Classic House Stars in Classic Comedy

Eagle-eyed writer Alan Hess recently spotted one of California’s earliest modern homes in a classic silent comedy. Buster Keaton whizzes by the house in a second. But today, anyone can visit and linger.

“OK, this is absolutely the coolest thing I have seen in a long, long time,” Hess wrote on Facebook. “ (Rudolph) Schindler's Kings Road house (1922) appears in a classic Buster Keaton movie. I glimpsed it the other night on TCM, and sure enough here it is, at 1:23, sleeping baskets and everything. Filmed from the corner of Waring and Kings Road. Schindler and Keaton. I love LA.”

Although in the film, ‘Sherlock Jr.,’ dour-faced, super-athletic Keaton (1895-1966), who did all his own stunts, motorbikes by the house in only two seconds, Hess spotted it, and thanks to You Tube, you can too.

The house, known as ‘The Kings Road House,’ was built in 1921 and the film shot in 1924. Today the home, at 835 North Kings Road in West Hollywood, is essentially invisible from the street, and the once open neighborhood is densely built out.

“It took my breath away,” Hess said in an email exchange. “When (Turner Classic Movies) has silent movies filmed on the streets of LA, I'm always scanning the background to try to figure out where they are -- they are such an amazing window on what the city actually looked like in everyday life in the 20s.
 

“This one just caught my eye in an instant; the angle looks like some of the old photos of the house, the scale with the sleeping basket was right. So thanks to Google I found that clip and confirmed it. It helps to strip away fifty years of awe and critical analysis layered over a great iconic design, and reminds us when it was new in an average LA neighborhood, fresh out of Schindler's incredible imagination.”

Schindler (1887-1953) was the first generation modern architect who brought the concept of open planned, healthful houses to Southern California. He was later joined by his compatriot Richard Neutra. The Kings Road house was designed as an experiment in communal living for himself, his wife Pauline Schindler, and another couple.

Thanks in large part to Pauline, the house functioned for many years as a center for artistic and bohemian life in Southern California.

Today the house can be visited, thanks to the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, which uses the house for architectural talks and opens it to public visits. “It is the birthplace,” the center states on its website, “of the Southern California modernism we celebrate today.”

• ‹ previous
• 130 of 677
• next ›