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Tonight KCET's "Life & Times" (7 p.m.) looks back at the astonishing career of Paul Revere Williams, the first African American architect in Los Angeles. When his practice took off in the 1920s, blacks could not live in Hancock Park or Holmby Hills, but he designed mansions there and by 1940 was known as the architect to the stars. At the time, discrimination was so pervasive that he learned to read and draw upside down because he knew that white clients would not sit next to him. Williams remodeled the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, but told the story that when a white colleague invited him for a meal there, he had to decline knowing that a ruckus would ensue.
Williams' respected designs include the former Perino's restaurant on Wilshire, the original Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills and what used to be the MCA headquarters (later Litton Industries) on Burton Way. He commanded enough respect to serve on the L.A. city planning commission in the 1920s, was president of the city arts commission for 11 years, sat on a bunch of presidential boards and attended Republican conventions as a delegate. Williams' own former home in LaFayette Square is a city Historic-Cultural Landmark.
At his funeral in 1980, granddaughter Karen Hudson was shocked by the eulogies describing the magnitude of his career. She went on to research and write a 1993 book, Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style.
Nice story, Chip. Please let me know when the book is ready to go.
My list of Williams structures was absurdly brief compared to the full record. Hudson's book is full of them, and gorgeous to look at (it was published by Rizzoli). One of my favorites, just because it still exists where it does -- beside busy Devonshire Street in the Valley -- is the home he built in the late 1930s for a young Barbara Stanwyck. It was on the horse ranch in Northridge she shared with Zeppo Marx of the Marx Brothers. She married Robert Taylor after a couple of years and moved back to the city, then Jack Oakie owned the house for decades. During his time it was legendary in Hollywood for pool parties overlooking the west end of the Valley. Lucy and Desi lived down the street, William Holden and Jimmy Cagney and a slew of other stars nearby.
When Oakie's widow died last year, the property came into possession of USC. Last I heard the university was going to sell it.
Posted by: Kevin Roderick at February 25, 2004 08:33 PMDoes anyone have information about the house designed by Paul Williams in about 1930 in Beverly Hills at 1201 Park Way? The building permit was taken out in his name and we are trying to get photos of the original house.
Posted by: JOSEPH TILEM at March 21, 2004 07:27 AM
of LA Observed
PRW is worthy of every drop of attention
Posted by: Chip Jacobs at February 25, 2004 04:57 PMhe gets. Jaded as we are today about race
issues, he designed many, many public
structures in places where covenants
fordid blacks from staying there -- or
using the front door.
I am getting ready to publish a book about
my uncle, a wheeling/dealing Hollywood
quadriplegic, and discovered that Williams
designed my uncle's fortress-like abode
on Blue Jay Way.
And, as always, Williams did it with style,
modesty and creativity. In fact, it's the
first house supposedly ever built specifically
for a quadriplegic. It was the mid-1960s.
When I recently dropped by the house, it
was being rennovated by some movie type
with no regard for Williams' creation
or the outrageous character -- my uncle,
Gordon Zahler -- who once sucked the bone
marrow out of life there. Shame.