Quote:
Originally Posted by FredH
The Morrison Hotel is on the corner of Hope Street and Pico. In as much as the photo advertised rooms
for $2.50 a night back then, it had seemingly regressed into "fleabag" status forty years ago.
How has the Morrison fared since?
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Although $2.50 was cheap for a room even back then, the only thing that strikes me as particularly fleabag-esque is the sign advertising "Rooms", which better hotels never do. But in the 1970 photo the premises themselves don't look too horrible; for one thing there are furniture and lamps in the lobby; truly low hotels tend to lack these things due to theft or the fear of theft. Here, though, patrons were still expected to use the lobby from time to time, and someone was still washing the window and cleaning the blinds, and employing maids--in short, doing things that hoteliers do when they haven't completely given on keeping their hotels out of the flophouse category. And the "Passenger Loading" sign suggests that some guests were still expected to arrive and depart by taxi. All in all, it looks like the Morrison might have been just adequate in a pinch, if not highly desirable as a place to stop for a night.
Seeing the recent Google Street view just makes me sad; it looks so rundown and forlorn as to remind me of the old buildings that shared the block of the Plaza Church, before most of them were razed for parking lots.
Regarding the Rosslyn, some years after
Morrison Hotel came out, some crew and cast of the film
Sextette stayed there, the hotel at that time still being quite presentable. The cast included Mae West, who at that time received a visit from June Fairchild, a young actress who was getting some work and was sufficiently well known to "be seen" but not really what you'd call a real film star. As recently as 1978, the year
Sextette was produced, The Rosslyn must still have been a fairly decent hotel. Surely Mae West would not be staying there if it hadn't been. But in 2001, by which time the Rosslyn had truly become a dump, this same June Fairchild, terribly down on her luck and struggling with addiction and homelessness, counted herself lucky to scrape together the money for a few nights there. (2001
Times article cited below.)
NOAKI SCHWARTZ. (2001, February 21). A Fallen Star; Addiction: Former actress, now 54 and living on the streets, dreams of a movie comeback :[Home Edition]. Los Angeles Times,p. B1. Retrieved January 15, 2012, from Los Angeles Times. (Document ID: 68919337).