1957 Souvenir Map and Guide to Starland Estates

This is the Fall 1957 issue of the famous 'Souvenir Map and Guide to Starland Estates and Mansions,' the oldest continuously published map of its kind. The map, regularly updated, was sold as early as 1933 by Wesley G. Lake from a Los Angeles street corner. The business would pass through by his wife Martha; their daughter Vivienne, and their granddaughter Linda. City efforts to curtail sales of such maps (to fight tourist traffic in Beverly Hills and protect camera-shy celebrities) were scotched by the First Amendment in a 1976 Supreme Court contest.

The Map

The two-color printed map focuses on Beverly Hills and the immediate surrounds, including part of the campus of the University of California, the Los Angeles Country Club, and two golf courses. The map lists over three hundred celebrity addresses, and keys one hundred and fifty nine of these to the map. The addresses in the legend were updated at least once a year, as were the coordinates of the numbered items on the address list.

The Stars

The celebrities are ranked alphabetically in two lists: those keyed to the map, (from 'Allen, Gracie' to 'Young, Roland') and those whose addresses were listed but not marked on the map (from 'Abbott, Bud' to 'Young, Loretta.') Other stars include Desi Arnez, Jack Benny, Hoagy Carmichael, Gary Cooper, Kirk Douglas, Betty Grable, Heddy La Marr, Harold Lloyd, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Stanwyck, and Elizabeth Taylor. Chico, Gummo and Harpo Marx all have their addresses marked on the map. Groucho's abode does not appear, though he would have been in Los Angeles regularly at the time: 'You Bet Your Life' was on the air, and was shot in LA.

Publication History and Census

Given the extreme longevity of this map's publication, while few of any given edition survive the map is relatively ubiquitous on the whole. OCLC only lists six examples, however, and none of this edition.