When the beauty of the artist and the mystery of the environment that surrounds him converge, the photographer’s lens can leave us snapshots like these, in which we see Elvis on the disturbing terrace of the Hollywood Knickerbocker hotel.
Elvis held a photo session, with photographer Ed Braslaff, on the terrace of the Hotel, on Saturday, August 18, 1956.
Elvis stayed in suite 1016 of the Hotel, while he was filming the movie “Love Me Tender”. He was accompanied by his cousin Gene Smith.
The hotel, is a former historic hotel, now converted into a retirement home, and is located at 1714 Ivar Avenue in Los Angeles, California. It is famous, since, since its construction, it was dedicated to the attention of the nascent film industry and it is the place where, as if it were a cursed place, some of the most dramatic, sinister and inexplicable moments in the life of many of Hollywood’s famous…what we don’t usually see under the glitz and glamor of Hollywood lights.
It was designed in 1923 by the architect EM Frasier, in the form of apartments, but it was never opened. In July 1929, it was completed and added another skyscraper to the sky, when it opened as the ‘Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel’ at 1714 Ivar Avenue. The lavish Spanish Colonial building and its nightclub, the Lido Room, immediately became a hotspot. reference for aristocrats, travelers and the people of the growing film community.But not everything would be glitz and glamor in the history of the hotel…
In 1935, the macabre came to the Knickerbocker and never really left. When the Pacific Coast Magicians Association held its third annual convention at the hotel. Bess Houdini, magician and widow of the legendary Harry Houdini, attended the convention and as if we were in a horror movie, a year later, on Halloween, on October 31, 1936, the widow of Harry Houdini celebrated her tenth seance to contact the magician on the hotel terrace.
On January 13, 1943, Frances Farmer was arrested in her hotel room after failing to report to her parole officer.
On July 23, 1948, filmmaker DW Griffith was discovered unconscious in the hotel lobby and died of a brain hemorrhage on the way to a Hollywood hospital.
After Elvis’ stay, in 1962, the famous Hollywood costume designer Irene Lentz, dejected by the death of Gary Cooper, committed suicide by jumping from the window of her room on the 11th floor.
On March 3, 1966, actor William Frawley was walking down Hollywood Boulevard when he suffered a heart attack and died in the lobby…
When Elvis stayed at the hotel in the 1950s, the Hotel still retained all its light and glamour, but also a ghost story surrounding the place.
Beautiful and disturbing photos surrounded by mystery that Ed Braslaff left us, of a young Elvis of a shocking beauty, at a time in his life when he was reaching the top and in an almost ghostly environment.
