1940's HOLLYWOOD IN LAGUNA, a Mini-Documentary

welcome to smith cliffs in north laguna beach we're going to take a look at this property today starting from laguna main beach going over divers cove and shaw's cove and crescent beach we're going to focus on the property's history and some links to hollywood film making at the property right up past dos rocos there you see the two rocks in the ocean out a little way from the coast and there's smith cliffs today smith cliffs is a 26 home subdivision in north laguna beach but first let's go way back way before this development to 1944 when the parcel had on it one primary home a modest home that was built in 1918 property was filled with beautiful pines canary island pines torrey pines italian stone pines separate houses for the staff that worked on the property the most famous occupant of the property was the daughter of miss dobbins the original builder her name was pancho barnes and she was a famous aviatrix which was very unusual for the time she was a stunt pilot in hollywood and was known for throwing lavish hollywood parties at the property in the 20s and 30s pancho also built laguna beach's only airfield just south of the property on what is now known as crown point where it remained open delivering party supplies and alcohol during prohibition until it was closed down after a couple of accidents here are some great shots of the property this one's looking towards the beach and this one is up from the rocks and in this shot you can see emerald point off in the distance there it's amazing how much it looks like it does today so in 1929 the original home was sold by miss dobbins to oscar howard a wealthy oklahoma oil man and it was renamed howard's cliffs around this time hollywood was entering the golden age of filmmaking and a film called shadows in the night was filmed on this property in 1944 here's a little look at what was going on in hollywood just about an hour up the road at this time we took a ride up hollywood boulevard that day this is the way it looked in the early 30s there's the old hollywood hotel at hollywood and highland and there's the number one citizen of beverly hills mary piglet mary pickford was a beautiful actress who was considered one of hollywood's first big stars she was well known to live in laguna beach and owned property in the area [Music] here's a great shot of the director eugene ford with his film crew presumably right around the same time that this film was made right around 1944 the film starred warner baxter as the crime doctor and nina foach nina went on to teach acting for many years in la and here are those front gates again and it's fun to see how they look so similar in one of the early shots in the movie shadows in the night broadway yes i've been waiting for you drive on through and park in front of the house just leave your bags in the car i'll take care of them thanks can i give you a lift up the house no thanks i can walk here's a shot of the front entrance of the house see if you can pick out some of the details from this photo and this next shot from the movie where the crime doctor arrives at the home of nina foach good evening i'm terribly glad you're here doctor ordway i hope i haven't kept you up too late had a little trouble finding the road i'm sorry hey let me take your thing one of the things i love about the coast and laguna specifically is it looks today just like it did hundreds of years ago in fact here's a shot back in the 40s and it looks like we could have been out there today that's emerald bay in the background and emerald point just so beautiful [Music] and here are a couple more of my favorite shots from the movie interspersed with some shots from today [Music] those are the famous rocks right off the coast which led to the name dos rocos when the property was initially developed this is the overlook over rum runners cove and the gazebo from the movie here's a shot of the gazebo before the property was redeveloped from the architectural records and some great shots of the coast from the movie from this perspective good morning doc sleep well splendidly did you me i always sleep good exercise doesn't nothing like a morning swim to keep you in the pink and that was kind of the climactic ending of the movie where the villain is shot down right here in this grove of pine trees that are still on the property today in fact the coastal commission required the developer to box up over 100 trees and after the final grading was done to replant them on the property that's why when you walk around the property today it's some of the most beautiful specimens of old pine trees anywhere in southern california they're just breathtaking i hope you enjoyed this retrospective of one of the coolest developments in north laguna beach now known as smith cliffs a really great property some beautiful trees amazing history in beautiful north laguna beach [Music] you

Channel: Laguna Beach based real estate strategy.

Views: 26,124

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Id: GlO4mmZpIs4

Length: 7min 10sec (430 seconds)

Published: Tue May 04 2021