In this 1927 shot of the northeast corner of Hollywood and Vine we can see that that famous corner was still getting its act together. The Equitable Building that stands there today was built in 1930 and was where agent Myron Selznick (who famously brought Vivien Leigh to his brother David for the role of Scarlett O’Hara) had his offices. The Pantages Theatre a few doors down went up in 1930. Across the street, the first of many cafés to occupy the northwest corner – the CoCo Tree – didn’t go in until 1932. What we have here is a view of a simple one-story Bank of Hollywood building, a streetcar line along Hollywood Boulevard, a few other haphazard building but not much else going on besides. It certainly doesn’t look like it’s destined to become one of the world’s most famous intersections.
George Hoover had been the president of the Bank of Hollywood and it was originally located on Highland. He built the Hotel Hollywood which was soon sold. Hoover’s own house stood in the NE corner land where CoCo Tree would be built, but he had died in 1924 and the family site was sold to the Universal Pictures interests (Laemelle) in 1925. The forgotten Cross Keys Cafe/Fountain was in the first building there, with Universal’s billboards on top. Coco Tree came next. Bank of Hollywood started the Equitable Building project but ended uo in the hands of the recievers following the ‘29 crash. Then the building got its’ new persona. North of the Equitable, some kind of car lot existed in the early days..apparently those other buildings were gone.
In this 1927 shot of the northeast corner of Hollywood and Vine we can see that that famous corner was still getting its act together. The Equitable Building that stands there today was built in 1930 and was where agent Myron Selznick (who famously brought Vivien Leigh to his brother David for the role of Scarlett O’Hara) had his offices. The Pantages Theatre a few doors down went up in 1930. Across the street, the first of many cafés to occupy the northwest corner – the CoCo Tree – didn’t go in until 1932. What we have here is a view of a simple one-story Bank of Hollywood building, a streetcar line along Hollywood Boulevard, a few other haphazard building but not much else going on besides. It certainly doesn’t look like it’s destined to become one of the world’s most famous intersections.
George Hoover had been the president of the Bank of Hollywood and it was originally located on Highland. He built the Hotel Hollywood which was soon sold. Hoover’s own house stood in the NE corner land where CoCo Tree would be built, but he had died in 1924 and the family site was sold to the Universal Pictures interests (Laemelle) in 1925. The forgotten Cross Keys Cafe/Fountain was in the first building there, with Universal’s billboards on top. Coco Tree came next. Bank of Hollywood started the Equitable Building project but ended uo in the hands of the recievers following the ‘29 crash. Then the building got its’ new persona. North of the Equitable, some kind of car lot existed in the early days..apparently those other buildings were gone.
Uh, that’s Laemmle, the senior.
Correction time: Mary Mallory give a different account explaining the original Bank of Hollywood was not the same as this new one: https://ladailymirror.com/2017/05/22/mary-mallory-hollywood-heights-equitable-building-double-art-deco-pleasure-on-hollywood-boulevard/