Vintage Holidays in Beverly Hills

The Witch's House

Though another Halloween has passed, the Witch's House draws passersby throughout the year. Also known as the Spadena House, the Witch's House is an enchanting home in the heart of Beverly Hills that appears to be plucked straight from a fairytale. The house was built in the early 1920s for a silent film movie studio, Willat Studios in nearby Culver City, to serve as its offices and dressing rooms. When the studio closed, the Spadena family moved the home to its current location in Beverly Hills.

Watch Halloween Memories by the Beverly Hills Historical Society.

The Witch's House is a private residence. Tours are not offered. Please be respectful of the residents by viewing the home only from public streets and sidewalks.

TAKE A TOUR INSIDE THE WITCH'S HOUSE WITH CBS SUNDAY MORNING

Beverly Hills Sign & Lily Pond

Originally built in 1907, the lily pond served as an early Beverly Hills landmark and one of the first major focal points of Beverly Gardens Park. In the mid-1970s the lily pond was removed and the site was replaced with a lawn area. However, the Beverly Hills Sign remained and over the next few decades, became a popular landmark and continued to draw thousands of tourists each year for the quintessential pre-selfie travel photo. Beverly Hills officials and community historians advocated to restore the lily pond, and after a year of construction, it was unveiled at the start of the city’s centennial year in 2014.

Rodeo Drive

Did you know Rodeo Drive was preceded by a bridle path which existed until the 1940s?

Beverly Hills is known as one of the most fashionable places to shop with its crown jewel, Rodeo Drive, on par with the world's premier shopping districts - Fifth Avenue in New York, Bond Street in London, Avenue Montaigne in Paris and Ginza in Tokyo. With more than 100 famous flagship stores on Rodeo Drive comprising its three palm-fringed blocks within the Golden Triangle, it is easy to become lost in the street's unique splendor and charm. 

Rodeo Drive, and indeed Beverly Hills, is even more resplendant during the holiday season with beautiful lights and decor throughout the city

Things to Do on Rodeo Drive

Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce

The United States Census of 1920 counted 674 people as residents of the newly incorporated City of Beverly Hills. Known as “Midway between Los Angeles and the Sea,” the new community, while steeped in pride and optimism, was facing inevitable challenges in those early years. The real estate boom in the early 1920s created a series of issues for the residents, and new businesses needed to support the population growth. On May 1, 1923, sixty people gathered from the community in the first meeting of what would quickly become the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce.

On June 11, 1923, a motion to incorporate a Chamber of Commerce into the city of Beverly Hills was approved.

Nate 'N Al

Nate and Al’s, Beverly Hills’ iconic Jewish delicatessen, story began 77 years ago in 1945 when friends and business partners Nate Rimer and Al Mendelson first opened the doors of their original deli on North Beverly Drive. Now under the ownership of longtime customers Shelli and Irving Azoff, the popular holiday caterer proudly continues to build and grow Nate and Al’s dream: bringing classic deli favorites and more to new generations of customers. 

WALL STREET JOURNAL FEATURE OF NATE 'N AL CIRCA 2005

Film Actor & Producer Harold Lloyd

Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (1893-1971) was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies.

Harold Lloyd ranks alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and “talkies”, between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his “Glasses Character”, a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who was perfectly in tune with 1920s era America.

His films frequently contained “thrill sequences” of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats, for which he is best remembered today. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! is one of the most enduring images in all of cinema.

In 1926, Lloyd built “Greenacres,” a 44-room Beverly Hills mansion and estate that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Each year, he and his family decorated an enormous Christmas Tree with thousands of ornaments collected over the years.

WATCH THE BEST CHRISTMAS TREE IN TOWN
See Harold Lloyd's Greenacres Christmas Tree

It's a Wonderful Life Swimming Pool Scene

It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 beloved American holiday classic film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift, which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943 and is in turn loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community, and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers).

An early scene in the film depicts a school dance at Bedford Falls High School in 1928. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) and Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) dance together as the retractable basketball court slowly opens above a hidden swimming pool. The dancing pair do not notice that the floor is opening, and believe that the crowd is cheering them on as they dance. As they take a few steps back, they fall in.

Did you know the segment was filmed at Beverly Hills High School and the "Swim Gym" is still in existence today?

WATCH THE SWIM GYM BY THE BEVERLY HILLS HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Santa Claus & His Reindeer

Each holiday season, Santa Claus and his nine flying reindeer soar over the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Drive.

In this photo, you can see the onion dome of The Beverly Theatre. The theater was the first of six cinemas built in Beverly Hills, a true showplace for the work of the entertainment elite who lived in the neighborhood. It offered vaudeville as well as films, and its opening night program included a home movie "tour" of nearby homes of the stars. The theater was demolished in 2005 to make way for a luxury hotel development, now known as The Maybourne Beverly Hills.

Irving Berlin's White Christmas

White Christmas is a 1954 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, "White Christmas", introduced by Crosby in the 1942 film, Holiday Inn.

Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is notable for being the first to be released in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount that entailed using twice the surface area of standard 35mm film.

The song, White Christmas, was first recorded by Bing Crosby in August 1942.

Intro Lyrics
The sun is shining, the grass is green
The orange and palm trees sway
There's never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A
But it's December the twenty-fourth
And I am longing to be up North

The image depicts the movie's West Coast premier at the Warner Bros. Beverly Hills Theatre which was located at 9404 Wilshire Boulevard.

Gala White Christmas West Coast Premier Advertisement

Tournament of Roses Beverly Hills Float

On New Year’s Day 2014, a float dedicated to Beverly Hills in Pasadena’s annual Tournament of Roses parade paid tribute to the city’s upcoming centennial celebration by highlighting iconic imagery, including the Beverly Hills sign, shield and City Hall tower.

See the Beverly Hills Tournament of Roses float in action at 46:05.

Beverly Hills Historical Society

The Beverly Hills Historical Society, founded in 1984, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving all things pertinent to the history of the city of Beverly Hills. BHHS members and their families were some of the pioneers of this region dating back to the turn of the 20th century. Others have brought their passions for collecting, recording, and preserving history. Their volunteer members have gathered photographs, documents, correspondence, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, audio and video recordings, books, trophies, and other historical memorabilia, dating back to the city's development in the early 1900s.

The Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau wishes to thank the Beverly Hills Historical Society for their assistance and inspiration for this article.