John Lautner and Charles Hollis Jones had a longstanding professional relationship. Lautner collaborated with Charles HJ to design furniture for thirteen of his houses, including Lautner’s grandest commission in Acapulco where Lautner placed Charles Hollis Jones’s folding tables, magazine racks, towel bars, towel stands, and many other pieces throughout the majestic residence.

Aesthetically, the Arthur Elrod House in Palm Springs was the crowning glory of Lautner houses in which CHJ’s furniture was featured. Totaling over forty pieces of furniture and accessories, the designs of CHJ adorned the living spaces of this glorious private residence, now legendary for Lautner’s architectural bravado and Elrod’s impeccable, sophisticated design style.

Charles Hollis Jones’ furniture was also showcased in commercial commissions: Suite #2 of The Hotel Lautner, Desert Hot Springs, is fully furnished in its indoor and outdoor areas with CHJ-designed headboard, nightstands, reading lamps, sofa, dining table, chairs, and barstools. Much acclaimed, Suite #2 was the destination of architects and artists who came to visit from all over the world.

Lucille Ball was an ardent fan of Charles Hollis Jones furniture. Throughout the years she ordered several items, including many pieces for her dressing room at Desilu Studios where her sitcom was filmed. Initially, Lucille Ball requested that the original Ball design legs of the furniture be replaced with a movable casting design on the “feet.”

Amusingly, after 6 weeks, Lucy called Charles and asked that the moveable castings be replaced with the original stationary Ball design “feet” because the furniture was chasing her around the room! Further, Lucy bought Charles’ table from Steve Lawrence in copper, and Charles custom-designed a Lucite boudoir chair for Lucille Ball’s home.

New York Times writer David Colman writing about the important work of John Woolf and his partner Robert Koch, an interior designer, asserted that the team: “established a new vocabulary for glamorous movie-star living; they synthesized 19th-century French, Greek Revival and Modernist touches into a heady mixture that has since been christened Hollywood Regency, which foreshadowed aspects of postmodernism.” (NYT, 2004-11-15)

John Woolf created a style characterized by his “Pullman doors” at the front entry, and a mansard roofline and Doric columns to define the facade. One of Woolf’s most famous commissions was for the actress Loretta Young, where Woolf prominently featured Charles Hollis Jones’ furniture from the Regency Line. In fact, Woolf used the CHJ Regency Table in so many of his commissions that it became known as the “John Woolf Regency Table” while he was alive.

Tennessee Williams visited the showroom in west hollywood. He was usually here to do two things, sell scripts to UCLA & Speak at Cal state Northridge for his friend and professor Oliver Evans when we first met, Tennessee asked if he bought a custom chair from me would I have a drink with him. Of course I will and you don’t have to buy anything! He asked CHJ to design a custom chair for him, and he named it the Wisteria chair – it still has that name. It was made with green edge acrylic dyed – and red cushions. He bought 6 of them for his house in New Orleans. He bought Charles’ work regularly.

The singing couple of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were also big fans of the hi-style designs by Charles Hollis Jones. For their home in Beverly Hills, the pair commissioned many pieces of furniture to be fabricated in copper and Lucite, including étagères, coffee tables, folding tables, and a variety of other furnishings throughout the years. Steve and Eydie were very good friends of Lucille Ball, and the entire entourage would travel together to Las Vegas: Steve and Eydie would perform, Lucy would accompany the duo to be supportive, and Charles would play backgammon with Lucy.

Dean Martin commissioned a twisted four-poster bed produced in Lucite and metal with a bronze finish for his Bel-Air house. Dean also commissioned luggage racks with trays, insisting that the design “look traditional but made of acrylic.” It took Charles two years to design the machinery to execute this design. When the four-poster bed was completed, Dean Martin was inspired to write a song that commemorated the commission, and when the bed was delivered to his wife he sang her the song. In addition to the bed and the luggage racks, Dean continued to purchase other pieces of furniture to add to his Charles Hollis Jones collection.

Jennifer Lopez purchased Charles Hollis Jones’ treillage table, and she has remarked that it’s the most expensive piece of furniture she owns in her house. This stunning treillage table of basket-woven metal base and acrylic top was highlighted at the California Palm Springs Modernism show in 2004.

Many celebrities visited the Charles Hollis Jones Showroom when it was on Melrose avenue in the 70s. Among them were Frank Sinatra and his wife Barbara. The Sinatras commissioned Charles to make accessories for their Rancho Mirage residence and compound, including multiple bookshelves, large Lucite mirrors, over forty waste baskets and tissue boxes, and a variety of other accessories for boudoir and bath.

Diana Ross thought Charles was “supreme.” She commissioned him to produce a fireplace surround that included an architectural treatment of vertical steel blinds for her Palm Drive house in Beverly Hills, California.