His glamorous, highly personal work came to epitomize the California Modern aesthetic.

Educated in Vienna, Laszlo later moved to Stuttgart, where he had established a successful decorating firm by 1927. Alarmed by the increasingly anti-Semitic political climate in Germany—and a clash with Albert Speer, Hitler's architect—he abandoned his business and fled to New York in 1936.

Laszlo made his way to Beverly Hills shortly thereafter, where he reestablished his studio and quickly rose to prominence. His work attracted a celebrity clientele including Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Barbara Hutton, and Ronald Reagan; in fact, his clients in general were so well-heeled and powerful that a 1952 Time magazine article nicknamed him "the millionaire's architect."

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