community beach house to hear 's gold coastnia era. >> back in the 1920's, the part of the santa monica beach that was north of the santa monica. -- santa monica pier was referred to as the gold coast. it was called this because many movie stars and movie industry executives had homes along the beach. it was a very special place to live. these stars and executives would walk along the beach, go to each other's homes for dinners and barbecues and parties and morning coffee. it was quite the place to be seen in the day. we are at the marion davies guesthouse, part of the annenberg community beach house. it is the story of three people. marion davies, the star of silent films and talkies, and julia morgan, an architect, and william randolph hearst, who purchased the property for marion davies. william randolph hearst and marion davies were lifelong companion's. they were the left of each of each other's lives. marion davies grew up as one of four sisters in new york. all of her sisters were in the follies. they were dancers. marion was a brilliant dancer and also very beautiful. well she was in the follies, she had a stammer so she did not have a lot of talking roles. because she was so beautiful and personable, she was noticed by a man named william randolph hearst who enjoyed coming to the follies. he started to woo her and sent flowers backstage and met her parents and family. he mentioned he would like to take photographs of her for modeling photos and put her in the movies, which at the time were silent films. he had a motion picture company called cosmopolitan pictures and marion was interested. that was the start of her making movies. she went on to produce her own movies and became very successful in that field. the property that we're in is part of a larger estate that was built for marion by hearst when he moved his motion picture company, cosmopolitan pictures, from the east coast to the west. this was the guest house on the property. as you can see, we have photos of marion from her various publicity stills and roles she was making in her movies at the time. the guesthouse was designed by the third person in our story, julia morgan. julia morgan had designed sansimmion for hearst in 1919 and went on to design this property for him in 1926. the guesthouse where we are now was completed in 1929. you will notice the shell motifs that julia morgan brought to bring in the feeling of being at the beach. we also have photos that represent parties that were held when they entertain on the property. they had many guests in the thousands. some of the parties were costume parties. often in honor of william randolph hearst's birthday. the parties continued in that theme of the babies all party, the circus party, in which a carousel was brought for adults. here is marion on the carousel. costumes were provided by movie studios. as a guest, you would come to the party, find your corresponding size on a rack, pick a costume that suited your personality, put it on in a changing room, then enter the party in their elaborate costume to fit the theme of the evening festivities. in the mid-1940's, hearst health started to decline. marion decided to sell her home and move with him to beverly hills where he was soon to be bedridden. she sold the mansion and the guesthouses to a man named joseph drown. he owned the bel air hotel and planned to turn the main mansion into a hotel, which he did called ocean house hotel. he took the guesthouse and the rest of the property, with the historic pool, and shared those with a beach club called the sand and sea club. it was right here between the guesthouse and the main mansion. it functioned that way for 10 years. joseph brown was losing money on the hotel. it was expensive to upkeep. it had crown molding and fireplaces. the 60's were coming. it was going to be a new modern era. he decided people did not want an antique hotel. he made a deal with the state that he could sell the property to the state if he demolished the building. he tore down the hotel and it became owned by the state. meanwhile, the sand and sea club still owned the property with the bungaloes and the guesthouse and the pool and releasing the property and continuing to use it. it went that way until the 1994 earthquake. with the earthquake, the bungalows not designed by julia morgan collapsed and aware red tagged. -- and were red tagged. meanwhile, santa monica had passed a referendum that no new hotels or restaurants could be built on the beach. we had a historic pool, a historic guesthouse and no one knew what to do with the property. >> we were approached by the city of santa monica in the mid-1990's. the city was partnering with the annenberg foundation to revive this defunct beach estate and private beach club. into a public facility. early on, i had the notion that there needed to be a memory of the major piece of architecture, the mansion. the building does not exist anymore. it was damaged beyond repair in the northridge earthquake. left there for years and finally it had to be completely demolished. it was a grand structure and had an integral relationship with the pool. the mansion itself was a grand neoclassical structure and i felt the memory of the structure and bringing back into the public realm for the public to enjoy, the same experience that that group of elite hollywood media personalities of the golden age in the 40's had. was an important opportunity. i came up with this notion of a memory device in the form of this colonade. it reflects the palm trees on the top of the bluffs in the palisades. the colonnade will give you a feeling of the magnitude of the project, the same expanse, height, and spacing yet detached from the structure. it performs no sharks role function, only a function of meeting and memory. the head of the annenberg foundation at the time cap's the capsulized the foundation's aspirations for the project in the phrase, to create a place for people to make memories. the memories are of the past of the era of davies and hearst and morgan and of the present, of people who come here from any community, this is an open state park, and have their family activities, group activities, personal activities on the beach and come away with memories. that is how the project is working and the ability to use this prime piece of santa monica beach anytime they want and for people to curate their activities. on the gathering we created on the second floor of this pool building and the guesthouse. >> one of the magical things about the annenberg community beach house is the beautiful connection between the past and present. we have really been able to bring the history of these three remarkable individuals who developed this property originally, marion davies, william randolph hearst and the architect, julia morgan. they created such a legacy and still having the guesthouse and original pool for the mansion is a spectacular way to connect the past and present. that really a way to bring history to life. toour cities tour traveled southern california to learn

Related Keywords

New York , United States , Mexico , California , Palisades Park , Ocean House , Santa Monica , Puebla , Mexican , Mexicans , Marion Davies , Julia Morgan , Randolph Hearst , Joseph Brown , Davies William Randolph Hearst , William Randolph Hearst ,