retrowavelength <retrowavelength@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:577D8E96.2050006@yahoo.com:
> The Spider Pool site's very beginning date is unknown. The
> so-called "ruins" section adjoining the spider wall bears the
appearance
> of an early rude cabin retreat and guesses are that it might date back
> to 1900 or before. But as we will see later, perhaps it was merely
made
> to look that way!
>
> About 1923 John McDermott (a talented director and screenwriter)
> began construction of the eventually-sprawling Spider Pool estate house
> and it seems to have begun when McDermott's purchased 6 "Algerian
rooms"
> used in a recently completed picture. It turned out to be an ongoing
> project and it's believed he did most or all of the work.
Interestingly
> and perhaps suggestively John directed a picture, "The Spider and the
> Rose" in 1923.
>
> A 1927 movie fan magazine described McDermott's house which he
> called his "crazy house." It was an eclectic mix of styles and
> incorporated more defunct movie set props and structures rather than
> seeing the used surplus movie stuff waste away due to neglect. (Sets
> were apparently well made and if cared for would last for many years.)
> It was said to have sliding panels, underground passageways, and it
even
> included 3 small rooftop cannons that had been made for the movie "The
> Sea Hawk." This was the Roaring 20s and lavish and crazy parties were
> hosted there.
>
> In 1929, McDermott was working with and possibly just pal-ing
> around with the actor Harold Lloyd, who was also a fanatic about
amateur
> photography, especially color & stereo photography, and is said to have
> photographed hundreds of nudie & cheesecake models. It may be this
> association that led to the Spider Pool locale eventually becoming a
> girlie photography destination. He would have recognized the
> interesting & colorful Pool area as a natural site for color photos.
>
> The first mention of a swimming pool onsite appears to have been
> in 1933 in another magazine article about the strange estate.
>
> John McDermott died in 1946, at age 53, in Los Angeles,
attributed
> to an accidental sleeping pill overdose. There was a fire at the house
> later that year which apparently did much damage but didn't destroy
all.
> Ownership of the property transferred to his nephew Edward shortly
> after the fire. He and his wife decided the place didn't suit them and
> they let others live there (evidence that much survived the fire).
>
> When did girlie pictures begin being taken there? Dolores Del
> Monte recalled posing for a camera club there between late 1950 & early
> 1951. A Hit Magazine 1952 issue featured Donna "Busty" Brown on the
> cover at the pool. These are the earliest documented dates. Note that
> the photography heyday of the Pool was after it had been going downhill
> for some time, both figuratively and literally. The gound on the steep
> hillsides was subsiding, naturally due to weather, and perhaps
> accelerated by earthquake activity. The cracked pool and broken
> features seen in many photos bear the evidence.
>
> The SP property passed through many owners after 1950 but nudie
> photography seems to have continued until about 1960, but in the early
> 1960s the site was going to weeds and delinquents were using the place.
> The police ordered the owners to raze the rest of the house.
> Neighbors bought up land containing the access road so that for a time,
> until access rights were corrected, the site was isolated but in 1962
> the owner threw I the towel & abandoned the property & the pool & house
> remainders were bulldozed. Somehow, amid the building booms that
laster
> plastered the hillsides with homes, portions of the SP were retained,
> perhaps as a convenient retaining wall. Thus, we had some portion of
> the SP still there for us to rediscover.
>
> Thanks to the Spider Pool Research Group for doing the hard work of
> digging up the Pool's past and that of the people who brought it into
> being and into fame.
>
> --rwl
>
>
Thanks for the full story.
I was aware of the interest in this group at the time, but was into too
many other things to pay proper attention.
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