Whitley Heights 101

6734 Wedgewood Place was built late 1921 and finished in 1922. The Mediterranean three story house has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in which the two lower stories are build on the side of a hill.

Actor Edward J. Flanagan (1880-1925) and his wife, Charlotte Ravenscroft, built the six room residence in the 1921 with Arthur S. Barnes, the architect. Flanagan starred in eighteen short films from 1919-21 and was known for Don’t Call Me Little Girl (1921). Both Flanagan and his wife were vaudeville actors and had a son, Edward Flanagan, who later became actor Dennis O’Keefe (pictured below). Young Dennis would join his parents on the vaudeville stage. Flanagan was performing at the Metropolitan Theatre on August 13, 1925 and was taken ill and rushed to Hollywood Hospital where he was operated on. He died five days later due to complications with stomach ulcers. Dennis was 17 yeas old when his father died so he dropped out of USC midway through his sophomore year. The family also included a daughter, Hortense, who were all living at this house when Edward died. O’Keefe started his acting career in 1930 as a movie extra. He finally began to get bigger parts in the 1940’s and was known for Brewster’s Millions (1945).

In 1931, American actor, screenwriter, and director, Hamilton Macfadden resided in the home. Macfadden (pictured below) was a Harvard graduate in 1925 and his mother was the first woman ever to run for governor of Massachusetts in 1928. Macfadden moved to Hollywood in the 1920’s to try his hand a filmmaking after starting out in Broadway. Macfadden directed Oh, For a Man! (1930), Second Hand Wife (1933), and Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case (1933).

Actress Dorothy Lebaire (a.k.a. Libarie) lived at this property from 1934-1936. Dorothy was the youngest freshman at attend Smith College in Northampton, Mass. in 1921 at the age of 15. Dorothy starred in fourteen movies starting with Confessions of a Coed in 1931, with her last movie, The Hoosier Schoolmaster in 1935.

Screenwriter Peter Milne and his wife, Janet, lived at 6734 Wedgewood Place from 1941-1952. Milne wrote over 50 screenplays, including; San Quentin (1937), The Verdict (1946), and The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady (1950). The house remained the same until 1951 when Milne enclosed the downstairs and upstairs porches, and shrinking one of the porches to make a dressing room.

Cinematographer Peter Deming resided at 6734 Wedgewood Place circa 1987 and has worked on over 80 films including; My Cousin Vinny (1992), Son-in-Law (1993), The Scream series (2,3,4), Mulholland Drive (2001), and Twin Peaks (2017). Over the years, there has been minor alterations and repairs to the home with the chimney and fireplace, windows, kitchen extended, washer/drying room in the basement, 1/2 bathroom addition, porch and stair repair, and remodel of bedrooms and bathrooms.