Whitley Heights 101

2047 Grace Avenue

2047 Grace Avenue was built in 1936 by architect John A. Murrey who not only built the City Food Mart that was once located at the corner of Yucca and Argyle in Hollywood. Murrey also secretly built a home for actress Mary Astor and her husband out in Toluca Lake in 1933. 2047 Grace Avenue is two-story Streamline Modern house which was only one of twenty homes that were built in Whitley Heights during the 1930s. The majority of homes built on the hill were during the 1920s. The house was originally built for Marion Steele, a rich widow of a steal company executive, but she did not live the house long and sold it to Milton V. Barancik in 1938.

Barancik, the owner of a Beverly Hills lamp store, had just married his second wife, Bernice in 1936 and purchased this house two years later. His store, “Baron of Beverly Hills” was located in the heart of Beverly Hills just around the corner of Rodeo Drive. In December of 1947, the house was robbed of $28,000 worth of jewels and furs. Entry was gained by jumping a ladder to a sundeck and jimmying a window on the second floor. Police were not able to find the suspect.

Interestingly, two years later, the Barancik’s were able to identify a watch and fur coat from a police raid of the apartment of Gerrard Dennis in Beverly Hills. Actress Loretta Young also recovered items that were stolen from her Carolwood Avenue residence six month earlier.

The owner of the apartment was 26 year old Canadian thief dubbed “Canadian Raffles” who was arrested in Cincinnati with $18,000 worth of diamonds in his possession, after someone identified him from a wanted poster.

Gerrard Dennis started stealing at the age of 16 and married when he just 19 years old. His wife, Gertrude, gave birth to a son when Dennis was barely 20 years old. By then, he had served time in prison for a series of break-ins, which did not deter his life of crime. Known as the “hooded bandit” and the “blue book burglar”, he was in and out of jail during the early 1940s. Dennis was also very charming and lured women in and out of his life just to use them to help him for financial gain. Gertrude caught on and filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery. By that time, Dennis had escaped from a Toronto prison and fled Canada to New York with his latest girlfriend, Eleanor Harris. Using an alias under the last name of ‘Farrell”, he illegally married Harris once in New York.

Now Dennis, his lastest wife and baby daughter were living in Rye, NY; Dennis would read the society pages of Westchester and attend much publicized parties while scaling the walls of the second floor mansions in order to gain access into bedrooms and steal jewels and furs. Dennis decided to expand his criminal enterprise to Hollywood and met a young ex-Canadian school teacher that was dancing at the Los Angeles Palladium by the name of Betty Ritchie. The smitten Ritchie decided to move in with Dennis as he professed his love to her. Continuing to steal bi-coastal, Dennis met another unsuspecting young lady, a 20 year old model named Gloria Horowitz in a Manhattan nightclub. He convinced her to try and sell some of his diamonds in Philadelphia and she got caught. This is when Dennis was picked up in Cincinnati and the gig was up.

During the Beverly Hills raid of Dennis’ apartment, Ritchie was found there with an expired Visa and placed on deportation status. Horowitz, in custody in Philadelphia, sang like a canary, and his New York wife, Eleanor Harris Farrell, found out Dennis had another wife and child in Canada. After several people, including the Baranciks and Loretta Young, were able to identify stolen property, Dennis had no choice and admit to his crimes.

Furthermore, after authorities determined that he stole over a million dollars worth of jewels and furs in both New York and Los Angeles, they found a journal with future victims that Dennis planned to rob including; Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Bette Davis, Dorothy Lamour, Harold Lloyd, William Powell and Mary Pickford.

Ritchie told police that Dennis promised to divorce his wife back in New York and gave her an engagement ring-no doubt one that he stole. In 1949, this modern “Bling Ring” thief was sentenced to a New York prison where he remained until 1962. This story made national news so much that in 1950, Warner Brother Studios decided to make a movie about it called, “The Great Jewel Robbery”.

After his release from prison, Dennis was extradicted back to Canada to face escape charges and then quietly disappeared with no mention of when he died. Meanwhile, back on Grace Avenue, the Barancik’s decided to sell their house in 1953 and move to Beverly Hills. In 1982, 2047 Grace Avenue was listed as part of the Whitley Heights Historical District: “Moderne, stucco, two stories, composition roof, curved “steamship” balconies, central round tower, glass brick entry insets, bull’s eye window. An excellent example of the best of the “Moderne” designs.”

Although the home has been updated inside, there are those hints of a mid-century modern style throughout.

During the 1980s and for the next two decades, music director Glen Lajeski lived at 2047 Grace Avenue. Lajeski worked on soundtracks such as Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Coyote Ugly, and Dangerous Minds while he was a creative music director at Walt Disney Pictures. Lajeski sued them in 2012 claiming they terminated him without cause. Lajeski also worked at MCA Records and had served as director of the 1995 Grammy Awards host committee. More recently, the retired Hollywood music man spends his time judging poodles at the Westminster Kennel Club.