The Hollywood Guild Canteen, not to be confused with the Hollywood Canteen or the canteen of the Hollywood USO, was located at 1284 N. Crescent Heights Boulevard at Fountain. Founded in 1942 by Anne Neill Lehr, wife of retired film executive Abraham Lehr, it provided free food, entertainment and overnight accommodations in a home-like atmosphere to service members on leave.
Anne Lehr already had a long resume of civic leadership. During the first World War she had been active with the American Red Cross. She directed the tearoom of the Assistance League’s Good Samaritan Committee, located at 5604 Delongpre Avenue, where the stars served as waitresses, and in 1931 headed the Women’s Auxiliary Committee of the Motion Picture Relief Fund. In 1935, she founded the Hollywood Relief Guild, headquartered at 1305 N. Crescent Heights, to benefit aged and indigent members of the film industry who didn’t qualify for other aid programs or were reluctant to apply for them. Bette Davis was a patron. Anne raised money for the Guild with events such as daily luncheons, weekly bridge luncheons and fashion shows at the Trocadero, garden parties, recitals, premiere benefit parties, and auctions and sales personal items donated by the stars.
With the US entry into World War II, she became chair of the Los Angeles County Women’s Voluntary Service Organization (WVSO), which organized permanent and mobile canteens for soldiers and arranged entertainment for men in camps, among other activities.
Lehr realized there was a need for a space where servicemen could be entertained without being ripped off and founded the Hollywood Guild Canteen on May 15, 1942. She rented a mansion with expansive grounds at 1284 N. Crescent Heights, across the street from her Relief Guild headquarters, and recruited young women from the studio- movie extras, secretaries, clerks- to be hostesses. Stars donated furniture and other supplies- notably a bamboo bar given by Greer Garson according to some reports (others said it came from Norma Shearer). The servicemen could play ping pong, dance to records or the radio, have a home-cooked meal or just relax. There was no charge. Bette Davis was active with the project, and served as chair of the Hollywood Guild Canteen until her own Hollywood Canteen opened in October 1942.
Two decades earlier the mansion had been home to silent Western film star Dustin Farnum and his wife and frequent leading lady Winifred Kingston. The couple married at the house in August 1924. Farnum died in July 1929 and Kingston rented out the property. As of August 1929, it was a private girls’ school. From circa 1932 to 1937 it served as the home base of the Domino Club, a private theater club for film industry women. Later that decade it briefly served as the Dominican Republic consulate.
Over the 4th of July weekend, 1942, Anne announced that the canteen had entertained 2000 service members.
Later that month, Winifred Kingston sued the Hollywood Canteen Guild for non-payment of rent. She and Lehr had a verbal agreement that the group was to pay $300 a month; in June the amount was reduced to $250 a month. Lehr and Kingston worked it out and the canteen continued to operate. In fact, Lehr, seeing that many of the boys who visited had nowhere to stay, converted the clubhouse into a dorm. It housed between 80-100 service men every weekend and was open to servicemen every day and night.
It cost an estimated $6000 a month to keep the canteen going, all through private donations. Mary Pickford held a garden party at her estate, Pickfair, on August 25, 1942 to benefit both the Hollywood Relief Guild and the Hollywood Guild Canteen. Other star-studded fundraisers would be planned- a dance benefit a Mocambo, a benefit premiere of San Goldwyn’s “Up in Arms” starring Danny Kaye (Abraham Lehr had been VP of the Goldwyn Pictures corporation), Orson Wells magic shows, an ice show at the Trocadero.
In January 1943, the Hollywood American Legion Post presented Anne with a U.S. flag in recognition of her work.
Tom Brenneman, host of a popular morning radio program, “Breakfast at Sardi’s,” used his platform to raise money to install a swimming pool for the Hollywood Guild Canteen. It was inaugurated on the 4th of July, 1944 with a swimming party and barbecue attended by former Olympic swimming champions Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller.
On August 10, 1945, Anne announced that the canteen would continue to help after the war. It was already assisting recently detached servicemen to find jobs.
The Trocadero nightclub hosted a benefit for the Hollywood Guild Canteen featuring ice follies star Belita on August 12, 1945.
Japan’s unconditional surrender came two days later, on August 14, 1945.
The Hollywood Guild Canteen not only didn’t close- it expanded, opening an annex at 1401 N. Crescent Heights Boulevard on October 24, 1945 in what had been the Service Women’s Home.
The property at 1284 N. Crescent Heights Boulevard was offered to the Guild Canteen for $60,000 in 1945, but it didn’t have the cash. It sold to actor Richard Lane and his business manager Robert Hodge.
On December 10, 1945, the Guild Canteen board voted to operate on a semi-commercial basis, since donations had dwindled. For $7-$10 a week, depending on whether he was going to school (under the GI Bill) or employed, approximately 150 veterans living at the canteen got a bed and breakfast; dinner was fifty cents. All the same, it operated at a loss of $300-$400 a month; the deficit was covered by citizens who, as Anne said, “still cared.” The Guild continued its social services mission from new offices at 802 N. Fairfax, and twice a week, disabled servicemen from nearby hospitals were invited over to 1284 N. Crescent Heights for a swim and a barbecue.
In February 1946, the property’s wartime variance expired; granted “for the duration of physical hostilities plus 6 months,” the variance had allowed the Guild to operate the canteen in a residential neighborhood. The canteen was given notice to cease operations by March 15. The Guild went right on feeding and caring for its discharged veteran residents and guests. Neighbors complained, calling the canteen noisy and a nuisance. In May 1946, the County Regional Planning Board ordered the canteen to close. The Guild applied to the Board for another zone variance. In addition, the property was again on the market- now for $125,000. The Board set a hearing for September 12 to hear the case. On June 10, the County Health Department inspected the facility and made a list of health and safety code violations.
A group of residents protested against their potential eviction. Before the September hearing, the County Board of Supervisors agreed the vets living there should not be forced out of their home, but minimum safety requirements would have to be met. At the hearing, the Regional Planning Board agreed to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that another temporary zone variance be granted. The Supervisors unanimously agreed on October 1, 1946. The canteen now had until October 30, 1948 – one day before its lease expired on October 31.
On October 26, 1948, the Guild held an auction of the canteen’s furnishings. The bamboo bar went for $20. The Hollywood Guild Canteen officially closed on October 27.
The new owner, W.E. Clark, had the house and other structures erected by the Guild during the canteen era, demolished almost immediately. He developed the property with a 64-unit colonial-style apartment complex known as the Greenbriar Apartments. It opened on August 29, 1949.
With the Korean War underway, in August 1950, Ann Lehr, who had been nicknamed “Mom” during the years of the Hollywood Guild Canteen operation, said the canteen would not be able to reopen due to lack of funds. In January 1951, she did arrange entertainment at the GI Joe Service Center at 305 Olive Street, the lower floor of the Moose Lodge. She also threw a big party for service members at the Hollywood Breakfast Club on February 4, 1951.
Mom Lehr died of a heart attach on November 8, 1951.
Notes
Some reporting about the closing of the Hollywood Guild Canteen stated that Bette Davis; secretary had a difference of opinion with Anne regarding the running of the operation, and therefore talked her boss into opening a “rival” Hollywood Canteen. It’s possible; however the timeline of the Hollywood Canteen suggests that Davis was interested in setting up a facility similar to Broadway’s Stage Door Canteen, even before the Hollywood Guild Canteen was established.
Hollywood had another Ann Lehr/Anna Lehr who was a silent film actress and the mother of Ann Dvorak