Hollywood’s Haunted Hill
In 1929, a short-lived fan magazine called “The New Movie Magazine” launched and only cost 10 cents, when the majority of magazines of that time, cost 25 cents. The magazine could be found in the five and dime store, Woolworth’s. It’s accessibility and cost, led to its dominance in sales with a circulation of 650,000. As a result, the other fan magazines dropped their price down to ten cents in order to compete. Although, New Movie Magazine had less content and poorer quality photos and pictures, it managed to exist until 1935. Eleanore Griffin (1904-1995), who, at the time, a journalist, wrote one of two articles in the magazine. The first, in 1931, about a movie extra named Olivia Dikes and the second, a story about the neighborhood of Whitley Heights. The article was featured in the January 1934 issue which featured actress Mae West of the cover.
The article was titled, “Hollywood’s Haunted Hill” and began, “The strange story of Whitley Heights, where glamorous ghosts gather, rising high above the common world. There is a hilltop in Hollywood where glamorous ghosts gather…some of them the ghosts of people who are still alive.” There was an aerial photograph of Whitley Heights and other famed destinations of Hollywood that were located nearby:
Here is the present day location:
Griffin went on to state: “There is an insidious charm about this spot possessed by no other residential district in the environs of Hollywood or Los Angeles. Stand on a balcony on Whitley Heights some deep blue, velvet night, when the perfume of orange blossoms and roses mingles ever so faintly with the fragrance of burning eucalyptus logs, and Hollywood stretches before you like a handful of jewels waiting to be scooped up, and you will know what I mean.” Sounds like she had been up in the hills in order to be able to describe it at night. Sure enough, she lived up there for at least two years.
Eleanore Griffin was born in 1904 in St. Paul, Minnesota and although began her career in journalism during the 1920s, she did her screenwriting career until the age of 33. That year, in 1937, Griffin co-wrote her first four films: Time Out for Romance, starring Claire Trevor, When Love is Young, starring Virginia Bruce, Love in a Bungalow, starring Nan Grey, and Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The following year, Griffin co-wrote “Boy’s Town” starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. The film was a hit and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director, Best Writing Original Story (which Griffin was nominated), and Best Writing Screenplay. Spencer Tracy won for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Eleanor Griffin won for Best Writing Original Story in 1939.
After winning an academy award for her fifth film, Griffin went on to co-write “St. Louis Blues”, starring Dorothy Lamour, “Only Angels Have Wings” starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, “In Old Oklahoma” starring John Wayne, “The Harvey Girls” starring Judy Garland, “Good Morning, Miss Dove” starring Jennifer Jones and Robert Stack, “Imitation of Life” starring Lana Turner, and “Backstreet” starring Susan Hayward, totaling 21 films to 1964. Griffin also wrote two episodes for The Magical World of Disney in 1963. However, Griffin was plagued by alcoholism and there were several gaps of not working which spanned her career.
On May 12, 1930, Griffin married writer Neville Reay, who wrote one screenplay for a short western film called “A Tenderfoot Terror” in 1929. Reay was also the publicity director Universal Studios during their four year marriage. Between 1932-1935, Reay and Griffin rented 6687 Whitley Terrace and lived next door to actor Eugene O’Brien (6691 Whitley Terrace). Below, 6687 Whitley Terrace can be accessed on both Whitley Terrace and Grace Avenue. (Griffin used the address 2046 Grace Avenue in 1935). The house to its left was Eugene O’Brien’s house (6691) and director Robert Vignola’s house (6697).
6687 Whitley Avenue was built in 1924 by architect Arthur S. Barnes for Roosevelt Hotel manager, Jack Vanier, and the house remained with the Vanier family until the 1960s. The house was rented out several times. In 1937, they rented the house to Earl and Minibelle Hunt and their 20 year old daughter, actress Marsha Hunt (Pride and Prejudice).
Below, 6687 Whitley Terrace is seen on Grace Avenue after it was built. 6691 Whitley Terrace is seen in the background and 6697 Whitley Avenue is the house under construction.
Griffin was also romantically involved with co-worker and writer William Rankin. The two went to Tijuana, Mexico to tie-the-knot in 1937, but because of technicalities in Mexican law were never officially married. This fact was revealed to them when they filed for divorce the following year in 1938. Griffin never married again and in her later years went into the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills where she died in 1995 at the age of 91. “Whitley Heights has the ecstatic quality of impermanence. The houses cling perilously to the hillside. Bedrooms may be downstairs and kitchens upstairs. People on the way up the ladder of fame live here, and people on the way down.”
In this article, Griffin talked about the lives of the following film stars who, at one time, lived in Whitley Heights before January 1934: Rudolph Valentino, Barbara La Marr, Wallace Reid, J. Warren Kerrigan, Francis X. Bushman, Eugene O’Brien, Wanda Hawley, Ethel Clayton, Eleanor Boardman, Blanche Sweet, Helen Lee Worthing, Maurice Chevalier, Anita Paige, and Patricia Ellis.
Griffin gave honorable mention to the following actors: Thomas Meighan, Ralph Graves, Monta Bell, Richard Barthelmess, Joseph Schildkraut, Sidney Franklin, Lawrence Tibbett, Montague Love, George Arliss, Dorothy Devore, Mary Doran, Dorothy Peterson, Gloria Stuart, Greta Meyer, Stuart Walker, and Chester Morris.
Rudolph Valentino
“Valentino lived there then in the blue honeymoon house to which he brought the exotic Natacha Rambova. Valentino, who in his brief career, enjoyed an adulation accorded no other actor in the history of the stage or screen. But the darling of the gods died at the age of thirty-one. Rioting lines, blocks long, waited to view his casket. Women all over the world wept. Two girls who had never seen him except on the screen, girls he didn’t know existed, committed suicide. The blue honeymoon house still stands, and curious fans continue to ring the doorbell and humbly request that they be allowed to go through the house. The present tenants are amazingly gracious about it. Perhaps Rudy, who died at his zenith, will be the screen’s only immortal.” taken from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
“If you listen ever so carefully you may hear the eerie whine of Valentino’s specially-built foreign roadster as it creeps up the steep hill that leads from Hollywood. The roadster lies in a junk heap somewhere, and Valentino, greatest of screen lovers, in a crypt, not even his own, a short distance from the foot of the hill.” taken from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Rudolph Valentino (born Rodolfo di Valentina d’Antonguella) was born in Italy in 1895 and immigrated to the United States in 1913 at the age of 18. By 1919, Valentino signed with Metro after screenwriter June Mathis and he co-starred with Alice Terry in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. He also hastily married actress Jean Acker, who had been in a lesbian triangle with Grace Darmond and Alla Nazimova. Acker wanted to remove herself from the love triangle and then quickly regretted the marriage, and locked Valentino out of their room on their wedding night at the Hotel Hollywood. The couple separated soon after, and the marriage was never consummated. Valentino put down a deposit at the Formosa Apartments and Cottages, located at 7139 Hollywood Blvd., but they never moved in together. Valentino shared one of their apartments with cinematographer, Paul Ivano, before he met his next wife, costume & set designer, Natacha Rambova.
Valentino and Rambova married on May 13, 1922, in Mexicali, Mexico, which resulted in Valentino’s arrest for bigamy, since he had not been divorced for a full year, as required by California law at the time. They decided to live apart in their own apartments in New York City to wait the year out and on March 14, 1923, they legally remarried at the Lake County Court House in Crown Point, Indiana.
6776 Wedgewood Place was finished in 1922 by architects Arthur S. Barnes and Charles D. Grolle (both have built several other homes in the area). Valentino had scraped enough money together to give them a down payment. Natacha had owned a little bungalow on Gardner Street, so they moved her furniture into the new home, turned on the utilities and were moved in by Christmas. Paul Ivano rented a house in Whitley Heights on Fairfield Street and it was one big lively affair.
By his friend’s accounts, Rambova had a very dominating personality, including his friend and co-worker, June Mathis. The marriage began to fall apart, and in an attempt to save his marriage, Valentino purchased a 4 acre property over Benedict Canyon Drive and named the estate “Falcon Lair” (pictured below). However, they divorced in 1925 and Rudy kept the property and purchased another piece of land below to house his horses, while still owning the Whitley Heights property-“Villa Valentino”.
In August of 1926, Valentino traveled to New York City to promote his latest film, “Son of the Sheik” when on August 15th, he collapsed at the Hotel Ambassador on Park Avenue and rushed to the hospital and operated on for appendicitis and abdominal ulcers. His current fiancee, actress Pola Negri, was filming in Los Angeles and was planning to leave in a few days to see him. At first, doctors were optimistic on his recovery, then his condition worsened and his lungs became inflamed, which weakened his immune system. Doctors chose not to disclose this information to Valentino, which was common practice at the time. During the early hours of Monday, August 23rd, Valentino was chatting to the nurses about his future and then suddenly lapsed into a coma. He died a few hours later at the age of 31. Negri never made it to the hospital on time.
The first funeral service was held Monday, August 30 at Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church, often called “The Actor’s Chapel,” located on West 49th Street in New York City. It was estimated over 100,000 came to pay respect to the actor and it was a mob with several reports of suicides occurring after his death. However, the second funeral took place at the Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills after Valentino’s remains were sent to California. As he did not have any funeral arrangements set in a will, June Mathis decided that he could temporarily be buried in her family plot in a crypt that she had purchased for the husband whom she had since divorced at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. However, Mathis died a year later, was buried next to Valentino, and his resting place became permanent. Below, an excerpt from the article, indicated that Valentino’s house in Whitley Heights was called “Falcon Lair”. We know this to be incorrect as Falcon Lair was his house in Bel Air. 6676 Wedgewood Place was known as “Villa Valentino”.
All of Valentino’s things were auctioned off, including this property. Actor Lyle Tabott, who lived next door at the time, unsuccessfully attempted to buy Villa Valentino. Unfortunately, there was no buyer so 6776 Wedgewood Place was rented out. Valentino’s brother rented the house between 1935 and 1936. For many years after Valentino’s death, fans would drive by and even ring the doorbell so they could see the inside of the house. The condition of the house began to deteriorate and Valentino even reported a robbery in the house in 1936. In 1937, it was sold to an oil operator who began to remodel the home. He rented it to Tom Lyle Williams (pictured below), founder of Maybelline Cosmetics lived here with his partner, writer, Emery Shaver, who rented the residence in 1938. Williams leased it for a few years with the intent to buy the property. Once new owners, they continued to remodel the property and even added a swimming pool in the back.
In 1950, Williams received a letter from the city indicating he had one year to move the house or it would be destroyed due to the freeway construction. Williams opted to move into a new home in Bel Air. In September of 1951, Villa Valentino was razed. Rumor has it, the house was moved to another area in Los Angeles as only the foundation was seen below. Falcon Lair was razed in 2006 with its stable and 3-bay garage remaining.
Barbara La Marr
“And late at night, the fog creeps in from the sea to clothe the hill in silver and to enfold with loving fingers the graceful wrath of the too-beautiful Barbara LaMarr, who traveled so far in the eight miles that stretch from the shabby cabaret on Main Street to the odd little pink house that still clings trustingly to the hillside.” taken from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
“And children who are now grown up remember begging their nurses to take them walking by the pink house where Barbara La Marr lived, because Barbara was so beautiful she seemed to them like somebody out of the pages of a fairy tale. Barbara who crowded the adventures, the tears, and the joys of several lifetimes into her pitiful twenty-nine years. She loved the hilltop and the glittering lights below her.” taken from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill. Below are Barbara La Marr and husband, Jack Dougherty at 6672 Whitley Terrace circa 1924.
Reatha Watson was born in Yakima, Washington in 1896 to William and Rose Watson. William worked as a newspaper editor and had a daughter from a previous marriage. Little Reatha had a brother, William, who was ten years older than she. In 1900, 3 year old Retha was living with her parents, brother, and older half-sister who was married, in Oregon. By 1907, Reatha was already appearing in local plays in Spokane, Washington. The Watson’s moved to Los Angeles by 1912 where Reatha continued to act, performing at the Lyceum cast as a chorus girl. However, in 1913, 16 year old Reatha Watson ran away from home at 1239 1/2 Figueroa Street. The Watson’s believed Reatha left with her half-sister and her husband bound for Seattle and warrants were issued. The newspaper indicated she was “one of the most beautiful girls of Los Angeles”. Reatha returned home the next day in a car driven by Violet Ake, her half-sister, coming from Santa Barbara. Reatha, however, had realized her sister and boyfriend were planning to take her to San Francisco against her will and both were charged with kidnapping. Poor little Reatha had to testify against Violet and apparently fainted after she spoke in court. However, charges were eventually dropped against the two as the courts did not have enough evidence to convict them.
A year later, when Reatha close to being 18 years of age, the city of Los Angeles, felt that it was too dangerous for her to live alone due to her beauty and called for her parents. Juvenile authorities informed Reatha she had two choices: return home to live with her parents or become a ward of the state. Ms. Watson chose to return home with her parents in January of 1914.
Reatha could not even make it a few months before she was in the limelight again. In June of 1914, Mrs. Amelia Converse, wife of Lawrence F. Converse, informed police that he he left with 17 year old Beth Lytelle, a.k.a., Reatha Watson, “the dangerously handsome bride”. According to Ms. Converse, her husband abandoned her and their two small children in order to marry a woman he has known for less than four days! The two left Los Angeles en route to San Francisco and then head to Canada. Converse, apparently met Watson at her apartment, located at 1501 West Pico Street, where he immediately became infatuated with her. The two obtained a marriage license under the fictitious names of “Max Lawrence” age 26 of Chicago and “Beth Lytelle” 20 of San Diego. They then drove to a minister’s house on West 34th Street and got married. Of course, Mr. Converse claimed that Watson drugged him and that he knew nothing of the marriage. Reatha returned to her parent’s home in Burbank claiming that she did not know Converse was married with children. Converse was arrested on bigamy charges, but a few months later died due to complications during surgery stemming from an old accident.
Mr. Watson told authorities that in October, his daughter was riding horseback in Arizona, when she was kidnapped by Jack Lytelle, who dragged her off of her horse and forced her into her car and drove her down to Mexico where a marriage was performed. Two months later, Lytelle died. Years later, after becoming Barbara La Marr, she denied getting married to Lytelle but was enamored to actor “Bert Lytell” and used is last name as an alias. However, after the Converse scandal, the doors that were opening for her in the movie studios, were closed shut this time.
In January of 1917, Watson made headlines again, when she married a dancer named Phil Ainsworth, who got arrested for selling her car when she still owed money on it. Six months later, the newspaper erroneously reported her dead in Salt Lake City from a broken back. Watson was in Salt Lake City, but in the middle of a divorce from Ainsworth where she was a dancer at a hotel. It was suggested that she made up the story of her death in order for the active divorce case to be dismissed. During the divorce, Ainsworth claimed that Watson was married three times before him, but only one of the marriages proved to be legal. They married on October 13, 1916 and their marital troubles started immediately. A few weeks after they were married, Watson left Ainsworth for another dancer named Robert Carville. Ainsworth was actually two years younger than she was at the time. Their divorce became finalized on August 10, 1917.
Ainsworth turned out to be a career criminal. During their brief marriage, he was sent to San Quentin Prison for forging checks. In 1926, he got 4 months for passing bad checks. In 1928, he was sentenced to a year in Folsom for forgery. In 1934, he returned to Folsom for 14 years for repeated forgery charges.
