Chateau Marmont, 1938

This July 1938 image of the Chateau Marmont was taken from the residence across the street. Below is a contemporary view of the hotel for comparison’s sake, shot from the street.



On the left, you can see the residence with two garages where the photo was taken. Because of the contemporary look of the home from the exterior, I always “assumed” the original had been torn down and replaced. We all know what happens when you “assume.”



How the home looks at street level:



I decided to go on Zillow and see if there were any photos posted that might match my 1938 image. I was surprised to see that the original 1923 home still exists; what is visible from the street was a later addition.



A Google street view from May 2009 shows what the property looked like before the expansion:



This MLS Listing image taken from farther back on the property shows the Chateau in the background as well as the original portion of the home:



I am guessing that the 1938 photographer was standing on the lawn towards the left of this detailed MLS listing image, facing the Chateau when he took the picture, where I artistically added the red stick figure! 



In November 2018, I snapped this overhead shot from Room 71 of the Chateau. You can clearly see the original structure and the addition:



Back to the original photo, I am guessing that the gent in the photo was either visiting or one of the people living at 8222 Marmont Lane in 1938.



The penthouse balcony was very lush in 1938 with lots of potted plants:



How it looks today:



See more vintage and contemporary Chateau Marmont photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: The Titanic Connection

On July 12, 1938, Shirley Temple and family departed for Bermuda:

With three bodyguards and two toy dolls, Shirley Temple yesterday sailed for Bermuda. The child star’s departure was kept secret to permit her to escape hordes of admirers. Shirley and her mother, Mrs. George F. Temple, arrived only five minutes before the Queen of Bermuda sailed. Adopting her usual simplicity with the press, Shirley told reporters: “I want to ride a bicycle and those little carts they have in Bermuda. I want to go swimming and I expect to have an awfully good time.” Completely unnoticed by the sailing crowd of 300 at the pier was another of the ship’s passengers, Vincent Astor.

Shirley stayed at the Castle Harbour Hotel and visited various local attractions, including the Bermuda Aquarium which had been founded in 1926. Vincent Astor and Aquarium curator Louis Mowbray would often take a motor yacht down to South America and bring animals back to Bermuda, like Crooked Nose, the Galapagos tortoise. American millionaire and philanthropist Vincent Astor accompanied Shirley to the Aquarium:

Shirley Shoots Fish

Bermuda—Inside of Bermuda’s Government Aquarium at the Flatts Village, Bermuda, Vincent Astor is shown with Mr. Louis Mowbray, curator of the Aquarium and one of the world’s foremost Icthyologists, and Shirley Temple, child movie star, on holiday in Bermuda. A little boy gazes in awe at Shirley, and not at the queer fish in the tanks.

Astor also invited Shirley to ride on his private railway which ran through his 22-acre estate. Vincent was very fond of trains, and built a narrow gauge track consisting of about 1400' of track. The train had two passenger cars (each sat four) and two luggage cars. The train was used to take his guests around the large estate and over the hill to his private station where he connected his tracks to those of Bermuda’s Main Railway. The junction point was known as Astor’s Siding. The railway no longer exists, apart from trails and remnants.

Vincent’s parents were wealthy American business tycoon John Jacob Astor IV and Philadelphia heiress Ava Lowle Willing. They divorced in November 1909. As if that wasn’t scandalous enough, in 1911 John Jacob remarried (at the age of 47) 18-year-old socialite Madeleine Talmage Force. Vincent did not care for his stepmother, yet still served as best man at his father's wedding. The couple took an extended honeymoon in Europe and Egypt to avoid all of the gossip back home, but still managed to make headlines since their honyemoon vessel was the ill-fated Titanic. John Jacob Astor put his five months pregnant wife Madeleine on one of the ship's lifeboats. She was rescued eight hours after her husband went down with the ship.

When Astor helped his wife onto the lifeboat, he was wearing his dinner suit, complete with his favorite 14 karat gold Waltham pocket watch, which was intact and in his coat pocket when his body was discovered nearly 13 days later. John Jacob Astor’s body and his belongings were shipped to Nova Scotia, where Vincent arrived a few weeks later to collect them. Vincent wore the watch for years and showed it to Shirley when they were aboard the Queen Bermuda. Eventually, he gave the watch to his godson, William A. Dobbyn V.

