By the mid-1910s, one of the most famous and certainly the highest paid actress on the silent screen was Russian born Alla Nazimova. Metro Studios was paying her $13,000 a week–$3,000 more than Mary Pickford–along with the right to approve director, script, and leading man.
By the end of 1918, with her film career flourishing, Nazimova spent $65,000 on an imposing California Spanish home at 8152 Sunset Boulevard (then still an unpaved dirt track) on the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights Blvd. She then proceeded to spend another $65,000 remodeling the interior, building
a pool and landscaping the property’s three and a half acres. She named it The Garden of Alla and it became a popular gathering spot for the Hollywood intelligentsia who would flock there for the salons in which literature, art, and theater was discussed at length. It attracted a largely lesbian following making it somewhat notorious.
By the mid-1920s however, things weren’t going so well for the dramatic actress with the violet eyes. Her films (by this point self-produced and self-financed) had largely failed and her finances were dwindling rapidly. Outside investors convinced her that her major asset–her movie star mansion–could be developed into a hotel thus providing her with a steady income. It must have seemed like a sound idea because Nazimova proceeded to spend $1.5 million (a huge sum for the mid-1920s) to add 25 two-story bungalows built throughout the grounds. The property acquired an extra “h”–renamed ‘The Garden of Allah’–and a lavish 18-hour party was thrown for the hotel’s opening on January 9th, 1927. Nine months later the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, opened in New York and ushered in the golden age of Hollywood cinema.
Unfortunately for Nazimova, the investment proved to be her financial undoing. Within a year of the opening she was bankrupt and in 1928 she sold her shares in the property. The hotel however was a huge and instant success. It attracted many people lured by Hollywood’s promise of fame and fortune and quickly became one of the places people stayed when they first arrived in Hollywood before making their way up the ladder. And, in some cases, it became the place they retreated to when their Hollywood fortunes dwindled and they could no longer afford their extravagant mortgages.
The list people who stayed at or visited the Garden of Allah Hotel & Villas is a who’s who of Hollywood.
To find out more about the Garden of Allah, visit my website.
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Exactly how much time did it acquire u to post “About the Garden of Allah hotel |
The ‘Garden of Allah’ novels blog”? It
offers quite a lot of decent info. Many thanks -Edmund
That’s a hard one to answer. I spent about a year researching the chronology of Hollywood, a couple of months to fully get the website together, and I’ve been blogging for about 3 or 4 years.
Really enjoyed the article in California Home & Design March 2013 “The Garden of Allah & The Age of Excess”. Too bad the Garden of Allah is no longer standing, I would have loved to have booked a few days and nights there. The pool is grand!
The final party in 1959 must have been outrageously fun.
Cheers,
Stacey
CaliforniaStandardPoodle.com
Thanks Stacy – YES! I would love to have attended the closing party. By all accounts, it was a rip-snorter!
Did it get torn down? What was it replaced with? Is THAT still standing?
Yes, Carol, it was torn down in August 1959 and promptly replaced with a typical LA eyesore mini mall, which it still is. But recently the site was announced for redevelopment – a mixed use commercial/residential complex designed by world-renowned architect, Frank Gehry, who also did the Disney concert hall in downtown LA:
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/08/frank_gehry_sunset_strip_renderings_8150_sunset.php
I met one of the guys who was part of the demolition crew that tore the garden down in ’59. He was about 80 when I met him and he sold me the brass door handle that use to be on the front door of the Main Mansion. He had a home in Laguna Beach that had exterior lighting from the Garden and other little pieces. He said he wanted the whole front door (oak) but couldn’t get it home because of it’s size.
Wow, James! Do you still have the brass door handle? Does it look like this:
http://www.martinturnbull.com/2014/10/16/possible-door-handle-from-the-garden-of-allah-hotel/