Whitley Heights 101

Ronald Colman lived in Whitley Heights!

In the December 1934 edition of New Movie Magazine, Potter Brayton wrote an article titled, “Love Thy Neighbor” describing what it would be like to live next door to a movie star.

Early in the article, Brayton talks about his experience with actor Ronald Colman:

After a search of Ronald Colman’s address history found that he bought a Hollywood Hills home in 1927 located at 2092 Mound Street. Mound Street is a dead end street that consists of only a dozen homes that sits above Ivar Street, which circles the entire road. It has been home to several film stars including: Janet Gaynor, Albert Lloyd, and James Hamilton during the 1930s. More recently, “Dexter” star Michael C. Hall sold Colman’s house in 2016 for 2.1 million.

Built in 1926, the now 4,502 square foot home contains five bedrooms, six bathrooms and sits on a third of an acre. The home features a media room, reading nook, wine room and library. There’s also a one-bed, one-bath guest cottage. After Colman purchased the property, he immediately made changes to the it including enlarging the patio, building a guest house, adding a private garage, and adding a tennis court and outdoor dressing room on top of the garage:

During the construction, Colman temporarily lived in an apartment on South Kingsley Drive in 1928. The actor enjoyed his privacy and was an avid tennis player. Below are photos of him at his home on Mound Street.

Colman arrived in Hollywood in 1925 a married man. He married actress Thelma Raye whom he met in London. They married in 1918 but lived together only briefly before separating due to Thelma’s jealousy of his increasing fame. While in Hollywood, Colman kept his marriage a secret and was thought of as an eligible bachelor. However, Thelma kept showing up and pursued him relentlessly until he was able to pay her off. The marriage finally ended in 1933. Thelma appeared as an extra in two of Colman’s first American films, “The White Sister” starring Lillian Gish in 1923 and “Romola” starring Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, and William Powell in 1924. Colman was regarded as a distinguished English actor and was hired by Samuel Goldwin in 1925. Thelma, however, did not appear in any other pictures and Colman started distancing himself from the volatile Brazilian actress (pictured below).

In 1930, New Movie Magazine reported, ““Ronald has a lovely home at 2092 Mound Street, Hollywood, and there’s not a powder-box in it. He lives with a friend, Charles Lane, the actor, and a Filipino house-boy named Tono, and not a woman in the house. Isn’t it a crying shame? But don’t become too confident, girls—he gets 20,000 fan letters a week.” Little did the media know back then that he was still married.

In 1934, Colman did more work on his house which included; enlarging the kitchen with a new pantry and building a lounge area to connect the living room and the recreational room. With all of his construction, Colman would most likely find a temporary place to live. Potter Brayton describes living on a street below where Ronald Colman lived and that he came down to Brayton’s patio to retrieve a tennis ball. An address search of Potter Brayton yielded that he resided on Emmett Terrace from 1932 to 1934.

Below, Brayton’s apartment, located at 6681 Emmet Terrace, has a patio which is located on Las Palmas Avenue, which would mean Colman would have had to live on Whitley Terrace for the tennis ball to land on his patio. The only property that had enough room for a tennis court was Sidney Franklin’s former home-6658 Whitley Terrace that now has a pool. The pool was not built until 1954 so there could have been a tennis court located there during the 1930s. During that time, a widow named Mary Kistelman and her daughter resided in the home. The home is also zoned as a four unit residence and has rented out a one bedroom apartment and a studio apartment in recent years.

Director Sidney Franklin sold the home to the Kistelmans in 1923 and in 1926, they added two bedrooms, a garage, bathroom, and recreational room to the home. The house went on the market in 1943 listing the property as a single family home. It is not known when the apartments were built as the property is listed as a single family residence on all of the permits, but it is currently zoned as having four units. An address search of this property found that between 1934 to 1937 an woman lived here, possibly renting one of the units. Based on this information, it is probable that Ronald Colman rented one of the apartments until the work on his home was complete.

Below, a 1926 photo of the area of Whitley Heights showing 6658 Whitley Terrace and the red arrow indicating the apartment complex where Potter Brayton stayed at. The photo reveals that there is a retaining wall just below 6658 Whitley Terrace with a yard on the right side of the home. Even if there were no tennis courts, Colman may have just been hitting balls in the backyard.

While there is no record of Colman residing in Whitley Heights, he may have only stayed for a few weeks or months while his Hollywood Hills home was being remodeled. Based on all of the available facts, he most likely stayed at 6658 Whitley Terrace due to being at a house where the property was big enough to have a tennis court and on a street that is over the dwelling that Potter Brayton lived at. The house would also have to be close enough that a tennis ball would land on Brayton’s porch. We can add another famous Whitley Heights resident-actor Ronald Colman!