John Miottel (shown above with the watch), who collects luxury ocean-liner memorabilia, said in a phone interview that he bought the Astor watch “in 1997 in a small auction house in Asheville, North Carolina, around the 85th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking.…The ironic thing is that almost nobody, including the Astor Foundation, knew about this watch at the time. There would have been a lot more bidders if they had.” Mr. Miottel said that he bought the watch after Mr. Dobbyn’s widow died and her heirs put it up for auction. “Mrs. Dobbyn had a young cousin in Asheville in the auction business, so instead of going to Sotheby’s or Christie’s she took it to him,” he said.

And that is Shirley’s Titanic connection!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Tobin and Temple

Today’s image is from the Los Angeles Public Library collection and shows our gal Shirley dedicating a bridge. From the September 24, 1938 publicity blurb:

Shirley Temple, child film star, and Mayor Maurice J. Tobin, of Boston, are shown dedicating a new Los Angeles bridge just built on the 20th Century-Fox studio lot in Westwood in a ceremony witnessed by studio executives and employees. The bridge will cross Olympic boulevard when it is extended westward through the studio lot to West Los Angeles and the ocean.



What the heck was a Boston Mayor doing in Hollywood for a bridge dedication? Tobin served as Mayor of Boston from 1938-1945. Shirley had visited Boston one month before during her summer vacation; she had received this letter from Tobin in July 1938:



The auction house blurb:

A 1938 letter addressed to Shirley Temple at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston from Mayor Maurice Tobin, inviting Shirley to participate in the Field Day to be held at Fenway Park on August 1st. "These exercises are to be conducted to aid needy men, women and children". Along with a photograph of Mayor Tobin and Shirley Temple during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.



Here’s a previously posted shot of Shirley during her August 1938 trip to Boston:



Tobin visited Fox in late September of 1938 and lunch at the Café de Paris on the Fox lot. He was in town for the Legion Convention with his wife and State Senator Donahoe and Capt. Flaherty of the Boston police. He also helped Shirley dedicate the bridge. Then they went back to the bungalow and she gave out police badges. He'd been asked by Joseph Schenck to participate in the bridge dedication. Here is Shirley dining with Tobin at the Café de Paris:



With a little online sleuthing, I found more images at the Willis Henry Auction site. Actor Jack Haley (the Tinman from “The Wizard of Oz” and two-time Temple co-star) stopped by the table to say hello.



Another shot of Tobin and Temple:



Mrs. Tobin was apparently there, too:



Back to the bridge; unfortunately, I was not able to find that this bridge still exists today (or else I was looking in the wrong area). I did find this odd tidbit though on the KPCC website:

As civic leaders pushed construction of Olympic Boulevard to the west, they ran into a roadblock: the movie studios of 20th Century Fox. The city of LA and Fox struck a deal: build a bridge to connect the studio on either side of Olympic, and Fox would donate the right of way. Matt Roth, historian at the Auto Club, says the bridge opened in 1937 with a bit of movie glamour. "Basically what they did," he says, "is they either hired or invited two starlet types to pose on the bridge with sweaters and skirts, no skin showing, but form.

The photo of Shirley is definitely from 1938, and I don’t see any starlets around. Maybe a different bridge, or maybe a ceremony for the initial construction of the bridge. Below is a screenshot from some rare color footage showing Shirley cutting the ribbon:



You can view it at 5:09 in this 1981 segment of the show “That’s Hollywood” with Tom Bosley narrating.

While I didn’t find the bridge, I did find something else new to me. In Century City near the Fox lot, there is a 5 block stretch of road titled “Shirley Place” before it becomes Spalding Drive. Coincidence? I doubt it!

During Shirley’s 1938 summer vacation out east, she wore the same dress that she did during the bridge dedication, as seen in this previously posted shot of her at Mount Vernon:



The dress was auctioned off in 2015; here’s how it looked:



And the auction description:

Of fine royal blue wool/linen, the jumper is constructed with a high waist, flat front panel with full-length side pleats, attached sash with back ties, double straps with inset panels of silk to match the blouse, and embroidered heart decorations at the top edge; with matching blouse of ecru with colorful heart designs, and with embroidered hearts on the blouse collar, with original studio inventory label "14725 Shirley"…. The dress was worn by Penny (Shirley Temple) in [“Just Around the Corner”]. A favorite costume of Shirley Temple, it was worn at a number of events, including her July 1938 interview for the Saturday Evening Post, in which the reporter named her "Little Miss Miracle". The costume designer for the film was Gwen Wakeling.



And that’s it for the Tale of Tobin & Temple!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.