David Wallace gives a rich, in-depth look of homes and their owners during the early days of Hollywood in the book, “Dream Palaces of Hollywood’s Golden Age.” He will discuss and sign copies of the book at Diesel, A Bookstore Sunday, 3 p.m.
By Laura Tate / Associate Publisher/Editor
For a lavish look at Hollywood’s golden era, David Wallace’s “Dream Palaces of Hollywood’s Golden Age,” photographed by Juergen Nogai and published by Abrams, is a luxurious treat, taking you through the history of homes of the rich and famous during a time when glamour reigned supreme. The rich photographs by Nogai, who has worked with renowned architectural photographer Julius Shulman on other books, show the care that present-day owners have taken in restoring homes from the early days of Hollywood, with some adding a modern flair, and mostly not disrupting the original, rich architectural history.
Explaining the difficulty of the restoration process, Wallace, a longtime contributor to The Malibu Times, quotes Brian Tichenor, whose Beverly Hills firm has done several multimillion dollar restorations, in the preface: “The problem in restoration, at least a respectable restoration,” Tichenor said, “is staying consistent with the original architect’s intent while acknowledging changing technologies and lifestyles.”
Wallace, who writes with a peeking-behind-the-curtains flair, pointing out interesting aspects of the lives of the movie moguls, actors and writers who lived in these “Dream Palaces,” is the author of “Lost Hollywood,” an anecdote-driven history of the film capital’s golden years and its follow-up, “Hollywoodland,” both published by St. Martin’s Press. He also wrote the history of Malibu for the recently published “Malibu, A Century of Living by the Sea” (Abrams), photographed by Shulman and Nogai.
Wallace grew up with a thick atmosphere of history surrounding him; as a child, he spent Christmases in the White House with his aunt and uncle, Harry and Bess Truman. The Eisenhowers were frequent dinner guests at his adolescent home in Denver, and, as a teenager, he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and developed a love of Rome, where he met the last of the Roman-born popes, Pius XII.
His entrenchment into all things Hollywood began during the decade he spent as a national correspondent for People magazine.
“It was inevitable,” Wallace said of how he was drawn to the history of Tinseltown.
Explaining how he came to start writing about Hollywood’s golden days, he said, “I knew Al Nodal, the Cultural Los Angeles Affairs commissioner, and I would whine about [the fact that] so much of it [old Hollywood] is gone, but so much of it is still there. He said, ‘go write a book about it.'”
So, Wallace did just that.
“I called my agent, proposed a book and had a deal in two weeks.”
For all the juicy tidbits and “gossip” that Wallace finds for his books, he said it’s “tough,” but he does it through “networking, constant research, lots of it,” and, he said, “Once I get all the good stories, then it’s a challenge, because Hollywood, of course, hypes everything… you sometimes have to dig to find the real stories.”
“Dream Palaces” is full of fascinating stories in the form of captions and three- to five-page histories of each home and its designers and original owners. Wallace also talks to the present-day-owners, and about how they went through the renovation/restoration process.
He writes about how Cecil B. DeMille developed most of the films that Hollywood would remember him by in the office of one of the two houses DeMille bought side-by-side in Laughlin Park: “There in the large bay with its leaded glass windows, where a pair of comfortable chairs now sit, was the desk where DeMille developed most of his seventy films that are part of Hollywood history: The Ten Commandments (both the 1923 film and its 1956 remake, which would be DeMille’s final film); 1934’s Cleopatra with Claudette Colbert; Union Pacific (1939); Unconquered (1947); and 1952’s The Greatest Show on Earth, the only film for which he won an Oscar(tm).”
For the Durant residence (Will and Ariel Durant), Wallace wrote: “It was a marriage that scandalized many in 1913: he was a twenty-eight-year-old teacher, she was a fifteen-year-old student of his at New York’s experimental libertarian Ferrer Modern School. She roller-skated to their wedding at City Hall.” Will and Ariel, who wrote the 11-volume “The Story of Civilization,” were married for 68 years, dying two weeks apart in 1981.
It is stories like these, including a frank discussion of Cary Grant’s sexual orientation, that make “Dream Palaces” more than a pretty coffee table book to be admired for its cover, a glance through its pages and nothing more. Once you start reading about the homes and the rich history of the lives that built and inhabited them, it’s difficult to put down (much less let anyone borrow it!)
David Wallace will sign copies of and discuss his book, “Golden Palaces of Hollywood’s Golden Age,” Sunday, 3 p.m., at Diesel, A Bookstore, 3890 Cross Creek Rd. 310.456.9961.