Produced and directed by Howard Hughes featuring historic aircraft, California locations, and Jean Harlow!
Originally produced as a silent film (1927), Hughes was forced to re-shoot for sound and create “version two” of Hell’s Angels (1930), thankfully!
“Never love a woman, just make love to her.”
The Bernheimer house in Hollywood was built as the private residence of confirmed bachelors Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer of New York. The Bernheimer’s were Jewish, from Ulm, in Germany. The family arrived in the USA in the 1860s and 70s. Their grandfather, Adolph Bernheimer, who died in 1894, left $2.5 million, hundreds of acres of land in Manhattan, and the family fabric business.
By 1912, Eugene and Adolph were the leading importers of Oriental goods in New York. The brothers made nineteen trips to China, Japan, Tibet, and the Philippines, where they visited pawnshops and purchased a wide variety of curiosities.
In Hollywood, they bought the historic hill next to the Outpost from H.J. Whitley, and started building their long-planned winter home to house their vast collection of Oriental art.
A January 1914 Los Angeles Times newspaper article titled, “Borrowed from the East,” said that the “Hollywood Hill Mansion” was “a Striking Object.” “Asiatic Even to the Teak in Its Walls.” And that the 16-room main building was “designed after the mansions of lordly Chinese mandarins.”
“Architecturally, the house is a modification only in the sense that its sanitary arrangements and household appointments are American and modern.”
“In every other line of construction and detail of finish it is entirely Chinese.”
By the start of World War 1, in July 1914, American’s of German descent had to show who’s side they were on, and with Japan declaring war against Germany in August, and China not taking sides, the full page description in November of the Bernheimer’s new home described everything on the property as Japanese, except for the Scottish carpets!
By the time construction of the “palatial home” was finished in November, 1914, the Times said the Bernheimer villa was not Chinese, but “a replica of all desirable in a Japanese dwelling place,” and it “Crowns Hollywood Hill Like Shogun’s Castle.”
During the year of construction it was dubbed, “Yama Shira,” by the public, after which the Bernheimer’s hung the cryptic name in Japanese letters on the front of the house.
The Japanese villa was full of carved furniture, and had a bedroom light that hung from the “lips of an inverted athlete swinging on a trapeze,” with the body in carved lacquer wearing a belt of jewelry that took a lifetime to make.
There were four large embroideries of famous Japanese wrestlers that hung in a stairwell, and in the tea room, a chest from a Shinto temple, along with a Japanese nobleman’s Sedan Chair.
Women were not allowed in the house, and it was never opened to the public by the brothers, except for two fundraising fetes that were held in the early 1920s for the Committee for Foreign Relief, benefiting the children of Poland and Serbia.
The Hollywood villa was the Bernheimer’s winter home, and not a public estate or garden.
Without explanation, but likely over concerns for their privacy, and frequent hill fires, in the summer of 1924, the Bernheimer’s sold their Hollywood Japanese Gardens to real estate man Joe Toplitzky, and banker Marco Hellman. They then sold it to William Clark Crittendon of San Francisco and Los Angeles, in 1925, for $1 million. Crittendon spent another $1.5 million “fixing it up,” and leased it to Frank Elliot and his movie friends, who formed the Four Hundred Club, and made it their clubhouse.
Crittendon added a ballroom, a theater, a lawn, a tea garden, a riding club, a swimming pool, an out-door restaurant, and bungalows, to the twelve acre property.
At the opening party of the Four Hundred Club in October 1925, “the entire estate was thrown open to inspection, including the collection of Japanese art treasures in the various rooms.”
“Japanese girls in costume of the Flowery Kingdom served the guests while an orchestra, hidden in a wistaria, off the patio, rendered the music.”
Although very popular with the upper echelon of movie stars and film companies for a few years, the club folded in 1929, long before the stock market crash.
In 1933, and for the first time, the house was finally opened to the public, as a Japanese garden, when it was operated by the Hollywood Women’s Jewish Club. Many charity events were held at “Bernheimer Gardens” after that.
In 1944 the house and remaining contents were auctioned off. Many items were indeed oriental, but most were not part of the Berheimer’s collection, but were items purchased during the Crittendon remodeling in 1925, and the subsequent years as a public Japanese garden.
Eugene died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco during Christmas 1924, after the brothers had sold their Hollywood Villa.
Adolph soon purchased new land in the Palisades from Alphonzo Bell, on the south east corner of today’s Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, where in 1926 he built the $1 million, and much larger, Bernheimer Estate and Oriental Gardens, which overlooked the ocean, and where he housed the best of the brother’s valuable Oriental art collection.
In March 1944, Adolph died at his home on Sunset Boulevard. On the day his death was announced, his home, and the second Berheimer Gardens, suffered a major landslide, blocking the Roosevelt highway (PCH), and eventually forcing the estate to vacate and abandon the land, which they did after a final auction was held in 1951.
©2008 jibjones All Rights Reserved
Arthur Letts was a huge part of Los Angeles history from 1894 until his death in 1923. He founded Broadway Department Store, Bullocks, and invested in real estate downtown, in Ocean Park, Hollywood, and West Los Angeles. Letts was a director of H.J. Whitley’s, Los Angeles Pacific Boulevard and Development Company; the company that owned and developed much of the land between Hollywood and Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century. The company built Sunset and Hollywood boulevards, and started boulevard-naming in Los Angeles!
