by Paul R. Spitzzeri
When Joe Toplitzky sent the 8 November 1919 letter that is the featured object from the Museum’s collection for this post to the Whittier realty team of Gurney D. Maple and Grover T. Russell, he was well on his way to becoming one of the biggest realty figures in greater Los Angeles. With the region (and nation) coming out of the First World War and the massive mobilization required for the American Expeditionary Force’s critical role in turning the tide for the Allies against Germany, there was a serious economic recession that followed.
By the early Twenties, however, the next big boom came and, for the region, this meant enormous growth in real estate and construction, peaking in 1923, with Toplitzky riding the wave to substantial success. The earliest located reference to his work in the field is from late 1913, not long after his wife, Elsie Crossley, was left with a hefty inheritance from her long-time paramour, theater impresario Henry C. Wyatt, though this engendered a major controversy covered in part one.
From about 1916, Toplitzky occupied an office in the Herman W. Hellman Building, which still stands at the northeast corner of Main and 4th streets in downtown Los Angeles, and, as was noted yesterday, his association with the La Fortuna Farms property through the Cross Land Company included his close ties with Hellman’s sons and fellow Jews, Marco and Irving. By the world war period, he had some major projects in the Eagle Rock section of the Angel City with two subdivisions comprising 87 and 40 lots each, but these also involved his offer to a contractor to buy lots and secure building loans as well trust deeds for these.
His regional reach was also widening with property near the harbor at San Pedro and Wilmington, as well as, not far from the La Fortuna Farms tract, the “famous Irwin Downey Ranch” of more than 80 acres east of Covina and near the unincorporated Charter Oak section, devoted to orange and lemon raising and subdivided into in ten-acre tracts.
A key early project, however, was the Coronado Terrace Tract in Los Angeles, which Toplitzky, listed, as with this letter, as an investment broker, subdivided with the William H. Akin realty firm, and which comprised just more than two dozen lots southeast of the intersection of Beverly and Rampart boulevards. In promoting the development, the partners emphasized that “NEVER AGAIN will such ultra-choice property be so ruthlessly SACRIFICED.”
While it looks like Toplitzky’s early work was in the outskirts of the Angel City, in spring 1922, he represented the buyers of the Rutland and Easton Apartments complex at the northwest corner of Main Street and Washington Boulevard (the structures remain standing today). Later in the year, he was the realtor for the sale of property at the northeast corner of Main and 8th streets to a syndicate including Walter P. Temple, his business manager Milton Kauffman and attorney George H. Woodruff, as well as others, who then constructed the still-standing Great Republic Life Building.
In that peak year of 1923 (when Temple established his marquee development project, the Town of Temple, now Temple City), Toplitzky was involved in a planned, though never completed, hotel project on 7th Street just west of today’s Interstate 110; the Hellman Commercial Trust and Savings Bank Building at the northeast corner of Spring and 7th streets; and the acquisition with Marco Hellman of that bank of the well-known and exotic Bernheimer brothers estate, including a Japanese-style residence and stunning gardens (this now includes the site of the famous Yamashiro restaurant).
Despite the 1911 conflict over the Wyatt estate that involved the theatrical syndicate of Marc Klaw and Abraham L. Erlanger and their support of Wyatt’s son against his wife, Toplitzky partnered with Erlanger in 1923 to build a theater attached to the recently-completed Biltmore Hotel, a landmark to the west of Pershing Square. The Biltmore Theatre was an important project and has previously been featured on this blog.
An advertisement in the 27 February issue of the Los Angeles Express proudly noted that,
The business of JOE TOPLITZKY has grown during the last ten years until a record yearly total of transactions involving over $8,000,000 was closed during 1922. This enormous activity has necessitated moving into a larger and more commodious suite on the second floor of the Herman W. Hellman building, where a live and capable organization will take care of the growing business.
All departments of an up-to-date Realty Office will be maintained under separate and competent heads, including realty sales, insurance, rentals and leases, mortgages and property management departments.
This integrated approach showed that Toplitzky was strategically building his business in ways that significantly elevated his standing among realtors. A Los Angeles Times ad from 15 April showed several available residential, commercial and ranch properties, some in the six and seven figures, while a personal message from the proprietor proclaimed “we want your friendship, and will do everything in our power to merit it” while adding that “you will find us as well-equipped as the most progressive trust company for serving you in connection with realty investments, insurance or management of property.”
