Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Hollywood

Blessed Sacrament Church was formed in 1904, and the first church, which accommodated 250 people, was built on Hollywood Boulevard (then called Prospect Ave).[1][2][3][4] As the movie business developed in the 1910s, the population of Hollywood increased dramatically. By 1919, the old church was "literally bursting at the seams every Sunday."[5] Enrollment at the parish school also jumped from 17 students in 1915 to 140 in 1919.[5]

In 1921, the parish paid $75,000 for the land on Sunset Boulevard that is the current home of the church. Benefiting from a Hollywood real estate boom, the church later sold its existing property on Hollywood Boulevard for $300,000.[5]

The new church and school on Sunset Boulevard were designed by Thomas Franklin Power. Power designed the Blessed Sacrament School, which opened in 1923, in an Italian Renaissance style. When the new school opened, its enrollment was 370 students. Power next turned his attention to the new church, which he adapted from the Basilican style of the Italian Renaissance style.[6] The roof, however, was made of tile instead of the flat roof typical of Roman churches. Power designed the interior with flanking arches to be reminiscent of the San Paolo and St. Clement Basilicas in Rome.[6] The new church was dedicated in June 1928. With its 223-foot chimes tower, ornate exterior and seating for 1,400 people, Blessed Sacrament quickly became a Hollywood landmark.[7]

Though the structure was completed in 1928, completion of the interior decoration and ornamentation was delayed when the Great Depression began in 1929.[5] One interior element that did move forward during the Depression was the Stations of the Cross. Noted Italian artist, Carlo Wostry, had been hired to paint murals at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Pasadena, and was also hired to paint the Stations of the Cross at Blessed Sacrament. Wostry began working on the Stations in Italy in 1930 and finished them in 1932.[5] It was not until 1951 that architect, J. Earl Trudeau, was hired to complete the interior design. Trudeau said he "chose a rather simpler treatment, featuring economy of means both in the artistic and economic senses."[5] The interior work was finally completed in early 1954.

The parish's longest-serving pastor was Father Cornelius McCoy, who was pastor for 25 years from 1932 to. 1957. He took over the parish in the middle of the Great Depression and oversaw the completion of the church. When he stepped down as pastor in 1957, the parish had 6,000 members.[8] During Father McCoy's tenure the new archbishop, James Francis Cardinal McIntyre, offered to purchase the church from the Jesuit order. Cardinal McIntyre wanted to replace St Vibiana's cathedral in downtown Los Angeles with an existing church more centrally located in the sprawling archdiocese to serve as the new cathedral. The order refused to sell the property to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the matter of finding a new cathedral remained unsettled.

Father Mark Falvey who was an assistant pastor at Blessed Sacrament from 1959 until his death in 1975 was accused of sexually molesting four girls and five boys between 1959 and 1975 at Blessed Sacrament.[9] Falvey was never charged with a crime. In May 2007, The Jesuit order agreed to pay $16 million to settle these claims. A Jesuit representative said he agreed with the plaintiffs' lawyer that "Father Falvey was not handled correctly by the Jesuit order", and that he "should have been removed from ministry" after the first victim.[9] Since then the church has instituted the VIRTUS[10] program to prevent such a tragedy in the future.

Front façade of Blessed Sacrament

In recent decades, the Hollywood area has experienced an economic decline, with large numbers of homeless and poor people living in the area. A low point for the parish came in October 1987, when a gunman opened fire into a crowd of hundreds attending the church's carnival, spraying the area with bullets.[11] Two adults and two children (a 15-year-old and a 9-year-old) were wounded in gunfire.[12]

In 1992, the church drew national media attention after a repentant man who had looted the "Frederick's of Hollywood" lingerie museum during the Los Angeles riots delivered a bag of pilfered celebrity lingerie, including Ava Gardner's "bloomers" and a push-up bra once worn by TV actress Katey Sagal, to the church's pastor, Father Bob Fambrini.[13][14][15][16] An Austin newspaper noted that Father Fambrini "may be the only priest in America to ever comfort a man who felt guilty about stealing celebrity bloomers."[17] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that such an "uplifting story could only happen in Hollywood."[18]

By the 1980s, what had once been a large convent housing the sisters of the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, had become part of an underground railroad for illegal aliens smuggled into Los Angeles by members of the Jesuit order. In late April 1999, Sr. Peg Dolan of Loyola Marymount University headed a group of "Alumni for Others" in the restoration of the former convent on Selma Avenue in Hollywood. Alumni from Jesuit Universities at LMU, University of San Francisco and Santa Clara University helped transform the vacated building into a fully functional Social Service Center, which opened its doors just one month later. With the majority of furniture and fixtures donated by parishioners and Hollywood residents, the center began on its path of offering quality services almost entirely by donation of goods, funds, and time.

In July 2000, Blessed Sacrament was one of 20 Los Angeles landmarks to receive a "Preserve L.A." grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust for the preservation of historic buildings and sites throughout Los Angeles County.[19]

Blessed Sacrament School, built in 1923 in the Italian Renaissance style

In 2004, Cardinal Roger Mahony presided at the parish's 100th anniversary Mass, which was celebrated in three languages (English, Spanish and Tagalog). Cardinal Mahony noted the parish's long tradition of outreach to the Hollywood community, especially the poor and homeless. He praised those efforts: "I am proud of you because you have done this well. It helps us identify with what Jesus is calling us to in today's Gospel."[20] Cardinal Mahony also thanked the Society of Jesus for their long history of service to the parish, and the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, whose religious community staffed the school for many decades.[20]

In 2006, the Social Services Center embarked on a renewed mission to continue assisting those in need. In order to raise awareness and maximize funding opportunities, the Center became an independent agency and obtained its separate federal and state tax-exempt status. While continuing to be an integral part of the Blessed Sacrament social services mission, the center is now governed by an independent Board of Directors composed of civic leaders, volunteers and local residents. The Center provides services to all who are in need without regard to religious affiliation.

