Whitley Heights 101

6717 Franklin Avenue

6717 Franklin Avenue was a one story bungalow home which was built in 1906 by William R. Blackburn. Blackburn purchased part of lot 7, on block 8 of the Hollywood Ocean View Tract from Eleanor Graham in September of 1909. Graham, the daughter of Thomas H. Pollock, owned the first bungalow built in Hollywood, 6705 Franklin Avenue, that was on the same plot of land. Above, the Whitley Heights Pavallion is seen above the bungalow located at 6717 Franklin Avenue, which was built in 1903. Below is the area where the two bungalows were located just below the hill that would later be known as Whitley Heights.

William Romine Blackburn was born in 1875 in Danville, Illinois and attended law school at the University of Michigan in 1896. After graduating with his law degree in 1898, he returned to Danville and married his first wife, Nelle Payton (pictured below), who was born in Danville in 1877 (high school sweethearts?). The Blackburns then moved to Hollywood where they built this bungalow. William found work as secretary of the Hollywood Realty Building & Grading Company while his wife became immersed in the Hollywood society. Little did she know, her husband found comfort in another woman’s bed.

One day Mrs. Blackburn found letters addressed to her husband from a “Mrs. Clark”. Mr. Blackburn disappeared after his wife and a friend tried to get Mrs. Clark to leave town. Feeling abandoned, Mrs. Blackburn filed for divorce in 1909, which was granted due to desertion. Nelle left her Hollywood bungalow and went back to Illinois before returning a year later and moving into the Hotel Hollywood.

Upon returning for a visit back to Danville, William happened to be in town and the two reconciled and remarried in Chicago in 1911. They moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where Nelle ended up permanently divorcing William in 1916. William married his second wife, Martha Jane Oliver, in Vancouver in 1920. He was 45; she was 23. The two settled in Los Angeles for the next 8 years. In 1928, Oliver traveled to Reno to establish residency and filed for divorce. William moved to a boarding house in downtown Los Angeles, 718 Union Avenue, and listed his marital status as “widowed” but we all know the truth.

Did wife #2 find out that he fathered a child in 1925, whom was named William Romain Blackburn Jr.? Notice below, his mother is using the last name of Blackburn. A 1940 census lists a 55 year old Louise Blackburn as “divorced” with the 14 year old son. Her birth name is Emaline Louise Putnam who was born in Massachusetts in 1894 so she must of took her son’s last name. There are no marriage records between Putnam and Blackburn. William Jr. was born in San Francisco and died in Minnesota at the age of 29 in 1955.

In 1934, William married his third wife, Mary Schlib in Ventura County; he was 59; she was 24. He gets older and the wives are getting younger. They had a daughter, Mary Lou Blackburn, born in Los Angeles on February 9, 1936. In 1943, Mary (Schilb) Blackburn returned to Iowa with her daughter and divorced William. Was William continuing his womanizing ways and drinking too much? The four time divorced man died in 1945 at the age of 80 in Los Angeles.

The bungalow located at 6717 Franklin Avenue is the house located at the bottom right pictured below. Franklin Avenue is located in front of the house. The house to the immediate left was 229 Highland Avenue (now the 1900 block of Highland Avenue). The house above 229 Highland Avenue may have been located on Glencoe Way just below Bernheimer Estate. The two houses in the background were up the road on Highland Avenue approaching where the Hollywood Bowl would be built.

In 1916 film director Henry Lehrman purchased the 6717 Franklin Avenue bungalow. Lehrman started acting on the screen in 1909 for D.W. Griffith and Biograph Company and was dircting by 1911, working alongside Griffith. By 1914, he was working at Keystone Film Company and directed “Making a Living” starring Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle, the film debut for Chaplin in which he did not play “The Tramp”. Lehrman directed and acted with Chaplin in “Kid Auto Races at Venice”, the first film in which Chaplin appeared in his world famous costume. Below, from left to right: Lehrman, cinematographer Frank Williams and Chaplin.

Lehrman transitioned over to Sunshine Comedies with William Fox in 1917. In 1919, Fox Film Company accused him of stealing a $35,000 film reel from them and he was arrested. After a very public trial, there was not enough evidence to convict Lehrman so he was exonerated. Lehrman directed a total of 120 films and produced over 200 films until 1931.

In 1918, Lehrman met aspiring actress Virginia Rappe and he was in love. Rappe began her short-lived movie career in 1916 when she received a bit-part in “The Foolish Virgin”, a Clara Kimbrell Young Production. Rudolph Valentino was also an extra in this film. A year later, Rappe appeared in a Fatty Arbuckle film, “His Wedding Night” and little did she know, that he would be accused of killing her a few years later. Lehrman, who was very enamored with Rappe, gave her a minor role in “Wild Women and Tame Lions” and she moved into the bungalow with him. He then cast her opposite Lloyd Hamilton in “His Musical Sneeze” and “A Twilight Baby” for Fox Corporation. Rappe worked on a few more films before she met her untimely death in Fatty Arbuckle’s San Francisco hotel room in 1921. After a night of partying and heavy drinking, Arbuckle was the last person to see the injured girl alive. After three manslaughter trials, Arbuckle was acquitted but his career was forever tarnished.

