F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, and his beautiful, eccentric artist wife Zelda Sayre, first came to Hollywood in 1927 when Scott was hired by United Artists to develop an original flapper comedy titled Lipstick. Upon their arrival, Dorothy Parker quipped, “He’s famous even in Hollywood.” The visit did not go well and was capped off with an extended binge during which Scott and Zelda trashed their suite at the Ambassador Hotel.
Scott returned to Hollywood ten years later, alone this time. Zelda had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was institutionalized. Scott, now under contract with MGM, checked into the Garden of Allah and was given Villa 1, at the corner of Sunset and Havenhurst. He was sober now, and when old friends Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley invited him for cocktails, he joined the party but declined the drinks.
It was at Benchley’s villa at a later time that he met Sheilah Graham, a British-born gossip columnist with a nationwide readership. The occasion was a party celebrating Sheilah’s engagement to the Marquess of Donegall. Within weeks, the engagement was off, and Scott and Sheilah were an item.
The Garden of Allah was a risky place for a fragile sobriety. “It was possibly the worst place for him,” Sheilah later wrote. “There was always the sound of merriment coming from Benchley’s bungalow.” In an effort to focus Scott on his work, Sheilah moved him to Malibu and then to a ranch in the Valley. But by 1940, they were back in Hollywood, living down the street from the Garden of Allah – Scott at 1403 N. Laurel Avenue, Sheilah a discreet block away at 1443 N. Hayworth. They shared a housekeeper and dined together nightly.
Scott’s health had deteriorated. He fainted after a movie premiere and suffered a mild heart attack at Schwab’s in November 1940. A month later – on December 21, 1940 – Scott died after a heart attack in Sheilah’s living room.