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Old Posted Jan 28, 2013, 11:34 PM
tovangar2 tovangar2 is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: West Los Angeles
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Villa Elaine Apartments

Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post

Here is a vintage photo of the Elaine Apartments on Vine St. (at Fountain)


usc digital archive
I recently noticed a bunch of listing shots of Villa Elaine's courtyard and interiors online. They're below.
The Villa Elaine Apartments are also shown, inside and out, to good (and extensive) effect in the Ashton Kutcher vehicle A Lot Like Love (2005). The V.E. was built in 1925, designed by Lewis Arthur Smith, who also did the Vista Theater.

I lived a couple of blocks from the Villa Elaine in the late 70s. Then it was truly scary. A place to go to get killed. Now is is thoroughly hip with one-bedrooms going for about $1,550.

The AMPAS taking over the old Claud Beelman Don Lee-Mutual Broadcasting building (1948) half a block north has done wonders for this strip of Vine Street. It's now the Pickford Center: (http://www.oscars.org/academy/buildings/pickford.html).
The Villa Elaine, at 1245, is directly across from the site of the old Mandarin Market/Hollywood Ranch Market:
(http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11547).

Villa Elaine on the left, Pickford Center 1/2 block north and the advert-slathered Sunset Tower at Sunset & Vine on the right
(where the penthouse will set one back $25K per month):

gsv

The Pickford Center (Claud Beelman, 1948) 1313 Vine Street:

wiki

As e_r and MikeD already said, Orson Welles, Man Ray and John Hamilton /"Perry White" lived in the Elaine Apartments. LA Curbed claims Frank Sinatra lived there too.

Artist/Photographer Man Ray and his wife lived in #10, a ground floor, two-story unit. Ray liked his time in LA (1945-51),

“I explored the town. It was like some place in the south of France with its palm-bordered streets and low stucco dwellings … More cars of course … And I seemed to be the only one on foot, sauntering along leisurely, avoiding the more populated districts. One might retire here, I thought.”

But being the only pedestrian soon got to him,“I began to develop an inferiority complex. I went out shopping,” he admitted, and bought “a beautiful, streamlined, metallic-blue car.”

(quotes from hollywoodwalker.com)

Here is a Man Ray self-portrait with his Graham Hollywood Super-Charger
(musta looked nifty parked outside Villa Elaine):

nachtkabarett.com

The Villa Elaine Courtyard.
This is how one must keep banana trees pruned so they don't attract nesting rats:






Villa Elaine Interiors:


If one squints really hard, one can almost imagine the Mandarin Market across the street:




Listing pix above from LiveLovely.com


gsv

Last edited by tovangar2; Nov 16, 2015 at 6:47 PM. Reason: fix photo link
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