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Description

Rare early street map of Beverly Hills, locating the homes of the Stars, first published in 1926 (with a map of Beverly Crest to the right).

This map is quite possibly the first map to show the homes of the stars. As noted in by Glen Creason in his article published on May 1, 2013 in Los Angeles Magazine describing this as the first map of Beverly Hills to show the homes of the stars:

Several fascinating stories are told in this . . . map to the stars homes that heralded the development of one of the most glamorous neighborhoods in Los Angeles. . . Beverly Hills was already being subdivided and its winding roads and landscaping was in place to lure big money to one of the most beautiful natural places in Southern California. Originally part of Rancho Rodeo de Aguas, Beverly Hills took shape after the turn of the century under the direction of Burton Green and landscape architect Wilbur D. Cook. After the luxurious Beverly Hills Hotel was completed in 1912 stars began to look at this garden spot as a place to build their mansions and put down show-business roots. One of the first was the famed Pickfair estate that was built on the site of a former hunting lodge in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Many other Hollywood luminaries followed suit as showcased by the map.

George Read saw an opportunity and trumpeted to the Motion Picture crowd that "the windows of your homes will be beautiful paintings in themselves, framed vistas of the city of Los Angeles, the green Beverly Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains and the blue Pacific Ocean." . . . Read and others would see his fantasy become reality while buses and cars of gawkers followed the handsomely tailored landscapes shown on maps with hopes of catching a glance at stars like Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Gish, Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore, Theda Bara, and Buster Keaton . . . Even Rudolph Valentino, who would die within the year, has an address listed. The "other notables" listed are big oilmen like Earl Gilmore, Edward Doheny Sr. and Jr.; film directors like King Vidor, Thomas Ince, and Ernst Lubitsch, and the incomparable screenwriter Frances Marion with hubby and silent cowboy film star Fred Thompson. Even the famed auto racer Barney Oldfield is shown to have taken a place on Foothill Road. . .

This 1929 example is apparently quite rare, as OCLC locates no copies, whereas 3 copies of the 1926 edition are located.

Condition Description
Some soiling.