Tag: Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel

Coronet Apartments, Villa of Vice?

Hollywood madam Lee Francis and Judge Cecil D. Holland reviewing a document, 1940

One of the Sunset Strip’s most infamous legends is that the Piazza del Sol, an Italian Renaissance-style building at 8439 Sunset, was once a brothel – that the entire building was a lavish pleasure palace operated in service to Hollywood elites. I fact check the legend over at the West Hollywood History Center.

Will ‘Mob City’ Stick to the Facts or ‘Hollywood-ize’ the Hollywood Mob?

Left: Mickey Cohen, Jeremy Luke as Cohen

Those of us who spend our days digging up Los Angeles history, especially the 20th-century era when the mob ran rampant, will be watching the new series “Mob City” with special interest when it debuts on TNT on Wednesday. One historian of particular note who will be tuning in is Los Angeles underworld expert and Mickey Cohen biographer Tere Tereba.

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