LLOYD WRIGHT'S SOWDEN HOUSE

Lloyd Wright's Sowden House in Hollywood is said to be famous, but is it? For years I've lived within half an hour's drive of it, and I only heard about it for the first time last week.  Now I'm chomping at the bit to see it.

That's Lloyd Wright, not Frank Lloyd Wright. Lloyd was Wright's son. He also designed sets for Hollywood films. Maybe that's what accounts for the cheesy armoured guards at the entrance.

The house is also famous as the home of Dr. George Hodel, a wealthy doctor who is believed by some to have killed Elizabeth Short, the famous Black Dahlia. 

One of his accusers is his own son, former police detective Steve Hodel. Steve claims his dad was a sadist and a serial killer, and he lays out the case for that on his site (above). Short might even have been killed in the Sowden House.

  

Horrible though he might have been, you can't fault the doctor's taste in architecture.  With the blocks stacked in geometric patterns, and with the exotic landscaping, the house looks like a majestic jungle ruin. Here's (above) the view from Franklin Ave.

This (above) is the facade, pre-landscape. Gee, it's not the same without the trees and shrubs.  It reminds me of old Hollywood sets which were mostly blank punctuated by areas of great complexity.

  I'll digress to lament that for people with average incomes landscaping is prohibitively expensive.  Not only that but, beautiful trees take years to grow. For the first few years they don't seem to grow at all, because the tree is devoting all its energy into establishing a root system. It's as if you're planting for the benefit of the people who will own the house after you're gone.  

Even so, it's still worth doing. You could argue that landscaping adds so much to the value of a house, that whatever you put into it is free. 

The middle of the house (above) is a big, Mayan courtyard, covered with vines and flowers. I'll bet the original Mayans decorated their public buildings with foliage like this. 

Here's (above) a view looking at the back of the courtyard. No vines here. Do vines grow so fast that you can cut them back in the winter, and still have them cover everything in the summer? 

The swimming pool (a later modification) is raised, which is a nifty way to achieve scale. 

Here's a detail of the molded concrete supports. If Lloyd's dad had built this he probably would have used blocks, which in my opinion wouldn't have worked as well.  

As I said, Wright's son designed sets for the film industry. A number of films were shot here (above), one of the more recent being Scorcese's "Aviator."

Above, the master bedroom. The door it faces may be the big, barnsized, sliding door which opens out into the courtyard. If so, what a view to wake up to in the morning!

Here's (above) a detail of the living room.

This is the house (The two diamond shapes in the middle, above) seen from the air. The address is 5121 Franklin Ave, near Normandie and Franklin. There are no tours, but you can rent the place for a mere $3,900 a night. 

NOTE: Most of the info here was culled from a fascinating new book called "Weird Hollywood," which I'm reading now.

The author's web site: http://joeartistwriter.wordpress.com/2010/11/ 

MY THANKSGIVING DINNER (PART I)

I thought I'd share the photos I took last year at my older brother Billy's house. That's his trailer (above), the white one with the red stripe. I used to live with Billy when I was a kid. How I used to look forward to Thanksgiving dinner when the whole extended family would converge on this trailer for a feast they talked about all year! They're still doing it, and here's how it went last time.

It began with a with a long car trip and a walk to Billy's front door...

From behind a bush....

COUSIN LESTER: "PSSST! Cousin Eddie! Over here!"

UNCLE EDDIE: "Lester! Harlan! Jackson! How come you're hiding out here? Why aren't you inside!??"

MY COUSINS: "Aw, Grandma kicked us out again. You know how she gets.  But she likes you, Eddie. How 'bout puttin' in a good word for us?"

UNCLE EDDIE: "Gee, it would suck to spend Thanksgiving in a bush. I'll talk to her."

AT THE FRONT DOOR:

MY NIECES AND NEPHEWS: (squeals of delight, then...)  "Uncle Eddie's here! Dad! Dad! Uncle Eddie's here!!!!"

MY BROTHER BILLY: "Eddie! Eddie! Good to see you, man!"

BROTHER BILLY: "Look at that! I can still lift you!"

UNCLE EDDIE: "Gee Billy, everything is just the way I remember it!"

UNCLE EDDIE: "You always did have a knack for decorating!"

