Reality sets in at The Ambassador

Franklin Avenue blogger Michael Schneider used the blackout to drive over to the Ambassador Hotel and pick up his purchase from Saturday's clearance auction. (On the way, he saw an accident happen at a corner where the traffic lights worked; BoifromTroy also witnessed blackout crashes.) Schneider reports the bulldozers have about finished demolishing the bungalows where the stars lived and played in the Ambassador's heyday. His photo from Saturday of the Grande Dame of Wilshire still looking formidable behind rows of up-for-auction cocktail tables is my new favorite image of the hotel's last days.

He also posts a set of pictures that brings home (for me at least) some of the history being lost. The school to be built will help the neighborhood a lot, but still—damn. First, from 2003, the hotel's shuttered lobby, once the center court of elegance and glamour in a younger Los Angeles. Note the white fountain at left:

The "After" shot from Saturday's auction follows the jump (with photographer-about-town Gary Leonard at the left.)