Prior to their acquiring of the Mabury Road house , the Viertels had lived on Fairfax Avenue . The initial rent of the house was $ 900 for the first three months , then $ 150 after . Salka eventually purchased the house for $ 7,500 in 1933 , its cheap price was as a result of a depressed property market in the wake of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake . Salka 's salons took place on a Sunday afternoon ; guests included the writers Heinrich and Thomas Mann , the playwright Bertolt Brecht , the composer Arnold Schoenberg , the filmmaker F. W. Murnau and physicist Albert Einstein . The book '' Jewish Women and Their Salons '' called Viertel 's gatherings " An outpost of Mitteleuropa , with its conversational tone and home-cooked meals " . Non German speaking emigre guests included the British writer Aldous Huxley , actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin . The English playwright and writer Christopher Isherwood lived above the Viertel 's garage with his " rough trade lover " William Caskey from 1945 to 1947 before their travels in South America
1933 Long Beach earthquake
1933 Long Beach earthquake
Salka and Berthold Viertel House