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Image / Miniature town, Bernheimer Estate, Pacific Palisades

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Title
Miniature town, Bernheimer Estate, Pacific Palisades
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1937
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
The 1924 Bernheimer Estate, located at 16980 Sunset Blvd in Pacific Palisades, which was designed to resemble a pagoda and housed a collection of oriental art, was demolished in the late 1950s. The Bernheimer Gardens flourished as a tourist attraction until 1941, when public opinion changed due to WWII. Eventually the gardens fell victim to two major landslides and were destroyed. Brothers Charles and Aldoph Bernheimer built a second Japanese estate and gardens in Hollywood, now home to Yamashiro restaurant.
Warriors battle in a miniature Japanese town at the Bernheimer Estate in Pacific Palisades. Guests (upper center) provide a sense of scale.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00030524
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-005-702.1 8x10
CARL0005100895
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/35910
Subject
Bernheimer Estate (Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Gardens, Japanese--California--Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles)
Gardens, Miniature--California--Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles)
Miniature cities & towns--California--Los Angeles
Architecture--Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles)--Japanese influences
Pagodas--California--Los Angeles
Bonsai--California--Los Angeles
Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs

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