Things remained quiet until June of 1920 when Barbara La Marr Watson had her husband and actor Ben Deeley arrested. Watson found that Deeley was not financially stable so they split up and he sold her their car. However, she had him arrested when he saw the car parked in Venice and got in it and drove it away. Deeley claimed she owed him money for the car. The two married in 1918 and moved to Hollywood and divorced in 1921. Deeley died of pneumonia on September 23, 1924 at the age of 46. Deeley is pictured below and was 40 years old when he married La Marr who was only 24 years old at the time of their marriage.
In 1920, the movie studios forgave the young vixen and she was hired for a small part in the film, “Harriet and the Piper” under Louis B. Mayer Productions and Anita Stewart Productions. She played the “Tam O’Shanter Girl” under the name Barbara Neeley (perhaps hiding her well publicized name). She then was awarded another small part with Fox Film Corporation in “Flame of Youth” starring Shirley Mason. Below, La Marr in the film, “Sandra” with her Russian wolfhound that was used in some of the scenes.
In 1921, Douglas Fairbanks Pictures hired her (now using the name Barbara La Marr) to play a minor, but larger role in the film, “The Nut” and in “The Three Musketeers”. La Marr then worked under director John Ford for Universal in the wester, “Desperate Trails”, again another minor role. In 1922, La Marr starred opposite John Gilbert and Barbara Bedford in “Arabian Love”, another Fox film. After a few more minor roles, La Marr was cast the lead in the Rex Ingram film, “Trifling Women, which she starred opposite Ramon Navarro by Metro Pictures. She went on to star in “Poor Men Wives” in 1923 and co-star with Eleanore Boardman and Mae Busch in “Souls for Sale” that same year.
As the demand for La Marr increased and so did her movies, her critics started to talk about her weight and she began to explore methods to loose weight and keep it off. Some magazines at the time claimed La Marr went as far as to take a tapeworm pill so that the parasite would allegedly imbed in the intestinal walls and absorb digested food through the skin. Others insisted she took thyroid pills to help shed the pounds quickly and increased her metabolism which may have been responsible for her contracting tuberculosis. Another rumor is that she developed a drug addiction after a knee injury and kept a container of cocaine on top of her piano and would regularly indulge in heroin, a rumor her son has denied after he conducted research on his mother. He did, however, indicate she had been an alcoholic.
La Marr would marry one last time in 1923 to Jack Dougherty, an actor and a heavy drinker which caused a tumultuous marriage right from the start. Dougherty moved into the Whitley Heights home that she purchased in the same year that they were married. The house, located at 6672 Whitley Terrace, was originally a one-story house that sat on a downslope, designed by architect Arthur S. Barnes. When La Marr and Dougherty moved in they added another floor which added two more bedrooms and a bathroom. La Marr also added a separate guest room that can also be accessed in the backyard.
In 1922, La Marr told the press that she adopted a son, but years after her death, it was disclosed that Marvin was her biological child with a rumor that the father had been director Paul Bern who had committed suicide two month after marrying Jean Harlow in 1932. The rumor was never substantiated and to this day, her son does not know who his father was.
With the partying and late night hours La Marr endured, mixed with alcohol and dieting pills, her health started to decline. Late in 1925, La Marr contracted tuberculosis and after completing her final film, “The Girl from Montmartre”, La Marr collapsed into a coma. She was further diagnosed with nephritis, inflammation of the kidneys, which further compromised her immune system. La Marr moved into her parent’s house in Altadena and by Christmas of 1925, La Marr weighted 80 pounds. On January 30, 1926, Barbara La Marr died of complications of all her health issues and Paul Bern had allegedly been at her side when she died. Her son was legally adopted by her close friend and actress, Zasu Pitts and her husband, Tom Gallery and renamed Donald “Sunny” Gallery.
After La Marr’s death, the house was rented by child star, Phillippe De Lacy’s mother rented 6672 Whitley Terrace in 1928 (see above). Born in France during a World War I air raid in which his mother was killed, Philippe was adopted by Mrs. Edith De Lacy, a nurse, associated with the Women’s Overseas Hospital. After the war ended, Mrs. Lacy brought Philippe to America where his stunning looks soon made him a sought after model for advertisements and eventually brought him to the screen.
Wallace Reid
“And if your ears are tickled by a vagrant refrain from a song you have almost forgotten…”Wally” Reid lived not far away and impromptu orchestras composed of his friends were his chief delight. And strange unhappy fates overtook others who were beautiful, gay and gifted and who looked triumphantly down on Hollywood from this picturesque hilltop.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
“Wally Reid loved the hilltop too. Memories of gay parties and Wally’s Pan-like pranks still abound. Everyone loved Wally, who looked like a young god, and who died waging a glorious but futile battle.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill. Although Wallace Reid never lived in Whitley Heights, Griffin decided to include him in the article.
Wallace Reid was born in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1891 to theatrical actors of that time. After graduating from a boarding school and excelling in sports, Reid was drawn to the movie industry, wanting to write and direct films. Reid approached Vitagraph Studios with a script his father had handwritten from a play, but the studio executives were drawn to the young man’s good looks and cast him in short films beginning in 1911. Reid stayed busy appearing in over 200 films before his death in 1922. Some notable roles included: D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), Cecil DeMille’s “Carmen” (1915), and D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance” (1916).
Reid also enjoyed racing cars and had entered the Indianapolis 500 in 1922, but withdrew even before qualifying possibly due to poor health or the studio insisting due to being under contract.
In 1912, Reid co-starred in the western short film, “His Only Son” with actress Dorothy Davenport and they married in 1913 at the Church of the Holly Cross in Hollywood.
They first resided in a small apartment bungalow court on Las Palmas Blvd. before purchasing their first home at 1390 Allison Avenue in Echo Park. The two story house built in 1901 with three bedrooms and one bathroom still stands today and has been named as a historic property.
Between 1918 and 1922, the Reid’s moved in a bungalow located at 1822 Morgan Place which has since been born down and replaced with apartments and the street name was changed to Gramercy Place.
In 1920, the Reids purchased an acre of land in Hacienda Park, on DeLongpre Avenue just below Sunset Blvd. and bordering N. Sweetzer Avenue, a few blocks from the Chateau Marmont. Originally, the street address was 1581, but by 1930, the address changed to 8327 De Longpre Avenue. Actor William S. Hart would by the lot next to him and build a Colonial house. As Reid was building this house, Whitley Heights formally opened the same year. Reid’s house has since then torn down
Reid had an extremely heavy work schedule, sometimes fitting in 10 films a year and looked to drugs in order to keep him going. In 1919, while filming in Arcata, California, for the film, “Valley of the Giants”, Reid was involved in a train accident which derailed and he is injured. The Paramount Pictures executives decided to get a doctor to provide Reid morphine in order to make it through the picture. Picture after picture, the doctors gave him drugs and Reid became addicted. On September 19, 1922, Reid was admitted into the Blessing Sanitarium for 6 weeks, following the Banksia Place Sanitarium where he died in his wife’s arms on January 18, 1923 in an attempt to recover from his addiction, but with a weakened immune system and extreme weight loss, died of influenza. Below are one of the last pictures taken of Reid before his death. He is relaxing at his pool with his wife and son, Wallace Reid, Jr.
A heartbroken Dorothy Davenport blamed all of his friends, but interestingly not the movie studio who supplied the drugs to Wallace. Perhaps because she needed them to help her produce human interest stories. Her first film after Reid’s death was “Human Wreckage” which focused on the life of a drug addict; Davenport wrote, produced and starred in the movie. Davenport’s last film, “The Road to Ruin” was a movie she directed about an alcoholic, pregnant drug addict and is forced to get an abortion.
J. Warren Kerrigan
“J. Kerrigan Warren still lives in the rambling white bungalow, half hidden by pepper trees and with scarlet geraniums growing rampant, at the foot of the hill. Almost any day he can be seen strolling about, his hair still thick and curly but almost white, a cap on his head and a pipe in his mouth…as on the cover of the very first movie magazine I can remember.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill. Below: Kerrigan is seen making a garden at his Whitley Heights home at 2307 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
George Jack Warren Kerrigan was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1879 and became a popular silent screen star of the 1920s. Kerrigan, never married always resided with his mother, Sarah, brother, and sister (all pictured below on the front porch of Kerrigan’s Whitley Heights house).
Kerrigan was romantically linked to James Carroll Vincent (not to be confused with the director) who moved into Kerrigan’s home, at 2307 Cahuenga Boulevard, where they began a 25 year relationship. He was listed at various times as Kerrigan’s secretary or gardener. Vincent was 17 years younger than Kerrigan and was cast as an extra in several of Kerrigan’s films. After Kerrigan’s death in June 1947, Vincent married Mitty Lee Turner (1894-1968) on October 24, 1947. Unable to find happiness, committed suicide by gas in his bedroom at 14716 Magnolia Boulevard, Van Nuys, nine months after the death of Kerrigan.
Kerrigan also had another boarder, Mansel Vardaman G. Boyle was better known in the vaudeville circuit by his middle name “Vardaman”, a female impersonator. According to California voter registration records, Mansel was living with Kerrigan in Los Angeles from at least 1936 to 1938. Mansel began his career touring across the country as Ardaman, a female impersonator. By 1916, he was being built as “Ardaman – The Gay Deceiver” with a famous burlesque show called the Champagne Belles. He was the only female impersonator in the act which primarily included comics and female dancers. By 1920 Mansel was 43 years old and no longer able to pull off his impersonations of a young beauty. He lived in Hollywood during the 1930s and with Kerrigan from 1934 to 1936. As all three lived together in the Whitley Heights house, Vincent was not listed as living with them by 1938. Was two company, three a crowd?
Kerrigan was able to hide his gay relationships as the media was often pairing him with his co-star, actress Lois Wilson, hoping the two would end up together. In the end, Kerrigan never married and remained living with his brother and sister.
Kerrigan started his acting career in 1910 and completed 384 films until 1924. He started with the Essanay Studios in Chicago and completed hundreds of short films before completing his first full length feature, “Langdon’s Legacy” with Universal Studios in 1916. Kerrigan left acting at the height of his career to live an easy retirement, living off of his earnings before his death in 1947.
In 1917 Kerrigan built a 9 room, 2 story chateau located at 2307 Caheunga Blvd., at the foot of Whitley Heights-Villa Valentino could be seen up the hill from Kerrigan’s house (as seen below).
Kerrigan sold this property in 1940 and purchased another home located at 8660 Apperson Street in Sunland, a 5 bedroom estate on 1.6 acres of land. His sister, brother, and partner moved in with him. By 1947, Kerrigan had moved to Balboa Island (Newport Beach) where he died that same year at the age of 66 from pneumonia.
Francis X. Bushman
“On the top of the hill is the house where Francis X Bushman used to live. It’s an old fashioned frame house of definite charm with a high fence around it and a winding driveway boarded with daisies. Though no star ever earned as much from the films alone, today Bushman is bankrupt. However, in a newspaper statement he said that he didn’t care. That he was happy. That his life had been replete with good things and he would like to live it over.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Francis Xavier Bushman was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1893 and joined a local athletic club where he focused on bodybuilding, which made his famed physique. His body earned him money in New York City, where he worked as a sculptor’s model, often posing in the nude in sessions. In 1902, he married seamstress Josephine Duval and they ended up with five children by the time he started acting in 1911. Bushman was hired by Essanay Studios in Chicago and over the next five years he appeared generally as the leading man in over a hundred silent films for the studio. Of course, the studio kept his marriage a secret as he received hundreds of fan letters from starstruck girls proposing marriage to him. Below is Bushman appearing in his first film “His Friend’s Wife” in which he had the leading role in 1911.
In 1918, he was the subject of a national scandal as his affair with longtime costar Beverly Bayne became public. Three days after his divorce with Josephine was final, Bushman and Bayne were married in Baltimore as the media claimed Bayne was Bushman’s “Juliet”. Bayne moved into Bushman’s estate in Maryland called “Bushman Manor” after wife number one moved out.
By 1925, Bushman was hired by MGM Studios and he moved to Hollywood. In 1926, Bushman purchased an old and short-lived hotel called “Cahuenga Vista Inn” which sat on the very top of Whitley Heights with a listed address of 6797 Whitley Terrace. The 20 room inn closed it’s doors in 1916 and actress Blanche Sweet rented the property until 1920. The address of the property had also changed to 2020-2022 Grace Avenue.
By this time, Bushman is not only father’s a sixth child with Bayne, his eldest, Francis Bushman, Jr. had just had his first child, making Bushman at grandfather at the age of 43. Bushman had just finished his most notable role of “Messala” playing opposite Ramon Navarro in “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” and was in the middle of a divorce from Bayne, who moved out of the Whitley Heights house with their son. Bushman was breeding and selling Great Danes and at one time, had over 300 dogs on the property.
With Bushman’s career dwindling and another cost of divorce, Bushman went bankrupt and was forced to sell the Whitley Heights estate, now listed at 2020 Grace Avenue, in 1930. Travel-Lecturer Burton Holmes purchased the home from him and named the property, “Topside”. Bushman quietly moved to a little house on Santa Monica Blvd. Bushman married again in 1932 and was trying to revive his career on stage. During the 1940s and 1950s, Bushman was able to get minor, but memorable roles in the following films: Dick Tracy (1937), Hollywood Story (1951), and Sabrina (1954) before getting guest star roles on television before his death in 1966.
Burton Holmes died in this home in July of 1958. Before his death, he traveled frequently, so he rented out the house to: Hermione Gingold (1930), actress Eleanor Boardman (1930s), actress Patricia Ellis (1936), director Joe May (1937-39), actor Tyrone Power (1940s), song writer Frederick Hollander (1940-42) and Erno Verebes (1940-42).
After Burton’s death, the house was deeded to Burton Holmes Inc. (BHI) who made a small amount of money renting Topside to individuals, but by 1971 the company was surviving only on unpaid labor and money from owner, Bob Mallet’s family savings. To keep the company going, they sold Topside in the early 1970’s to Shaun Dale, a Japanese businessman, who was arranging an exhibition of Holmes’ work in Japan. Dale in turn, sold the property to a group of developers in the late 1970’s; they tore the house down in 1979, but did not put anything in its place until the 1990’s when it turned into Kendra Drive and five homes were built to form a gated community lined with 39 of the 50 palm trees that Bushman planted in 1926.
Eugene O’Brien
“When I lived in the middle west, Eugene O’Brien had a tour with a play called “Steve”. Movie starts were rare enough, but Eugene O’Brien in the flesh was something beyond all dreams. Gene has a lovely home in Whitley Heights. He still lives there… very quietly. Almost every afternoon, he sprinkles his lawn in his bare feet. Gene is still very handsome though he has a bit of a tummy. He speaks without a great deal of enthusiasm of going on a diet and staging a comeback. Over his fireplace is a huge oil painting of Norma Talmadge and when in a mellow mood, Gene grows reminiscent.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Eugene O’Brien was born in 1880 in Boulder, Colorado and attended the University of Colorado to study medicine and then switched his major to civil engineering as he really wanted to study theater, but his family advised against it. He moved to New York City and was discovered by a Broadway theater which put him on the stage in 1909. After a few more years of theater in Boulder, O’Brien was hired by Essanay Film Company and began his career on the screen. He was then hired by the Mary Pickford Company and starred opposite her on “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” in 1917. In 1918, O’Brien starred opposite Normal Talmadge in “The Safety Curtain”, a pairing that was well received and the two would star in 10 more films together. He retired from acting when sound films came in, making his last film, Faithless Lover, in 1928 at age 47.
