L.A. architecture in this month's magazines

In the February issue of Vogue, writer Amy Ephron talks about befriending (when she was a child in Beverly Hills) the man next door who she knew as "Samuel Clemens." Only recently did she learn it was Stiles O. Clements, one of the most under-appreciated names in Los Angeles architecture. For the Wilshire book we figured that Clements or the firm he was part of — Morgan, Walls and Clements — had a hand in dozens of buildings along the boulevard, among them the blue-green Pellissier tower where the Wiltern is located (left), the Churrigueresque gem where La Fonda is at Carondelet, and the "black and gold" former bank near La Brea. Clements' surviving buildings also include Chapman Plaza on 6th Street, the El Capitan and Mayan theatres and the Adamson House in Malibu. Kudos to Ephron for getting him into Vogue 44 years after his death; no link that I could find.

Also in the magazines: The long-demolished, but still missed Carthay Circle Theatre shows up in the February Vanity Fair, in a photo from the 1941 premiere of "Fantasia." Disney opened all its big films there in those days, and for the ground-breaking "Fantasia" an innovative new sound system, Fantasound, was developed and installed. And in this month's Architectural Digest, actress Jennifer Aniston's remodel in Beverly Hills.

Photos: Los Angeles Public Library