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| Samuel-Novarro House |
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| Samuel-Novarro House |
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| Samuel-Novarro House |
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| Samuel-Novarro House |
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| Samuel-Novarro House |
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| Samuel-Novarro House |
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| Samuel-Novarro House |
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| Ramon Novarro |
Lloyd
Wright was Frank’s eldest son, born in 1890. Trained as a landscape
architect, Lloyd came to Southern California
in his mid-twenties. Wright
met
Louis Samuel through actor Ramon Novarro who
had asked Wright to
build him a Spanish Revival home (it was never realized). Samuel and Novarro
met in dance class years earlier, and, by the middle of the 1920s, the former had
become the actor’s personal assistant and business
manager. By then, also,
Novarro was Hollywood’s first Latin-American superstar,
with his most popular
role being the lead in 1925’s Ben-Hur.
For
Samuel and his wife, Wright created an Art Deco/Mayanesque
masterpiece in Los Angeles. The four-level home
was built into the side of a hill
with concrete and oxidized copper throughout. Nearly everything was incorporated
in the first
floor: dining room; living room; kitchen; the home’s sole bedroom;
and the
lounge which lead to the outdoor swimming pool. In
1930, Novarro
discovered Samuel had been embezzling from him and he took over ownership
of
the Wright house. Rather than
incorporating Wright-designed furnishings into
the renovated house, Novarro
brought in MGM art director Cedric Gibbons to
redecorate the home. Novarro
lived in the home until the late thirties.
