Tiny Malvina Avenue, today just an access road to the LAPD Academy, is the only remnant of the grand Elysian Park dreams of Gabor Hegyi (1870-1919). He named the street after his wife Malvin (née Rosenbaum, 1876-1943); note the correct spelling of her name. The Hegyis, Hungarian Jewish immigrants who met and married in Chicago, came to Los Angeles c. 1905 with their little daughters Marguerite and Viola. Tailor-cum-real estate developer Hegyi was the man behind 1914’s stillborn “Olympia” tract, which hoped to fill Elysian Park with streets named after Greek and Roman characters (Attilla, Venus, Electra, Apollo, Acrisius, Danae, Achilles, etc.). This street was named a year earlier on a separate tract. Hegyi, who was most active in Hollywood and had failed bids to be a city councilman and then a county supervisor, died days after crashing his automobile into a streetcar at Hollywood and Western.
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