Jack McDermott House (Los Angeles, California)

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Ruins of The House That Jack Built.

Former location of screenplay writer and director John W. "Jack" McDermott's (1892-1946) estate, which was razed in 1962. The largest and most iconic remnant of his home is the Spiderpool. After his death, the Spiderpool became a popular backdrop for cheesecake and nude photography of models such as Tura Satana by Harold Lloyd, Dolores Del Monte, Donna “Busty” Brown, Dixie Evans, Jacquelyn Prescott, Marguerite Empey (a.k.a. Diane Webber), Melody Ward, Candy Paige, Thelma Montgomery, and more.

The minaret-studded house itself was cobbled together by McDermott from former movie sets. As a writer for Famous Players-Lasky and Universal, he was used to seeing exquisitely-built movie sets discarded after only hours of use and decided to build his home from these discarded sets and pieces. The earliest mention of The House was in 1923 when McDermott purchased “six Algerian rooms used in Norma Talmadge’s recently completed picture, ‘The Song of Love’” and reassembled on his property. Other set pieces included palace girders from The Thief of Baghdad, tombstones from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, roofing from The Phantom of the Opera, a plaster goddess from Nazimova's Salome, and a table from Robin Hood. It also featured pricey tile imported from places such as Italy and France due to McDermott, posing as a tile dealer, contacting tile companies for samples. In this manner, he was able to acquire thousands of dollars worth of free tile.

The house was partially destroyed by fire in 1947, demolished piecemeal by Darrell Gregory in response to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety's demands, and eventually razed in 1962. Only the spider mural, parts of the pool, the remnants of a structure that predates McDermott's estate constructed no later than 1900, and other scattered remnants remain.

www.findinglostangeles.com/all-content/2017/10/10/the-s...
cemeteryguide.com/gotw-mcdermott.html
shebloggedbynight.com/2015/tura-satana-at-the-spiderpoo...