Arthur was born in 1862, in Northamptonshire, England, where the Letts family had lived in Holdenby Lodge for centuries. They arrived in England in the 8th or 9th century with the Viking Norsemen, having originated in modern day Latvia.
Arthur left the farm for work in the retail business, and by the time he was 21, he and a brother decided to leave England for Canada. He ended up in Toronto, where he was unfortunate to have joined the Grenadiers and the Queen’s Own, just in time to slog across the country in wintertime for the second Indian Rebellion, led by Louis Riel in 1885, where her attended the Battle of Cut Knife Creek.
Letts left Canada for greater opportunities in Seattle in 1889, arriving just in time for a devastating fire that destroyed the young city. His next retail venture also failed in Spokane.
Undeterred he headed to Los Angeles with family and children in 1894, and two years later he started the one room Broadway Department Store, which by 1903 opened a 144,000 square feet store. The Broadway’s slogan was; “Don’t Worry, Watch us Grow.” which it did for two decades with Arthur at the helm.
Arthur Letts was a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Realty Board, Municipal League, City Club, Hollywood Board of Trade, Federations Club, and the Automobile Club. He was also a Master Mason, a Templar, and a Shriner.
Letts was on the first relief train to leave Los Angeles for San Francisco after the Great Earthquake of 1906. He stayed for weeks, helping with reconstruction, and was honored by the city of San Francisco for his contribution and service.
In Hollywood, Letts owned the Gower and Franklin Ranch, the Gem of Hollywood, and Holmby Avenue, subdivisions, as well as his one hundred acre showplace, Holmby House and Gardens, which he had built in 1905, and which he opened to his employees, and later to the public. Holmby House had its own trolley stop, and one of the finest botanical gardens in Southern California, which was personally planned and managed by Arthur Letts.
Letts was also president of the Y.M.C.A., the Boy Scouts (he donated 10 acres of Miller Canyon for their camp), chairman of the LA Chamber of Commerce Relief Committee during WWI, the American Red Cross representative for California, the Salvation Army, McKinley Home for Boys, the L.A. Philharmonic, and made countless beneficial contributions to Los Angeles, California, the United States, and the World.
Arthur Letts started playing golf late in life. He was a long time member and director of the Los Angeles Country Club, where his son, Arthur Jr., was also a fervent member. Letts also belonged to the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Wilshire Country Club, Flintridge Country Club, and the Eagle Waters Golf Club.
After World War I, in 1919, during a crisis of confidence in Los Angeles real estate, Letts bought the 3,296 acre Wolfskill Ranch on the Rancho San Jose de Buenos Aires, for $2 million dollars. It was the last undivided piece of land in Los Angeles County. The borders were: Beverly Hills, Sepulveda boulevard, Sunset and Pico boulevards.
Letts’ daughter was married to real estate developer Dr. Harold Janss, of the Janss Investment Company. Letts hired Janss’ company, to subdivide the land (naming it Westwood Hills, and Westwood), constructing roads, planting trees, building sidewalks curbs, water mains, electricity and gas lines, street lighting, sewage, and drains, spending $2.4 million dollars ($3,000 an acre) in 1923 on the first 800 acre portion of the infrastructure!
In addition to his many businesses, Arthur Letts was a Normal School (University of California) trustee, and first suggested that they build their new campus in Westwood, offering to donate the land. Unfortunately, shortly before his death in 1923, the Janss company announced their purchase of Westwood from Letts for $7 million dollars, offering to sell the land to the University.
After Arthur Letts died in 1923, Arthur Jr., built his rambling English manor residence overlooking their beloved Los Angeles Country Club in Janss’ new Holmby Hills tract. Many years later, the house became Playboy Mansion West.
In 1926, the Janss’ donated a small portion of land, next to Holmby Hills, to the city of Los Angeles to be used as a public park. L.A. Park commissioner Van Griffith, son of Griffith Park donator, Griffith Jenkins Griffith, devised a plan for bowling greens and an 18-hole “pony” golf course. In 1982, Playboy’s Hugh Hefner, and Dr. Armand Hammer, came to the rescue of Holmby Hills park, which was then threatened with closure due to city budget cuts. The park, golf course and bowling greens survived, and are still operated by the Recreation and Parks Department of the City of Los Angeles.
In 1936, despite leaving maintenance money for his beloved garden in his will, Arthur’s famous Holmby House and Gardens were bulldozed and subdivided by the Janss’, with many of the beautiful trees and plants sold to Henry Huntington’s estate in San Marino, and others taken to Arthur Jr.’s estate in Holmby Hills.
After Arthur Letts Jr. died in 1959, Louis Statham bought the Holmby Hills estate, which was then used for many charitable events, and as the unofficial event house for the Mayor of Los Angeles. In 1971, it was bought by Hefner and became Playboy Mansion West.
As of 2018, the Letts house is not being preserved for the future, as the latest owner has been permitted by the Los Angeles city council to deny the house historical status, allowing untethered reconstruction.
Both Arthur’s would be rolling in their graves, as would Hefner and Hammer.
Shame on you Los Angeles.
Photo from https://jamescolincampbell.com/arthur-letts/
and http://hollywoodphotographs.com/detail/4718/arthur-letts-home-at-4931-franklin-ave/
©2018 jibjones All Rights Reserved
