Photo Essay: Hollywood Post 43, A World War I Memorial Built By the Movies and Boxing Matches

It's been nicknamed the "Post of the Stars." 

 

Originally chartered in 1919 by Hollywood luminaries who'd returned from World War I, American Legion Hollywood Post 43 can count such luminaries as Clark Gable, Gene Autry, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, and Charlton Heston as its past members.

A Turkey-Free Thanksgiving at a Storied Mountain Lodge Outside of LA

When I was working as a field agent for Atlas Obscura a few years ago, I really wanted to host a dinner at Saddle Peak Lodge—specifically, a game meat dinner. 

I was fascinated with intimidating foods and thought that a communal experience would create a comfort level that I, and others, might not have alone. 

I couldn't get that event approved, so I finally went to Saddle Peak Lodge on my own a few years ago—but I wimped out both gastronomically and financially and just went to brunch. I don't remember the meal, but I'm pretty sure I had eggs (and not, like, ostrich eggs).

So, I've felt like I hadn't really experienced the restaurant—and when the 2018 Woolsey Fire swept through the area, fortunately sparing it, the urgency to return intensified.

I finally made it back yesterday, for Thanksgiving dinner—not because this colonial holiday is important to me (it's not), but because I felt like I needed the excuse of a special occasion to splurge on it. And since it's a Michelin star-receiving establishment, it also charges Michelin star-level prices.

Photo Essay: Hollywood's Newest Historic Movie Theatre, at the American Legion (Updated)

[Last updated 6/12/21 9:40 PM PT—projection booth photos added at bottom]

The American Legion Hollywood Post 43 has been nicknamed the "Post of the Stars." 

That's not just because of its current Tinseltown location—but also because it was originally chartered in 1919 by Hollywood luminaries who'd returned from World War I. 

Past post members have included stars like Clark Gable, Gene Autry, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, and more.

Photo Essay: The Mystic Shrine for the Brotherhood of Ancient Angels [Updated for 2025]

[Last updated 11/17/25 1:05 PM PT—Added new photos from the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles tour on November 16, 2025.]

It’s the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world, and yet most of us who aren’t a part of it are still mystified by its symbols, rituals, and clandestine operations.



But recently, Freemasonry seems to have piqued the interest of newer generations—and it’s shown signs of rebounding in the 21st century, with former lodges and temples getting reused for new purposes and introducing the uninitiated to the cryptic and enigmatic world of secret handshakes and ancient iconography.



The Al Malaikah Shriners are still headquartered in the same auditorium near Exposition Park that they've called home since 1926.

Photo Essay: The Bygone Celebrity Playground of Borrego Springs

[Last updated 4/6/21 8:27 PM PT—details regarding Hoberg family members clarified]

When I first visited Borrego Springs, nestled in the heart of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, I'd actually wanted to stay in the nearby mountain resort town of Julian.

But it was September, and apple-picking season was beginning to peak.

The desert, however, was still a little too hot for most tourists, so we had no troubles booking a room in the valley.



I didn't know a thing about Borrego Springs before I visited—save for what a New York Times article had described as something like "The Next Palm Springs That Never Came to Be."



That article suggested we stay at the Palms at Indian Head, and we obeyed. Knowing me, always to root for the underdog, it was the perfect place for me to escape as well.



At the foot of Borrego Palm Canyon, The Palms at Indian Head was originally built in 1947 and opened in 1948 as Hoberg’s Desert Resort, owned by brothers Frank and George Hoberg. In 1950, after Frank's death in 1948, its proprietor became Mildred K. Hoberg, who'd been widowed by a third Hoberg brother, Paul. She moved to the desert with her own widowed mother and three teenage children.



Hoberg sold off the property in the 1950s, remarried, and moved to Northern California. But by 1958—after much of the resort burned down—it had already been rebuilt in a modernist style and renamed “Borrego Palms.”



Eventually, even the new post-and-beam version fell into disrepair and was forgotten, with all eyes shifting to Palm Springs instead. In 1993, new owners started restoring the property to its original splendor, naming it "The Palms" and adding "at Indian Head" after the mountain that rises up behind it, which some say is shaped like the head of a Native American chief.

circa 2008

Unfortunately, the underground observation deck for the swimming pool has been permanently sealed off (though I got a glimpse through it back in 2008 when I stayed there).

circa 2008

The architect of the rebuilt The Palms at Indian Head is unknown—but its design can hold its own among the creations of other desert modernists, like Albert Frey.

circa 2008

And it's in good company, too—as Borrego Springs features architecture (including pioneering use of steel construction) by such Mid-Century luminaries as William Kesling, Cliff May, and William Cody.

