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. Designed by Leland A. Bryant, an architect known for luxurious structures, the hotel has been a popular destination since it opened. Over the years, Sunset Tower has served as the residence for many celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Howard Hughes, Elizabeth Taylor, Zasu Pitts, Bugsy Siegel, Errol Flynn and Marilyn Monroe. The hotel has also appeared in a number of films and books. A hotel employee stands in the semi-circular driveway outside the Sunset Tower Hotel, the 1929 art deco masterpiece located at 8358 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm. Photographic prints
Sunset Tower (West Hollywood, Calif.) Hotels--California--West Hollywood Hotel doorkeepers--California--West Hollywood Driveways--California--West Hollywood Art deco (Architecture)--California--West Hollywood West Hollywood (Calif.) Schultheis Collection photographs Bryant, Leland A
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