On a clear Los Angeles day—the kind that usually happens only in winter—it presents a picture of undeniable elegance. A half-block west of the old Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the ornate façde of the Garden Court Apartments stands as a monument to another era when the building's tenants included the likes of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Mack Sennett, John Barrymore and Louis B. Mayer. Sculpted angels still hang from its flanks; a trio of cherubs intertwine arms on the fountain out front; inside, despite a rich cache of old whisky bottles, dusty phonograph records and faded copies of the Los Angeles Times, the palms rise in pleasing arcs around an empty pool in the silent courtyard.
"They say the movie stars used to live here in the '20s," says Douglas Meltzer, 59, a former aircraft worker and a long time Hollywood resident who is out for a morning stroll. Meltzer's father came to Los Angeles to play violin in the orchestra of the Million Dollar Theater, another of Showman Sid Grauman's grandiose palaces. Meltzer, an earnest man with bushy eyebrows, wispy white hair and a chuckle for punctuation, remembers the Hollywood he knew then.
"I saw Charlie Chaplin once," he says, standing in front of the Garden Court. "He was just walking down Hollywood Boulevard. And I saw Joan Blondell coming out of one of those fancy shops. I was at the age when I was sort of movie-struck, you know. I was collecting autographs. There used to be a beauty salon—it was on Sunset. I remember seeing Dick Powell pull up in one of those Cord automobiles. It was quite a place, Hollywood."
The Garden Court—190 rooms, a baby grand piano in each of its 72 suites—began its life just a few years after Hollywood emerged as the world's movie capital. When it opened its doors on New Year's Eve, 1919, the staff unrolled a long crimson carpet down to Hollywood Boulevard, then a dusty lane, where lines of limousines deposited their elegant passengers. As the silent movie era gave way to the talkies, and Hollywood's business and glamour grew proportionately, the residences of its stars became more lavish too. There was the Hollywood Hotel, where Rudolph Valentino married Actress Jean Acker and spent his honeymoon. The Garden of Allah, which opened with an 18-hour party, was a haven for writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker.
Those two fell years ago to the wrecking ball, and now it looks as if the Garden Court may go the same way. After granting the building historic landmark status last year, the Los Angeles city council will soon decide whether to allow a local developer to demolish the four-story structure and put up a 16-story office building on the site.
The controversy now swirling about the Garden Court might easily be one of the screenplays hatched within its walls years ago. The list of characters is pure Hollywood. C-D Investment Co., a huge real estate developer, attempted to demolish the Garden Court without a city permit last year because, as a C-D employee explained to the city council, "she was a beautiful old lady, but now she's gone. Someone has to pull the plug."