O’Brien was living at 6814 Iris Circle in Whitley Heights when he sold the house in 1925 for $50,000. He then purchased 6691 Whitley Terrace in 1925, he extended the west side of the house, adding two more rooms, with a total of 8 rooms now. In 1927, O’Brien slipped on the front stairs leading to the house and broke his kneecap. He hastily put the house on the market, but then decided against moving, only to have his gardener chase off a trio of burglars that had a van parked out in front of the house. As a result of his injury and break-in, he decided to rent down the street temporarily at 6689-91 Emmet Terrace. In 1929, he increased the square footage of the kitchen and added a loggia and balcony to 6691 Whitley Terrace.
Below, the rear of 6691 Whitley Terrace is the second house from the right. Director Robert Vignola’s house was next to O’Briens’s house on the right.
Film executive Joseph Schenck was married to actress Norma Talmadge, preferred that she star opposite homosexual men as she was known to have a “wandering eye”. Schenck believed O’Brien would be a perfect co-star with Talmadge, and 10 movies later, the two became good friends and would spend time together. It was even rumored that at times, O’Brien gave into Talmadge’s sexual advances. O’Brien had to fight off the advances of many teenage girls, but all that knew him, understood that he was gay. In November of 1922, an aspiring actress accused of violating the Mann Act and marrying her but ripping up the marriage certificate. O’Neil was able to give an alibi for the day the young actress claimed they got married-he was filming. After a thorough investigation, the actresses allegations proved unfounded.
Following his retirement, O’Brien told a reporter that he loved his new life since he could do whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted. He emphasized that he never got married because women were too possessive, declaring that he was “untroubled by girls and enjoyed working out, gardening, and most of all in bachelorhood.” Eugene O’Brien died on April 29, 1966, at the age of 85 on pneumonia.
Below is O’Neil in front of his residence at 6691 Whitley Terrace; Vignola’s roof is seen right behind him.
Wanda Hawley
“Wanda Hawley lived in the house on the other side of Eugene O’Brien. Wanda was blonde and dimpled. She appeared in many of DeMille’s earlier pictures; she was Valentino’s leading lady in “The Young Rajah; and for a time she starred in a series of comedies. But Wanda grew fat, so fat that after a while she was seen no more.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill. A search was made to determine which house the author was referring to; keep in mind Griffin lived on the house to the right of O’Brien’s house at 6687 Whitley Terrace. Based on her statement “lived in the house on the other side of Eugene O’Brien, did Hawley reside in the Vignola house, 6697 Whitley Terrace?
6697 Whitley Terrace (pictured below) was built in 1922 by a retired banker named William Hammond who lived in the house until 1924. Director Robert Vignola purchased the property in 1926 and moved in until his death in 1953. As the house went up for sale and had been vacant in 1925, Wanda Hawley may have rented until Vignola bought the house (although not confirmed).
Wanda Hawley was born Selma Wanda Pittack in Scranton, PA in 1895. Wanda then moved to New York to finish her music education in a conservatory school. The very week she received her diploma, she lost her voice and could no longer sing. She met Allen Burton Hawley in the summer of 1915; Burton worked for the New York Telephone Company and was the sister of a fellow voice student. A romance developed and a year later they were married. In 1917, after being discovered by DeMille while playing at a piano concert, she joined Fox Studios as Wanda Petit. Rumors also circulated that she had an affair with DeMille. In the summer of 1917, Wanda moved to Hollywood as she received some offers to make films there. Allen quit his job and they moved to Hollywood so they could focus on her career, but shortly after their arrival, Allen was drafted into the Army during World War I. Below: Wanda and Allan Hawley.
The Hawley’s moved to Los Angeles first moving to 4426 Sunset Blvd in 1918. In 1918 both Wanda and Allen were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for falsifying information on a draft questionnaire. She claimed she was dependent on her husband for income whereas she made studio money. All charges were dropped in that Allen would have to be drafted into the army. Around the same time, Douglas Fairbanks saw her and put her in his film, “Mr. Fix-It” in his production company with the request she dropped her stage name and so she became Wanda Hawley professionally.
Following that appearance, she got a contract with Artcraft Pictures Corporation under the direction of Cecil DeMille and then moved to Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and Paramount Pictures. During her movie career, Hawley co-starred opposite Tom Mix, Wallace Reid, and Rudolph Valentino. Below, Hawley and Valentino in “The Young Rajah” in 1922.
By 1920, Hawley’s career was flourishing (she had made over 30 films) so she bought a piece of land on De Longpre Blvd. (between Wallace Reid and William Hart’s properties) and made plans to build her own mansion. Allan was selling car tires and did not like the fact that his wife was more financially secure than he was. They were now living at 1715 Wilcox while making plans for the new house. Her dream house never got built. Her brother, Patrick, moved to Hollywood and moved in with them as they were now living in an apartment on St. Francis Court in Hollywood (pictured below) and Wanda got him a job as a chauffeur and bodyguard at the studios.
By 1922, Wanda was residing at 5805 Selma Avenue before the Hawleys bought their first home at 7033 Longwood Avenue. However, a series of events occurred which started Wanda to unravel: First, Wanda had surprised a burglar when she arrived at her Selma Avenue home one day in July. The next month, she was the victim of blackmail and got the police involved to try to catch the person who never showed to collect the “hush money”. Then she and Allen separated and Wanda moved into the Sycamore Apartments. Right before Christmas, while living at the Sycamore Apartments, she was confronted by the media that her husband was filing for divorce.
Allan was upset that Wanda left him so he filed for divorce and threatened to tell the world about all of her secrets. Wonder what she was hiding. In order to avoid any negative publicity, Wanda decided to sail for English with her business manager, J. Stuart Wilkinson. She applied for her passport under the name of “Selma Hawley” (Selma was the name of her older sister.) When the immigration officials recognized her, she blatantly denied she was the movie star. Her passport application photo is pictured below.
Right before leaving the country she broke her contract with Paramount indicating she was tired of being cast as a “dumbbell”. Ten days later, leaving on the SS Celtic en route to Europe, Hawley thought she was finally putting her sordid past behind her. Wilkinson began acting more like a “male chaperone” than a business manager. Hawley filed for divorce citing “brutality”, failure to work and provide for her financially, and then entertaining men and women while she was working. Allen denied the charges of being a “deadbeat” indicating he opened up a garage when he returned to Hollywood after his stint in the Army and also dabbled in real estate.
In October of 1923, she was granted an uncontested divorce when her husband failed to show up to court. After all the publicity about the divorce and her leaving for Europe, her career continued to slow down. In July of 1925, Wanda announced her engagement to her business manager, Jay Stewart Wilkinson. The following month, they were married in front of a handful of people at the Congregational Church in Hollywood with Lottie Pickford as her maid of honor. After she and Jay married, they may have possibly rented 6697 Whitley Terrace before renting another Whitley Heights house in 1926, 6616 Odin Street (see below).
Her career began to flourish again with the help of her husband and then tanked. Wanda admitted that she had a drinking problem and with drinking and smoking, developed a “raspy” voice that would have never been used in talking pictures. In 1929, she was intoxicated during the play of “Illegitimate” and could not perform, and was being sued by the director for $50,000. By 1930, Wanda was living at apartments at 365 Cloverdale Avenue. Wilkinson sued for divorce in 1933 on the grounds of “willful absence”. The next rumor was that she was living in San Francisco and working as a “call girl”. In the 1940s, she married for the third time to an insurance salesman and was living in Twin Falls, Idaho. Later in life, she returned to Los Angeles and was living in an apartment in Beverly Hills and passed away at home from heart disease at the age of 67 in 1963.
Ethel Clayton
“And the hill continued to take its toll. Ethel Clayton, the girl with the languorous, dreamy eyes and fly away hair, who appeared in the film versions of a dozen or more Rupert Hughes’ novels, was another who lived on the hill and whose footsteps were dogged by misfortune. After years of devotion, that became almost a Hollywood tradition, to the memory of her first husband, she fell in love and married Ian Keith. For a while, they were ideally happy; then everything was over in a flare of ugly publicity.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Ethel Clayton was born 1882 in Champaign, Illinois and began on stage at the Chicago Opera House and then moving to other stock theater companies, even appearing in Ziegfeld Follies in 1911. Her film career began in 1909 and appeared in many short films for Essanay Films before working her full length feature film “Pilgrim’s Progress” for a film company in New Jersey in 1912.
In 1914, Clayton appeared in the film, “A Daughter of Eve” opposite actor Joseph Kauffman (both pictured above) for a small movie company and they fell in love, marrying in 1915. The two continued to work in the New York area, appearing in several more films together. In 1915, Kauffman turned to directing before his death in 1918 from the Spanish flu epidemic. A distraught Clayton moved to Hollywood in 1918 when she was hired by Famous Player’s-Lasky and moved to Venice Beach with her mother and brother Clayton, who also dabbled in acting. Clayton was working on the picture with director Robert Vignola and both Clayton’s and Vignola’s homes were used as part of the picture.
In 1919, the Claytons rented a bungalow in Whitley Heights located at 6662 Odin Street (near Fairfield Avenue and Highland Avenue), which she is pictured in front of the house in the above picture. Clayton continued to work for Famous Player’s-Lasky filming “Pettigrew’s Girl” opposite Monte Blue before switching over to Paramount Pictures.
In December of 1919, Clayton purchased her first home, a two-story bungalow located at 6928 Hawthorn Avenue (pictured above). Clayton had purchased land on Adelaide Drive in Pacific Palisades in 1920 in order to build her own home, but the house was never built. So she settled on upgrading a house in Whitley Heights, in 1922, located at 2119 Fairfield Avenue, which she lived in the home until the late 1920s.
Towards her end of her stay in Whitley Heights, Clayton met actor, Ian Keith (pictured below), while doing theater and married him in 1928. In 1930, the 39 year old actress moved in with the 31 year old actor in the Aldo Nito Apartments (Sunset Boulevard movie). By August of 1931, Clayton filed for divorce, but then opposed it, wanting Keith back. However, it was too late, Keith had moved on to another woman and wanted the divorce, which was finalized in February of 1932. Four months later, Keith was remarried and Clayton moved back in with her family at 2238 El Contento Drive until their Hawthorn house was available again in 1934 (they had rented it out).
The actress was now 56 year old and her roles had dwindled down to minor, sometimes uncredited roles. Clayton continued taking roles until she retired in 1947 and moved up the coast to Thousand Oaks with her brother. Clayton spent his last years in a mental hospital where as Ethel, remained in the area, and died in 1966. Both are pictured below in front of the Hawthorn house, which has since then been razed.
Eleanor Boardman
“Eleanor Boardman lived up here when she was considered one of the most brilliant and promising of the younger actresses, and the hillside smiled on the ardent wooing of King Vidor. They were married and Eleanor deserted the screen for babies and domesticity. Their marriage ended recently with a barrage of not-too-pretty charges and counter-charges, and Eleanor was sued by the private detective she had hired to shadow King. Since the advent of the talkies she made one picture… and that during the year she was under contract with Paramount. Though she looked very pretty, her debut was considered woefully inauspicious and Paramount didn’t renew her contract.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Olive Eleanor Boardman was born in 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Boardman entered a nationwide contest in 1922 and out of over 1,000 contestants, won the “New Face of 1922” for Goldwyn Pictures. Although her original screen test was a flop, her second one proved successful and she was cast in films with minor roles in 1923. That same year, Boardman was cast the lead in “Souls for Sale” with co-stars Mae Busch and Barbara La Marr.
Considered “the most outspoken girl in Hollywood”, Boardman moved to Whitley Heights and rented 2139 Fairfield Avenue in 1924. This house was built in 1921 by architect Arthur S. Barnes and just prior to Boardman residing here, Rudolph Valentino’s friend, cinematographer Paul Ivano rented the house in 1923 to be closer to Valentino who lived above him on Wedgewood Place. Boardman would rent another home in Whitley Heights, 2110 Fairfield Avenue, after she rented this house.
Boardman was immediately cast in “The Wise Fools” that was directed by King Vidor and the two fell in love and married in 1926. Boardman was living at 2110 Fairfield Avenue when she married Vidor. They built a home located at 1139 Tower Road (9941 Tower Lane) in Beverly Hills which they lived until their divorce in 1933; Boardman continued to reside in the house until she rented it out in 1942.
Boardman continued to act in two dozen more films before retiring in 1935 to raise their two daughters. On May 23, 1929, a federal grand jury returned an indictment that charged Boardman with evading income tax payments in 1925, 1926, and 1927. Simultaneously, an information filed in federal court accused Vidor of income tax evasion in 1925 and 1926. J. Marjorie Berger, an income tax counselor in Hollywood, had earlier been indicted on charges of preparing a false income tax return for the couple for 1925. In the end, the Vidors paid a fine. Below, Boardman in front of 2139 Fairfield Avenue circa 1924.
Boardman’s second husband was director Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast, to whom she was married in 1940. She divided her time between the United States and their chateau in the Pyrenees Mountains. After her husband’s death in 1968, she permanently relocated to the United States, where she settled into Montecito, California. She died in her sleep at her home at the age of 93 in 1991. Below: 2139 Fairfield Avenue present day. After the freeway took most of the street away, only two houses that were built in the 1920s remain; a third house was built in 1949 (right before the street was demolished-wonder if they got a deal on the land).
Blanche Sweet
“Another ill-fated pair that challenged the spell of the hilltop were Marshall Neilan and Blanche Sweet. Mickey, in whom there is a real flame of genius, is no longer in Hollywood, and Blanche, still slim and romantic looking, is seldom heard of.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Sarah Blanche Sweet was born in 1896 in Chicago and started acting at the age of four as her mother had been a dancer. She first appeared in film shorts in 1909 until 1914 when D.W. Griffith cast her to appear in her full length feature, “Judith of Bethulia” for Biograph. At the time, Biograph did not reveal the real names of its actors so Sweet was called “Daphne Wayne”. However, Griffith left Biograph after the movie was made and Sweet followed him to Majestic Film Company to star in a few of his films. She then went to the Jesse Lasky Company where she met director Marshall Nielan. Sweet starred in a film he directed and then formed her own production company which he was the director. The two also had a very public affair which caused Nielan’s divorce to former actress Gertrude Bambrick.
Blance Sweet was probably one of the first actresses to live in Whitley Heights. In 1917, she rented 6737 Whitley Terrace, the property that used to be an inn called the Cahuenga Vista Inn, but had since closed down. The property would later be sold to actor Francis X. Bushman, who used the address of 2020 Grace Avenue. Below is a view of the property with Wedgewood Place residences in front of it. Blanche rented this property until 1920.
While Blanche was living in Whitley Heights, she was featured in a 1918 Photoplay article which indicated, “Blanche lives in a house at the top of the hill. A lonely house, where she can see the dawn’s first flush steal over the rim of the mountains. She is waiting for her tomorrow.” The reporter, Henry Carr, further stated, “I went out to see her little house at the top of the hill. A new Blanche Sweet I had never seen before came to meet me in the long dimly lighted bungalow room. The whole place reminded me of a medieval cloister-such a place as men and women have retired to for thought and reflection.” Below, is Sweet in the Whitley Heights home in 1918.
