Whitley Heights 101

6776 Milner Road

6776 Milner Road was built circa 1921 by famed architect Benjamin B. Horner, who built several adobe homes in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara area. His work can be viewed at the Kennedy Library Archive Online. The Horner Architectural Photography Collection contains 307 vintage, black and white mounted photographs taken by Benjamin Bean Horner (1893-1971), an architect who practiced in Southern California, primarily Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The photographs are from the 1920s; the majority of the images are of historic structures in England and California between 1919 and 1930. This Mediterranean style home, which sits on an upslope, consists of the main floor (1,2000 square feet) with two bedrooms and one bathroom. The basement was converted into another bedroom and bathroom.

The house is adjacent to the notable Whitley Terrace Steps, which connect Milner Road and Whitley Terrace via foot. Originally, the house listed the address of 6715 Milner Court and the first inhabitant was assistant editor of Motor West Magazine, Llewellyn J. Bergere, his wife, Ellen and daughter, Dorothy. Also living in the home was photoplayer Knute Erickson and his wife, vaudeville actress Eleanore Bergere. The extended family recently moved from New York and lived in the home until 1924-25. Knute, who also dabbled in real estate, would later reside at 6630 Whitley Terrace in 1924, 6755 Wedgewood Place in 1927 and 6610 Iris Drive in 1930.

There is a discrepancy where Knute Erickson was born. He claimed to be born in Sweden in 1873, according to a 1919 United States passport application in which he immigrated to the U.S., with his father, Carl, and resided in Salt Lake City for 35 years before moving to New York. However, he may have been born in Ogden, Utah. Erickson’s earliest documented work was in Racine, Wisconsin in 1901 in Belle City Opera in which he starred in a comedian act and then traveled throughout the United States in “Yon Yonson”. Both Erickson and his wife, Eleanore (pictured below), both performed in Jesse Laskey’s, “At the Waldorf” in Buffalo in 1909. The couple were married by 1913 and settled in Hollywood in the early 1920s. Erickson was known for his vaudeville act role as “Daffy Dan” and also appeared in the 1925 film, The Monster. Erickson was credited for 31 films between 1921 and 1939.

Sales manager Walter Bambridge and his wife, Alida, bought the home in 1925 and added the dining room and the front porch. The original home was very small as Bambridge enlarged one of the bedrooms the following year. The Bambridge’s owned the property until 1941. Between 1932-1934, Los Angeles Times reporter Albert F. Nathan rented 6776 Milner Road. In 1915, Nathan was aboard a 36 foot craft boat which traveled 36 hours from San Diego. The boat ran into bad weather and high seas and almost ran out of fuel. However, the engineer of the boat, Paul Steck, found Linseed oil, and put it in the gas tank, which aided the “Fleur-de-Lis” into the San Pedro Harbor. Nathan, who was badly bruised, was sent on other boating excursions by the LA Times. That same year, he was sent down to Turtle Bay to investigate whether or not the Japanese were running naval operations off of the coast of California. Nathan returned with photographs of five Japanese warships 100 miles off of the coast of San Diego. Nathan became one of the lead investigative reports for the Los Angeles Times during the 1920s and 1930s. The most notable story he covered was the murder of William Desmond Taylor. Nathan died in 1945 at the age of 52 when he suffered a heart attack inside an elevator of the building in which he worked.

In 1940, studio worker Arthur Hilton rented the home. Hilton was born in London and edited his first film in 1928. Shortly after, he immigrated to the US, where he worked on such films as the W. C. Fields classic comedies The Bank Dick (1940) and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1942). In 1946, Hilton was nominated for Best Film Editing in “The Killers” starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. Hilton transitioned over to television in the 1950s and edited episodes from Lassie (1954-1957), The Detectives (1959-1961), The Lloyd Bridges Show (1953), Burke’s Law (1963-1965), The Big Valley (1966-1969), Mission Impossible (1969-1970), Hawaii Five-0 (1970-1972), and Police Story (1973-1979). Hilton was also nominated for two Primetime Emmys: Mission Impossible (1970) and Hawaii Five-0 (1971). Hilton also established himself as a director in the 1950s.

From 1944-1954, songwriter and composer Maskell “Mac” Maurada resided at 6776 Milner Road with his wife and daughter. Maurada started his career in the 1930s directing local plays at the Pasadena Playhouse. In the 1940s, Maurada wrote “The ‘B’ Picture Blues” for singer Jane Frazee and then went on to write songs for Sophie Tucker for the next 22 years. He wrote “Keep on Trying” which she sang live on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1953. In 1954, Maurada married Helen Wabbe, the first woman to become a publicity director for a major San Francisco theater.

Between 1998-2002, cinematographer Dean Lyras lived in the Whitley Heights home. Lyras started his career in television in the late 1970s and worked on shows such as: The Curse of Dracula (1979), and BJ and the Bear (1979) as the second assistant director. Then then worked as a camera operator on the following films: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), Ski Patrol (1990), Dumb and Dumber (1984), Con Air (1997), Double Jeopardy (1989), Nurse Betty (2000), and Ticket Out (2012). He also founded the Rocky Mountain Motion Pictures after moving to Salt Lake City. He has also shot for Fashion Week in London and Prague.