UNCLE EDDIE: (Gasp!) It's Poochie!!! How are ya Poochie, ol' boy!?? Remember me, Eddie?"

POOCHIE (TOO OLD TO REMEMBER ANYTHING): "Woof???"

AUNT MATILDA: "Good ta see ya, Eddie! I think dinner's ready. Better call everybody."

UNCLE EDDIE: "Dinner's ready, Cousin Linus!"

COUSIN LINUS: "Be right there, Eddie!"

UNCLE EDDIE: "Dinner's ready, Grandma!"

GRANDMA: "In a minute! I'm callin' the police to come and nab that no account Lester and his friends!"

UNCLE EDDIE: "Jimmy, dinner's re....oh, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt."

BROTHER BILLY: "Come on in, Eddie! Have a seat. You're the guest of honor!"

BUFURD: "What are you starin' at? Geek!"

COUSIN EARL: "Now, now Bufurd. That's not polite."

UNCLE EDDIE (V.O.) (DISCREETLY): "Er, Cousin Alice...Cousin Earl, um... he isn't wearing any...."

COUSIN ALICE: "I know, I know. That's his way."

   

COUSIN ALICE (V.O.): "Earl doesn't need those, Jack. You can put them away."

COUSIN RACHEL: "Can we eat now, pul-leeeezzz!!!????

EVERYONE: (A COLLECTIVE GASP OF AWE AND DELIGHT AS AUNT TILLY BRINGS IN THE MAIN COURSE).

The food is quickly distributed.

BROTHER BILLY: "Ahh, the bounty of the Earth! We're truly blessed!"

CONTINUED IN THE POST BELOW:

MY THANKSGIVING DINNER (PART 2)

The family commences to do some serious chowing down.

None of the pies last very long.

UNCLE EDDIE: "Er....Grandma, are you feeling calm now?"

GRANDMA: "Yeah, I love to watch the family eat on Thanksgiving."

UNCLE EDDIE: "Really? You're completely at ease, at one with the universe?"

GRANDMA: "Sure.  Why do you ask?"

UNCLE EDDIE: "Well, I was thinking of poor Cousin Lester and his friends out there in the bushes, and....."

GRANDMA (FURIOUS): "YOU MEAN THEY'RE STILL OUT THERE!!!???"

She grabs a bat and runs outside.

Grandma: "Those good-for-nothings! I'll KILL them! I'll MURDERIZE 'em!"

INSIDE: the dog steals Grandma's food.

ALSO INSIDE, AT THE TABLE:

GRANDPA: "Haw! Go get 'em Grandma! ....Geez, I can't talk with these false teeth getting in the way."

He plops the teeth in his drinking glass.

GRANDPA: "I'll just put them in water for awhile."

Everybody stops eating..

GRANDPA: "What's the matter? Why isn't anybody eating? Aren't you hungry?"

EVERYBODY (TURNING GREEN AT THE SIGHT OF THE TEETH): "All of a sudden we're not so hungry."

GRANDMA'S FRIEND TRUDY: "You're hungry, alright! I'm not gonna let that food go to waste!"

PIMPLETINA: "EEEEEEEWW!!!!! There's a piece of vegetable on my meat! I'm not gonna eat this X%$#X stuff!"

PIMPLETINA: (WAILS)

PIMPLETINA'S MOM: "Listen, young lady! You're gonna eat every bit of that, or else!"

PIMPLETINA: "Or else, WHAT!???" 

Pimpletina socks her mom and her mom socks her back.

The room divides into two angry camps and a food fight breaks out.

Beauregard stands up, attempts to make peace.

BEAUREGARD: "Hey, hey, hey! Let's handle this like civilized human beings!"

Howie slaps a pie into Beauregard's face.

HOWIE: "Shut up, Beauregard!"

The food fight intensified into a full-scale riot.

So that's it. I couldn't snap any pictures after that. All in all it was a great Thanksgiving. Boy, I love that holiday!

BTW: This is a work of fiction and none of the pictures belong to me. All are copyrighted by the original photographers or the subsequent buyers.  

MORE PHOTOSHOP PRACTICE

I thought I'd put up some serial pictures (above), just to see how it's done. Well, now I know. I eyeballed the position of all the pictures,  and laboriously moved each one into place. Is there something I could have done to make it go faster?