This collection includes approximately 40,000 photographs by commercial photographer Ralph Morris, who worked in the Los Angeles area from 1939-1981. His advertising and industrial clients included department stores, restaurants, the automobile and petroleum industries as well as business executives. Also included is the Luckhaus Studio collection of architecture, fashion, the movie industry, sports and street scenes, images which Morris obtained in 1939. The Villa Riviera Hotel, 800 East Ocean Boulevard, constructed in 1929, was second in height at that time only to Los Angeles City Hall. Its architect, Richard D. King, won a grand prize at an international contest for his design of the sixteen-story building. The cost of construction was over two million dollars. At one time, Joseph M. Schenck of Twentieth Century-Fox and Norma Talmadge, then his wife, owned the hotel. It survived the Long Beach earthquake with only plaster cracks which were easily repaired and is a Long Beach landmark. Cars are parked at the entrance to the Villa Riviera Hotel on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach. A large sign, V - R Hotel, sits like a crown on top of the roof tower. An American flag flies opposite the hotel next to an advertisement showing a mechanic with a lubricating gun and magnifying glass and with a logo "Extra Careful Lubrication".
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
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