All the photographs in this post are used courtesy of Cara Rule, an expert on the strange, almost otherworldly Hollywood aerie known as The Spiderpool. From Cara: "A director of 1920's silents built himself a wacky house in the Cahuenga pass using old sets. His parties were supposedly legendary. He then built this pool on a hill next to it which also had a somewhat exotic design and was covered in all sorts of tile....including a mosaic of a spider in a web. It is believed that the owner sent away to tile manufacturers for samples to cover the pool because there were so many different varieties. He either lent or rented out the pool for nudie shoots (extremely tame by our modern standards) which continued after his death into the 60's at which point the pool was condemned and ultimately destroyed. What remains is incredibly charming and well worth the hike to get to it as it is surrounded by private property."
The director Cara mentioned was writer/actor/director John W. "Jack" McDermott, who was extremely active in Hollywood up until the 1930s, directing The Love Thief (1926), Manhattan Madness (1925), The Bum Bomb (1918) & The Spider & The Rose (1923), & acting in over 30 films, including Romeo of the Coal Wagon (1916), Fashion & Fury (1916), Ham Takes a Chance (1916) & The Eveless Eden Club.
I'm fairly sure all of the color Tura Satana (May she rest in peace) photographs are by the great film actor/director Harold Lloyd. Here's more of his nudie work:
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The other photographs from the 40s & 50s were most likely taken by Bizarre magazine's noted fetish photographer John Willie or photographers from House of Milan, a studio specializing in bondage magazines & movies.
More (a lot more) information can be found here:
3 comments:
Until recently, the pool property was absentee owned but surrounded by private property. But more recently, the important portions were purchased by local homeowners and it's now part of active private yard property. The days of hiking in for a visit without an invitation are over.
^screw that, rich people think they can buy up everything and keep it away from us
To preserve what's left, the site needs to be protected from indiscriminate access. If people visit a place of interest, they invariably feel compelled to tell others. Before you know it, there are mass visitations, with all the attendant damage and disruption to those who live there. Most are not "rich people", as you surmise. You don't need to visit a place to learn what is there. There are more than enough photos available online. Just do the research. You can't always have what you want and recognizing that is a sign of maturity. Thank-you for your attention to this matter.
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