In its five decades at the epicenter of the movie industry’s comings and goings on the Sunset Strip, Schwab’s Drug Store was a lot of things — a movie industry meeting place, local hangout and tourist attraction. But there was one thing Schwab’s was not. Despite the persistent myth otherwise, it was not where Lana [...]

Here’s Alla Nazimova, mistress of the Garden of Alla estate, later Garden of Allah Hotel, in an undated photo. It appears to be a publicity shot. If anyone can ID it, please let us know in comments or send us an email.

Los Angeles came late to the historic preservation movement. The landmarks that have fallen to the wrecking balls is nothing less than tragic. The Sunset Strip has been luckier. Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Tower are standing and in fine fettle. Low-rise apartment building where notables like Marilyn Monroe, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dorothy Dandridge [...]

F. Scott Fitzgerald RIP, Dec. 1940

In a city renown for party animals, there have been few vivants more bon (sorry!) than Robert Benchley, the Algonquin Round Tabler who lived in the Garden of Allah Hotel in the 1930s and 1940s. Benchley and his remarkable career as a writer and editor for magazines like “The New Yorker” and “Vanity Fair,” and [...]