Lehrman was known as Rappe’s fiance when she died and vowed to see that Fatty Arbuckle get convicted of her death. During the trial in April of 1921, Lehrman was suddenly engaged to former Follies actress Jocelyn Lee. The two quickly got married and moved into the Hershey Arms Hotel for their honeymoon. However, when they married Lee was not working as an actress and Lehrman commented that she would never be. Lee was only 19 years old when she married the 37 year old director. Lehrman was having money trouble and was forced to sell 6717 Franklin Avenue. Less than a year later, Lee moved back home with her parents as the two were constantly fighting and things would be physical. In July of 1924, it was reported that Lee tried to gain access into Lehrman’s apartment located at 6600 Sunset Blvd. and broke her hand. Lehrman rushed her to the hospital wearing his pajamas. Unable to endure Lee’s tantrums, he asked her for a divorce in October. During the divorce trial, Lehrman testified that his wife’s “boisterous and abusive conduct toward him offended his landlady and forced him to call the police to quiet her”. He further testified that on one occasion after their separation, she went to his home during a film business conference and threatened his life.

In 1925, Lee beame a film actress appearing in 24 films until 1933. She also married two more directors: Luther Reed from 1930 to 1931 and James Seymour from 1935 to 1941. Following her divorce from Reed, Lee crashed a Hollywood party in May of 1931 and was charged by police with disturbing the peace. Reed happened to be living in the home at the time. According to the divorce settlement, Reed had custody of the their two children for the weekend. When asked to leave the party, Lee proceeded to smash windows and put holes in the wall. Lehrman never married again.

In 1925, actress Norma Shearer (1902-1983) lived at 6717 Franklin Avenue for a year. The Canadian born actress, pictured above, began her film career in 1919 after moving to New York City and found work as an extra. She got her big break in 1920 when she was cast in “The Stealers”, but was still literally “a starving artist”. In 1923, Shearer received an offer from Louis B. Mayer Pictures, where a young Irving Thalberg had recently became the vice president. After three years of hardship, Shearer signed a contract and moved to Hollywood and found an apartment at 6725 Sunset Boulevard (now home of the Catalina Jazz Club).

By 1925, Shearer was making enough money to be able to upgrade to a house so she moved to this bungalow house where she lived with her mother, Edith, who actually appeared in three of her daughters films. A year later, they upgraded again-this time purchasing a 5 bedroom English style house located at 1538 Courtney Avenue (house, below, is still there, just off of Sunset Blvd.).

In 1927, Shearer married Irving Thalberg at the age of 25; he was 28. Thalberg was called “The Boy Wonder” at the studio as the young executive had the knack for being able to select winning scripts and choose the best actors in order to make profitable films, including, “Grand Hotel”, “China Seas”, “A Night at the Opera, “Mutiny on the Bounty”, “Camille” and “The Good Earth”. He was also responsible for several hits that Shearer starred in including; “The Divorcee”, “Romeo and Juliet”, and his last film, “Marie Antionette”.

They moved to a beach house in Santa Monica (now 707 Palisades Beach Road as house is still there). Other famous celebrities of this street included; Samuel Goldwyn, Jessie Lasky, Louis B. Mayer, Mack Sennett, Douglas Fairbanks, Harold Lloyd, Marion Davies, Cary Grant, Howard Hughes, Sharon Tate, and Grace Kelly. The Thalbergs also had a home in Beverly Hills: 809 North Bedford Drive and lived with his parents at 724 North Linden Drive. Thalberg died in 1936 at the age of 37 when he fell ill with pneumonia; however, Thalberg suffered from health issues since he was a child and had a weakened immune system.

Shearer appeared in over 60 films until 1942 including, “The Wolf Man” (1923) and “The Snob” (1924) both with John Gilbert, “The Divorcee” (1930) with Robert Montgomery and Chester Morris, “Romeo and Juliet” (1936), “Marie Antionette” (1938) and “The Women” (1939). Shearer would marry again to a non-industry man in 1942 and they remained together until her death in 1983.

Between 1929 and 1930, screenwriter, Peter Milne and his wife, Janet lived at 6717 Franklin Avenue. Milne (1896-1968) had over 60 film credits between 1921 to 1959. During the early 1920s, Milne wrote scenarios before moving to Hollywood in 1927 to work for Warner Brother Studios in which he co-wrote “The College Widow” and “The Silver Slave”. Milne then went to work for Universal Studios and co-wrote “The Woman in Red” starring Barbara Stanwyck and “The Walking Dead” starring Boris Karloff. During the 1950s, Milne briefly worked on television, writing an episode for Screen Directors Playhouse and New York Confidential. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Milnes lived at 6734 Wedgewood Place (below) in Whitley Heights.

As for his bungalow home on Franklin Avenue, based on the location below, it is either in the location of a Wingstop in the 1900 N. Highland Avenue Plaza (built in 1988) or the Oasis apartment complex to the right which was built in 1955.

6717 Franklin Avenue was purchased by Etta Towne who relocated the houe to 10164 Bradley Avenue in Pacoima in 1945.

The house is still standing today…