THE LAND OF MILK ‘N MONEY

January 28 . . .

The City of Beverly Hills became formally recognized by the Golden State of California on this day in 1914, and property values were never the same again.

In 1844 a Spanish woman named Maria Rita Valdez managed to score one of the great deals of the century when she acquired controlling interest of 4,500 acres of tumbleweeds, sagebrush, sheep meadows and lizards for a grand total of $17.50. In 1912, a group of German investors decided to build a hotel – dubbed the Hotel Beverly Hills – on the property to attract investors. By sheer luck and fortuitous timing, the fledgling film industry arrived a few months later, and business at the hotel was booming. When movie royalty Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks decided to built their home Pickfair on a hill overlooking the hotel, the town’s reputation was made. Within a few years, John Barrymore, Charles Chaplin, Greta Garbo and the rest of Hollywood royalty had nestled into cozy coexistence in paradise.

Commemorate the illustrious real estate transaction with ‘Down and Out in Beverly Hills’ (1986), Paul Mazursky’s potent and funny satire of Southern California customs and lifestyles. Based on the French film ‘Boudou Saved From Drowning’, ‘Down and Out’ follows the tale of a homeless, eccentric but charismatic bum (Nick Nolte) who manages to get adopted by a typically atypical Beverly Hills family, headed by wire hanger manufacturer Richard Dreyfuss and his blowsy wife, Bette Midler. Mazursky skewers the Southern California lifestyle with both wit and compassion, and Nolte reveals previously unknown comicedic talents in his role as the manipulative but amiable bum.