Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull
I just came across this early photo of the Hollywood Plaza Hotel's foyer in a comprehensive article on the Paradise Leased blog about the history of the hotel. It helped me piece together something I've been wanting to do for ages - a timeline of the various incarnations of the restaurant space:
• 1925 to 1928 - Klemtner’s Blue Plate Café
• 1928 – 1931 - Pig ‘N Whistle Café
• 1931 to 1936 – Russian Eagle Café before it moved to the Sunset Strip.
• Dec 17, 1936 to Sept 1937 – Cinnabar
• Sept 1937 – It Café (owned by Clara Bow for about a year, then changed management and was taken over by Phil Selznick - David O. Selznick’s uncle)
• 1944 – Les Comiques
• 1952 - Westerner Lounge-Grill
Click HERE to read it.
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The Cinnabar caught, and has held, my attention like few other spaces. A magical place. Maybe that it only existed for nine months has something to do with it.
In 1936 one hundred thousand dollars was spent wisely and intelligently to remodel the former Pig 'n Whistle into the gorgeous art deco Cinnabar Restaurant. It was created by
G. Albert Landsburgh, the renowned theater architect and designer of theater interiors.
A.E. Heinsbergen Studios did the mural work. The Cinnabar was meant to complement the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel's Cine-Grill (both hotels were then owned by the same firm). In 1937, after what seems like the lifespan of a soap bubble, the beautiful Cinnabar dream-space was gutted for the "It Cafe".
paradiseleased
MartinTurnbull
Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Socko
Thank you for this! I am interested in this location because my late mother-in-law lived here for many years (the building serves as senior housing) -- but it often gets forgotten among its more-famous peers.
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I did a post a few years back on the history of the now 114-year-old palm trees at the back of the Plaza Hotel which may interest you. It's
here.
google maps, 2012
I got a ton of info for that post from that excellent
Paradise Leased page (all credited of course). I'm a big fan of that site and also of the Plaza Hotel (not to mention palm trees).