Designed by Richard J. Neutra and completed in 1935. It was called the bathtub house.
The photo above is by Julius Shulman. The photo below is by Burton Burt.
JOSEF VON STERNBERG BUILDS A HOUSE IN THE VALLEY
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Designed by Richard J. Neutra and completed in 1935. It was called the bathtub house.
The photo above is by Julius Shulman. The photo below is by Burton Burt.
Comments are closed.
That looks like a moat.
Ach, and Marlene Dietrich turned out to be such a strong swimmer 😉
Austere is the word that comes to mind, even with the curve.
It softened up considerably when the landscaping went in.
Dear V
Beautiful but slightly menacing.
I think it’s a u-boat house.
I will hold you to that architectural tour you know!!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy.
We’ll have to do a tour of what is – and what was…
Where in The Valley? Is it still there surrounded by tract homes? I love it!
I think it was either Sherman Oaks or Encino, brace yourself, Ayn Rand owned it at one point…
I knew ‘austere’ came to mind for some reason, hah. 🙂 I just watched this the other day: The Mike Wallace interview with Ayn Rand. http://youtu.be/ouBZ-YqOnsU
I don’t know if I can take the horror that was Ayn so early in the day, but for you…
Thank you and I’ll try to refrain from screeching at the monitor 😉
I braced myself but to no avail…I am typing from where I landed under the desk with one hand from the folowe…floor!
I’m looking at the pictures and in the first one, I’m saying, “Is that a moat??” Then of course the second picture comes up and I’m all, “It IS a moat!!” By the time the 3rd picture came up, I’m sitting here nodding my head and saying, “That is so COOL!” I think the moat kind of distracted me from the house a little. lol Great pictures and what a land mark!
It was a landmark, I’m trying to find pictures of the interior… It was sold in 1975 and torn down to make way for a development. 🙁
Oh man, that’s a bummer. Sometimes progress really sucks!
Fortunately for us in the UK Ayn Rand means absolutely nothing.I happen to know about only because of the rather odd association between her ideas and the late American bodybuilder Mike Menzer who was either a genuis or bonkers or possibly both.We had instead the intensely lovely Margaret somebody or other who held high political office.From what I have read of Dear Ayn she and the lovely Margaret would have formed an instant friendship.
Thank goodness! I had a friend take me to task for disparaging Ayn – insisting that nobody understood she had a wicked sense of humor. I suspect, least of all Ayn.
Ayn may have just been wicked without having a sense of humour mayhap?Menzer was an interesting person though and died young as seems to be the fashion amongst American bodybuilders.Certainly he was not a pin head and has quite a following in that sphere.
Was he an Objectivist? Is that the word? I wonder if his death had something to do with steroids…
A pleasure Vickie.I will be very interested to see them if you obtain the material.
A pleasure Vickie.I will be most interested to see the material if you manage to obtain it.
I am so sorry to hear that it was torn down.Hard to imagine that a better building would have been built on the site.Over here buildings of that period and even some truly awful sixties ones have preservation orders slapped on them.
There were lots and lots of buildings placed on the site, none of which approached Neutra’s design.
I have enjoyed very much your postings on buildings.I hope that you will feature the Frank Lloyd Wright house that Ramon Navarro once lived in.Many people think that his dreadful murder of 1968 happened there, whilst in fact it was at another house in Laural Canyon.
I would like to see featured also- Ennis House – by the same architect ,notable for providing the exterior shots for the Vincent Price 1959 classic- The House On Haunted Hill.The same house was used in other well known films such as Blade Runner,Day Of The Locust and quite a few more.It was also used in the Buffy the Vampite Slayer TV series{I had no idea of that one}
Finally just in passing Frank Lloyd Wright has another filmic association-he designed the castle and 12th century village sets for Douglas Fairbanks version of Robin Hood.
Thank you! I will see if I can research some stills from that version of Robin Hood. Fascinating.
I haven’t yet tackled the Ennis House (which is now in the care of the city and in serious disrepair) but I thought you might enjoy these links:
http://vickielester.com/2012/09/17/lloyd-wright-architect/
http://vickielester.com/2012/12/31/frank-lloyd-wright-in-hollywood/
http://vickielester.com/2012/07/19/frank-lloyd-wright/
Thank you Vickie-how did I miss those?I have posted a few comments in the process of looking at some of the rather lovely pictures.
Glad that you were interested in Fairbanks version of Robin Hood.I found the information on Wiki with regard to that.
I believe that Ramons Wright house has now been refurbished and sold.I have also found a tour of the house prior to refurbishment on the net.
The Ramon Novarro house was refurbished by Diane Keaton, who is very big on the local scene here for architectural preservation.
I am going to contact a friend of mine who has some material on the 1922 Robin Hood and see if he’ll let me scan it for the weblog – I am fascinated by what you told me! Thank you.
Damn I double posted.Yes I suppose he was an Objectivist.Whether his death was linked to steroids or not it is hard to say and we will probably never know.He died very suddenly and was often said to have mental health problems and substance abuse issues.His brother also a bodybuilder was dead a few days after him.
Unfortunately dead bodybuilders tell no tales although tales may often be told about them.He famously is supposed not to have liked Arnold S and is supposed to have come to near blows with him.
At his height of bodybuilding glory he had a very good physique and looked impressive but far less the monster than todays very bloated bodybuilders do.