In a September 1918 article featured in Picture Play Magazine, writer Elizabeth Peltret interviewed Sweet and stated, “Come out on the veranda, we can talk better there”, she suggested as we passed through the large high ceiling rooms, I had a glimpse of the shy, retired side of this much loved actress. She lives in a big house on the top of a chain of hills. From her veranda, she is able to look down into a ravine where there is one little house to suggest the world of people, or by gazing straight ahead she can see over the hills for great distances where there is not a sign of human life. The veranda extends completely around the house.” Below is the Whitley Heights house Blanche Sweet rented (circa 1939).
In March of 1921, Sweet was named “the other woman” during Marshall Neilan’s divorce trial. The judge asked Neilan’s mother-in-law why Neilan left his wife and son and she whispered Blanche Sweet’s name. A month later, Neilan and Sweet announced their engagement and they married in June of 1922. Two months later, the rumors were circulating of a separation as it seems Neilan had wandering eyes. Sweet took a room at the Ambassador Hotel with her mother. Six months later, Sweet checked herself into a sanitarium in order to gain weight for a film. She was going to play Tess opposite Conrad Nagel in “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” which Neilan was directing.
The bought a mansion located at 610 Camden Drive (pictured above) in the Beverly Hills flats. Any indiscretion Neilan made with another woman was kept out of the media for a number of years. In January fo 1929, rumors started up that their marriage was in trouble. Sweet left Neilan and would not tell anyone where she was staying. There was a “For Sale” sign in front of their Camden house. When Sweet was located, she denied any marital issues. On February 10, 1929, Sweet saved Neilan from carbon monoxide as he had locked himself in the Camden garage with a suicide attempt. The two were being sued for non-payment of grocery bills. Then in September, Sweet filed for divorce citing “violent and abusive language” and humiliation as he would bring people to their house at all hours and once left her alone in a night club while he talked to another woman for the entire evening. The two were officially divorced in October of 1929.
Following the divorce, Sweet made her talking debut film, “The Woman Racket” starring opposite Tom Moore, following two more talking movies in 1930 and then retired from the screen. Sweet came back almost thirty years later to make tw0 television appearances in: The Thin Man (1958) and The Adventures of Dobie Gillis (1960). She also appeared in the film, “The Five Pennies” to play the headmistress of a school, which starred Danny Kaye and Barbara Bel Geddes in 1959.
In 1935, Sweet married actor Raymond Hackett who appeared in 33 films between 1913 to 1930. Hackett starred opposite Bessie Love in “The Girl in the Show”, Colleen Moore in “Footlights and Fools”, and Mary Doran in “Manhattan Serendade”, all in 1929. They remained married until Hackett’s death in 1958. Sweet died of a stroke in New York City in 1986 at the age of 90. Below is the pool that used to be at the Whitley Heights residence.
Helen Lee Worthing
“Helen Lee Worthing, one of the most gorgeous to find her way out of the Follies, lived in a big white house, looking directly below the boulevard, with her dusky doctor husband. After many tragic episodes, which included investigations by the Federal authorities, attempts at suicide and soul-searing publicity, Helen is in a sanitarium.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Helen Lee Worthing was born in 1905 in Louisville, Kentucky and was lucky enough to be cast in minor roles in several Broadway shows between 1920 and 1923 which included: What’s in a Name? (1920), “The Greenwich Village Follies of 1920” (1920), and “The Ziegfeld Follies” (1921-1923). (Above is Worthing in the 1922 Ziegfeld Follies). Worthing claimed to have married Charles MacDonald from Brookline, Massachusetts in 1917, but he was jealous that she made more money than he and they divorced in 1922. There was probably more to it as she worked the stage at nights and he had a day job.
After months of publicity of the divorce, it was reported in April of 1922 that Worthing mistook poison or headache medication and almost killed herself in her New York apartment. She was admitted into Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. Two rumors started circulating: 1) Worthing got into an argument with a boyfriend named “Jack” and attempted suicide. 2) Worthing got into a fight with another chorus girl backstage. Worthing did recover and was released on April 29, returning to her parent’s house in Boston to recover and denying she had a lover’s quarrel.
Worthing, called “the most perfect blonde in America”, returned to her New York apartment in May, vowing to return to her chorus job and continued to deny any engagement and quarrel, even though she was spotted with a huge diamond on her left forefinger. All this publicity landed her a uncredited role in Cosmopolitan Productions “Enemies of Women” starring Leonel Barrymore and Alma Ruebens. (Clara Bow also had an uncredited role as the dancing girl on the table). Then Worthing spent two seasons in Palm Beach with another chorus girl. By mid-1924, Worthing received another small role from Cosmopolitan Productions in “Janice Meredith” starring Marion Davies. Worthing then went over to Paramount Pictures in 1925 and moved to Hollywood in July and by October, she had rented 2109 Fairfield Avenue after director Louis Lewyn and his wife, actress Marion Mack moved out.
However, this is not the Whitley Heights house the article is referring to. Worthing would rent another Whitley Heights house in 1927. While, Worthing spent a year in this residence, she had already acted in small parts in films that starred Bebe Daniels, Rod La Roque, and Pola Negri. However, her acting career never really took off because of all of her publicized off-screen drama. No sooner did Worthing move into Whitley Heights, she ran her car off the road onto the roof of a house in October of 1925. Worthing started out from her home at 2109 Fairfield Avenue and must have went around to Whitley Terrace and was driving near Valentino’s house on Wedgewood Place, when she lost control of her vehicle and landed on top of the roof of another house. Luckily, she only suffered a few bruises and the house was missing a few bricks.
After moving from an apartment on Highland Avenue across the street from Milner Road, Worthing moved to 6823 Iris Place on the other side of Whitley Heights near Caheunga Blvd. Helen was able to pick up a few minor roles, one being “Don Juan” in 1926, which starred John Barrymore and John Roche, which a host of known actresses that made quick appearances such as Estelle Taylor, Hedda Hopper, Jane Winston, Helene Costello, June Marlowe, Helena D’Algy, Myrna Loy, Mary Astor, and Phillis Haver.
In April of 1927, Worthing was sleeping in her bedroom at 6823 Iris Circle while her maid was sleeping in another room on the first floor, and was awakened by a noise in her dark bedroom. When she got up to turn on a light, she does not remember what happened next. Her maid, May Roziner, found her lying on the floor, unconscious, in a pool of blood with a broken nose, blackened eyes, bruises all over her body, and one tooth had been knocked out. She had already been confined to her bed under her doctor’s orders due to having a nervous breakdown. Dr. Eugene Nelson told authorities that she would not have been in that condition from a fall and must have been attacked. The maid reported later that she did see a man lurking around the property and reported it to the security agency that patrols the area so they placed a security guard at the residence.
By 1927, all of Worthing’s acting parts were finished and she had to file bankruptcy. Worthing could no longer afford living in the hill so she moved to 500 S. Westmoreland, down near Koreatown in downtown Los Angeles. With no more money coming in, Worthing married her treating doctor, Eugene Nelson and kept the marriage quiet for three years. Nelson with quite well as he had a large practice located at 746 E. Adams Street, conveniently located near the Los Angeles Sanitarium. When they first married they moved to 2171 Vista Del Mar Avenue in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills (see below).
Dr. Eugene Nelson moved to Los Angeles to open his own medical practice in 1915 moving his practice from Virginia. After a year, the press called him a success indicating, “there is no more familiar figure than this enterprising physician, dashing about in his powerful Cadillac, making the rounds of his many patients”. In February of 1919, an advertisement appeared in the California Eagle offering $100 to anyone who will come forward with information to the person(s) responsible for slandering Nelson. What was he accused of?
In December of 1925, Nelson’s wife, Angelita, filed for divorce and produced erotic love letters she found that other women at wrote to him. She also noted that she received “numerous pictures of beauties in unconventional poses” and that he had been seen hugging and kissing another woman in his car. This should have been a red flag for Worthing who decided to marry her doctor after ten days of him treating her after the incident in her house.
In 1930, the media found out about her marriage to her doctor, which became a scandal since the doctor was African American and mixed marriages were seen as taboo at the time. The couple married in Tijuana, Mexico in 1927 and now Worthing wanted a divorce. Nelson, who was born in Charleston, NC in 1888, was 17 years older than Worthing. However, Worthing did not have many options. She was broke, had mental issues and was becoming dependent on pills which her husband could supply so she stayed. Worthing told the media their temporary separation had nothing to do with her husband’s skin color but rather, a jealous spat over another woman.
Things were quiet for the married couple until December of 1930 when it was reported the Worthing left Los Angeles to check herself into a New York sanitarium to help treat her “insomnia”. Once again, divorce rumors swirled around the country. Worthing returned to Los Angeles at the end of the month, but did not go home to the doctor. Worthing left in mid-January to another sanitarium in New Jersey, according to her husband, and merely came to Los Angeles for a visit. By April, the media reported that Worthing did indeed, file for a divorce in Los Angeles. Worthing’s suit claimed that her husband was “jealous, cruel, and threatening confinement to an institution”.
In June of 1931, Dr. Nelsen was held at gunpoint at his West Adams office by two “Mexican robbers” who took $2,300 in cash and jewelry. They tied up the doctor with rope and adhesive tape while they ransacked his office looking for valuables. When they found a small safe, they threatened to kill the doctor unless he opened it for them. With two guns drawn to his face, the doctor was compelled to follow their orders.
With the divorce still pending, Worthing was now living at 674 S. Ardmore Avenue, in Koreatown, but Nelson was paying her bills. However, Worthing filed an updated suit against Nelson in May of 1932, claiming the medicine the doctor had been giving her caused her to “reel about the home in a stupor” and that he frequently “struck her, knocking her to the floor, so that she was compelled to call the police several times”. Worthing and Nelsen wanted the marriage annulled claiming the marriage in Mexico was invalid because they did not comply with the Mexican resident requirements. She claimed Nelson was making $2,000 per month and she wanted $700 of it for alimony. The judge gave Worthing $300 per month. On May 26, 1932, Helen Lee Worthing was granted a divorce from Dr. Eugene Nelson.
In November, Worthing was back in court informing the judge that Nelson was not paying alimony. Nelson indicated that he was “hard up” and managed to “rake up” $100 to pay Worthing, but owed her $450. Judge Valentine gave Nelson 30 days to pay Worthing what he owed her. A few weeks later, in another court hearing, Nelson’s attorney informed the judge that Worthing was “doped up” and was using her alimony money for drugs. By the end of the month, Worthing was hospitalized for a suicide attempt and hallucinations. Doctor’s reported that she “is very disturbed, believes she is going to be harmed, hears voices, and lies with eyes closed mumbling to herself”. The judge declared Worthing to be “mentally ill” and ordered her to a long-term sanitarium.
In January 1933, Worthing was out of the sanitarium and returned to court in her divorce matter. The judge granted the annulment with $300 per month alimony, and the two parted as friends. In June, Worthing was back in the newspaper reported as missing as she failed to get on a train in Pasadena bound for New York. Friends were able to locate her two days later.
In July, Dr. Nelson was accused of trying seduce a 28 year old married woman named Margaret Fay Desmond (pictured below) from her home in Freeport, Long Island, and moving her to Los Angeles. The husband filed a lawsuit and Worthing testified that years before the marriage was annulled, she was trying to give the marriage another chance while Nelson was writing love letters to Desmond. Nelson denied the accusation indicating Worthing is jealous because he had moved on from her. Nelson admitted that he and Desmond were in love, but he did not steal her from her husband. He further added that Desmond was his patient. Wow-sounds so familiar. Mrs. Desmond ended up filing for divorce so the lawsuit her husband had filed was dropped.
In August of 1933, Worthing was back in court as she was removed for her apartment from her parole officer (she had as she had been declared insane from her last hospital stay) who asked the judge to order her to be institutionalized again. Worthing felt she had been doing better trying to make a living by writing poetry and children’s stories and did not understand who wanted to see her hospitalized again. Her parole officer told the judge that she received reports that Worthing was doing drugs again.
Things were quiet again until April of 1935, when Worthing showed up in the newspaper again, this time, telling authorities she had information about a sensational murder that happened. Worthing had been staying at a beachfront motel in Venice Beach and told someone at the motel she had information about a recent murder case. After the police questioned her and found that she did not have any pertinent information, she was arrested the next day, sitting on a curb in Venice, talking to herself. Worthing plead guilty to a charge of public drunkenness, was ordered to pay a $5 fine, and had to serve 10 days in jail. When Worthing got out of jail, she was broke and had no money so she brought Nelson back to court asking back alimony. The judge awarded her $8,400 in August. Above, Worthing is in court, seeking back payments of her alimony in 1935. The following month, Worthing attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. Worthing fell in love with someone new, who found out about her past, and left her for someone else.
Nelson, of course, tried to take advantage of Worthing’s condition and tried to file a suit asking the judge to take away the alimony, which was denied. By April of 1936, Worthing was living in a half-way house, learned how to use a sewing machine, working part-time in a clothing store and trying to survive. She stated to reporters, “I’ve come back!” Her sobriety lasted only a few years. In July of 1939, she was violated once again for use of narcotics and was caught trying to get pills with a forged prescription. The police found a hypodermic needed and 4.5 grams of morphine in her purse and put her in jail. Once again, Worthing was ordered to a sanitarium and released from jail. In September 1936, 38 year old Helen Lee Worthing pled guilty to the narcotics charge and spent 5 months in jail.
In July of 1940, Worthing, once again, was arrested on forgery of prescription charges trying to get pills and was back in jail. In September, she was sentenced to one year in jail. While Worthing was serving her sentence, Eugene Nelson was arrested of performing an illegal abortion on a 26 year old woman who died in March of 1940. In June, Nelson was acquitted of murder charges due to insufficient evidence. Wow! Helen Worthing was released from jail in July after serving 10 months.
In December of 1942, Worthing failed to appear in court following an October arrest of public intoxication and wrote a letter to her attorney stating, “I am leaving the state. I do not feel I can get fair treatment in California courts”. A few days later, Worthing was arrested in Lincoln Heights and served 30 days in jail for public intoxication and released to Los Angeles jail in order to face her failure to appear charge. In August of 1943, Dr. Nelson, once again, was acquitted on charges of performing illegal abortions on two girls and attacking one of them while she was in his office for treatment. His medical license had been revoked in February of 1940 after his arrest on his previous murder charge. In April of 1944, Worthing was treated at a hospital after her boyfriend beat her up. She was admitted to the George Street Receiving Hospital after two police officers took her there with a half inch laceration on her chin and 1 and a 1/2 cut laceration on the back of her head. In May 1946, Worthing was taken back to the same hospital as she was found lying in the street at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Portia Street in a “dazed condition”.
Then on August 25, 1948, Worthing was in her 3 room backlot house that she shared with 39 year old Jerry Oro, who had been her only friend left, where he found her dead at age 43. The cause of death was an overdose of sleeping pills. Oro, who claimed to be her husband, paid for the funeral and gave her his last name. According to records, she was born on January 31, 1905 in Kentucky-apparently Oro estimated her birth year for the tombstone?
