In “The Garden of Allah,” gossip columnist Sheilah Graham’s 1970 book about the history of the legendary (and long-since demolished) Sunset Strip hotel, Graham describes a friendship between one of Francis’ call girls and Garden resident Natalie Schaefer, an actress who achieved immortal fame late in her career playing “Lovey” Howell on “Gilligan’s Island.”Īccording to Graham: “ There was a call girl who used to wander in and out of the open doors at the Garden. Around August 1939 Goldstone changed the building’s name from the Hacienda Park Apartments to the Coronet Apartments.įrancis denied she was doing anything illegal at the time of her arrest, but in fact she was providing outcall services from the Coronet and occasionally entertaining a few select clients in her apartment. She was downsizing her business then, with the intent of going legit and opening a nightclub.ĭuring the time Lee Francis rented in the building it was owned by Phil Goldstone, former head of Tiffany Pictures (a “Poverty Row” studio) and a resident of the building. So what was Lee Francis’ connection to the apartment building at 8439 Sunset? She said she leased an apartment there for a brief time, likely starting in 1937 when she gave up her last house in Beverly Hills. There wouldn’t be time toĬoronet Apartment in the 1940s, now known as the Piazza del Sol Would come to me and advise me to move,” she wrote. Realized she was operating a brothel in their ritzy enclaves. As Francis explained in herīook, she was at constant risk of having to move house overnight when neighbors Amenities at the houses included swimming, tennis, billiards, drinks and fine dining as well as female companionship.īut she didn’t own these places. Her clientele included movie stars and studio executives as well as leaders in the downtown establishment. In LA, she ran brothels in a series of mansions – she mentions one on Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, for example, where she operated in 1936, and another on Kings Road – and at least one apartment building on the Westside. In her memoir, Lee Francis said she worked in San Francisco and Reno before arriving in Los Angeles around 1920. Unfortunately, much of this information is inaccurate and confusing.įrom the cover of “Ladies on Call,” a few of the places leased by Lee Francis – 8439 Sunset is not shown Published in 2005, “The Fixers” covers Francis in just seven or so paragraphs. Among these, a frequently cited book is “The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine,” by E.J. And not much else.īut Lee Francis and her citadel of sin is a popular topic in books and articles on Hollywood scandals. The time, and there’s Lee Francis’ memoir, “Ladies on Call,” which is long out It may be because there is so little reliable information available about Leeįrancis and her history with the building. How does a myth like this become accepted fact? In this case (And the building’s name was the Hacienda Park Apartments, not the Hacienda Arms, when it opened.) What’s not true: The entire 54,000 square-foot building was never a bordello operated by Hollywood madam Lee Francis. Here’s what’s accurate: The Piazza del Sol was indeed built as a luxury apartment building that opened in 1927.
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