Located in the heart of Hollywood, Blessed Sacrament has had close ties to the movie industry in its early years. As early as June 1916, the "popular stars of filmdom" were giving their time and talents gratis for a three-act burlesque on the "old-time melodrama" and novel specialty numbers.[21]

When the parish needed funds to build a new church in the 1920s, the movie industry, which often used the church as a shooting location, again offered its help. The movie studios including Universal and Keystone helped the parish raise funds for the new church, providing actors and equipment for the church's fundraising events.[5] In October 1926, the Los Angeles Times reported that Blessed Sacrament was holding the "biggest bazaar ever held in cinema town, with the co-operation of practically the entire motion-picture industry" to raise funds for the new church.[22] The Times noted that the bazaar was housed under a canvas top, "with gaily decorated booths, gorgeous articles donated by the motion-picture stars, and by wealth persons engaged in other industries."[22]

The parish's history reports that the church was so central to the early movie business that the first professional organization for Hollywood's screenwriters and actors (precursor to the Writers and Screen Actors Guilds) was formed at the church.[5]

Blessed Sacrament was also the site of "the annual parade of Catholic movie stars" (including Loretta Young, Irene Dunne, and Ricardo Montalban) into church for the city's archbishop, James Francis Cardinal McIntyre's annual Communion breakfast for the entertainment industry. It was held during Lent so the industry's Catholics could also make their Easter duty.[23]

Bing Crosby was married at Blessed Sacrament.

With its location in the heart of Hollywood, Blessed Sacrament was for years the home parish to many noted actors. It was also the site of many celebrity funerals and weddings, including the following:

• In September 1930, Bing Crosby was married to his first wife, 18-year-old Dixie Lee, at Blessed Sacrament Church.[24]
• In September 1934, the funeral for singer Russ Columbo (who was accidentally shot by a vintage gun assumed to be unloaded) was held at Blessed Sacrament, with Bing Crosby, Gilbert Roland and Zeppo Marx serving as pallbearers.[25][26]
• In 1941, German writer Alfred Döblin, who was from a Jewish background but had not previously been religious, was baptized at Blessed Sacrament.[27]

John Wayne's daughters were married at Blessed Sacrament.

• In 1956, John Wayne's daughter, Toni, was married at Blessed Sacrament in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal McIntyre. More than 500 guests, including Bob Hope, Ann Blyth, and Loretta Young attended.[28]
• John Wayne's other daughter, Melinda Ann, was also married at Blessed Sacrament in a ceremony attended by Cesar Romero, Jeanne Crain, Irene Dunne, and Loretta Young. During the ceremony, Melinda started teetering at her kneeling bench, and the Duke saw his daughter in trouble and dashed from his pew to her side, catching her just as she began to fall from a fainting spell. A priest brought a chair and she sat throughout the rest of the Mass.[29]
• In October 1959, the funeral of actor-singer, Mario Lanza, was held at Blessed Sacrament.[30] Some 1,500 people attended the funeral including Kathryn Grayson and Zsa Zsa Gabor.[31]
• In November 1960, the funeral for Mack Sennett, innovator in slapstick comedy and known as the "King of Comedy" during his lifetime, was held at Blessed Sacrament.[32]
• In June 1962, actor Brian Kelly (the father on the 1960s TV series "Flipper") was married to actress Laura Devon at Blessed Sacrament.[33]
• Father Donald Merrifield, the first president of Loyola Marymount University, was ordained a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in 1965.[34]
• In October 1972, the funeral for actor, Leo G. Carroll, featured in many movies of the 1930s-1950s, including several directed by Alfred Hitchcock, star of the "Topper" series, and memorable as "Mr Waverly" of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." TV spy series was held at Blessed Sacrament.[35]
• In November 1972, the funeral for Rudolf Friml, composer of music for operettas such as Rose Marie and The Vagabond King was held there.[36]
• In September 1973, the funeral for John Ford, Hollywood's most honored film director, was held at Blessed Sacrament.[37][38] Ford's funeral was conducted by Timothy Cardinal Manning and attended by many of Hollywood's most famous personalities, including John Wayne, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Frank Capra, William Wyler, Pat O'Brien, Loretta Young and Cesar Romero.[39] Ford's biographer noted that the bronze doors to the church were donated by Ford.[39]
• In August 1986, the funeral for actor Lorenzo Tucker, known as the "Black Valentino" in the 1920s and 1930s, was held at Blessed Sacrament.[40]

Blessed Sacrament has also been used as a shooting location for movies and television, including:

• An episode of "ER" in which James Cromwell plays a bishop presiding at an ordination ceremony. Real-life Jesuits, novice Julio Lingad and Jim Siwicki, the director of the church's social services, appeared in the scene as transitional deacons.[41]
• A scene in the film, "L.A. Confidential."[42]
• A battle with "G-Man" in 1957's "Teenage Monster", aka "Meteor Monster", was shot on the steps of Blessed Sacrament Church.[43]
• Lil Pump's song Gucci Gang had its music video filmed at an elementary school associated with the church. However, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles did not approve filming the music video at the Blessed Sacrament School.[44]