In 1906, the Alexandria Hotel became Los Angeles’s first, world-class hotel. However, its history is now largely forgotten or inaccurately portrayed in books and online websites. Most of these inaccuracies have to do with the famous people who visited (or did not visit) the Alexandria from 1906 to 1934. Therefore, I am presenting a list of famous people who definitely were at the Alexandria Hotel. Check back often for updates!
“Imagination is a wonderful companion. It is life with me and I never enjoy myself so much as when I am acting before the camera.” — Viola Dana “My earliest and happy recollections are of the time when I was about five years old, and Shirley was half past three or a quarter to […]
“I was born in St. Louis and attended the Peabody School there until I was about seven. My family then moved to New York, and my prep school was the New Jersey Military Academy, at Freebold, but I finished at one of the smaller Eastern schools in Pennsylvania. In 1900, I left home and went […]
“I had always wanted to act and used to go home and mimic the people I had seen before a mirror. I wanted to be like Lovey, too, but I was an awful gawk I suppose, like most growing girls.” — Mae Marsh Source: Frederick Brooke (1914) My sister didn’t think that I really […]
“Do the Japanese like foreign drama? Oh, very much indeed; that is, serious drama. They do not care for your comedy, not even Shakespeare’s. Probably comedy is too local in its significance. They are beginning to love the Russian drama also. Tolstoi’s ‘Resurrection’ made a bit hit. They like also the serious French drama.” – Sessue […]
“Perhaps I shall never be a great success, but whatever success that I may have I shall attribute to Mr. Chaplin. It was Charlie who gave me my first chance. It was he who directed me over the rough spots, who always was patient and painstaking with me, who coached me, who encouraged me and without […]
“The Western drama will never die. It may languish at times; it may give way to the temporary popularity of other sorts of plays, but it will never vanish either from the legitimate stage or the screen.” — William S. Hart “I was brought up in Dakota, or live there right among the Sioux […]
“When I first adopted the movies – or they adopted me – I was vigorously denounced by my contemporaries. I still have a number of letters written me several years ago by prominent actors and actresses, calling my ‘abandonment’ of the legitimate ‘disgraceful’ and ‘a prostitution of art’ as well as other disagreeable things. Since […]
“I don’t believe that the people would really have any interest in seeing me in pictures. They came to the Metropolitan to hear me sing, but if I should lose my voice overnight, do you think they would still come to see me? No! And they would make unkind remarks, too; I am afraid I […]
“I like to direct, because I believe a woman, more or less intuitively, brings out many of the emotions that are rarely expressed on the screen. I may miss what some of the men get, but I will get other effects that they never thought of.” — Lois Weber Source: L.H. Johnson (1915) […]
“Last January I came out to California with Mary and the Famous Players. I like the work in Los Angeles, but I knew there was no chance of getting very far with that company as long as they were featuring Mary. One Pickford at a time is enough for any company to feature; so the […]