Beverly Hills. Berg describes Laurel Lane as a "knoll off Coldwater Canyon". The first lot was occupied by film director Wesley Ruggles, and the second would remain unoccupied for several decades. The actress Frances Howard, Goldwyn's wife, noticed the available third lot of , and persuaded her husband to purchase it. Among the reasons that prompted the Goldwyns to move was the desirability and social cachet of the Beverly Hills address and the lack of a projector room in their West Hollywood house. The house was built over two years by Richard Day and Alexander Gollitzen with the interiors constructed by labourers from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio. It was completed in November 1934. Goldwyn would frequently use the house as collateral to finance the production of his films. Goldwyn would walk the three miles from the house to work in Hollywood everyday, down Laurel Lane and Sunset Boulevard to the border of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, with his chauffeur following behind him. He would then be driven through Hollywood to the studio, with the journey being done in reverse at the end of the day. Goldwyn claimed that the steep walk up and down the hill everyday kept him fit, exclaiming to associates that "You can just feel that oxygen going into your system!". Howard would become noted for her social gatherings at the house, frequently hosting large parties honoring other notable spouses such as Irving Berlin and Ellin Mackay, or Averell and Marie Norton Harriman. Attendance at Howard's dinner parties for twelve guests were described by George Cukor as the "hardest ticket in town", with Katharine Hepburn remarking that "You always knew where your career stood by your position at the Goldwyn table". Berg notes the Goldwyns ability to draw entertainment personalities to the house with their hosting of a dinner on New Year's Eve of 1935 for Cole Porter, Lady Mendl and Gary Cooper and his wife, followed by a "champagne supper served at midnight" that was attended by Harold Arlen, Jack Benny, Charles Boyer, Frank Capra, Marlene Dietrich, Clark Gable, Howard Hawkes, James Hilton, Sidney Howard, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers, David O. Selznick, Walter Wanger, Jock Whitney, Loretta Young, and an additional fifty guests. Lucille Ball ate her first artichoke at a dinner party at the house, and was mystified how to eat it until Harpo Marx showed her. Eleanor Roosevelt attended a small dinner party