Tuesday, March 25, 2008 – The Gilded Age

All-American Art Deco

Sterling Plaza – formerly the California Bank Building, 9441 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills

Architects: John B. and Donald D. Parkinson – 1929

Now home to the Donald T. Sterling Corporation – just around the corner from the ultimate celebrity restaurant, Spago –

Donald T. Sterling is what they call a real estate mogul, and an attorney (personal injury, divorce), and is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers (formerly the Buffalo Braves and then the San Diego Clippers) – he bought the Clippers in 1981 for twelve and a half million and now the team is valued at more than two hundred forty million by Forbes magazine.  He was born Donald Tokowit. He liked the name Sterling better.

On November 15, 2005, the Associated Press reported that Sterling had been ordered by District Judge Dale Fisher to pay five million in fees to plaintiff's attorneys in a case accusing him of trying to drive out non-Korean tenants, particularly blacks and Latinos, at apartments he owned in Los Angeles' Koreatown.  He's not charming.

The building is cool – in the late fifties Ray Bradbury had an office here, where he wrote movie scripts.  The building was once filled with Hollywood offices. See Item 165 from this 2005 auction:

MARILYN MONROE SCRIPT - A mimeographed 124 page script titled "Horns for the Devil," having red paper covers noting "Famous Artists Corporation / 9441 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills," punched and bound with two brass braids, no date. 8 ½ X 11 inches

The winning bid was $1,140.00 – and as for the neighborhood, it's not Marilyn Monroe any longer. There's an art gallery across the street, and just one more car dealer.

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Photographs after March 3, 2008, were taken with a Nikon D200 – or a Nikon D70 when noted. All previous photographs were taken with the D70. The lenses used are (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto, or (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. Photography here is modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  The earliest photography in the archives was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik