Vintage Pool Days

While the rest of the country is thinking of Fall, Southern Californians are sweating their #$%es off in record temperature heat. How about a dip in the pool to counter that? These first two images show starlets Mari Blanchard and Lori Wilson at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel pool, circa 1953.



The shot below shows the El Mirador Hotel pool. From the vintage caption (sorry, part of it is missing, so there are a few missing words):

PLAY TIME…For Betty Furness and Isabell Jewell, both Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer featured players…on the diving board at the swimming pool at the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs. Miss Furness having completed her movie, “The Kid From College” is enjoying a …December 13, 1934



The two actresses starred together in “Shadow of a Doubt,” released February 15, 1935, and yes, it was an MGM production. I could find nothing on “The Kid From College.” Jewell had a small but memorable part in “Gone with the Wind” as Emmy, the “poor white trash Slattery girl.” Shown below at right with Victor Jory and Vivien Leigh.



Just make sure you don’t stay in the pool too long, or you could end up like William Holden in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950).



See more photos at my main website.

View from the Hill, 1968

This 1968 image shows your typical early morning smog view of Hollywood taken from what I believe to be the Yamashiro Restaurant. Here’s a vintage postcard with a reverse view:

I went up to this area once, and for whatever reason never took a shot looking down the hill. Perhaps the trees now block the view, or perhaps I was just not thinking. Probably the latter.

Back to the 1968 shot, which provides a typically unseen angle of the Roosevelt hotel. It is extremely difficult to see the entire front façade unless you’re standing on Hollywood Boulevard. My neck just hurts thinking of looking straight up.

The back is much easier to capture:

See more Hollywood photos at my main website.

Haunted Hotels: 3 out of 9

Happy Halloween Dear Readers! One of my favorite sites to read is Curbed; recently they did an article on the 9 Most Haunted Hotels in America; surprisingly, I have stayed at three of them!

The Driskill in Austin, Texas. From Curbed: The Driskill...is infested by so many ghostly presences that staff has a handout on them for guests. They include its namesake, Civil War Colonel Jesse Driskill, who had the place built and then promptly lost it in a card game; he makes his presence known with the scent of his cigar smoke, especially in rooms occupied by women. A spirit that might or might not be Driskill has been reported to operate the elevators, move furniture, push guests out of their beds, and hide their belongings. Then there are the creepy "suicide brides" and the painting haunted by a four-year-old girl who fell to her death at the hotel.



Why was I not aware of this handout when I stayed there? I feel cheated!



The Hollywood Roosevelt. From Curbed: The Roosevelt competes with the Knickerbocker for most celebrity hauntings--Marilyn Monroe supposedly appears in a full-length mirror from Suite 1200, where she stayed when she first started becoming famous; Montgomery Clift is said to hang out in and around room 928, where he lived while shooting From Here to Eternity. One psychic says he's also detected Humphrey Bogart, Carmen Miranda, and Betty Grable. There's also a cold spot in the Blossom Room (the first home of the Oscars) near where a dapperly-dressed thirties-era man is said to hang around.

I never felt much going on at the Roosevelt. The staff is too snooty for my tastes and the clientele is a bit more Kardashian than I care for. I can't imagine Humphrey and Marilyn would want to hang here anymore.





Omni Royal Orleans. From Curbed: On the site of a former slave market, the hotel is rumored to be haunted (as is just about every place in the Quarter). More creepiness: Zack Bowen strangled his girlfriend, Addie Hall, dismembered her body, cooked some of her body parts, went on a wild bender, then jumped off the rooftop deck of the Omni Royal Hotel. His suicide note led police back to their apartment, the scene of the grisly murder.

The view from the roof when I stayed here back in 2002:



Curbed also did an LA version of this article, and of course it featured my favorite hotel, The Chateau Marmont.



From Curbed: John Belushi liked to party here so much, it would make sense he'd stop by in the afterlife. People say Bungalow 3, where he fatally overdosed in 1982, is the site of strange occurrences. The most disturbing story involves a toddler whose family stayed there for a stint in 1999. As the Travel Channel tells it, his parents would hear him laughing alone. They got up the nerve to ask him why, and he responded, "The funny man." Then, "when his mother was leafing through a book of celebrity guests of Chateau Marmont, the boy pointed to John Belushi and exclaimed, ‘The funny man!’"

The way to Bungalow 3:



When Willis and I stay at the Chateau, he does his business outside Bungalow 3. EVERY time in the same spot. Guaranteed.

See more haunted (and not haunted) hotel photos at my main website.

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and Odds & Ends

Today's post features a few vintage views of the famous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, starting off with this pre-1952 shot of the front. For those interested in the nearby shops on Hollywood Boulevard, here's a closeup:



A similar view from Christmas 1955 in color:



The Roosevelt was especially known for its pool, where plenty of would-be starlets waited to be seen and discovered:



On my last stay there, I took this shot from the same vantage point:



And yes, I take requests! The other day, I was asked to zoom into the Fantasia Mural at the Welch's Grape Stand in Fantasyland. Unfortunately, not much is really visible, other than the appropriately purple colored trash can with "Welch's" on it:



Zooming into the Storybook Land entrance you can see a worker near the ticket booth:



And great catch on the "New" Tomorrowland construction:



Again, not much to see when I zoom into the windows of the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street:



See more vintage and current Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel photos on my Roosevelt Hotel photo web pages.