A Devil You Know Tour of 1940s Hollywood

One of the funnest parts of writing The Devil You Know was working some Hollywood landmarks into the plot. As Julian Piedmont’s demons start running amok in 1946 Hollywood and Marie Doyle does her best to stop them, the characters show up in a variety of famous (and some not-so-famous) spots. Here are a few, many of which are still around and still attracting tourists–all human, I hope.

The Hollywood Sign as Seen from Runyon Canyon Park. Public domain photo by Downtowngal

1. Runyon Canyon Park. There’s a lot of history in this park and some incredible views. One thing visitors can still run across are the ruins of an old pool and the house built next to it. Errol Flynn visited the house often back in the day, and the ruins have been tagged as “Errol Flynn’s mansion,” which is probably overstating things. The place was nothing like Julian Piedmont’s opulent Hollywood Hills mansion, but there’s something creepy about the old ruins that fits in well with the The Devil You Know. Adding the Errol Flynn connection only helps. A drive up into the maze of roads that cover the Hollywood Hills will give sightseers plenty of other mansions to imagine as Julian’s, but this one might just get the job done.

2. Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Located on Hollywood Boulevard, Grauman’s Chinese isn’t called “Grauman’s” any more, but it’s still one of the most popular of Hollywood’s attractions with all of the movie stars’ footprints in the courtyard’s cement. Back in the 1940s, the courtyard would have been just as much of a draw for tourists, and it’s where Marie agrees to meet with Colin Krebs to hear him out as he tells her what’s been happening at Julian’s mansion–a perfect spot really, with lots of people around but no one really paying attention to what anyone else is doing there.

The Hollywood Hotel, ca 1905

3. Hollywood Boulevard. If you leave the Chinese Theater and head east along Hollywood Blvd., you’re walking past the Hollywood and Highland complex that now houses shops and the home of the Academy Awards. Back in the 1940s, this would still have been the site of the old Hollywood Hotel, a famous spot where movie stars stayed and where Hollywood’s high rollers would meet to broker deals on the verandas. The building has been gone since the 1950s. Marie takes this same walk in the book as she’s on the lookout for demons. If you keep walking past Highland, you’ll see across the street two other spots mentioned in the book–the old Egyptian Theater and The Pig N Whistle restaurant. Farther along Hollywood, you’ll come to Musso and Frank Grill, billed as the oldest restaurant in Hollywood and a favorite spot of demons in The Devil You Know. At any point along this walk, you can turn west and see the Roosevelt Hotel, another landmark and site of all sorts of Hollywood shenanigans, both real and the type you’ll find in the novel.

4. The Brown Derby. Opened in the late 1920s, the Hollywood Brown Derby was shaped like a derby hat and was a favorite hangout of movie stars and other Hollywood types. It was located on Vine Street near Hollywood Blvd. The restaurant was damaged by fire in the 1980s. Today, it is the site of a parking lot. In The Devil You Know, it’s where a few of the demons go to meet their victims.

5. The Parva Sed Apta Apartments. This was a bit of literary geekery on my part. I decided to have Laura Tremaine live at 1817 Ivar Street, which is just a couple of blocks north of Hollywood Blvd. It’s up a rather steep hill, and on west side of the street just past Yucca you’ll find a small English Tudor style apartment building. This is where Nathanael West lived for a little while in the 1930s when he was working on screenplays and writing his masterpiece, The Day of the Locust, probably my favorite Hollywood novel. West referred to the neighborhood as “Lysol alley” and based several of the novel’s characters on people he encountered while living on Ivar. I couldn’t resist having Laura live here. The movie premiere she hears from her apartment is also similar in its chaotic feel to the premiere at the climax of Day of the Locust.

6. The Chateau Marmont. Another famous Hollywood hotel, maybe one of the most famous, the Chateau Marmont is off of Sunset Boulevard to the west of most of the other historic Hollywood landmarks that tourists flock to. It’s been around since 1927 and is famous for its luxury and style as well as for the bungalows that dot the grounds. This is where Colin Krebs and Marie have their second meeting as Marie tries to figure out just what is going on with the eerily handsome men who are paying so much attention to the beautiful women of Hollywood.

7. Schwab’s Drugstore. This is another site that’s no longer there, but the drugstore used to be near the intersection at Sunset and Laurel. Schwab’s had a soda counter and was a popular hangout during the 1930s and 40s. It took on mythic status as the site of Lana Turner’s “discovery,” which didn’t actually happen at Schwab’s. It didn’t matter, though. The place became a hub for wannabe movie stars and gawkers. It’s a good place for demons (and demon slayers) to seek their prey. The building has been gone since the 80s and the site was later home of Virgin Records, also gone now. Not far away, just south on Laurel, is the apartment where F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940. This has nothing to do with The Devil You Know, but is interesting anyway.

There are some other landmarks mentioned in the book as well as several spots that are purely fictional. Marie and her friend Elise live in one of the neighborhoods off of Melrose Avenue just a bit south of Sunset–no specific streets or houses, but there are still lots of little 1930s and 40s style houses in the area. Saint Lucy’s church is also fictional, as is Jasper’s bookstore and his house on the hill in the Los Feliz area. Los Feliz is definitely still there and definitely high rent, but it’s not hard to imagine an eccentric little house tucked up on the hillside in 1946, a holdout from earlier days but something that surely would have been razed as the decades rolled along.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour, and the book itself.