El Cabrillo
Encyclopedia
El Cabrillo is a two-story, ten-unit Spanish-style courtyard apartment house located at the southeast corner of Franklin Avenue
and Grace Avenue in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
. The Spanish Colonial Revival style building was designed by noted architects Arthur and Nina Zwebell
and built in 1928 by movie mogul Cecil B. DeMille
. It became one of the most fashionable addresses in Hollywood in the late 1920s and 1930s and was more recently used as the home of the main character in the television series Chuck
. It has been designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and listed in the National Register of Historic Places
.
called the El Cabrillo "a two-story complex that has more fabled than factual stories attached to it, the mark of a true Hollywood star."
The building was built by Cecil B. DeMille
in 1928. David Wallace, the author of Lost Hollywood (St. Martin's Press, 2001), believes DeMille built El Cabrillo to house New York stage actors whom he brought to Los Angeles when talking pictures arrived. Others claim that DeMille intended it as a gift for his daughter Frances. Whichever version is correct, DeMille was responsible for a building that became one of the most fashionable addresses in Hollywood. The building's notable features include its Spanish-style courtyard and fountain, hand-made tiles, large fireplaces, and high-beamed ceilings. According to The New York Times, DeMille used set craftsmen to construct "the phantasmagorial sense of architectural detail at El Cabrillo, which includes a central outdoor Moorish fountain, timbered ceilings, Catalina tile work, swashbuckling wrought-iron hardware and scaled-down versions of Citizen Kane-like carved concrete fireplaces in each apartment." David Wallace, who once managed the property, said: "It's like walking into a movie."
Actress Ann Harding
leased one of the front apartments in 1928 for $500 per month—a very high rental rate at the time. Other notable residents have included director Lowell Sherman
, Perc Westmore
, and writer John Willard
. Also, the building's Spanish revival courtyard is alleged to have been used as a set in a Rudolph Valentino
movie. Located close to DeMille's motion picture studio, El Cabrillo is at the foot of Whitley Heights, where Charles Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino
lived in the 1920s.
More recently, transvestite actor Divine lived in the complex in the 1960s, as did Kent Warner
, a costumer and noted collector of clothing and props from Hollywood films. After Warner died in 1984, the building's owner cleaned out the basement and inadvertently threw out some of Warner's possessions, including James Dean
's boots from Rebel Without a Cause
and Marlon Brando
's leather jacket from The Wild One
.
The building was sold in 1940 by Andrew O. Porter to Lillian Blumkin for $50,000. By 1968, the building had been renamed the Patio Gardens.
As Hollywood deteriorated in the 1970s and 1980s, the neighborhood around El Cabrillo became dangerous. In his book Lost Hollywood, David Wallace noted: "By the late 1980s, the problem had become so bad that those few residents who remained in once-celebrated buildings like El Cabrillo...would often have to lie on the floor to avoid being hit by bullets flying through their windows."
More recently, as the Hollywood area improved, El Cabrillo was renovated and converted into condominiums under its original name. When the conversion was completed in 2006, units were listed at prices in the $800,000 range.
. The producers wanted to use "a courtyard apartment location that was reminiscent of old Hollywood/Echo Park," and selected El Cabrillo because it "offered many interesting textures -- concrete blocks, wood spindle balconies, private balconies, an impressive interior courtyard turret and a courtyard fountain, and provided an amazing background for our characters to interact [in]."
After the series was picked up, the producers concluded it was not feasible to continue shooting on location at El Cabrillo, so the main character's apartment and El Cabrillo's courtyard were recreated, with some design modifications, on a Warner Bros. soundstage.
.
Franklin Avenue (Los Angeles)
Franklin Avenue is a street in Los Angeles. It is the northernmost street in Hollywood, north of Hollywood Boulevard and south of the Hollywood Hills, and later Los Feliz Boulevard....
and Grace Avenue in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. The Spanish Colonial Revival style building was designed by noted architects Arthur and Nina Zwebell
Arthur and Nina Zwebell
Arthur B. Zwebell and Nina L. Zwebell , formerly Nina Wilcox, were a husband and wife architectural team known for their innovation in the design of courtyard apartments in Southern California...
and built in 1928 by movie mogul Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
. It became one of the most fashionable addresses in Hollywood in the late 1920s and 1930s and was more recently used as the home of the main character in the television series Chuck
Chuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
. It has been designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and listed in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Ties to Hollywood film business
The El Cabrillo apartments have a long association with the movie business. In 2007, the Hollywood Reporter described El Cabrillo as a building "steeped in old Hollywood lore," and in 2004, The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the El Cabrillo "a two-story complex that has more fabled than factual stories attached to it, the mark of a true Hollywood star."