In March 1924, Toplitzky was involved in the building of a new Orpheum Theatre on Broadway near 9th Street, this opulent “movie palace” still with us today and investors included Marco Hellman, department store owner David May (recent purchaser of the Hamburger store where Toplitzky got his start as a teen worker), Moses Hamburger of that business and of the building where the Majestic Theatre was housed, and Henry E. Huntington of the famous library, art gallery and gardens as well as a real estate and transportation titan.
By 1925, Toplitzky expanded his interests with the second vice-president role in the Pioneer Bond and Mortgage Company, which included the Hellmans, Hamburger, and others as the enterprise had more than a million dollars to loan through first mortgages as well the purchasing of trust deeds.
He also took an option on the Vernon Tigers baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League, though the franchise soon folded after he was unsuccessful in convincing chewing gum magnate and owner of the PCL club, the Los Angeles Angels, to allow the Tigers to play in the newly completed Wrigley Field in south Los Angeles.
It was also that year that Toplitzky teamed up again with Erlanger on a newly renovated Mason’s Opera House, now called Erlanger’s Mason Theatre and which involved an expenditure of a quarter million dollars. In 1927, the duo formed the Caesar Theatre Corporation, with capitalization of not far under a million dollars, for the building of a venue in New York City that is now the St. James Theatre. An ad for the corporation’s stock issue noted that Toplitzky had theater interests in Chicago and New Orleans, as well.
The oil industry was long a huge driver in the greater Los Angeles economy and Toplitzky moved into this field with a major investment in the company founded by C.C. Julian, whose folksy and excitable advertisements lured a larger number of stock buyers buoyed by his initial success at the Santa Fe Springs field southeast of Los Angeles. In 1928, Toplitzky joined the board of directors of the Richfield Oil Company, which got its start in northeast Orange County where the city of Placentia is today.
With the Roaring Twenties still apparently in its full robustness, Toplitzky was interviewed, after returning from a trip in the Eastern United States, by the Express and, in its 28 April 1928 edition, he specifically referred to the presidential campaign as not worrying business figures because of the confidence they had in the several likely candidates in the Democratic and Republican parties. He added,
I look to see the real estate market in Los Angeles continue to enjoy a healthy growth. With the almost universal use of the automobile, it is becoming increasingly hard to tell just where the next development will be . . .
I do not believe the stock market is due for a depression. That story had its origin among the old guard, who sold their stocks at the beginning of the rise and now wish they could get them back at the same prices . . .
Among the forward looking men I encountered on my trip there was none who feared a let down. On the contrary, the seasonal industries are picking up, and everyone seems to be preparing for increased business.
Toplitzky penned a feature for the 28 February 1929 edition of the Express, which bore the headline “Industrial Los Angeles Is Building On Stabilized Real Estate Values.” The realty magnate propounded that “the tremendous development of the Pacific Southwest, centered upon its magnificent metropolis, Los Angeles, which is now attracting investment attention throughout the entire United States, is being built upon a substantially anchored foundation in stabilized valuations in real estate.”
He continued that the new year brought to California “the greatest movement of major industries that any single locality the country has ever known” as part of what he asserted was “permanent growth.” Realty deals were moving well beyond the low millions of dollars, with some reaching nine figures, leading Toplitzky to predict, “we are ready for this new era of major investment, and will give value in return.”
As evidence of his bullish views, the writer pointed to large-scale projects such as the $28 million General Petroleum refinery, slated to employ 3,800 workers; the 4,000 laborers on the $25 million San Gabriel Dam; City of Los Angeles public works projects topping $11 million; Improvements of beaches and harbors of north of $20 million; Wilshire Boulevard corridor projects of above $50 million; and motion picture expenditures of more than $28 million. Related to the last industry, in July 1929, Toplitzky announced the sale of a half-dozen theaters in the Alexander Pantages circuit to Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO), while negotiations were in process for the Pantages Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.
After a trip to Europe in late summer 1929, Toplitzky was interviewed by the Times and in its 19 September edition he pointed out “the amount of interest in American stocks throughout Europe” with more attention given the New York Stock Exchange than with counterparts in Berlin, London or Paris, while those latter modeled operations after the American giant. Given his experience in Europe, the man called “one of the ‘Big Ten’ of American stock market operators,” told the paper, “this is why I predict that brokers’ loans in this country will reach substantially higher figures. So far we have made only a start.”