Maurice Chevalier
“Some time or another they all lived in Whitley Heights. Maurice Chevalier took a house on the hill when he had been in Hollywood but a few days. Every morning he would set out for the studio accompanied by the tiny girl with the enormous eyes, who was Mme. Chevalier, formerly Yvonne Vallee, Parisian musical comedy star. Their devotion was apparent to everyone. All day long, Yvonne sat on the set, and around the studio they said that Maurice never as much as looked at anyone but Yvonne. But after a little while a hurt and bewildered expression crept into the eyes of the little French girl. She returned to Paris without her Maurice, Maurice followed. There was a quiet divorce. The king of Spain’s cousin lives in the house now.” from Hollywood’s Haunted Hill.
Maurice Chevalier was born in 1888 in Paris, France to a painter and a lace maker. His father was an alcoholic who abandoned Chevalier and his two older brothers when he was eight years old. His mother developed health issues and his older brother took off and got married, leaving Chevalier and another brother to earn a living. While his brother worked in a factory, Chevalier was able to make money as an acrobat but had a severe injury and had to give it up. He then did odd jobs until a machine crushed his finger at a mattress factory. Luckily, a local cafe hired the 12 year old to sing but he sang so off-key he was booed off the stage.
Chevalier vowed never to perform again until his mother and brother encouraged him to not give up. So he returned to the cafe, this time as a comedian, and this had a lively audience who loved his skit. As he grew older and more handsome, he worked with the biggest French star of the time, Fréhel. After spending two years with her, he had to move on as they were not just dancing, but doing cocaine together. He then worked with another star, Mistinguett, who was 10 years older than he, but she also had eyes for him. However, Mistinguett (pictured below) helped Chevalier with his mannerisms and stage etiquette and they also had a very public and passionate love affair.
Then World War 2 broke out and Chevalier left to fight in the war for his country. Chevalier was injured in the war as a piece of shrapnel stuck his back and wounded him. He was captured by the Germans and spent two years in a prison as a prisoner of war. While he was locked up, he learned how to speak English. Mistinguett was missing her young lover and convinced the King of Spain to intervene and get Chevalier out of prison. She went to Germany, but the German authorities refused to hand Chevalier over unless she spy for them. She agreed, but was really acting as a double agent but then they learned about her plan. They were going to execute her, but then decided to trade her for a few German women who were held captives in France. Finally, Chevalier was freed and returned to Paris, but found it difficult to connect with the Parisian fans again after his ordeal.
Chevalier decided to perform in front of British and American officers since the war was still going on, discovering jazz and ragtime. In 1918, he met actress Léonie Bathiat, better known as Arletty and Mistinguett was not too happy as she was losing her man. Chevalier left Mistinguett and Paris and got a chance to perform at the Palace Theater in London and sang in both French and English. While in London, he discovered a new style of dressing and wearing what was his iconic, straw hat. Below: Mistinguett and Chevalier when they were performing together.
He returned to France and started working at a French revue and needed a dance partner. He met Yvonne Vallée was “petite, dark, and shy” and he was smitten with her. Within a year the two were married and Vallee got pregnant but delivered a still-born baby boy and both were devastated. Maurice continued to work on stage and one evening Irving Thalberg and his wife, Norma Shearer, visited him in his dressing room and wanted Chevalier to take a screen test. The test was successful and Thalberg offered Chevalier $5,000 a week to work for MGM. Hollywood had been chasing Chevalier for a long time and he asked Douglas Fairbanks his opinion of his screen test, which he also liked, but Chevalier turned the offer down. Jesse Lasky viewed the screen test, liked what he saw and then offered Chevalier $10,000 a week to work at Paramount. It was an offer that could not be turned down so Maurice and Yvonne set sail for New York.
When Maurice and Yvonne first moved to Hollywood in October of 1928, they rented 6680 Whitley Terrace in Whitley Heights. The two story house, built in 1924, sits on a downslope below street level on Whitley Terrace. Chevalier became known as “The French Al Jolson” and starred in his first American film, “Innocents of Paris” which happened to be Paramounts first musical picture and Chevalier’s fist talking picture which aired in 1929. The picture was a success and Paramount wanted more from Chevalier.
Chevalier then filmed “Love Parade” with Jeanette MacDonald, “The Big Pond” with Claudette Colbert, “Playboy of Paris” with Francis Dee, “The Smiling Lieutenant” with Claudette Colbert, “One Hour with You” with Jeanette MacDonald, and “Love Me Tonight” with Jeanette MacDonald. All those gorgeous co-stars would be enough to make any wife jealous! In a way it did, Chevalier and Valle divorced in 1933 and in public, acted like it was no big deal and they could be friends. Valle moved back to Paris while Chevalier remained in Hollywood.
The rumor was that Chevalier cheated on her, at least in the movie studio. He did live a very promiscuous and scandalous life in Paris with older seductive dancers before he met his wife. It would only be natural for him. Some say, Chevalier was miserable when Vallee left. In 1933, he filmed “A Bedtime Story” with Helen Twelvetrees, “The Way to Love” with Ann Dvorak, and then in 1934, he teamed up again with Jeanette MacDonald in “The Merry Widow”. Chevalier then went back to Europe and filmed in Paris and London.
However, he returned to Hollywood to film, “Gigi” which co-starred Leslie Caron in 1958 for MGM and then left for England to film another MGM film, “Count Your Blessings” with co-star Deborah Kerr. The now older, but still distinguished actor, continued films in the 1960s, with his last in 1967-Walt Disney’s “Monkey’s Go Home” with young actress Yvette Mimieux. The French actor had been nominated twice for Best Actor in “The Love Parade” and “The Big Pond”. Chevalier died of a heart attack in 1972 in Paris at the age of 84. Below, Chevalier in the Whitley Heights house with a photograph of his idol-Adolphe Menjou on his fireplace.
“Honorable Mentions“
Thomas Meigan
Thomas Meighan was born in 1879 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Refusing to go to college, his father sent him to work shoveling coal and he quickly changed his mind and studied pharmacology. After 3 years of school, he decided to get into acting, dropped out of college and became a performer at the Pittsburgh Stock Company. By 1900, Meighan appeared on Broadway for the next 14 years. In 1907 while performing in George Ade’s “The College Widow” in London, England, he met actress Francis Ring, and they married in 1909.
Francis was the younger sister of Blanche and Julie Ring, who were known as the Ring Sisters and her brother, Cyril, was also an actor. Francis retired from acting after she married Meighan and they were known as one of the happiest married couple in Hollywood until Meighan’s death in 1936 even though the two never had any children.
Meighan decided to continue his successful acting career on the screen. After completing a short film in London in 1914, the following year he returned to the United States and began work for the Jesse Lasky Company working in films with actresses Charlotte Walker, Laura Hope Crews, and Blanche Sweet and directors Cecil and William DeMille. He then joined Adolph Zukor at Famous Players Film Company in 1917 working with actresses Pauline Frederick, Norma Talmadge, Billie Burke, and directors Robert Vignola, and Sidney Franklin. Apparently, Mr. Meighan was. not bothered that Billie Burke, Marguerite Clark, and Blanche Sweet as stated in a 1918 article in Photoplay Magazine. An August 1922 Picturegoer article discussed the Meighan’s marriage and Meighan stated, “she is the best friend and pal I have in the world” and she is always in the studio with her husband when he is filming.
What is interesting is that on a World War 1 registration card dated September 12, 1918, Meighan lists his permanent address c/o Lambs Club, 130 West 44th Street, where as his wife, Francis Ring Meighan, is residing at the Hotel Seymour, 50 West 45th Street. The Lambs Club is a social club in New York City for actors, songwriters, and others involved in the theatre. The Lambs had a hotel which opened in 1905, which is now called The Chatwal.
With the growing popularity of Hollywood becoming a place to film movies, Thomas Meighan got a place at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in October of 1919. In 1920, Meighan rented a home located at 646 S. Gramercy Place, just off of Wilshire Blvd. However, Meighan continued to travel to New York to film. The Meighan’s rented the house after actors Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas moved out and went to Paris where she met her untimely death. The house is no longer there and was replaced with a townhouse in 2014.
Below is a 1920 Photoplay article indicating that the Meighan’s are at 646 S. Gramercy Place eating breakfast. Meighan spent 1921 filming in New York and returned to Los Angeles in 1922 renting a bungalow at The Ambassador Hotel. An interesting note is that Meighan was one of the actors who helped bail Rudolph Valentino out of jail when he was arrested on bigamy charges in May of 1922. Meighan hardly knew him, but sold his gold coin collection to help out the actor.
Meighan purchased a home in Great Neck (pictured below), New York in November of 1923, but continued to work bi-coastal. Note: Meighan’s Long Island residence has been long absorbed into the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point.8
Even though Meighan owned his own home, he continued to travel to Hollywood to film. In 1924, Meighan, now president of Catholic Motions Pictures Actors Guild, was listed in the city directory as living at the Ambassador Hotel. Unfortunately, there is no information about where and when Meighan lived in Whitley Heights. Perhaps Rudy let him stay at Villa Valentino!
Ralph Graves
Ralph Graves was born Ralph Horsburgh in Cleveland, Ohio in 1900 who appeared in his first film when he was 17 years old-a short film, “The Troubles of a Merchant” produced by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. By 1918, Universal hired him for a minor role in “The Scarlet Shadow” starring Mae Murray. Liking what they saw, he then starred opposite Murray in “What am I Bid?” From there, he starred in several films that featured Dorothy Gish, Richard Barthelmess, and Lillian Gish before the turn of the century. (Below, Graves with actress Dorothy Gish in 1919).
By 1925, Graves met a young Howard Hughes and decided to make a film together called, “Swell Hogan” in which Graves wrote, directed, and starred in. Upon viewing it after completion, Hughes thought that it was so bad, he didn’t want his name associated with it, and withdrew it from distribution. The following year, Graves directed “Rich Men’s Sons” which starred himself and Shirley Mason for Columbia Pictures. Graves directed four more films in 1927 but then primarily acted or wrote for the screen, often working in Mack Sennett films. The rumor was that Graves was a bi-sexual man who had flings with Howard Hughes and Mack Sennett.
According to a 1920 Picture Play Magazine, actress Ann May and Ralph Graves, “fell in love at first sight”. She went over to the Griffith Studio for a try-out and when she got out of her car she found that she’d lost the key to it. Ralph Graves appeared on the scene just then, so she asked him if he’d mind watching it a minute or two — and he climbed in and sat there for one solid hour. However, Graves married actress, Majorie Seaman. Seaman quit acting and got pregnant but died after giving birth to their son, Ralph Jr., in their Los Angeles home on March 9, 1923 at the age of 22.
After the death of his wife, Graves moved from 1916 Franklin Circle (street demolished for the Hollywood Freeway construction) and purchased 2212 Iris Drive, changing the address to 6700 Iris Drive. The 7 room, 2-story home had just been built by architect Arthur S. Barnes the year before.
Graves was continuing film, starring opposite leading ladies such as Colleen Moore, Gloria Swanson, Mabel Normand, and Olive Borden. In April of 1928, 28 year old Graves secretly wed 18 year old Virginia Goodwin in San Diego, the girl of a prominent family. Goodwin moved into the Whitley Heights home. Goodwin was pregnant by the end of the year and Jerry was born next August of 1929. Graves auctioned the Iris Drive house with all its furnishing and his two cars.
Ralph, Virginia, Ralph Jr., and Jerry moved to a new house that they purchased in 1930. 7040 Hillside Avenue was a two story Spanish Colonial home located in lower Outpost Estates. The marriage did not last long; by August of 1932, Virginia divorced Ralph citing “cruelty” getting alimony and custody of their 3 year old son Jerry.
Two weeks before Graves married for the third time, his ex-wife, Virginia married the nephew of the famed publisher, E.W. Scripps, who was very abusive towards his wife and stepson, Jerry. The long years of abuse plagued Jerry who ended up committing suicide in his 30s. After a 4 week “whirl-wind” romance, Ralph married for the third and final time to Hollywood extra and literary agent, Betty Flournoy, on June 28, 1934. They eloped in Yuma, Arizona. Betty was 15 years younger than Graves. They had three daughters: Betty Jr. in 1935, Carla in 1938 and Barbara in 1946. Carla died when she was only 4 months old: “Ralph Graves Child Died of Strangulation: Baby Killed When Accidentally Caught in Carriage Netting” Los Angeles Times (September 10, 1938). A year later, Graves was bankrupt.
After 32 years in show business, Ralph Graves retired in 1949. Ralph and Betty moved to Santa Barbara where Ralph died of a heart attack in 1977 at the age of 77. Below, 6638 Iris Drive as it stands today next to a wall with the Hollywood Freeway on the other side of it.
Monta Bell
Louis Monta Bell was born in 1891 in Washington D.C. where he started in theater and editor of the Washington Herald, then moved to New York City where he was a journalist and publisher. In 1910, he married Lucille Howard in Washington D.C. and one year later, daughter Marjorie was born. In 1922, Charlie Chaplin asked the 32 year old to ghost write his memoir called “My Trip Abroad”. A year later, Chaplin hired Bell as an assistant director and he also played a policeman in Chaplin’s film, “The Pilgrim”. Bell also contributed to Chaplin Studios as a scenarist and publicity director. Bell moved to Hollywood renting a bungalow located at 6015 Yucca Street (relocated to North Hollywood in 1949 for the freeway, but later demolished).
Bell then worked for Warner Brothers and directed “How to Educate a Wife” starring Marie Prevost and Monte Blue which also aired in 1924. Bell also directed “Broadway After Dark” for Warner Brothers starring Adolphe Menjou and Norma Shearer that same year. Bell was then hired by MGM and wrote and directed his first film, “The Snob” starring John Gilbert and Norma Shearer which aired in 1924. Not a bad start!
The following year, Bell directed three films for MGM: Lady of the Night starring Norma Shearer, Pretty Ladies starring Zasu Pitts, and Lights of Old Broadway starring Marion Davies. He also directed “The King on Main Street” starring Adolphe Menjou for Paramount Pictures. Bell was able to buy his own house: 6666 Whitley Terrace in August of 1925:
Bell then directed Greta Garbo in “Torrent” which aired in 1926 (both pictured below). Torrent was Garbo’s first American film. He also directed another Norma Shearer film that same year. Still living in Whitley Heights, Bell added a music room, another bedroom and another bathroom to the house.
6666 Whitley Terrace is a two-story house that sits on a downslope with 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and has a pool. The Bells remained in Whitley Heights until an unhappy Lucille moved to Reno, Nevada in November of 1931 to establish residency in order to file for a divorce. In December, she cited “cruelty” as the reason for the divorce. Lucille got the Whitley Heights house in the divorce settlement and stayed there with their two children until 1937. Other inhabitants of this house included: Director Ralph Staub, Writer John Hasty, Director Harry D’Arrast, actor Maurice Cass.
The divorce became final in December of 1931 and a few days later, it was announced that Monta Bell was going to marry actress Betty Lawford in New York City, officiated by Mayor Walker. It was obvious that the two had a thing while Bell was still married. 19 year old Lawford was born in 1912 in London and 20 years younger than Bell. She started acting in 1929 for Paramount Pictures after Bell discovered her in a Broadway production. She received a role in “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” and happened to be the cousin of actor Peter Lawford.
Monte and Betty moved into a 6 bedroom Spanish style house located at 5370 Los Feliz Boulvard in 1933. Monte had to split his time between California and New York during filming. In January of 1937, the Bells adopted a baby boy that they named Brian. By November of 1937, Betty obtained a Mexican divorce citing “incompatibility”.