circa 2008

Architectural pedigree aside, sunset was absolutely magical at the Palms at Indian Head, as the cottontails emerged from their warrens and hopped freely through the bushes, and the bats began to dive-bomb the placid surface of the swimming pool water (while we were still in it, of course).

circa 2008

Having done it myself, I could also see why the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Orson Welles and other glitterati enjoyed waking up here.

circa 2008

I didn't want to leave, back then—especially not to return to my East Coast life. (It would be another 2+ years before I could move to California permanently.)

circa 2008

The Palms at Indian Head had just been restored, and I was having all these fantasies about becoming its live-in caretaker.

circa 2008

Things like that are possible in the desert, after all.

circa 2008

I liked that Borrego Springs never became the next Palm Springs and retained its remoteness and quietude.

circa 2008

I also loved that the Palms at Indian Head kept the ruins of much of the original property.



You can still walk right through them—despite how architecturally unstable they may seem—though the exterior walls have been painted an incongruous shade of lavender.



There are few signs of trying to demolish the old remains or even make it safer to visit...



...with rusty spikes sticking out at every turn.



It's fascinating to try to piece together the plot of the old Hoberg Resort, walking on sidewalks that led to nowhere, standing behind walls with huge chunks missing out of them.



It's the spooky feeling of walking through someone else's memory...

...piecing the bits together as the details crumble around you.



I wonder what Mrs. Hoberg would think, to see it today.



Original shower stalls and even toilets are still standing, sheltered by salmon- and mint green-colored tile walls.



But beyond this upright skeleton, this standing shell of a bygone resort, there lies the desert...



...wide open and blue, with the day-moon rising and a frondless palm piercing the sky.

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Photo Essay: Borrego Springs Ranch (Closed, Reopened as La Casa del Zorro)—Updated for 2019

Walking Box Ranch: Where Clara Bow and Her Hollywood Cowboy Husband Became Real Cattle Ranchers

I think part of the appeal of Walking Box Ranch in Searchlight, Nevada was how hard it was to get into.



It had been nearly a year since I'd first heard about it—and after several attempts, I finally got to the former grazing grounds of the Rock Springs Cattle Company...



...through the gate fashioned out of old railroad ties...



...past the old ice house...



...(which was regrettably locked)...



...and right up to the historic red barn...



...whose cattle corrals were also made of railroad ties.



But cattle isn't what brought me to see Walking Box Ranch. It was Clara Bow—the silent film-era "It" girl whose husband, movie cowboy Rex Bell, bought the ranch in 1931 and became a real-life cowboy there. 



He named it after a box camera mounted on a tripod, ubiquitous in Hollywood at the time.



But Clara Bow couldn't really survive the emergence of the "talkies"...



...so when she moved to Searchlight with her husband, she wasn't leaving much Hollywood work behind.



Of course, the remoteness of the area (the closest post office was Nipton) cut her off from moviemaking even more...



...though she became quite the celebrity around Searchlight.



Their Spanish Colonial style home provided accommodations suitable for a celebrity getaway...



...not only for its owners and permanent residents but also superstar guests like Clark Gable and Errol Flynn.



But the faded "it girl" didn't last at the Walking Box Ranch...



...leaving her husband and two sons behind in the mid-1940s.



After her departure, Bell got into Nevada politics—eventually becoming Lieutenant Governor in 1954.



By then, he'd already sold Walking Box Ranch—the surrounding property in 1949 and the house in 1950.



It operated as YKL Ranch for the next four decades.



In 2000, it went up for auction, having been restored by a gold mining company that needed to unload it as its claims were drying up.



The Bureau of Land Management acquired it in 2004 and currently conducts limited tours of the property, by advance reservation only. (Sometimes, way in advance.)



Nearly a century after her heyday, most modern moviegoers probably don't know Clara Bow by name.



They don't know that the phrase "it girl" was coined because Bow starred in a silent film called It, which launched her career into the stratosphere.



But everybody knows the cartoon character that Clara Bow inspired: Betty Boop.



Walking Box Ranch, though seven miles from the center of town, still feels incredibly secluded and quiet. It's become a critical habitat for the desert tortoise, so it's a priority to preserve the property and the natural environment (which also includes a cactus garden).

Although all the furnishings are long gone, many of the lighting fixtures, hardware, bar, and fireplace are all original (including the security bars on the windows of the young boys' room, a response to the 1932 kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr. from his crib).

The cluster of structures and features was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 as a historic district—as an example of early 20th century ranching history as well as Spanish Colonial architecture and of course the cultural history of its most famous residents.

Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Oakridge, An Old Hollywood Celebrity Ranch
Photo Essay: The Wild Goose, Upon John Wayne's Birthday