Temple Tuesday: Robert Benchley

The names Shirley Temple and Robert Benchley don’t really go together in the grand scheme of things, but they intersected (professionally) at least twice. The American humorist is probably best known for his pieces in Vanity Fair and the The New Yorker, his membership in the Algonquin Club (see previous post), and some memorable Hollywood supporting roles. Disney’s “The Reluctant Dragon” (1941):



and Hitchcock’s “Foreign Correspondent” (1940). Shirley and Robert were “together” in the April 1939 issue of True Confessions magazine. That sounds so lurid! Shirley had a beautiful two-color full page photo promoting “The Little Princess”:



Meanwhile, Benchley got a cigarette ad in black and white:



This is not surprising, as 1939 was considered the humorist’s worst year careerwise: both his radio show and MGM film contract were canceled and The New Yorker replaced him with Wolcott Gibbs, because his Hollywood exploits prevented him from spending enough time on his writing gigs.



Benchley supported a teenage Shirley in 1945’s “Kiss and Tell” for Columbia Pictures. He played Corliss Archer’s (Shirley) Uncle George. In her autobiography, Child Star, Shirley gives Benchley a brief mention associated with a very sad event:

Humorist Robert Benchley, author-cohort from “Kiss and Tell,” honored us [then husband John Agar] at a candelit dinner party at his San Fernando Valley home. Jack was dancing with a starlet type, a bit player from a recent low-budget movie. Lithe and range with cascades of blond hair and widely flared, sensuous nostrils, she had already made biting remarks about my compact stature.…Driving home to our honeymoon cottage, Jack was merciless. “Always wanted to marry a long-legged model,” he said. “Not someone like you.” Already stunned, I could hardly believe my ears. But playing second fiddle was against my nature. “Trouble with people who have those nineteen-inch waists,” I replied, “their other measurements are small too. Including the head.”

Don’t mess with Shirley, who was perfectly capable of writing her own quips!

“Kiss and Tell” was released on October 18, 1945, Benchley was dead within a month from a cerebral hemorrhage at age 56. From the Algonquin Rondtable website:

Throughout World War II Benchley kept up an extremely busy pace in Hollywood. He lived in a bungalow in the Garden of Allah and worked steadily in movies and radio. In his early fifties Benchley eventually suffered from health problems exaggerated by his heavy drinking. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and high blood pressure. In late 1945 he returned to New York for a break, but his health slid downhill. He collapsed in his room at the Royalton Hotel on West Forty-fourth Street. He died in the Harkness Pavilion at the Columbia University Medical center on Fort Washington Avenue, on November 21, 1945. Benchley was a teetotaller until he fell in with the Vicious Circle in the Speakeasy Era in his thirties. Twenty years later, drink did him in.

Here he is with Charles Butterworth at the Garden of Allah, both looking a little less than sober.



See more Shirley Temple “Kiss and Tell” photos at my main website.

8150 Goes Bust!

It was no surprise to me when I saw last night on the Esotouric Tours instagram account that the Frank Gehry monstrosity that was to replace the midcentury modern Lytton bank building (which replaced the Garden of Allah hotel) was now officially kaput. Gonzo. Belly-up. Finito. The lot is now up for sale, according to a WEHO times article.

Here’s a pictorial history of this lot, beginning with the Garden of Allah hotel (1927-1959) shown above, followed by the Chase/Lytton Bank (1960-2021), designed by architect Kurt Meyer:



…followed by an overhead view I shot just before it was leveled:



After the bank was removed:



…and then the rest of the strip mall was removed, too. This is how it looked when I photographed it last month:



I surmised a few months ago that when the lot stayed bare with no construction going on that something was amiss with the Gehry-planned development.

Why did this occur? Very simple. A lot with a building that could be considered “historic” is a headache for developers. It equals bad press because of the potential loss of the historic building and it often means expensive and lengthy legal battles to overcome the demolition pushback. Townscape Partners secured legal approval to demo the bank in 2018; they revised the original Gehry plan to incorporate some historic touches to appease both bank and hotel fans. And then the pandemic hit. The way business is done changed and the need for another mixed use property with an expensive piece of poo on it decreased. 

Still…the bank had to be removed, otherwise the potential for future legal battles to save it could have returned. Thus, the empty lot you see now that is up for grabs again.

Here’s a vintage shot of Robert Benchley and Charlie Butterworth that seems appropriate for this story. The accompanying publicity blurb said that they “…kept open house in the Garden of Allah and invited passing friends in for drinks all night long. Here they are posing as they might have looked by dawn’s early light.”



The silver lining? This design is DOA.



See more photos at my main website.