By 1939, Monta Bell was residing in Beverly Hills and it had been a few years since he made a picture. Between 1941 and 1942, Bell would produce three films for Paramount Pictures-two starring Dorothy Lamour and one starring Bing Crosby. In 1945, Bell directed his last and final film for Monogram Pictures: “China’s Little Devils” starring Harry Carey and Paul Kelly. Bell married for the third time to Olga Lee in Las Vegas in 1941. On February 4, 1958, Bell died at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills the day before he would have been 67 years old.
Richard Barthelmess
Richard Semier Barthelmess was born in 1895 in New York City, son of Caroline Harris Barthelmess, a stage actress. Richard’s father died when he was only a year old. Richard grew up around the theater where he gained some acting experience before going off to military school and attending Trinity College in Connecticut where he continued to act in stage productions.
Caroline Barthelmess was introduced to Russian-born actress Alla Nazimova (pictured above with Richard in “War Brides”), who taught her English. It was Nazimova who encouraged Richard to continue his acting career in film so she helped him get a small part in her movie, “War Brides” which filmed in Hudson, New Jersey in 1915. His appearance awarded him the leading role in “Just a Song at Twilight” which also filmed that same year. In 1918, Richard moved to Hollywood to appeared in D.W. Griffith’s “Broken Blossoms” starring Lillian Gish. Griffith then gave Richard the lead role in “Scarlet Days” which also aired in 1919 and cast him in three more films in 1920.
On June 18, 1920 Richard married 18 year old actress Mary Hay Caldwell in New York City. The two had met while filming “Way Down East” just a few months before. Richard starred opposite Lillian Gish and Hay played a minor role in the film. Her first screen appearance was in D.W. Griffith’s “Hearts of the World,” as a dancing girl and she was on the stage in 1919 and 1920 appearing in “Ziegfeld Follies” and “Nine O’clock Revue.” In 1923, Mary Hay gave birth to a girl, which they called May Hay, Jr.
At this time, Richard was often gone from his wife and child as they lived in New York and he would be filming in Hollywood. Some say he had a wandering eye. A Photoplay Magazine reported that he was renting a house in Whitley Heights for at least a year. By November of 1926, Photoplay Magazine reported that the two were separated. In February of 1927, Hay traveled to Paris to get a divorce. Richard had already moved on and was dating actress Katherine Wilson. Richard starred opposite his wife in the film “New Toys” in 1925; Wilson plays the “other woman” in the film. How interesting since the plot came true in their real lives. Richard needed to get away from the drama and took a holiday in London. On December 1, 1927 he set sail on the ship Majestic which was headed for New York. On the ship he met, Jessica Haynes Sergeant, a recent divorcee from a Wall Street broker.
The two hit it off and were married in Reno, Nevada in April of 1928 and Jessica moved into Richard’s Beverly Hills home on Roxbury Drive. The two remained married until Richard’s death in 1963. Whether or not he was faithful their entire marriage is debatable as Richard had been linked to Norma Talmadge (1931 – 1932), Barbara Bennett, Constance Talmadge, Adela Rogers St. Johns, and Marlene Dietrich during his movie career.
Barthelmess was linked to renting Eugene O’Brien’s house located at 6691 Whitley Terrace. The story goes that when Barthelmess lived here, there were pineapple statues on top of the garage. Actress Norma Talmadge used to visit him here between 1931-32 during an affair when she was married to an elderly Joe Schenck and he was married to Jessica Sargent. Below, the pineapple statues can be seen over the garage of this Whitley Heights home.
Joseph Schildkraut
Joseph Schildkraut was born in Vienna, Austria in 1896 to Rudolph and Erna Schildkraut; his father was a stage actor and later became a motion picture actor. In 1910, the Schildkraut’s toured vaudeville in the United States and upon their return to Europe, Joseph began stage training in Berlin and then moved to New York in 1920. His first film was for D.W. Griffith Productions called, “Orphans of the Storm” starring Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Schildkraut recieved third billing behind the Gishes. Schildkraut then worked for Norma Talmadge Film Corporaton and starred opposite Talmadge in the film, “The Song of Love” which brought him to Los Angeles in 1922. Below: Talmadge and Schildkraut in “The Song of Love”.
On April 7, 1922, Joseph married actress Elsie Bartlett (pictured below in their home in 1929). Their marriage was somewhat tumultuous as they were separated so often, the divorce did not come as a surprise to the film colony in 1930. Two years later, Joseph married society girl, Lillian Mary McKay. That marriage lasted longer-until McKay’s death in 1962. Joseph would marry again in 1963.
Then Schildkraut was hired by DeMille Pictures Corporation to star in Cecile DeMille’s “The Road to Yesterday” which aired in 1925. Then Metropolitan Pictures offered him a contract and Schildkraut was able to settle in Los Angeles. Schildkraut rented homes in the Hollywood Hills for several years. His father, Rudolph’s first American film was for Universal Studios, “His People” which he received top billing and aired in 1925. Below Rudolph Schildkraut in “His People” with Rosa Rosanova.
Joseph and his father co-starred in the Cecille DeMille production of “Young April” with actress Bessie Love which aired in 1926. In 1929, Joseph starred opposite Laura LaPlante in Universal Productions “Show Boat”. In 1931, Joseph was renting 6660 Whitley Terrace in Whitley Heights. This residence was built in 1926 by architect Nathan L. Coleman. This Mediterranean two-story house, sits below the street on Whitley Terrace with a three story tower. The room in the top of the tower is accessed outside where a stairwell runs outside around the tower to the bottom level. There is also a Spanish veranda running the west length of the house. ActressesRosalind Russell and Beulah Bondi also resided in the home in later years.
His parents were living at 1607 Courtney Avenue where his father died of a heart attack in 1930 at the age of 68. Joseph moved in with his mother in 1933. He then received a part in the film, “Cleopatra” starring Claudette Colbert in 1934. In 1937, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Alfred Dreyfus in The Life of Emile Zola (pictured below).
Schildkraut also received roles in “Marie Antoinette”, “The Man in the Iron Mask”, and “The Three Musketeers during the 1930s and continued to get minor roles during the 1940s. During the 1950s, he turned to television, starring mostly in theater programs. Perhaps, Schildkraut’s most notorius role was playing Otto Frank in “The Diary of Anne Frank” in 1959 (see below). He was now living down the street from Lucille Ball on Roxbury Drive.
Schildkraut finished his acting career in the 1960s. During this time, he guest starred in televison shows such as Dr. Kildaire, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, and 77 Sunset Strip. His last role was in the film, “The Greatest Story Ever Told” which aired after his death in 1964. He had been married for the third time less than a year before his death.
Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin was born in 1893 in San Francisco and started as a comedy scenario writer in New York City when he was only 20 years old working for Biograph and then Arrowhead. Franklin started directing alongside his brother, Chester, in 1915. The two directed 16 short films in that year working for Majestic Moon Pictures. The following year, Sidney and Chester moved to Hollywood and directed seven full length feature films. They began working for Fox Film Corporation and wrote and directed “Jack and the Beanstalk” which aired in 1917. They then directed, “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”, “The Babes in the Woods”, and “Treasure Island”.
In 1918, Sidney and Chester directed, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, but also started directing their own films for Fox. In 1918, Sidney was hired by Norma Talmadge to direct her film, “The Safety Curtain” which she starred with Eugene O’Brien. Sidney went on to direct another for Talmadge- “The Forbidden City” which she starred with Thomas Meighan. Sidney continued working for Talmadge while he was still at Fox. However, Mary Pickford hired Sidney for her production company and he directed her second film she made, “The Hoodlum” which aired in 1919. One of his notable films was “Smilin’ Through” starring Norma Talmadge in 1922. He would direct the remake of this movie in 1932 starring Norma Shearer in which that movie won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Sidney directed films for A-list stars such as Constance Talmadge, Monte Blue, Marie Prevost, Ronald Coleman, Marion Davies, Conrad Nagel, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, and Douglas Fairbanks, and John Barrymore, and Ramon Navarro. Pictured below, from left to right are: Reginald Denny, Douglas Fairbanks, Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, and Sidney Franklin on the set of “Private Lives” in 1931.
Franklin officially retired after directing “Goodbye Mr. Chips” in 1939, but came back to assist director King Vidor in “A Duel in the Sun” in 1946. This last directing role actually came in 1957 when he directed the remake of “The Barretts of Wimpole Street”, a movie he previously directed in 1934. During the 1940s and 1950s, Sidney produced a handful of films including; Ninotchka, Bambi, The Yearling, Madame Curie, and Mrs. Miniver. Below from left to right: Kate Price, Marion Davies, Sidney Franklin, and Conrad Nagel at a cast party for “Quality Street” in 1927. Franklin received the Irving Thalberg Award in 1943 for “consistent high quality of production and achievement.” In 1960, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
When Sidney first moved to Los Angeles, he lived on Figueroa Street, 6th Street, Western Avenue, La Brea Terrace, Wilcox Avenue, and Sunset Blvd. In 1920, Sidney hired architect Arthur S. Barnes to construct a 7 room, 2 story Mediterranean residence located at 6658 Whitley Terrace. He sold this home in December of 1923 and built new house located at 717 N.Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, which is since then been torn down.
Sidney has been married three times. In 1916, he married Ann Denitz in Los Angeles. Sidney Franklin, Jr. was born in 1924. Sidney and Ann divorced in 1933. In 1937, Sidney married actress Ruth Helms, who was previously married to Conrad Nagel and had one child with Nagel. Sidney and Ruth remained married until her death in 1960. In 1963, Sidney married former actress Enid Bennett and the two remained married until her death in 1969. Sidney died in 1972 of a heart attack at the age of 79.
Lawrence Tibbett
Lawrence Tibbett was born in Bakersfield, California in 1896. His father was a part-time deputy sheriff and was killed in a shootout with outlaw Jim McKinney in 1903. Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles, earning money by singing in church choirs and at funerals. He graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1915. A year later, he met his future wife, Grace Mackay Smith, who rented a room in his mother’s house on 59th Place in Los Angeles. The two married on April 23, 1919 in Los Angeles after he served in War War 1 as a merchant marine. Lawrence was 22 years old and Grace was 26 years old. Less than a year later, Grace gave birth to twin sons, Lawrence Jr. and Richard. The babies were born premature and Grace nearly died. While Tibbett was enlisted, Grace found a little one bedroom cottage that she rented with her mother in the town of La Crescenta, 17 miles inland from Los Angeles. When Lawrence returned from the war, the ladies slept on cots in the living room, while Lawrence slept on the queen sized bed in the sole bedroom.
Tibbett struggled financially to support his family. After a brief job working at Sid Grauman’s Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles , he decided to leave his family at the college and move to New York. Tibbett studied in New York City with Frank La Forge and in 1923 at the age of 26, he signed his first contract, for $60 per week, with the Metropolitan Opera, using the name “Tibbett”. The Met mistakenly added the extra “t” to his last name on his contract and he decided to keep the new spelling. Whiel Tibbett sang with the Metropolitan Opera over 600 times, his music was recorded with RCA Victor between 1925 and 1940. (Below the cottage in La Crescenta circa 19350>
When Lawrence left for New York in 1922, Grace decided to rent another small house in Laurel Canyon, moving in Lawrence’s mother so she could help with the twins when Grace had to work at a downtown job. Lawrence returned a year later to perform in concerts the Hollywood Bowl. He then returned to New York, bringing Grace and his 3 1/2 year old twins, perhaps to lessen rumors that he was cheating on his wife. Below-Lawrence and Grace during a publicity shot. He looks much younger than she.
The Tibbett’s returned to Hollywood in 1925 for a brief visit before Lawrence started traveling around the United States performing in concerts, which put a strain on the marriage again as he averaged 12 concerts a month for the next 25 years. Lawrence met Jane Burgard in the summer of 1927; she approached him as he was singing at the Bohemian Grove and asked him to sing her favorite song. A week later, Jane’s husband had arranged for Tibbett to sing at their home in San Francisco. Even though Jane was pregnant with her third child, she and Tibbett started an affair that would become an “on-again, off-again” relationship.
In 1929, the famous baritone singer turned to film and starred in the lead of the musical: “The Rogue Song” which was directed by Lionel Barrymore and Hal Roach for MGM Studios. The Tibbett’s bought an English farmhouse located at 933 N. Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills, moving his mother and sister in and hired two servants. The Tibbett’s had been renting homes along Sunset Boulevard and decided to buy this large, six bedroom house. They also contracted famed architect Lloyd Wright to build an addition and a swimming pool. The house would later be bought by Bugsy Siegel in the 1930s and has since then been torn down in 1988.
After filming “The Rogue Song”, Lawrence returned to the Met in New York City with the movie premiering in 1930. Tibbett also filmed three more musicals for MGM between 1930 and 1931, starring opposite actresses Grace Moore, Esther Ralston, and Lupe Velez. In 1931, Grace filed for divorce having the upper-hand since she knew Lawrence was in love with Jane Burgard. She went to Reno to establish residency for six months to get the divorce. While she was there, Lawrence’s mother died and Grace, who may have been less demanding if she were still alive, went for blood. She demanded the Beverly Hills house, two of their four cars, $4,000 annually for the twins education, $65,000 life insurance with the twins as the beneficiaries, $2,000 monthly alimony for as long as Grace lived (even if she remarried), and $5,000 cash upon execution of the settlement. Lawrence agreed to all of the terms indicating he told the lawyers to give her what she wanted as long as he was finally rid of her. However, Lawrence would never be free of her as she often demanded more up until his death.
On New Year’s Day in 1932, Lawrence married his true love, Jane Burgard (pictured above) and the lived in an apartment in Manhattan. In 1933, Jane gave birth to their son, Michael Edward Tibbett. A year later, they bought a home in Wilton, Connecticut called, “Honey Hill Farm”-a farmhouse built in 1711 on a 50 acre lot. Larry returned in Hollywood in 1934 to film another musical called “Metropolitan” for Darryl Zanuck at 20th Century Fox which co-starred Virginia Bruce, leasing a home off Sunset Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The house was around the corner from his former house on Rexford Drive where his ex-wife still lived. She had “hastily” married a gay cousin and the marriage was quickly annulled. Ramon Navarro became her next companion, but he was also gay. Metropolitan turned out to be a flop, so Zanuck hired director Otto Preminger for Tibbett’s next film, “Under Your Spell” which co-starred Wendy Barrie. This was Tibbett’s last movie which aired in 1936. The Tibbett’s remained married until Lawrence’s death in 1960.
Lawrence Tibbett allegedly resided at 2002 North Las Palmas Avenue according to this article. 2002 N. Las Palmas was built in 1920 by a divorced socialite named Jennie Waltz Turner which she moved into. There is a separate apartment over the garage which has been rented out to screenwriter Lenore Coffee (1926), director George Cukor (1930), actress Nola Luxford (1936), actress Mary McGuire (1938), and actress Maria Ouspenskayla (1940). Although there is no documentation (city directory, voter records, etc.) indicating when Tibbett resided here, he often lived between Hollywood and New York in order to work.
Montagu Love
Montagu Love was born in England in 1880 and started on Broadway in 1913. The following year, he appeared in his first film short, “The Suicide Club” which was written by Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island) and filmed in England. Actress Clara Kimball Young hired him to play opposite her in “Hearts in Exile” which was filmed in New Jersey. Love remained in New York getting roles in films starring Ethel Clayton and Alice Brady, and even getting the lead role at times (The Challenge in 1916, The Brand of Satan in 1917, The Guardian in 1917). Love had married Gertrude Staines in Kensington, England in 1906 but may have come to the United States solo.