Five weeks later, the stock market in the Big Apple crashed in spectacular and devastating fashion, ushering in The Great Depression. Yet, in the 25 October issue of the Times, Toplitzky told the paper that “from the technical point of view . . . the worst is over, and he was quoted as opining,
The bottom has been reached. In my opinion it is time for those who have surplus funds to purchase the leading otscks [sic]. The recovery should be slow, with stocks like Western Union, American Telephone [and Telegraph], International Telephone [and Telegraph], the oils and the rails registering the greatest improvement.
Of course, the worst was yet to come and Toplitzky like virtually every other major stock market and real estate figure saw most of his vast fortune vanish, especially by 1932, when waves of bank failures plunged the nation and world into the depths of the depression. He also faced several legal battles, including one regarding his involvement with Julian Petroleum, which conducted a massive scam of stockholders. Though Toplitzly was indicted twice, in 1927 and 1930, he escaped punishment in one of the great business scandals of the era.
Richfield Petroleum also experienced significant controversy over financial dealings involving its chief figures, such as loans made to them from company funds, and Toplitzky was investigated and then sued by the firm’s receiver, which sought the return of $100,000. He, however, claimed that he’d lost $3 million through the firm’s descent into bankruptcy—today it is part of the Atlantic Richfield Corporation, or ARCO.
In 1933, Toplitzky and his wife were the targets of income tax liens, with Joe earmarked for more than $70,000 owed on his 1923 and 1927 returns and Elsie for north of $20,000 for her 1929 filing. The following year, a receiver of the First National Bank of Beverly Hills went after Toplitzky for $45,000 which he borrowed with a pair of promissory notes issued in July 1931, as well as a June 1931 loan for $5,000 and another July note for $20,000 in the names of the financier and brother Bernard.
Yet, Toplitzky kept his real estate business operating until his sudden death from kidney failure, reportedly brought on during a trip to Japan, on 2 September 1935, not far shy of his 45th birthday. The Times of the next day remarked that “although he suffered heavy financial losses during the depression Mr. Toplitzky’s faith in Los Angeles never wavered and he continued to invest as much as possible, in time and money, toward the upbuilding of the city.” Additionally, he was cited for his philanthropy, including to the Hebrew Sheltering and Home for the Aged, established on the Workman family estate in Boyle Heights.
The Los Angeles Record of the 5th, in briefly reporting on his funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, repeated the statement that Toplitzky was one of the top ten financiers in America during his prime, while referring to him as the “‘King Midas’ of the Los Angeles financial world” as well as “the man who turned the very earth of gold.” His is one of the more remarkable stories of many among those in the Angel City who rose from humble circumstances to great heights before suffering severe reversals during economic downturns.
The story of Joe Toplitzky’s rise and fall, as depicted in the post, is remarkable, especially considering how young he was at the peak of his career. Even though his reputation as the “Midas King” was tarnished in his final years by his close association with the infamous conman C.C. Julian and his “Midas touch” faded with the economic downturn, I believe Toplitzky can still well represent the era’s transition from the nonstop growth of the roaring twenties to the nonstop decline of the Great Depression.
Toplitzky was deeply involved in the capital markets, which are known as a “road of no return,” built on continual growth to sustain momentum for attracting followers. For businesses in the capital markets, maintaining growth until they are publicly listed is crucial and almost the only way to survive; otherwise, they risk collapse. Toplitzky’s life illustrates that similar paths can lead to dramatically different outcomes – a concept well reflected in the old Chinese saying, “The winner is the king; the loser is an outlaw” (成者為王，敗者為寇).
An outstanding series about Joe Toplitzky, a man whose business savvy and energy helped to shape Los Angeles. Thank you.
Hi Edmon, thanks and Toplitzky’s story is a remarkable and instructive one, especially for Roaring Twenties Los Angeles.
The early death of Joe Toplitzky was tragic, yet from another perspective, it could be seen as a mercy. Given the difficulties he had already encountered, his passing spared him from further and harsher legal battles, relentless pressure from creditors, and the sorrow of witnessing and enduring more years of worsening conditions through the Great Depression. Most importantly, he avoided the desperate choice faced by other prominent business figures in Greater Los Angeles, who, as recounted throughout this blog, felt they had no options left but to end their lives amid economic downturns. These figures include Lemuel Carpenter (1859), William Workman (1876), Henry S. Ledyard (1890), Leonard J. Rose (1899), Gustav Baumann (1914), and C.C. Julian (1935), among others.