James P. Wohl
James P. Wohl, attorney/author/novelist of Beverly Hills, California published The Nirvana Contracts: A Novel of Suspense in 1976, The Blind Trust Kills : A Novel of Suspense in 1977, and Talon: A Novel of Suspense in 1978. He wrote for Playboy Magazine. He once lived in the penthouse of the historic Sunset Towers building in West Hollywood, California.
Bibliography:
The Nirvana Contracts: A Novel of Suspense. Talon: A Novel of Suspense The Blind Trust Kills, A Novel of Suspense. Indianapolis : Bobbs-Merrill, c1978. 202 pages.
References
Sunset Towers Hotel, 1929
Sunset Towers Hotel, 1929 by srk1941. Designed in 1929 by architect Leland A Bryant, opened in 1931, it is considered one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the Los Angeles area. In its early years, it was the residence of many Hollywood celebrities, including John Wayne and Howard Hughes. After a period of decline in the early 1980s, the building was renovated and has been operated as a luxury hotel under the names The Argyle, St. James Club, and most recently the Sunset Tower Hotel. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Art Deco Sunset Tower is considered one of the finest examples of the Streamline Moderne form of Art Deco architecture in Southern California. In their guide to Los Angeles architecture, David Gebhard and Robert Winter wrote that "this tower is a first class monument of the Zig Zag Moderne and as much an emblem of Hollywood as the Hollywood sign." It is situated in a commanding location on the Sunset Strip with views of the city and is decorated with plaster friezes of plants, animals, zeppelins, mythological creatures and Adam and Eve. Originally operated as a luxury apartment hotel, it was one of the first high-rise reinforced concrete buildings in California. When it was completed in August 1931 at a cost of $750,000, the Los Angeles Times reported: "What is described to be the tallest apartment-house in Los Angeles County, rising 15 stories or 195 feet, was completed last week at Kings Road and Sunset Boulevard by W.I. Moffett, general contractor, for E.M. Fleming, owner." Marketing the building to Hollywood celebrities, an advertisement in the February 1938 issue of the Screen Actors Guild magazine read: "Faultless in Appointment-The Ultimate in Privacy . . . Hollywood's Most Distinguished Address." In 1933, the Los Angeles Times ran an article AbOUT the trend toward luxurious penthouse apartments in the city and noted that Sunset Tower boasted the city's highest penthouse: "It is the highest in the city and due to the location of the fifteen-story structure that supports it, its tenants live on a level with the tower of the Los Angeles City Hall. Imagine the view!" John Wayne, Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Buss and novelist James Wohl lived in the penthouse at different times, and Hughes reportedly also rented some of the lower apartments for his girlfriends or mistresses.John Wayne reportedly once brought a cow up to his penthouse apartment at 3 a.m. telling his party guests who were gathering for CoFFEE that they would have to go directly to the source if they wanted cream. Other former residents include Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Caine, Quincy Jones, Roger Moore, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Billie Burke, Joseph Schenck, Paulette Goddard, Zasu Pitts, George Stevens, Preston Sturges, and Carol Kane.
In 1944, resident Bugsy Siegel, described by the Los Angeles Times as a "Hollywood sportsman", was charged with running a bookmaking operations from his apartment at Sunset Tower.Siegel called it "a bum rap," and witnesses testified that Siegel and his friends were only playing "a friendly game of gin rummy." Siegel later pleaded guilty, paid a $250 fine, and was "asked" by management to leave his apartment at Sunset Tower.
The building was also the site of a publicized "Battle of the Balcony" involving bandleader Tommy Dorsey in 1944. Dorsey became involved in a fistfight with actor Jon Hall after the actor "paid undue attention to (Dorsey's) actress-wife Pat Dane" at a party held in Dorsey's apartment. The Los Angeles Times reported that actor Eddie Norris "darn near got killed . . . during the celebrity-infested brawl . . . when he tried to act as peacemaker" between Dorsey and Hall, who "came out of the fracas with his classic nose almost severed from his suntanned face."
In 1947, Truman Capote wrote in a letter: " I am living in a very posh establishment, the Sunset Tower, which, or so the local gentry tell me, is where every scandal that ever happened happened."Others report that the Sunset Tower was "notorious for having the best-kept call girls in Hollywood."
The hotel has also appeared in several feature films, including "The Italian Job", "Get Shorty", "The Player" and "Strange Days."