The Great Depression
Unfortunately, the Great Depression quickly killed the Norconian's amazing success, and by 1933 the resort was closed. Rex Clark, on a personal front, was divorced from Grace Scripps and struggling financially. Norco was in the midst of a seven-year drought, and the agricultural success of the 1920s was all but a memory. In 1935 the resort suddenly reopened, likely due to a cash infusion from Rex Clark's former wife's trust fund. The fabulous Norconian sputtered along with some tremendous landmark occasions. In 1938, Walt Disney Studios, to celebrate the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, threw a party that has become the stuff of legend. The same year MGM tossed their own party at the Norconian, and in 1940 Fox studios followed suit. During this era, Jeanette MacDonald, Joan Crawford, Basil Rathbone, Stan Laurel and other stars regularly visited the Norconian, as did sports stars Lou Nova (boxer), Helen Wills (tennis), local star Jess Hill (USC coach and star, New York Yankees) and the 'ol Pitt football team of 1935.
Nevertheless, for a decade the resort had been in constant jeopardy of closing amidst back taxes, mechanic's liens, labor issues and creditors. The resort after a name change to "Clark's Hot Springs" in 1940 closed for good.
Read more about this topic: The Norconian Resort Supreme
Famous quotes containing the word depression:
“The chief lesson of the Depression should never be forgotten. Even our liberty-loving American people will sacrifice their freedom and their democratic principles if their security and their very lives are threatened by another breakdown of our free enterprise system. We can no more afford another general depression than we can afford another total war, if democracy is to survive.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)