Whitley Heights 101

JFK’s Connection to Whitley Heights:

In the spring of 1940, John F. Kennedy graduated from Harvard Law School and decided to enroll at Stanford University to take some business courses that fall. During that time, John was a frequent visitor of Hollywood as he was mesmerized by all the beautiful actresses of that era. During one visit to Hollywood, Kennedy was touring Universal Studios and met a young 21 year old actor named Robert Stack. Stack’s first role was in 1939 when he filmed “First Love” opposite Deanna Durbin in which he got to kiss her on the screen. Because of that scene, Stack was now a well-known “heart-throb” to the teenage girls.

Kennedy and Stack started a friendship and became known as the “Cruise Team” because most of their time together was spent trying to pick up young starlets. Everytime Stack was seen with a young female, the media started rumors of a romance or engagement. They would even spread rumors that Stack had been secretly married to whomever the media spotted him with. However, both Kennedy and Stack were on a mission to bed as many women as they could, to the point that they often slept with the same woman. Stack’s circle of friends included, actor Jackie Cooper, socialite Alfredo de la Vega, film producer Hal Roach Jr., and olympian Donald Douglas, Jr. Now Kennedy joined the crowd in Hollywood. Below is 23 year old Kennedy and 21 year old Stack circa 1940.

Sometime in 1940, both Stack and his friend, Alfredo de la Vega, convinced their mothers that they needed their own apartment in order to have a quiet place to study as Stack as both were enrolled at USC at the time. Both parents agreed to pay the rent. It was a small flat that lay at the end of a cul-de-sac on Whitley Terrace, between Cahuenga and Highland in the Hollywood Hills. According to Darwin Porter, who wrote, “Howard Hughes: Hell’s Angel”, “Here stood a jumbled mass of apartments stacked one on top of the other like a set of warped building blocks about to tumble over. The apartments opened into balconies dripping in wisteria. Each apartment was perched dangerously on its neighbor. Each apartment grew a luxurious, tangled web of vines creating a veritable Garden of Edens effect.” Lawrence Quirk, who wrote, “The Kennedys in Hollywood”, described the apartment on Whitley Terrace as on a “cul-de-sac of jumbled apartments irregularly stacked on top of each other like building blocks put together like a drunk”. Below is Kennedy visiting Stack on the set of Nice Girl? with actress Deanna Durbin.

The so-called “study” apartment was not really being used for that purpose. It was a place to bring back girls that they picked up so they could have sex with them. In the corner of the apartment, there was a small bedroom, small enough to fit only a double bed with approximately 2 feet left on either side of the bed. The ceiling was only 5 foot high so they had to duck upon entering the room which they called, “Chamber of Seduction”. The boys hung flags of different countries all over the ceiling and the walls and the bedroom became known as “The Flag Room”. When one of the boys brought a woman to the room, they had them memorize the flags in a particular order. If the woman could not name the flags, she was punished in some way as she lay horizontally across the bed. Sometimes, the flags had to be rearranged if a woman was returning to the room as a “repeat offender”.

According to Stack, who co-wrote, “Straight Shooting” (1980), he claimed Kennedy had already visited the room 8 times soon after they met. Kennedy had been linked to actresses, Betty Grable, Barbara Britton, Margaret Sullivan, Lana Turner, and Ingrid Bergman, who all rumored to have been invited to the Flag Room. It was also rumored that actress Elizabeth Taylor had a threesome with both Stack and Kennedy. In his book, Stack indicated, “We weren’t exactly roommates, but we both had a key to this apartment in Hollywood, and occasionally we both found ourselves trying to use the place at the same time. I have to say that I don’t think I ever met someone so successful with the ladies as Jack was”.

Even movie producer and aviation specialist Howard Hughes met JFK and became infatuated with his charisma and charm; the two had met on board his boat, “The Sea Queen, Hughes detested Kennedy’s father, as Joseph was known to block some of Hughes business deals and they both slept with some of the same women: actresses Constance Bennett and Nancy Carroll. However, Hughes and Kennedy soon bonded and Kennedy became known as “Jack”. As for the location of the apartment on Whitley Terrace, there has been no mention of an exact address. Even E.J. Fleming, author of The Movieland Directory, lists Robert Stack residing on “Whitley Terrace” with no street number. Based on the descriptions about the apartment from above, there are only a few locations which their apartment may have been located. First, both authors mention that the apartment was located at the end of a cul-de-sac on Whitley Terrace. Whitley Terrace, which is primarily comprised of single family residences, does not contain many apartment complexes other than rooms being rented out from the residences. In addition, Whitley Terrace has winding roads, but there was not a cul-de-sac on that road, even before the Hollywood Freeway was built. Perhaps, they were referring to the circular drive on Iris Circle:

Another possibility that the author’s were referring to Iris Circle is that the Linda Vista Apartments are located on Iris Circle “between Cahuenga and Highland”. When describing the exterior of the apartment, it was mentioned a “jumbled mass of apartments stacked one on top of the other like a set of warped building blocks about to tumble over” and “apartments opened into balconies dripping in wisteria. Each apartment was perched dangerously on its neighbor. Each apartment grew a luxurious, tangled web of vines creating a veritable Garden of Edens effect”. There are not many apartments in Whitley Heights that can be described in that manner other than Linda Vista Apartments, minus the wisteria as they look today, pictured below.

Furthermore, these 8 apartments are very small; they all have approximately a total of 600 square feet that contain a living room, kitchen, bathroom and a bedroom. The bedrooms are very small and match the size of only being able to fit a double bed with 3 feet extra on each side. In addition, each apartment has a balcony at the end of the unit as described. Although it is not definite, these were the apartments, it is a possibility. However, other locations cannot be ruled out. There were several multi-residence buildings on Whitley Terrace around the corner from Linda Vista Apartments on Iris Circle, but they did not sit on the end of a cul-de-sac. Stack’s aunt and uncle lived down the street in a duplex at 2100-2104 Whitley Avenue in the early 1930s, but they moved out by 1935. That residence (pictured below with the red arrow) was located to Encino during the early 1950s.

There still exists several other multi-residence dwelling on Whitley Terrace (which still exists today) located at 6820 (red dot below) and 6814 Iris Circle (adjacent to 6820 below). In 1940, these dwellings did not sit on a cul-de-sac.

When Whitley Heights became divided in the 1950s, these two residences are now on a cul-de-sac today:

There is is also a multi-residence dwelling located at 2040 Whitley Avenue which is now on a cul-de-sac, but it does not match the description above. In addition, 2040 Whitley Avenue (which also sits on Bella Vista Drive), may not have been on cul-de-sac in 1940 before the 101 Freeway construction. There are still many Kennedy secrets that remain today and the Flag Room may be just that-a secret location.