Love moved to Los Angeles in 1927 when he was hired by Samuel Goldwyn Studios. His first house was a rental in Whitley Heights located at 2109 Fairfield Avenue (same house Helen Lee Worthing rented). This two-story house was moved in the 1950s to avoid demolition and was relocated to Playa del Rey, but eventually demolished when LAX bought the land. Director Louis Lewyn and his wife, actress Marion Mack had just moved out of the house to move into their newly built home on Lloyd Lane in Whitley Heights.
According to a July 1926 Photoplay Magazine article “Norman Trevor, brought west by Paramount, who is established with his friend. Montagu Love, in a quaint Hollywood hillside home that clings with the tenacity of a Swiss chalet to the side of a canyon.” Trevor died in 1929 and played the 1921 version of “Jane Eyre”. Below, Norman Trevor in “The Ace of Cads” (1926) starring Adolphe Menjou and Alice Joyce.
Love was often cast in roles that positions of power or were villainous such as playing Henry VIII in “The Prince and the Pauper” (1937), a bishop in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938) Colonel Whitehead in “Kidnapped” (1938), a Spanish Ambassador in “The Man with the Iron Mask” (1939), and Don Vega in “The Mark of Zorro” (1940). Love worked up until his death.
By 1929, Love was now living at 6171 Oak Street in the Hollywood Hills and married Marjorie Hollis. Love adopted Hollis’ daughter, Carol Joy, from a previous marriage. In 1930, they moved to 1616 Queens Road; Love is 49, Hollis is 36, and Carol Joy in 11 when they moved in. They would remain in the house for several years before moving to Beverly Hills. In 1938, they were living at 624 N. Rodeo Drive and by 1942, they were living at 516 N. Bedford Drive (below). Love died a year later in his Beverly Hills home.
George Arliss
George Arliss was born in 1868 in London, England under the name Augustus George Andrews and was known to family members as “Uncle Gus”. Arliss started on the London stage at the age of 18 and by 1901, he was touring the United States and made his Broadway debut a year later. Although he planned to return to London, Arlis ended up staying in the United States for over 20 years. In 1920, Arliss was discovered by Associated Exhibitors and starred in “The Devil”. He then starred in “Disraeli” with his wife, Florence for Distinctive Productions, playing the life of the British Prime Minister. Geroge and Florence were married in 1899 in England and would frequently travel back and forth from New York and London.
Between 1922 to 1924, Arliss remained in New York to star in four more films for Distinctive Productions before returning to the New York Stage. By 1928-9, Arliss relocated to Hollywood for Warner Brother’s Studio to remake “Disraeli” but with a new female co-star-Doris Lloyd. Arliss made two more films with Warner Brothers in 1930. Arliss won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the film. That same year, Arliss starred in “The Green Goddess” in which he was nominated for the Best Actor role. This film was one of Warner Brother’s first talking experiments and Arliss, who was already in his 60s, was able to transition into talking pictures with his English accent. The following year, both George and Florence would star in another film together: “The Millionaire” (pictured below).
In 1931, Arliss starred in “Alexander Hamilton” in which the lead role was that of a 40 year old man; Arliss needed tons to make-up to appear 20 years younger. The following year, Arliss co-starred with Bette Davis in “The Man Who Played God”, the first film Davis made for Warner Brothers. He also played opposite Mary Astor in “A Successful Calamity” that same year. In 1933, Arliss played King Phillip in “The King’s Vacation” and also made another film with Bette Davis called “The Working Man”. Arliss would make one more film with Warner Brothers: “Voltaire”, the biography of the famous philosopher.
In 1934, Arliss went to 20th Century Pictures and made two films before returning to London for good. He played Mayer Rothschild in “The House of Rothschild” which co-starred Boris Karloff and Loretta Young (pictured above). His last American film was “The Last Gentleman” which co-starred Edna May Oliver. Arliss returned to London in 1934 to work for a London production company, filming 7 more movies before retiring in 1937 at the age of 69.
Since the Arliss’ time in the United States starting in the 1920s, they never became citizens and would frequently travel back and forth from London, never owning any property in New York or California. The Photoplay article indicated that Arliss, at one time, resided in Whitley Heights, but no information could be found which residence he lived in. However, Arliss did live at 2745 Glendower Place between 1931 to 1932. This home has quite a history as a doctor killing his wife and then committing suicide in the house in 1959. All the families contents were left inside and the house remained untouched for over two decades. The house has since then been remodeled.
Arliss had been an avid walker and in his 60s, would walk several miles to the studio from this home.
When Arliss moved out of the house and traveled back to London in 1932, he auctioned all of his things before the house went up for auction as the owner of that time had died.
According to the book “The Movieland Directory”, Arliss stayed at the Chateau Elysee apartments located at 5930 Franklin Avenue sometime during the 1930s. In 1927, Elinor “Nell” Ince, commissioned architect Arthur E. Harvey and contractor Luther T. Mayo, Inc. to build a luxury long-term residential apartment house for movie stars and the film industry. Ince was the wife of filmmaker Thomas Ince, who had died in 1924 after being allegedly shot on William Randolph Heart’s boat.
Upon returning to London, Arliss published the book “My 10 Years in the Studios” in 1940. Arliss dedicated the book to Florence. In the book Arliss commented on the Hollywood homes stating: “The houses are for the most part attractive and picturesque. Every house has a character of its own. There are no “rows” of houses- every structure is different from the house next door.” Arliss died of a bronchial ailment in London in 1946 at the age of 77.
Dorothy Devore
Dorothy Devore was born Alma Inez Williams in Fort Worth, Texas in 1899. Devore started her acting career in 1918 for Universal, working with the comedian team of Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran. After completing dozens of short films for Christie’s Comedies, she went on the make full length feature films during the 1920s for Warner Brothers Studios.
In December of 1925, Devore married Albert Wylie Mather, a theater producer in San Francisco. Devore claimed that when she went to visit him in San Francisco, she had no idea she was going to marry him until he proposed to her and then they were married on the same day. The two had met in Honolulu when she was on location three years ago. Mather met her in Hollywood several months ago and proposed to her and then secretly arranged for the wedding in a friend’s home in San Francisco.
In July of 1933, Devore sought a divorce after separating in June on the ground that Mather kept a separate apartment away from their home so that he could “entertain” other women. In August, Devore was granted the divorce in court after she further indicated that Mather was abusive towards her. In the settlement, Devore got their house located at 2008 Whitley Avenue in Whitley Heights. However, in September of 1933, Mather sued Devore indicating she received the $100,000 settlement under “false pretenses”. On September 8, 1033, Mather claimed the Devore conspired with Don Jacobsen “for the purpose of obtaining large sums of money and property from him”.
Two days later, in order to avoid any negative press, Devore set sail with actress, Iva Leroy, headed to Shanghai. Devore was not back in Los Angeles, when Mather was in court on October 26 with his lawsuit. The judge ordered Devore to appear in court to respond to Mather’s accusations. One month later, Devore attempted to block the lawsuit. The two were in court in August of 1934 and the judge ordered an injunction against Devore to forbid her to sell the 2008 Whitley Avenue property until the lawsuit was settled.
In February of 1935, the trial began; Mather claimed Devore and a friend, Don Jacobson, had an affair and conspired to get money from Mather through a divorce. He further described a trip the three took to his estate in Hawaii prior to the divorce when the alleged affair took place. Furthermore, a female witness testified that she had witnessed the two kissing. In return, Devore had actress and friend, Betty Compson (pictured below), testify that Devore once told her that she gave Mather all of her money so he could handle her finances and another actress, Roberta Corbin, testified that Jacobson and Devore did not have an affair because she had been engaged to Jacobson at the time. Jacobson also took the stand and denied having an affair with Devore and that Mather saw them hugging once, but the hug was a “friendly gesture”.
Another witness, Clyde Hamilton, witnessed Jacobson and Devore kissing one night in the elevator of an apartment that the Mathers used to live in. Devore got on the stand denying she had an affair with Jacobson and described one incident in which Mather invited a woman to spend the night at their house while she was away. When she returned home, they got into an argument about it and Mather punched her in the jaw. Devore also watched Mather bring another woman upstairs to their bedroom in their Honolulu retreat house. She went upstairs and found them in bed so she packed her bags and left the house. Mather, in turn, denied that he had ever been with any other woman while married to Devore.
On February 27, 1935, Devore won the lawsuit and could keep the property and money she was awarded when she divorced Mather. Mather appealed the case to the California Supreme Court and once again, Devore was prohibited from selling 2008 Whitley Avenue. However, the appeal was denied and Devore was able to retain the property in which she rented out in 1936 and moved into her newly built farmhouse in Toluca Lake. Devore retired from acting after appearing in a minor role in “Miracle on 39th Street” in 1939. She died in 1976 at the age of 77 in Woodland Hills.
Mary Doran
Mary Doran was born in New York City in 1910 and attended Columbia University for three years before leaving to appear on the stage. Doran moved to Hollywood in 1928 and received minor roles in two films: “The River Woman” starring Lionel Barrymore and “Half a Woman” starring Esther Ralston and Gary Cooper. In September of 1928, Doran signed a long-term contract with MGM, appearing in 8 films in 1929, primarily in minor roles. Three of the films starred Norma Shearer. In 1930, she received roles in another 8 films including another Norma Shearer film-“The Divorcee”. In November of 1930, Picture Play Magazine named her “the most promising newcomer” at MGM Studio.
A December 1931, Screenland Magazine article announced that it “seemed reckless that Mary Doran has married a publicity man”. Doran married Joe Sherman of MGM. Sherman was a former lawyer and newspaper writer before he went to MGM. He later became a screenwriter for MGM and was credited for 4 films during the 1930s. When they married, Sherman was living at 2022 Whitley Avenue in Whitley Heights. His mother and aunt had bought the house in 1930 and would remain with the family until the mid-1940s.
Mary continued to act during the 1930s, once again in mostly minor roles including Harold Lloyd’s “Movie Crazy” in 1932. Below, Doran with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in “Union Depot” in 1932.
In 1934, Mary and Joseph rented a home down the street from his mother at 2037 Whitley Avenue.
In September of 1937, Doran moved to Reno to seek residence in order to get a divorce. According to several newspaper accounts, the divorce was amicable, but then later indicated the divorce was on grounds of “cruelty” and was granted alimony money with the understanding that she was moving to New York City and use it for acting studies. However, in October of 1937, Doran eloped in Las Vegas to Kurtis Reifenberg who then applied for citizenship as he was now married and changed his name to Kurtis Reed as he was born in Germany in 1904. The couple temporarily moved to London where Doran gave birth to a daughter named Kay in July of 1938. When Reed was granted citizenship, the couple relocated to New York and Doran was retired from acting. Doran died in New York in 1995, followed by Reed in 2001.
Dorothy Peterson
Dorothy Peterson was born in 1897 in Hector, Minnesota and started on Broadway in New York City in 1923 before moving to Hollywood in June of 1930. First National Pictures hired her for the lead in her first film, “Mother’s Cry” in 1930 with Helen Chandler for Warner Brothers. According to the December 1930 Silver Screen Magazine, it was the “first real mother love story of the talkies” and Peterson a newcomer, wins her right to stardom through a magnificent performance”. The magazine gave “Mother’s Cry” an excellent rating.
The following year, she continued at First National while working at various studios such as Universal Studios and RKO Pictures, but was cast in minor roles. Some notable films included: “Emma” (1932) starring Marie Dressler, “I’m No Angel” (1933) starring Mae West, “Treasure Island” (1934) starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, “Dark Victory” (1939) starring Bette Davis, “Mr. Skeffington” (1944) starring Bette Davis, and her last “That Hagan Girl” (1947) starring Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple. From 1950 to 1964, Peterson made guest appearances in television shows with her last, “The Patty Duke Show”.
In 1932, Peterson was living at the Chateau des Fleurs apartments located at 6626 Franklin Avenue. Other film notables who lived at these apartments included; screenwriter Marian Ainslee, who wrote several Greta Garbo films lived here in 1930, actress Lola Lane (1930), actress Natalie Moorhead (1930), actor Claude King (1932-33), actor Bramwell Fletcher (1933) actress Mabel Forrest (1931-33), and actress Velma Gresham (1933).
The following year she moved to 1901 Orchid Avenue in the Hollywood Hills. Built in 1928, Las Orquideas consists of five villas. The property was designed by Cecil B. DeMille’s art director Wilfred Buckland from 1914 to 1927, who designed the property to resemble the hillside towns of Andalusia.
In 1934, Peterson moved to Whitley Heights at 6734 Wedgewood Place, which was built in 1922 by architect Arthur S. Barnes. The Mediterranean style house is a three story house which sits on a downslope on Wedgewood Place and was built for silent screen actor Edward Flanagan whose son was actor Dennis O’Keefe. Peterson remained in Whitley Heights until 1936, when she moved to 1464 N. Kings Road, a 5 bedroom house in West Hollywood.
1464 North Kings Road was built in 1926 for Horace Dodge, the son of the car manufacter. Professional golfer, Walter Hagen lived in the home in 1929. In 1932, Fox Film Corporation director, Hamilton McFadden lived in this house. While Peterson lived on Kings Road, her car was stolen in 1939 and recovered a 1937 Lincoln Zephyr. Dorothy remained at this residence until 1941.
In 1943, Peterson married a cowboy turned actor Guinn “Big Boy” Williams. Williams started acting mostly western films in 1919, although he appeared in “Babe Comes Home” starring the baseball star, Babe Ruth, in 1927. He got his nickname “Big Boy” after visiting Will Rogers on a movie set. Williams also appeared in “A Star is Born” in 1937 which starred Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. During the 1950s, Peterson made guest appearances on tv shows such as “My Friend Flicka”, “Gunsmoke”, “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin” and worked up until his death in 1962, at the age of 63.
Peterson and Williams remained married until his death in 1962. Following her retirement in 1964, Peterson spent the remainder of her life living in a Park Avenue suite where she died in 1967 at the age of 82. Below is Peterson and Williams on their ranch in the 1950s.
Gloria Stuart
Gloria Stuart was born Gloria Stewart on her family’s kitchen table in Santa Monica in 1910. However, she used the name Gloria Fae Finch while she attending Santa Monica High School and then attended University of California in Berkley majoring in philosophy and drama and adopted her name “Gloria Stuart” on the college stage. In June of 1930, while she was in her senior year of college, she married artist Blair Newell in Los Angeles. They moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea to immerse themselves in the artist colony. Stuart performed on the local stage, worked part-time at the newspaper, waitressed, sewed pillows and other odd jobs to pay the bills, while Newell chopped wood, laid brick, taught art classes and managed a miniature golf course to maintain their Bohemian lifestyle.
Stuart’s Carmel stage performance alerted the attention of the owner of a private Pasadena theater and during opening night, casting directors of both Paramount and Universal were in attendance. Both claimed that she was theirs, but she signed with Universal because it was more money which she needed.
Stuart and Newell rented a 4,000 square foot house located at 6844 Cahuenga Park Trail, just north of Mulholland Drive. Six films were released in 1932 in which she appeared in. She was billed as the top female co-star in “Air Mail” starring Pat O’Brien and Ralph Bellamy. By March of 1933, the two were living in Topanga Canyon as it was reported several dinner guests got food poisoning.
