-story balcony overlooks the swimming pool; 20 bun-
galows are scattered about the grounds.
Glendale
Railroad Stations: Southern Pacific R.R., Cerritos and Railroad Aves. ; Union
Pacific R.R., 730 E. Lexington Dr.; Pacific Electric Ry., 106 N. Brand Blvd.
Bus Stations: Motor Transit Lines, 102^ S. Glendale Ave. ; Burlington Trail-
ways, 213 E. Broadway; Greyhound and Union Pacific Stages, 202 S. Brand
Blvd.
Bus Service: Pasadena-Ocean Park Line to Pasadena, Hollywood, and beaches;
Motor Transit Co. to Los Angeles (branch line to Verdugo City) ; Pacific
Electric Motor Coaches, local and interurban (Los Angeles-Burbank) service,
local fare $$ and 10^, Los Angeles 15^, Burbank 10^.
Streetcars: Pacific Electric Glendale Line, N. on Brand Blvd. to Mountain
St.; Burbank Line, N. on Brand Blvd. to Glenoaks Blvd., thence W. to terminus
in Burbank; Pacific Electric local line, E. on Broadway from Brand Blvd. to