Tag Archives: The Garden of Allah Hotel
Garden of Allah Hotel model scan superimposed over former site at the southwest corner of Sunset Blvd and Crescent Heights Blvd, West Hollywood, March 2022
Today’s post is a departure from my usual daily vintage photo of Los Angeles. But first, a bit of backstory. Recently, I did an on-camera interview for a documentary about some of Marilyn Monroe’s effects found in a public storage … Continue reading
Lytton Savings Plaza at Sunset Blvd and Crescent Heights Blvd, West Hollywood, 1966
When financier Bart Lytton, bought the Garden of Allah Hotel in 1959, he acquired it for the land. He promptly tore the hotel down, and in its place put up a saving-and-loan bank that stood on the northwest corner of … Continue reading
Garden of Allah Hotel pool looking north toward the main house and the Hollywood Hills behind
For those of you who indulge in daydreaming about what it would be like to sit poolside at the Garden of Allah Hotel (where my 9-book series of novels are set) this photo is probably about as near as we’ll … Continue reading
Exhibitor’s Herald, December 25, 1926, announcing the plan for The Garden of Alla(h) Hotel on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles
You’d think that after a dozen years researching and writing about the Garden of Allah Hotel, that somewhere somehow I’d have come across this announcement in the Exhibitor’s Herald, December 25, 1926 that Alla Nazimova planned to turn her movie-star … Continue reading
Genuine vintage ashtray from the Garden of Allah Hotel, 8152 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood (1927 to 1959)
My thanks to Spenser G., who sent me these photos.
An original Garden of Allah Hotel sign rescued and awaiting restoration, October 2020
In the 15 years I’ve been researching and writing about the Garden of Allah Hotel, one thing I’ve learned is that you never know when things will come to the surface. Back in December 2012, I posted a photograph from … Continue reading
Harper Ranch, north of Sunset Blvd and west of Laurel Canyon, Hollywood, circa 1909
Charles Harper moved to L.A. from Mississippi after the Civil War and made his fortune selling hardware. His estate, known as Harper Ranch, occupied a prime stretch of Hollywood. It stood north of Sunset Blvd and west of Laurel Canyon, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Color photo, Hollywood, Sunset Blvd, The Garden of Allah Hotel
Leave a comment
Advertisement for the Garden of Alla(h) Hotel, Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles in Film Spectator magazine, June 11, 1927
The central setting for my Hollywood’s Garden of Allah series of novels is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard called the Garden of Allah. For most of its 32-year life, the “Allah” was spelled with an “h” but when the hotel … Continue reading
Recreation of Holdup at Garden of Allah Hotel, 8152 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, November 1951
My thanks to J. Yuma for bringing this photo to my attention. On November 30, 1951, two armed gunmen held up the Garden of Allah Hotel and got away with $500 cash. Obviously, they didn’t bring along a photographer to … Continue reading
Garden of Allah bar at the Garden of Allah Hotel, 8152 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, circa 1950s
By the 1950s, A-list guests of the Garden of Allah Hotel (Flynn, Bogie, Bacall, Rogers, Stokowski, Marx, and half the Algonquin Round Table) were no longer around so the hotel did what many hotels do—it reinvented itself. All reports I’ve … Continue reading