Chronicles of Old Los Angeles by James Roman

Author:James Roman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Museyon
Published: 2015-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

Dunbar (Somerville) Hotel on Central Avenue, c. 1930

Nobody had ever constructed an upscale residence for African Americans before. As Somerville put it, his clientele “did not have to wait for white people to wear off the newness.” The hotel was a knockout; not just new, but elegant. The lobby soared two stories high with a massive Art Deco chandelier. Decorated in the Mediterranean style that was popular throughout LA, the 115-room hotel featured a Spanish-style courtyard, decorative arches and tilework, plus wrought-iron staircases that ascended to a mezzanine level. DuBois was stunned, calling the hotel “a jewel done with loving hands.” He added, “We were prepared for, well, something that didn’t leak. Instead … we entered a beautiful inn with soul.” The Somerville Hotel was front-page news in African American publications across the country.

The convention was newsworthy, too. Thirty-five hundred delegates from 44 states packed Philharmonic Auditorium to hear (white, Republican) Mayor George Cryer swallow hard as he welcomed this rare delegation to Los Angeles for seven days of consciousness-raising discussions. DuBois was thrilled by its success. “The boulevards of Los Angeles grip me with nameless ecstasy,” he wrote in the NAACP newsletter. It was an invitation for African Americans to head west.

Suddenly, 12th and Central was off the radar. Somerville’s hotel became the new hub for black Los Angeles. More than a personal triumph, Somerville’s efforts reshaped the boundaries of the black community. Within six months, every empty lot between 12th Street and 42nd Street was occupied along Central Avenue. The Club Alabam opened next door to the hotel, bringing jazz (with chorus girls) to the new neighborhood. Even wealthy whites from the west side, seeking the authentic new music that could only be found in the black part of town, found their way to the new clubs that opened near 42nd and Central, which was soon simply known as “The Avenue.”

Heartbreak followed. The Great Depression destroyed the black middle class. Somerville went bankrupt. His hotel, once a symbol of black achievement in America, was foreclosed and sold to white investors. They renamed it the Dunbar Hotel, in honor of poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the name that remains on the building today.

The white owners were shrewd: They secured a cabaret license for the dining room. Though the cabaret experiment lasted for just a few months, it cleared the way for something far more magical. As racial tensions escalated in the 1930s and ‘40s, glamorous Hollywood movie stars wanted to dance to jazz bands in restricted clubs like the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel. Black bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway earned a fortune for those nightclubs, but when closing time came, black musicians were ushered out the back door. There was no room for them in those fancy hotels. Instead, they stayed at the Dunbar. Every black celebrity from Billie Holliday to Lena Horne, every jazz luminary from Louis Armstrong to Count Basie, checked into the Dunbar when they performed in Los Angeles. Then, in the wee

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