The building was built by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
in 1928. David Wallace, the author of Lost Hollywood (St. Martin's Press, 2001), believes DeMille built El Cabrillo to house New York stage actors whom he brought to Los Angeles when talking pictures arrived. Others claim that DeMille intended it as a gift for his daughter Frances. Whichever version is correct, DeMille was responsible for a building that became one of the most fashionable addresses in Hollywood. The building's notable features include its Spanish-style courtyard and fountain, hand-made tiles, large fireplaces, and high-beamed ceilings. According to The New York Times, DeMille used set craftsmen to construct "the phantasmagorial sense of architectural detail at El Cabrillo, which includes a central outdoor Moorish fountain, timbered ceilings, Catalina tile work, swashbuckling wrought-iron hardware and scaled-down versions of Citizen Kane-like carved concrete fireplaces in each apartment." David Wallace, who once managed the property, said: "It's like walking into a movie."
Actress Ann Harding
Ann Harding
Ann Harding was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress.-Early years:Born Dorothy Walton Gatley at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to George G. Gatley and Elizabeth "Bessie" Crabb. The daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life...
leased one of the front apartments in 1928 for $500 per month—a very high rental rate at the time. Other notable residents have included director Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman was an American actor and film director....
, Perc Westmore
Perc Westmore
Percival Harry Westmore was a prominent member of the Westmore family of Hollywood make-up artists.-Partial filmography:*The Man Who Played God*The Roaring Twenties...
, and writer John Willard
John Willard (playwright)
John Willard was an American playwright. His most famous work is The Cat and the Canary , a play that was made into the influential silent film of the same name in 1927.-External links: at the Internet Movie Database....
. Also, the building's Spanish revival courtyard is alleged to have been used as a set in a Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
movie. Located close to DeMille's motion picture studio, El Cabrillo is at the foot of Whitley Heights, where Charles Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
lived in the 1920s.
More recently, transvestite actor Divine lived in the complex in the 1960s, as did Kent Warner
Kent Warner
Kent Phillip Warner was a costume designer, best known for acquiring the ruby slippers from the film The Wizard of Oz prior to the 1970 MGM Auction. He is known to have found four pairs used in the film, . One pair he sold to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw in 1970 for $2,500...
, a costumer and noted collector of clothing and props from Hollywood films. After Warner died in 1984, the building's owner cleaned out the basement and inadvertently threw out some of Warner's possessions, including James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
's boots from Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
and Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
's leather jacket from The Wild One
The Wild One
The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler.-Basis:...
.
Architecture
El Cabrillo was designed by the husband and wife architect team of Arthur and Nina Zwebell. The Zwebells specialized in Spanish or Hollywood mission courtyard architecture. The building was featured in the 1997 book, "Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles", published by Princeton Architectural Press. The book touts the Zwebells as important designers in the courtyard housing movement and describes El Cabrillo as an attempt to duplicate their earlier courtyard work with new materials:"El Cabrillo is not built in wood and stucco, as are virtually all the other Zwebell courts. Instead, a concrete block, nonstandard in size, is used in an apparent attempt to create an adobe block effect. The ten units follow the Zwebell pattern of incorporating two-story living rooms, mezzanines and graceful staircases."
Later years
In 1932, the building became part of a scandal when it was revealed that Superior Court Judge Guerin's daughter and son-in-law were residing at El Cabrillo apartments rent-free, allegedly as part of an arrangement with the receiver for American Mortgage Company; investigations were made by a grand jury and the bar association, but Judge Guerin denied any knowledge of the arrangement.The building was sold in 1940 by Andrew O. Porter to Lillian Blumkin for $50,000. By 1968, the building had been renamed the Patio Gardens.
As Hollywood deteriorated in the 1970s and 1980s, the neighborhood around El Cabrillo became dangerous. In his book Lost Hollywood, David Wallace noted: "By the late 1980s, the problem had become so bad that those few residents who remained in once-celebrated buildings like El Cabrillo...would often have to lie on the floor to avoid being hit by bullets flying through their windows."
More recently, as the Hollywood area improved, El Cabrillo was renovated and converted into condominiums under its original name. When the conversion was completed in 2006, units were listed at prices in the $800,000 range.
Use in the television series "Chuck"
In 2007, the building was used as the shooting location for the home of the main character in the pilot of the NBC television series ChuckChuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
. The producers wanted to use "a courtyard apartment location that was reminiscent of old Hollywood/Echo Park," and selected El Cabrillo because it "offered many interesting textures -- concrete blocks, wood spindle balconies, private balconies, an impressive interior courtyard turret and a courtyard fountain, and provided an amazing background for our characters to interact [in]."
After the series was picked up, the producers concluded it was not feasible to continue shooting on location at El Cabrillo, so the main character's apartment and El Cabrillo's courtyard were recreated, with some design modifications, on a Warner Bros. soundstage.
Historic designation
The building was designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM #773) by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 2003. Two years later, in 2005, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.