In the autumn of 1940, Alma Mahler-Werfel managed to flee with her husband Franz Werfel from the south of France to the USA. In January 1941, the Werfels moved to Los Angeles, which had been recommended by the writer Friedrich Torberg. In a letter to Franz Werfel from 15 December 1941, Torberg later praised “the certain celluloid-packaged unworldliness” of Hollywood, in comparison to the “cauldron” that was New York.

As she had done in Vienna, Alma Mahler-Werfel surrounded herself here with well-known artists in her “salon”. In addition to the house of Salka Viertel (165 Mabery Road), the Werfels’ house in Hollywood (6800 Los Tilos Road) and later their villa in Beverly Hills (610 North Bedford Drive) became important meeting places for emigrants in Los Angeles. Her guests included, among others, Thomas Mann, Arnold Schönberg, Lion Feuchtwanger, Igor Strawinsky, Max Reinhardt, Bruno Walter, Fritzi Massary, Bruno Frank, Lotte Lehmann, Friedrich Torberg and Soma Morgenstern. Not only her open anti-Semitism, but also her tendency towards self-stylization made Alma Mahler-Werfel an extremely contradictory personality. She was “loved”, “envied” and “rebuked” in equal measure, as the writer Soma Morgenstern wrote in his funeral oration for Alma Mahler-Werfel, also writing: “She was married three times. But she was wed only once. Wed to her life. Her own life. This life had her style, her value, her dignity, her generosity.”

Further Reading:
Torberg, Friedrich: Liebste Freundin und Alma. Briefwechsel mit Alma Mahler-Werfel. Berlin: Ullstein 1990
Schnauber, Cornelius: Spaziergänge durch das Hollywood der Emigranten. Zürich: Arche 1992