BY LYNELL GEORGE
via Preservation Magazine
“NESTED NEAR the motion picture studios once run by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, later Samuel Goldwyn, and now Warner Bros., the Formosa remains suffused with Hollywood golden-era lore. It was a favorite watering hole of stars like Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra, and John Wayne, as well as mobsters Bugsy Siegel and, later, Mickey Cohen. In more recent decades, it had also endeared itself to celebrities such as Bono and Leonardo DiCaprio. But the double punch of two “makeovers” threatened its prestige. The first, in 2015, stripped the bar and restaurant of its trademark black-and-red lacquered interior and its gallery of kitschy, through-the-decades celebrity headshots, washing the room in a dead industrial gray. The subsequent backlash traveled swift and loud. The second remodel attempted to hurriedly fix the first. During the holiday season of 2016, the Formosa shuttered without warning, and for a while, its future was a mystery.”
You can read more here at Preservation Magazine.
Welcome to the Formosa — Image by Lynell George
The unveiled old Red Car car – Image by Lynell George
“Meet Me at the Formosa”
Lynell George 