BACKSTORY: West Hollywood is a small 1.9 square mile area best known as being gay-friendly and full of amazing restaurants, businesses, and historic architecture.
BACKSTORY: Designated in 1992, The Courtyard Thematic District refers to a number of courtyard apartment buildings from the 1920's on Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood. The El Palacio on 8493 Fountain Avenue is an 18-unit, historical garden-style courtyard apartment building built in 1931 by William Hauptman, one of the most renowned architects in the area for courtyard buildings. Georgette Elise Bauerdorf was a twenty-year-old oil heiress who was strangled in the El Palacio Apartments in 1944. Marilyn Monroe lived in an apartment at The El Palacio in the 1950s (which would be purchased by Lindsay Lohan in 2007). The first African-American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award, Dorothy Dandridge, lived at the property from 1964 until her tragic death (ruled a suicide) in 1965.
BACKSTORY: Dan Tana’s Italian Restaurant opened in 1964, and has been a Hollywood dining legend ever since. Located at 9071 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. From their website: Its superb food, every morsel prepared to order, and its super sized drinks are created and served with loving care by Tana’s longtime personnel. The bar and restaurant always are fully packed with customers rubbing elbows with Hollywood elite. Still every customer, celebrity or not, is equally important to Tana and his staff. No special preferences are shown, except to offer exceptional service and mouth watering culinary delights.
BACKSTORY: The El Mirador Apartments were built in 1929 by architect S. Charles Lee and are located at 1302 N. Sweetzer Avenue.
