One of the most important buildings in the context of Hollywood movie history, the Hollywood Western Building, alternately known as the Mayer Building, opened at 5504 Hollywood Boulevard on the southwest corner of Hollywood and Western on December 8, 1928.

Commissioned by Louis B. Mayer of MGM Studio, and MGM executive Irving Thalberg, the 4-story Art Modern retail and office building was designed by S. Charles Lee (known for his work on numerous movie theaters).

LA Times 1/16/1927

Mayer purchased the land for the building in January 1927, from the estate of J. J. Morgan; Morgan had planned to build his own height-limit structure on the site but died before doing anything with it.

Construction on Mayer’s project got underway on July 26, 1928.

Hollywood Citizen-News 7/25/1928

Sketch of the proposed building that appeared in the LA Times on 8/5/1928. LAPL photo.

LA Times 8/5/1928

At the gala opening, MGM’s top leading lady Norma Shearer (Mrs. Norma Shearer) opened the doors with a gold key and klieg lights swept the sky.

The Hollywood-Western opening. L-R: Irving Thalberg, Leila Hyams, Norma Shearer, S. Charles Lee, Owen Lee, Raquel Torres and building manager Sidney Weisman. UCLA photo.

Opening night. LAPL photo.

Newman Drug, addressed as 5500 Hollywood Boulevard, was an anchor retail tenant occupying the prime Hollywood & Western corner storefront. Hollywood Citizen News 12/7/1928

Newman Drug in the prime corner location. UCLA photo.

LA Times 12/9/1928

The new building housed 10 stores on the ground floor and a bowling alley/billiard parlor in the basement with an entrance on Western Avenue. The second floor held offices of the Motion Picture Producers Association; the two upper floors were reserved for the Central Casting Corporation, which primarily served as an employment agency for movie extras. If MGM or any other studio needed a cast of thousands, Central Casting could supply them. The company had been formed on December 4, 1925 by Will Hays, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, as a means to regulate hiring and protect the hordes of hopefuls who arrived in Hollywood by the busload and hung around outside the studios hoping to be discovered, from being exploited by scam artists. Sadly, only white actors were welcome at 5504 Hollywood Boulevard- black actors had to register with Central Casting elsewhere.

The Edna Ezor dress shop was another original retail tenant. Hollywood Citizen News 12/7/1928.

The new building included spacious quarters for Hays. Mayer and the other studio heads had to pretend to make Hays welcome but in reality they dreaded him. In the 20s, under threat of federal regulation of film content, the movies promised to self-censor themselves. Hays was in charge of enforcing the censoring effort but the studios more or less flouted the Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) until 1934.

If Central Casting was casting a film czar in charge of censorship, it could do no better than Will H. Hays.

C.E. Mattson Jeweler was an original retail tenant. Hollywood Citizen News 12/7/1928.

The basement of the Hollywood-Western Building housed a bowling alley and billiard parlor from the opening until January 1994.

The Motion Picture Producers Association moved out of the building in early 1950.

On January 3, 1961, black movie extras were finally allowed to register for work at Central Casting headquarters at 5504 Hollywood Boulevard, ending segregation of CC. From its inception to this date, black actors had to register elsewhere. California Eagle 1/5/1961.

With the decline of Hollywood and the studio system, the building’s importance diminished. It was declared a city cultural historic landmark in 1988. Already suffering from years of neglect and deferred maintenance, the building sustained damage in the Northridge earthquake of January 1994 and was closed as unsafe to occupy. Squatters took it over and trashed the interior. In 1999, preservationists, who raised private and public funds, undertook the effort to restore the Hollywood-Western building.

The building remains extant.

Notes:

Morgan did build a 4-story hotel on the parcel’s Western Avenue frontage which was likely included with the sale. Some sources assert that this building was used to house the studio executives’ mistresses; this is probably just a myth.