Southern California has a rich architectural history with a seemingly infinite trove of resources to probe for avenues of study and research. My aim with this blog is to share my findings with like-minded aficianados and see where this adventure leads.
I am an inveterate collector of Southern California architectural material and passionate researcher of same. It is my hope that others will be interested in my findings and that I will develop a network of friends along the way to share insights with.
A nice item I found over the weekend was this November 1945 issue of Western Building which includes a cover story on Cliff May’s David Hertz Residence in Los Angeles titled “Windows are What You Make of Them: Los Angeles Builder Cliff May Uses Them Cleverly.” The cover photo is a cropped version of photo 0771-005 posted on-line at the Huntington Library’s Maynard Parker Archive site. The article also includes photo nos. 0771-003, 004, 006 and 007.

According to the Huntington’s Maynard Parker database the house also was featured on the September, 1944 cover of Better Homes & Gardens in a Martha Darbyshire article “Rambling Ranch House” and the cover of the November 11, 1945 issue of the L.A. Times Home Magazine with a different view of the fireplace and built-in bookshelves with the caption “Bookshelves, arching living-room fireplace in Pacific Palisades home of David Hertz with bright warm color, make spot an invitation to linger.”

Parker’s Assignment 0771 for Cliff May is an example of how one project can “get legs” and create a stream of income for the photographer and publicity for the architect. Both he and Julius Shulman were masters at that game as I will illustrate in subsequent posts.
Maynard Parker’s career closely paralleled that of Julius Shulman on whom I have done much research. Both were featured on hundreds of covers of regional and national publications and both of their archives have found wonderful homes at the Huntington Library and Getty Research Institute. I highly recommend a browse of both to anyone interested in architectural photography and the history of the Southern California built environment. Links to both are in my links of interest on the right.
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