In 1933, Stuart appeared in 9 additional films with Universal, “Laughter in Hell” with Pat O’Brien, “Private Jones” with Lee Tracy, and “The Invisible Man” with Claude Rains. They lived high up in the Hollywood Hills. During this time, the young married couple’s marriage was falling apart and they both agreed to a trial separation. Newell lived in a house in Toluca Lake while Stuart rented an apartment. For awhile, the two lived apart and kept the marriage going indicating it worked for them.
In 1934, Stuart and Newell rented 6717 Milner Road in Whitley Heights. The 1924 multi-level house sits on a downslope and was built by architect Nathan L. Coleman. In April of 1934, Stuart was laying in the yard sunning herself when her dog was bitten by a rattlesnake in the yard while she dozed nearby. This incident startled her as she moved out of the house and went up to Carmel to recuperate. Below, the rear view of 6717 Milner Road is the top house on the left; below it is 2058 Watsonia Terrace, the house Gloria Swanson would rent while filming “Sunset Boulevard”.
In 1934, Stuart and Newell finally called it quits and two months later, Stuart married Hollywood scenario writer of one of her films “Roman Scandals”, Arthur Sheekman in Mexico, while Newell married an art student of his.
Stuart was still under contract at Universal Studios and appeared in six more films in 1934 including; “Beloved” playing opposite John Boles, “I Like it That Way” in which she received top billing, “I’ll Tell the World” starring opposite Lee Tracy, and “The Love Captive” starring opposite Nils Asther. During 1935, Stuart appeared in 4 films as she was also pregnant and gave birth to Sylvia in 1936. At that time they were living at 729 Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, an 8 bedroom, 6,330 square foot mansion.
During the 1930s, Stuart continued her acting career, but started to slow it during the 1940s to focus on theater and then painting. The Sheekman’s spent time traveling to Europe and New York as Arthur continued to write screenplays. In 1944, they lived at the Garden of Allah, 8152 Sunset Blvd., which has been demolished. During the 1950s they resided in Santa Monica.
After a 30 year pause in the screen, Stuart returned in 1975 to make guest appearances on television. She appeared on “The Waltons” and “Murder She Wrote”. Sheekman died in 1978. In 1997, she was cast as the older Rose in “Titanic” winning Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Stuart died in 2010 living to be 100 years old.
Greta Meyer
Greta Meyer (entered United States at Gretchen Mayer) was born Greta Wolf in Heilbronn, Germany in 1883. She married Oskar Mayer in 1921 in Germany and they had three sons who were all born during the 1920s. Meyer is referenced in the “Haunted Hollywood’s Hill” article as residing in Whitley Heights, but no information could be found as to when and where she might having lived on the hill. Below: with Greta Garbo in “Grand Hotel” in 1932.
Meyer did not start acting in the United States until 1930 when she was in her 40s. Her first role was as Emma in “Tonight or Never” starring Gloria Swanson and Melvyn Douglas for United Artists. Mayer rented an apartment located at 449 1/2 N. Spaulding Avenue, a 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival apartment complex that has been named an Historical landmark.
In 1932, Meyer appeared in three more films: “Grand Hotel” starring John Barrymore, “The Man from Yesterday” starring Claudette Colbert, “Flesh” starring Wallace Beery, and “The Match King” starring Warren William and Lili Damita. In 1933, she got a tiny uncredited role in Jean Harlow’s “Bombshell”. In 1934, she was listed at living at 347 1/2 N. Gardner Avenue in West Hollywood.
Meyer worked until 1944 with 78 film or tv credits, mostly small roles. Below, she played Candace in “Laddie” starring John Beal and Gloria Stuart. In 1939, she played a masseuse in “The Women” which starred Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine.
In 1963, Meyer was evicted from her home at 505 North Westmount Drive, West Hollywood, California, when property owners decided to replace her old home with a new structure. Meyer died in Gardena in 1965 at the age of 83 and buried in a common grave with only the marking of the year she died in Boyle Heights.
Stuart Walker
Stuart Walker was born 1888 in Augusta, Kentucky and after graduating from University of Cincinnati, he went to New York and started acting on stage in 1909. He then started directing plays by 1912. In 1915, he created his own independent traveling theater company which was active during the 1920s. In 1920, Walker resided in NYC with his mother which listed he was 30 years old and never married.
Walker moved to Hollywood in 1930 where he started as a dialogue director for Columbia Pictures in “The Last of the Lone Wolf” starring Bert Lytell and Patsy Ruth Miller and “Brothers” starring Bert Lytell and Dorothy Sebastian. The following year, Walker transitioned into directing for Paramount Pictures which he worked in that capacity until 1937. Walker worked with A-listers such as; Kay Francis, Claudette Colbert, Frederic March, Cary Grant, and Carole Lombard.
Walker rented 6660 Whitley Terrace in 1932 after actor Joseph Schildkraut moved out. Schildkraut’s father, actor Rudolph, had died in the home in 1930.
Between 1937 and 1940, Walker produced films for Paramount Studios including the Bulldog Drummond adventures in the late 1930s. By 1940, Walker was residing at 824 Whittier Drive in Beverly Hills with his son, 34 year old Arthur Walker, who also listed his occupation as a producer, claiming he worked for his father. The 1940 census listed Stuart’s age as 60. Walker died in 1941 in his home in Beverly Hills at the age of 53 of a heart attack.
Chester Morris
Chester Morris was born John Chester Brooks Morris on February 16, 1901 in New York City to stage actor parents. Chester and his three of his siblings worked on stage with his parents. Morris began his Broadway career at the age of 15 starring with Lionel Barrymore and by 1917, he started his film career. Between 1917 to 1925, Morris only appeared in four films as he was still on the stage. In 1926, Morris eloped to actress Suzanne Kilborn who worked for Famous Players Lasky Stock Company in Long Island. Their son, John Jr. was born in 1928.
Chester and Suzanne moved to Hollywood by 1930 renting a Storybook house off of Beachwood Canyon Drive. Chester starred in “Alibi” a film in which Roland West directed and the two quickly became friends. Soon, Morris was co-starring with A-list actresses such as Loretta Young, Evelyn Brent, and Betty Compson. In 1930, Morris was cast the part of Ted in MGM’s “The Divorcee” starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery, a film which was nominated for Best Film. Shearer won the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in this film. Below, Suzanne Kilborn Morris appeared in one film-“She Had to Say Yes” which starred Loretta Young in 1939.
Between 1930 and 1931, the Morris’ moved to Whitley Heights-6662 Whitley Terrace. Their daughter was born in 1930; Suzanne was now a full time mother. Morris would star in another Roland West film-“Corsair” playing opposite West’s mistress, actress Thelma Todd. This would be West’s final film that he directed. A few years later, Todd would be found dead in his garage that was below his house, near their restaurant in Pacific Palisades in 1935. It was rumored that in 1952, when West was on his deathbed, he confessed the murder of Thelma Todd to his friend, Chester Morris.
Although Morris updated the Whitley Heights house with another bathroom in 1931, they moved to 2007 N. Highland Avenue the following year and then moved zip codes-to Beverly Hills. In January of 1939, it was reported that Chester and Suzanne separated after 13 years and that Chester had moved into an apartment in West Hollywood, taking his son with him. Suzanne remained in their Beverly Hills house with their daughter. They tried to get back together, but a week before their 13th wedding anniversary, Suzanne filed for a divorce on the ground of cruelty. According to the complaint, Chester “treated his wife so cruelly, that her health became impaired and she became highly nervous and upset. The settlement indicated that Chester would support Suzanne at $500 per month and he would get custody of their son, while Suzanne kept their daughter. After the divorce, Suzanne and their daughter rented a two bedroom bungalow on Carmelina Avenue, around the corner from Marilyn Monroe’s last house in Brentwood.
A year later, Morris married Lillian Kenton Barker, nationally known as the “Chesterfield Cigarette Girl”. She was a rich New York society girl and former model. Barker 10 years younger and had already been married twice before. In 1947, they had one son named Kenton.
During the 1940s, Morris starred in films where he portrayed the “tough guy”, making several films about the character “Boston Blackie”. During the 1950s and 1960s, Morris began to make guest appearances on television. He appeared in Rawhide, Route 66, and Dr. Kildare. His last role was in “The Great White Hope” which. aired in 1970 the same year that he died. Chester Morris died of a drug overdose (some accounts said heart attack) on September 11, 1970 in a Holiday Inn in New Hope, Pennsylvania. At the time he was starring as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, at the Bucks County Playhouse. Below: Chester Morris in his Whitley Heights home circa 1930.
Anita Louise
Anita Louise was born Anita Louise Fremault in New York City in 1915 and made her acting debut on Broadway at the age of 7. She was appearing in newspapers across the United States as early as 1924. Below, Louise was photographed in 1925; the picture circulated in several newspapers.
Her first film was also in 1922, when she was an extra in “Down to the Sea in Ships” which also starred 17 year old Clara Bow. Two years later, she received a minor role in “The Sixth Commandment” and “Lend Me Your Husband” in 1924. A year later, she was hired by Paramount Pictures for a small part in “The Street of Forgotten Men”, which was also the first film of actress Louise Brooks. In 1926, she was cast in Gloria Swanson’s “The Untamed Lady”, also with Paramount.
In 1928, Ann Fremault, moved her 13 year old daughter to Hollywood. They settled into an apartment located at 1720 N. Harvard Blvd. in Los Feliz. In 1928, she worked for Fox in “4 Devils” which starred Janet Gaynor and child actor’s Phillippe De Lacy and Dawn O’Day (later used the stage name of Anne Shirley). That same year, MGM cast her in “A Woman of Affairs” starring Greta Garbo.
Before she turned 18, Louise continued to get minor roles as a childhood star working with Dorothy Sebastian, Fredric March, and Marion Davies. By 1929, she changed her stage name from her birth name, Anita Fremault, to “Anita Louise”. In 1930, the then 15 year old actress, was finally cast in her first major role as Mimi Martell in “Just Like Heaven” and Milly Morton in “The Third Alarm”. During the early 1930s, the minor continued to receive minor roles in films starring Eleanor Boardman, Helen Twelvetrees, Lili Damita, Constance Bennett, Jean Arthur, and Dolores del Rio. In 1931 when they moved to another apartment complex, located at 1740 N. Gramercy Place; Louise was now 16 years old. The 16 year old was one of the 13 actresses selected as the “Wampas” baby stars of 1931. The group included Joan Blondell, Frances Dee, Sidney Fox, and Rochelle Hudson. Louise was the youngest of the group.
In 1933, Louise was cast in “Judge Priest” starring Will Rogers and Tom Brown. Brown was another childhood star and the two 19 year olds hit if off and started dating. That same year, Louise and Brown would star in “Bachelor of Arts”, a story about a college boy (Brown) who falls in love with a co-ed (Louise). The two dated to two years and then Brown married actress Natalie Draper in 1937.
Sometime between 1933 and 1934, Louise and her mother were most likely living at 6666 Whitley Terrace in Whitley Heights as this article stated, “If you take a short stroll you will see Tommy’s shining new roadster parked before Anita’s gate”. In December of 1934, The New Movie Magazine reported that Anita Louise was residing at the Garden of Allah, most likely the first time living on her own. Louise and actress Elizabeth Allen were seen on the patio having tea together on a regular basis.
In 1936, Louis resided at 8419 De Longpre AvenueIn 1937, Louise was cast opposite Errol Flynn in “Green Light”, Flynn’s first romance movie. Louise was originally going to be Flynn’s love interest in his previous film, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, but was had been replaced by Olivia de Havilland.
In 1940, Louise married screenwriter and producer, Buddy Adler. At the time, Louise was back living at the Sunset Plaza Hotel. They had a son and a daughter several years later. During the 1940s, Louise continued to get various roles working with Shirley Temple, George Brent, Bette Davis, Chester Morris, Gary Cooper, and Jennifer Jones, sometimes getting top billing. In 1950, Buddy and Anita purchased 100 Delfern Drive in Bel Air, the former home of Eva Gabor, Fred Astaire, Mia Farrow, and Audrey Hepburn. They remained in this house until Adler’s death in 1960.
In the 1950s, Louise began appearing on television and between 1955 and 1956, got the part of Nell McLaughlin in “My Friend Flicka”. Her last role was in the 1970 tv show of “The Mod Squad” at the age of 55. Louise married again in 1962 to Harry Berger in New York City and the two remained married until her death in 1970. Louise had died of a stroke at the age of 55.
Patricia Ellis
Patricia Ellis was born Patricia Gene O’Brien in Birmingham, Michigan in 1918. Her parents divorced in 1929 and her mother remarried a prominent New York stage director named Alexander Leftwich. Her career began on New York stage and then transitioned to film in the early 1930s starting with First National Pictures. Ellis signed with Warner Brothers at the age of 17 and appeared in three films which were released in 1932: “3 on a Match” starring Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart, “Central Park” starring Joan Blondell, and “Lawyer Man” starring William Powell and Joan Blondell. (Below: with her mother when she signed with Warner Brothers in Hollywood).
That same year, she was the youngest of the 14 girls chosen as WAMPAS Baby Stars, which also included Gloria Stuart and Ginger Rogers. Below: Ellis is fourth from the left and Stuart second from the right. Rogers was not pictured.
In 1933, Ellis appeared in 8 more films including “42nd Street” with Warner Baxter & Bebe Daniels, because she could also dance and sing. Warner Brother’s cast her as the lead woman for “Picture Snatcher” which co-starred James Cagney and Ralph Bellamy, her first major role. She also appeared opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in “The Narrow Corner” that same year.
Ellis also hung out with all the young crowd of actors and actresses including Anita Louis and Tom Brown. Ellis often accompanied Brown to social events with rumors that they were dating even though he was with Anita Louise. However, Ellis would accompany him when Louise was out of town. Hmm.
In 1934, Patricia Ellis rented an apartment on Leeward Avenue in Koreatown. Ellis continued to be “out and about” with “the crowd”. She had been linked with Henry Willson, who later became Rock Hudson’s agent. Ellis came up with a game called the “Trophy Hunt” in which teams get a list of unusual items that they must collect in a certain amount of time such as a handwritten note signed by Clark Gable. This group was also referred to as the “Puppets” which Tom Brown and Anita Louise organized as the director and assistant director.
In 1935 and 1936, she rented “Topside” 2020 Grace Avenue in Whitley Heights from Burton Holmes. As she was only 17, it was reported that Mr. and Mrs. Leftwich were residing with her. Ellis would often have parties on the top of the hill with the Hollywood “crowd”.
By 1937, she was given starring roles in comedies and the occasional mystery or crime picture, with co-stars James Cagney, Adolphe Menjou, and Joe E. Brown. That same year, Ellis received top billing for “Rhythm in the Clouds”. She was also living at 151 1/2 S. Camden Drive in Beverly Hills as the brat pack dwindled after Tom Brown and Anita Louise broke up. She last appeared in films in 1939 at the age of 21. He was still associating with Henry Willson at this time.
In the early 1940s, Ellis turned to music and not only made a recording but headlined an Atlantic City orchestra and a Broadway musical both in 1941. While on the stage, she met a Kansas City businessman named George O’Malley and married him in Bowling Green, Ohio in 1941. She moved to Kansas City, retiring from show business to be a wife and mother where she died from cancer in 1970 at the age of 59.
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