Holmby Park is a public park in

Holmby Hills Holmby Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. The neighborhood was developed in the early twentieth century by the Janss Investment Company, which developed the rest of Westwood as well as other Los Ang ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.LA Parks
/ref>

Location

The park is located in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California. It is surrounded by Club View Drive, Beverly Glen Boulevard, Comstock Avenue, and the

Los Angeles Country Club The Los Angeles Country Club is a golf and country club on the west coast of the United States, located in Los Angeles, California. History In the fall of 1897, a group of Los Angeles residents organized the Los Angeles Golf Club, and a lot wa ...

.Google Map
/ref> South Mapleton Drive, which eventually leads to the

Playboy Mansion The Playboy Mansion, also known as the Playboy Mansion West, is the former home of ''Playboy'' magazine founder Hugh Hefner who lived there from 1974 until his death in 2017. Barbi Benton convinced Hefner to buy the home located in Holmby Hills ...

, takes off from Club View Drive.Bob Pool
Tree-Cutting Casts Shadow Over Park
''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', September 23, 1996 The Manor can be seen from the park, as it is located across the street on the corner of Club View Drive and South Mapleton Drive.

History

The land was deeded by the

Janss Investment Company The Janss Investment Company was a family-run, Los Angeles–based real estate development company that operated from 1895 to 1995. First generation The Janss Investment Company was founded by Peter Janss, an immigrant doctor from Denmark. Pet ...

, the developers of Holmby Hills, to the City of Los Angeles to create a public park in the 1920s. In 1954, it was dedicated by the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

. Due to its location, the park has been frequented by celebrities over the years. In the 1950s,

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

frequented Holmby Park. In the late 1960s, former president

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

, who was governor of California at the time, lived a block from the park, and would visit on several occasions. Reagan also frequented the park in the late 1990s, during the last few years of his life. In the 1980s, composer

Nelson Riddle Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many world-famous vocalists at Capitol Records ...

(1921-1985) would meet his son Skip Riddle in Holmby Park at 8:30am on weekdays to talk about personal matters. In 1996, a dispute occurred between nature lovers and lawn bowlers after trees had been felled to prevent the grass from going brown because of too much shade from leafy trees. However, nature lovers objected to it, arguing the trees had been planted by the Jansses in the 1920s, and the lawn bowling club had no right to fell the trees of a public park. The Holmby Park Lawn Bowling Club is open to all and the park administration sided with the lawn bowlers.

Facilities

The park includes facilities such as barbecue pits, a children's play area, and picnic tables. Signs in the park remind users that dogs must be kept on leashes, and the following activities are forbidden: rollerskating, skateboarding, bicycling, the consumption of alcohol, the use of portable barbecues, littering, and loitering. It is home to the Armand Hammer Golf Course, named for

Armand Hammer Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American business manager and owner, most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran from 1957 until his death. Called "Lenin's chosen capitalist" by the press, ...

(1898-1990), a Holmby Hills resident and founder of

Occidental Petroleum Occidental Petroleum Corporation (often abbreviated Oxy in reference to its ticker symbol and logo) is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States, and the Middle East as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the ...

(). It was formerly called the Holmby Park Pony Course. As made manifest on signs in the park, only registered golfers are allowed on the putting green and turfgrass. It is also home to the Holmby Park Lawn Bowling Club, which was started in 1927.Holmby Park Lawn Bowling Club
/ref> The club has 150 members from 19 different countries.

Cultural references

Movies

The movie ''

High School Hellcats ''High School Hellcats'' is a 1958 American exploitation film starring Yvonne Lime, Bret Halsey, and Jana Lund and directed by Edward L. Bernds. It is part of a series of exploitation films about juvenile delinquents produced during the 1950s by ...

'' (dir. Edward L. Bernds, 1958), starring

Yvonne Lime Fedderson Yvonne is a female given name. It is the feminine form of Yvon, which is derived from the French name Yves and Yvette. It is from the French word ''iv'', meaning "yew" (or tree). Since yew wood was used for bows, Ivo may have been an occupatio ...

and

Brett Halsey Brett Halsey (born Charles Oliver Hand, June 20, 1933) is an American film actor, sometimes credited as Montgomery Ford. He appeared in B pictures and in European-made feature films. He originated the role of John Abbott on the soap opera ''The ...

, was shot on Comstock Avenue, with Holmby Park in the background.

Poetry

Poet

James L. McMichael James L. McMichael (born 1939) is an American poet and educator. Life The Pasadena, California native, McMichael received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. In 1970, following the breakup of his first marriage, he married his second wife, Phylind ...

describes Holmby Park as "triangular, genteel" in his 1994 poem ''Each in a Place Apart''.James McMichael, ''Each in a Place Apart'', Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1994, p. 19

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Gallery

References

{{Holmby Hills, Los Angeles Municipal parks in California Urban public parks Parks in Los Angeles Holmby Hills, Los Angeles