Flashback Fridays #2

I've already fucked up. 

I had this goal of having a blog that I would continuously connect with, and I already fucked up and missed a deadline. 

Even despite being out of school for two years I have resulted to my lazy procrastinated self. 

Last night, just as I was going to bed, I legitimately jolted out of bed yelling, "ahh fuck". However  I was already in bed, so my laziness won the battle. 

But if Chaplin is my witness, I will still do my Flashback Friday.

So here is #2

#2 The Knickerbocker Hotel

If I could have everything I wanted, The Knickerbocker would be open to the public. I would even settle for the small cafe connected to the hotel to be open to the public. If I had all the money in the world I would buy that place in a second and convert it into apartments or ANYTHING just to give this building back to the deserving world. But instead this place is now a russian retirement home. 

Putin wins this round.

However it's hard to blame Russians for the inaccessibility  of this fantastic building. Before the 1970s it was basically a decapitated shithole covered with the drugged up remains of whores and deadbeats. Hollywood did the right thing in converting it to a retirement home so they can clear out the mess.

Just like any dessert in LA, this place has a really short but rich history. When it was constructed in 1925 by E.M. Frasier, it became a regular hang out spot for Hollywood's elite.  

The Knickerbocker has been the place where Valentino, as well as Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, had their occasional drinks. It is where Harry Houdini's wife conducted her séances to contact her recently deceased husband, and it's also where Francis Farmer was carried out kicking and screaming after failing to meet with her probationary officer. 

Elvis stayed here when he was filming Love Me Tender and Laurel & Hardy were here on an episode of "This is your Life". 

However, some dark stuff happened here as well.  

D. W. Griffith was found unconscious in the lobby from a brain hemorrhage, ultimately dying of that later that night. Irene Lentz, also known as Irene, committed suicide by jumping out of her window and dying on the roof of the lobby. She was found a couple of days later. Also William Frawley, famously known as Fred Mertz from the famous I Love Lucy, suffered from a heart attack and was dragged to the Knickerbocker ultimately dying later at the hospital.  

See, this place is rich with both sides of history.

The question I always seem to get is, "why do you even care?" 

I care because this is a building with so many interesting facts. Not simply facts but facts that ignite interest and fascination. What is so fascinating about this city is that the city we live in is where our idols generated from. Those that we admire and worship reside and evolved in this town, and their residual effects are fascinating to the rest of the world today. The celebrity status is filled with weird and scandalous stories, and The Knickerbocker is the epitome of that, and that's why I love it so.