1200 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1903 on Lot 138 of Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract by Frederick D. Samuel, a carpenter employed by the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company. Per the Los Angeles Times of November 9, 1903, Samuel was in the process of building a $2,400, seven-room residence at "1202" East Adams Street
  • Fred Samuel was a step-grandson of widowed real estate investor Maria S. Bowman, who, after arriving from East St. Louis, Illinois, had bought all 17 lots on the south side of Adams Street between Hooper and Naomi avenues in January 1894, that year building a house for herself at 1266 East Adams at the east end of the block. In November 1906 deeds to $4,000 worth of property were signed over to Samuel—he claimed it was a gift from Mrs. Bowman—despite his having sworn in court the previous June that she was incompetent. The following spring, one of Mrs. Bowman's stepdaughters, Sister Kostka (née Minnie Bowman), an Ursuline nun living in Wisconsin who was apparently concerned with earthly matters as much as she was spiritual, came west to Los Angeles to drag her nephew into court, where she testified that her stepmother was mentally unfit to have made the decision to give the property away. Her sister, Blanche Luden—Fred's mother—appears to thought her stepmother quite competent; after she testified to that effect during the proceedings, Sister Minnie slapped her across the face in court. The judge's opinion was handed down on June 5, 1907, 17 days before Maria S. Bowman died: Samuel had to return the property. Maria S. Bowman had been the third wife of John B. Bowman, whose previous wife had died in 1877 and who had served several terms as mayor of East St. Louis before his assassination in 1885, leaving Maria money to invest that might have otherwise gone directly to his children
  • The property returned by Fred Samuel to his mother appears to have included 1200 East Adams as well as the adjacent Lot 137, on which developer Perry Whiting would be building 1206 East Adams in 1910, and a newly carved lot comprised of the rear 37½ feet of both Lots 137 and 138, on which Whiting would be building 2612 Naomi Avenue, also in 1910. Whiting appears to have retained that house along with 1206 and 1200 as rental property during the 1910s
  • 1200 East Adams remained rental property until 1923. By April 1910, it was occupied by the family of New York State–born Laurence McGreal, a onetime farmer and stockman who was getting into the real estate business. He moved in with his wife Hannah and their eight children. The McGreals' stay was brief; afterward, a succession of tailors and a seamstress, a shoemaker, a waiter, an elevator operator, and a porter all lived in the house for various periods until 1923. That year, an unsung Hollywood figure, a man of his times and one caught in them, bought the house; by this time, residential East Adams had become a solid mecca for African-American life in Los Angeles, one with dynamic Central Avenue as its spine
  • Oscar Smith would appear in numerous films, including over the years Harold Lloyd's The Freshman (1925), The Canary Murder Case (1929), and Double Indemnity (1944). Working as a bootblack, he was brought by Wallace Reid to the studios of Famous Players—later Paramount—in 1919 to become his valet and protégé. Though he would retain a shoe-shine stand inside the Bronson Avenue gates of Paramount for many years, which became a sort of clearing house for studio gossip and tips, Smith had been brought far enough along in the film business by the time Reid died in 1923 for him to become established as a reliable and very popular bit performer. It could be that Reid left Smith a legacy that financed the purchase of 1200 East Adams; some histories have it that Reid had enough power as a star to instruct in his will that Paramount keep Smith's concession at the studio permanently, which made him easily available for work on the soundstages. The star Richard Dix is said to have been responsible for giving Oscar his first credited role in 1927's Man Power. In 1929, the Los Angeles Evening Express was among the papers to report that Paramount had given Smith a long-term contract, reportedly the first for a black performer


Oscar Smith appeared in his first credited role in 1927's Man Power as "Ptomaine," a character who,
according to the script, had been the cook in the regiment of "Tom Roberts" during World War I.
Roberts was played by Smith's benefactor Richard Dix, one of Paramount's biggest stars.
Earth-moving equipment figured into Man Power; Smith and Dix are seen here
with an example in the September 1927 issue of Photoplay magazine.


  • On October 14, 1924, the Department of Buildings issued Oscar Smith a permit to convert 1200 East Adams into a double residence; the work included, per the document, moving the house an unspecified distance on the lot and to "reconstruct [its] brick foundation... [and] reconnect plumbing and sewer...gas, light and water." The proposed second address was 2604 Naomi Avenue; this became instead 1200½ East Adams. Curiously—and moments before the stock market crash that fall—Smith was issued a permit on August 17, 1929, to convert 1200 back into its original single-family configuration. Additionally curious is that on February 27, 1935, Smith was issued a permit for 1200—with the notation that it is a two-family residence—to "remove floor of side porch. Cut one foot off eve of roof on side facing Naomi...." (Perhaps street work necessitated the alterations)
  • On January 9, 1942, Oscar Smith was issued a permit for a new garage at 1200 East Adams; this structure appears to have been demolished in 1965
  • Oscar Smith married Nora La Vertt in September 1921; Shirley Mae Smith was born in 1931. In August 1950, just married in Yuma, Shirley and her husband, Elliott McKenzie of Long Beach, were honored by her parents at a garden party at 1200 East Adams. In its coverage of the event, the Los Angeles Sentinel described Oscar as "the long-famous motion picture figure"
  • Still living at 1200 East Adams, Oscar Smith died in Los Angeles on March 18, 1956. His death was noted in papers across the country. In large headlines, the Los Angeles Sentinel and the Chicago Defender described him as the STAR WHO GAVE THE 'OSCAR' AWARD ITS NAME, citing the impossible story that Wallace Reid referred to Smith as "his own Oscar," the only problem being that the first Academy Award wasn't presented until six years after Reid's death, and it wouldn't be until years later that the statuette gained its nickname, stories abounding as to its origins. Other claims to the nickname include that of Bette Davis, who is said to have thought the figure's backside resembled her first husband's)
  • On May 12, 1956, the Chicago Defender reported that Nora Smith was preparing to sell a number of the her husband's income-producing holdings, "rated as the largest of any sepia screen personality." It seems that Smith had invested his earnings well, his assets, according to the Defender, coming to include Central Avenue storefronts, cocktail lounges, and the Smiths' Hi-Hat Café and Guest House at Val Verde (sometimes called the "black Palm Springs") in northern Los Angeles County, and several residential properties in the city. Mrs. Smith's plan for asset disposal apparently did not include 1200 East Adams
  • After 93 years the Smith family—in the form of the Shirley M. McKenzie Trust—remains the owner of 1200 East Adams as of 2016. On October 18, 2016, the trust was issued a permit to rebuild the side porch, which had been damaged by "auto impact"


Oscar Smith appeared as a Pullman porter alongside Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in 1944's
Double Indemnity. As did his contemporaries such as Hattie McDaniel (a fellow native of Kansas),
Smith made the most of his talent and the opportunities offered him despite the sometimes
racist depictions of characters he played. Smith's stutter was often exploited on screen
for laughs; he was at times patronized as the "Cute Kid" for his size and charm.
His popularity off-screen and his key concession at Paramount seem
to have made him the recipient of excellent advice on wise
investing, allowing him to beat a rigged system.



Illustrations: Private Collection; Paramount Pictures