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In the mid-1920s, Stern and his son built the luxury Hollywood Plaza Hotel at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine and it quickly became a hangout and home away from home for movie stars, writers, opera stars and other people of note – but mainly leading figures from the movie industry, including budding actors and actresses on the road to fame. Guest books of the 1930s read like a Who’s Who of Hollywood. Over the years, there were changes of management and changes of decor as the hotel was upgraded, but it could not keep pace with luxury hotels that sprung up in Hollywood and in 1973 it was converted into a residence for senior citizens.
David Stern’s brother, Robert, owns the property refused to cut down the pine trees to make way for a parking lot. When David and Martha Stern got married on March 21, 1976, they sought permission to have the wedding at the former Plaza hotel and the ceremony was conducted under the palm trees, which the groom’s grandmother had planted a half century earlier.
The barn, which is still standing, was moved to near the Hollywood Bowl, where it became a movie museum. David Stern’s cousin, Peggy Stern Darling, wrote a book from the perspective...