Harold Lloyd has enjoyed impressive good fortune in almost every aspect, however, he is not as well known today as his many achievements warrant. Like many other vital and attractive people of the early 20th century, he arrived in Palm Springs. As noted at the time as his contemporaries Charlie Chaplain and Buster Keaton, his reminiscence faded for no reason.
Lloyd came here from the most modest and precarious beginnings. His mother cultivated in him a constant love of theatre. Unable to stand alone on stage, he collapsed and took a task in animated photographs to eat. Working regularly, he never looked back. He made about two hundred films between 1914 and 1947 and effectively went from silent photographs to talking photographs. He produced and starred in his own films, with a rare exercise for the time, and in the process made a great fortune that he then used intelligently.
Shamelessly, he bought a series of beautiful homes in Los Angeles, culminating in the gathering of a magnificent strip of land in Benedict Canyon in which he built, from July 1927, and ended at the end of the year in 1928, a giant 44-room mansion. called Greenacres. Y, as the call suggests, the domain is even more impressive than the house. Lloyd and landscape engineer AEHanson have devised plans for the “most giant personal landscaping assignment ever attempted” in Los Angeles rule.
There were many gardens: tropical, sunken, formal, pink, Italian and on terraces. The park included a children’s village with a four-bedroom thatched space with electric power and running water, a miniature barn described as a “fairies estate,” a golf course, an equestrian trail, a canoe trail, a dance hall, theater, synthetic creek and California’s largest pool: 50 feet to 150 feet with new inventions for filtration and chlorination Array and a glass-like look swimmers from the adjacent tunnel.
(The group is the site of a filming of a 1953 film with Marilyn Monroe, who captured behind the scenes in stunning Kodachrome images through Lloyd himself and recently the subject of an article through Cari Beauchamp in Atla Journal which is valuable to look at. Marilyn looks at the picture – perfect in a beautiful red swimsuit. )
There were stables for horses, farm animals and sheep; a farm and greenhouses to grow vegetables and flowers for the home; tennis court, handball court and ball court; but the waterfall and surrounding gardens, encouraged through Villa Gamberaia in Italy, were the ultimate. impressive of all.
The Mediterranean style, which echoes Italian or Spanish architecture, popular in California in the 1920s. As a result, Lloyd ordered a space in the desert with an elegant style, but adapting to the more informal atmosphere, built something more conveniently sober and modest. greatness of Greenacres, even a very nice space would have been considered more modest.
Located on The Movie Colony on North Avenida Palmas, the low L-shaped space has left a small mark on its extensive property. “He doesn’t mean to be difficult, he’s comfortable,” recalls Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of Harold, who spent much of her training years there. She noted for Palm Springs Life Magazine: “It’s a circle of family members at home, a position to hide and have fun. He liked to have land, he had neighbors he loved. It was a satisfied position and everyone enjoyed it. . ‘”
Sue Lloyd spent twenty years coming to the desert with her grandparents and has fond memories of the space and its lush gardens and the many friends of the neighborhood. Across Cary Grant Street, and the corner of Kitty Dinah Shore. Charlie Farrell across the street. It’s not called Movie Colony for nothing.
The family circle was close friends with Robert Wagner (who would finish spending a lot of time in the desert) and Sue tells how they met. His mother, Gloria, “found RJ at a wedding and brought him home” with Harold. who temporarily got him an agent, and the rest is the magic of celebrities and movie stars. They’re still around and Sue calls it “R baby. “
While Harold Lloyd would probably not be as well identified as he deserves to be now, the antics he invented and directed for his films have been iconic, copied countless times. He was a very vital star in the nascent film industry and was the first of the After Retiring from Film, Lloyd became an expert 3-d photographer, traveled the world to take photographs and eventually amassed a collection of 300,000 stereo slides. Master chess, bowling, microscopy and painting. His philanthropy was mythical and has become a staple of businesses and social communities in the desert.
Greenacres, his magnificent estate, located on incredibly valuable land, subdivided after Lloyd’s death, decimating the gardens and pool. The space was eventually stored through Ron Burkle, who also owns Bob Hope’s Palm Springs Southridge home, designed through John Lautner. in the Movie Colony did not perform so well. It has been transformed several times, making it almost unrecognizable.
Tracy Conrad is president of the Palm Springs Historical Society. The Thank You for Memories column appears Sunday in The Desert Sun. Write to pshstracy@gmail. com.