Whitley Heights 101

6757 Milner Road

6757 Milner Road was built in 1923 by owner Arthur Watson and architect B.B. Horner. At the same time, they built a similar house next door located at 6753 Milner Road. In addition, Horner built several homes in Whitley Heights: 6627 Emmet Terrace and 6760 Milner Road, both in 1922 and 6788 Whitley Terrace in 1923 which was demolished for the Hollywood Freeway. Perhaps, Horner’s most notable work was the Outpost Building located on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Las Palmas Ave.

6757 Milner Road consists of 1,520 square feet with a kitchen, dining room and living room on the first floor and two bedrooms and one bathroom on the second floor. Both the kitchen and the living room have access to the backyard. There is an attached one-car garage that is located on the left side. of the home.

Above, 6753 Milner Road can be seen on the left and is the other property that Watson had B.B. Horner build. The two properties are both tudor style homes with similar features. The front entrance leads into an foyer and to the left is the stairway leading to the second floor.

Straight ahead from the entrance and foyer is the dining room which leads into the kitchen on the left side.

To the right of the foyer is the living room area which leads to a wooden patio in the backyard.

One bedroom is on the left side of the house:

The only bathroom is on the second floor and is between the two bedrooms.

The other bedroom is on the right side of the house.

The house is one of the smaller homes in the area, but that did not bother MGM casting director Robert B. McIntyre who resided in the home from 1929 ,in which he had relocated to Hollywood from New York, until his death in 1952. McIntyre had just divorced actress Marion Grey and moved to Whitley Heights with his mother, Isabella Wiener. McIntyre who was born in Philadelphia in 1882, started his career at the World Film Company circa 1920 where he discovered actress Eleanor Boardman (another Whitley Heights native) and a ton of other actors. Below, McIntyre is on the right, during his days at World Film Company.

McIntyre then took the head casting director job with MGM where he was credited for 14 films; the most notable was Ben Hur in 1925. He was also credited as a production assistant in King Vidor’s “Stella Dallas”, starring Barbara Stanwyck in 1937. His last credited film was The Westerner in 1940 starring John Wayne. McIntyre wed actress Marion Grey around 1926; Grey kept McIntyre’s last name while living in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s after they divorced. The couple did not have any children.

Marion Grey was born in Illinois in 1905 and began her career in vaudeville and on stage in New York before transitioning to film in 1923. Grey was credited for 79 minor roles between 1923 and 1957 including; The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), In Society (1944), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Great Gatsby (1949), Madame Bovary (1949), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Calamity Jane (1953), Sabina (1954), A Star is Born (1954), White Christmas (1954), Funny Face (1957), and her last role was in Witness for the Prosecution in 1957. It was rumored that Grey received bigger theater roles early on because she was married to McIntyre and was reduced to non-speaking roles such as a party guest after the divorce. Grey was also a movie extra in some television shows such as I Love Lucy (1956), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956), and Father Knows Best (1956).

In July of 1943, while McIntyre was living on Milner Road, he hired two men to paint the inside of the house. 50 year old Chris Sannum was working in the kitchen, while 53 year old L.T. Keel was outside when an explosion happened inside the kitchen when cleaner solvent was ignited by the pilot light on a gas stove in the kitchen. Keel rushed into the kitchen to get Sannum. Both men were severely burned and sent to the hospital where they both survived. There was no permit in 1943 to repair the kitchen, but extensive remodeling must have been done after the fire. A porch was built in 1963 and a new roof and chimney repair was completed after 2000. The house last sold in 2019 for $995,000.

According to E.J. Fleming’s The Movieland Directory, actor John McIntire (Psycho, Western movies) resided here according to a 1930 census, which may have been recorded in error. The then 22 year old was renting an apartment located at 10735 1/2 Ohio Avenue prior to his acting days. His last name closely resembles Robert McIntyre’s name which may have been the mix up. In addition, a 1930 Los Angeles Director has Robert B. McIntyre living at this address.