Thank you for visiting!

Los Angeles, California Then & Now

Pam Hawley Marlin   January 2020

 

Lucille Ball


Lucille Ball's house on Roxbury Drive. While living in this house, Lucy used it in one of her "I Love Lucy" episodes, "The Tour." The front facade of the house has been completed changed by owners.

 


Lucille Ball's original dressing room entrance at Desilu Gower Studios (1950's-1960's) and at Paramount Studios in 2019. The steps and iron railing are still there today.

 


Lucy and Desi at Desilu Studios and the same watertank at Paramount in 2019.

 


The audience entrances to "Our Miss Brooks" and "I Love Lucy." Called Red Studio today, Lucy and Desi's Desilu Studios operated from this location in 1946. Notice one of the metal sign holders still exists.

 

The Ambassador Hotel


The former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles was built in 1921. The hotel had a famous nightclub, The Cocoanut Grove, that attracted such celebrities as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby. More infamously, this hotel was also the site of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in June 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan. After the assassination, the hotel and surrounding area declined resulting in the building's demolition in 2005 (there are few remnants, such as the art deco road entrance and hotel entrance that still remain). Today the site is a school.

 

Disneyland


The entrance to Disneyland being built in 1954.


Disneyland excitement in 2019.

 


The iconic fire department building in Disneyland where Walt Disney had an apartment.

 

The Espresso machine that Walt Disney is posing next to is still on display at Cafe Orleans in Disneyland.

 

The home of Robert Disney where Walt Disney first lived when he arrived in Los Angeles in 1923. A freestanding garage in the back of the house was converted to a cartoon studio and is currently owned by the local historical society. The house is currently surrounded by a fence.

 

The Spadena or Witch's House


The Spadena or Witch's House was constructed in 1920 for a silent film studio in Culver City, California. The house served the cost cutting purpose of not only being a studio office, but also a dressing room and film set. When it proved to be too much of a distraction, it was moved to its present location on Walden Drive in Beverly Hills around 1926. It is privately owned.

 

Murder House


Actress Lana Turner lived in this house in 1958 when her daughter, Cheryl, stabbed and killed Lana's boyfriend, Johnny Stampanato. Stampanato was a bodyguard for a crime family and was said to bully Lana, who tried to get out of the relationship. Cheryl was acquitted of all charges and the murder was considered justifiable homicide.

 

Beverly Hills Hotel


Built in 1912, the timeless Beverly Hills Hotel.