Villa Capistrano is an elegant Italianate villa originally designed for Julian Eltinge, America's first drag superstar by the renowned architect brothers Francis Pierpont and Walter Swindell Davis, best known as creators of the courtyard apartment. Eltinge established himself as the greatest female impersonator in the history of the American theater. Unlike other gender illusionists of his time, who typically presented themselves as caricatures of femininity, Eltinge presented the illusion of actually being a woman. No one before or since has rivaled his success. His solo debut in New York in 1907, in which he parodied the Gibson Girl was a smash hit and catapulted him to the pinnacle of female impersonators. As Varitety enthused, "The audience was completely deceived as to Eltinge's sex, until he removed his wig... his act is far and away above what is described as female impersonation." Removing his wig to the audience's great amazement became a regular part of his act, always delivered at a high point of the performance for maximum effect.
Notes taken from the book, Silver Lake Chronicles: Exploring an Urban Oasis in Los Angeles. Used with permission. Photo courtesy of the Bill Taube Photo Collection. Please do not use this image in any media without my permission. © All rights reserved.
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Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in a confidential family huddle with son Role in which Aimee threatened to have her attorney, Jacob Moidel disbarred because he revealed that Angelus Temple elders were forbidden to vote on church questions it was testified at trial of Moidel's suit to collect $5000 for his services as attorney for Angelus Temple.
Photo by Acme News Pictures, New York City from Los Angeles Bureau, Illustrated Daily News Building.
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Tags: Aimee Semple McPherson Angelus Temple
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I began collecting photos of Wallace Beery and Gloria Swanson for material for my first book, Silver Lake Chronicles: Exploring an Urban Oasis in Los Angeles" and learning that the couple first lived in Silver Lake in a humble California bungalow near where Swanson got her Hollywood start in the movies with Max Sennett' Keystone Comedies. She married Berry on her seventeenth birthday who she claimed raped her on their wedding night. She became pregnant to him, but Berry, not wanting her to have the child, reportedly tricked her into drinking a concoction that induced an abortion. They continued to work together at Sennett but divorced two years later. The house is still standing at 1627 Glendale Boulevard
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The Bonadiman farm produced everything the family needed except staples such as coffee and flour. Mary Bonadiman, who was born on the farm in 1892 recalled in a July 29, 1976 interview, "I used to milk the cows too; there were nine cows, father (Carlo Bonadiman) would start at one end and I would start at the other; I worked like the dickens so that I could beat Daddy." Milk was stored in a milk house before being taken to market. A water ditch, fed by a stream from the Los Angeles River provides water for domestic purposes and feeding the farm's orchards. The photo shows where the family dined on warm evenings following a hard day of work on the farm. Please do not use this image in any media without my permission. © All rights reserved.
Tags: alfresco dining at the ranch 1890-1914 Michael Locke Michael Locke, Photographer Michael Locke, Realtor
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Emanuele Bonadiman, patriarch of the Bonadiman family in Los Angeles, is shown working with a scythe on the farm rented from George Smith in the Silver Lake vicinity. In the background is the home his son Carlo built in 1905 and to which the family moved after the ranch was subdivided.
Tags: Carlo Bonadiman with scythe and grocery deilvery boy Michael Locke Michael Locke, Photographer Michael Locke, Realtor
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