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 words the great and/or depression:
“There is the good and the bad, the great and the low, the just and the unjust. I swear to you that all that will never change.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the grand-daughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said “On the line!” The Reconstruction said “Go!” I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)