Whitley Heights 101

Jean Harlow in Whitley Heights

Jean Harlow was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, MO in 1911. Her mother was actually born Jean Harlow and met a dentist named Mont Carpenter and they married in 1908. The ceremony was held at Jean Harlow’s parent’s house located at 930 Orville Avenue in Kansas City, where the couple first resided. This property is now vacant land. Below is Mrs. Mont Carpenter in 1911, the year her daughter was born.

They then settled at 3344 Olive Street in Kansas City by 1909 where Harlean was born. The house was torn down during the 1930s and is now vacant.

After selling the Olive Street home in 1913, the Carpenters moved to 4409 Robert Gillham Road in Kansas City. The 1,546 square foot two story home was built in 1907 and still stands today. Below is a recent photo of the property.

When Harlean was 8 years old, the Carpenters moved to a larger home, located at 1312 East 79th Street in Kansas City. This two story home had 3,264 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Below is a recent photo of the property.

By 1921, ten year old Harlean was taking dancing lessons and was a star pupil of Mrs. Lester Glover. Mrs. Carpenter was also an aspiring actress and decided to leave her husband and move to Hollywood with Harlean in 1923 when Harlean was 12. Momma Jean first rented a room from a house on Sunset Boulevard and then settled at an apartment located at 1302 N. La Brea Avenue while Harlean attended the Hollywood School for Girls paid for by her grandfather, Skip Harlow. Unfortunately, things did not work out for Momma Jean and they moved back to Kansas City.

Back in Kansas City, Harlean attended the Bartow School and then went to Chicago to attend Highland Park School. Early in 1927, Mama Jean met an Italian named Marino Bello and married him in Chicago. By the end of 1927, 16 year old Harlean Carpenter married 21 year old Charles McGrew in Chicago, although the Chicago newspapers reported Harlean was 19 years old. McGrew came from money as his father was a patent medicine king.

The McGrews decided to move to Los Angeles and rented a bungalow home located at 618 N. Linden Drive in Beverly Hills. The house was just two doors down from Clara Bow “It Girl”‘s house and was torn down and replaced with a bigger house in 1968. Below is the Spanish style 8 room bungalow before it was demolished.

No sooner did the McGrew’s move in, Mama Jean and her new husband, Marino, who was exported from Italy, moved from Chicago and in with the newlyweds. It was Mama Jean who pushed Harlean to become a famous actress so she could live vicariously threw her daughter since her attempt to stardom had failed years before. Mama Jean even suggested Harlean use “Jean Harlow” as the stage name, which would inevitably erase Harlean’s own identity for the rest of her life. Jean movie debut was as an extra in “Honor Bound” which starred George O’Brien and Estelle Taylor, produced and directed by Alfred E. Green Productions. Two more movie extra roles followed that same year. Below, Jean was hired as a “bathing beauty” in “Chasing Husbands” produced by Hal Roach.

To show how controlling her mother was, little Jean got pregnant and was forced to have an abortion so the baby would not thwart her acting career (or should we say Mama Jean’s). In addition, Mama Jean was able to put a wedge between her and Chuck so they separated in June of 1929 and Chuck moved out of the house and divorced by 1930. After 18 bit parts in various films, including “The Saturday Night Kid” starring Clara Bow, Jean was discovered by Howard Hughes. Hughes had spent three years filming his masterpiece, “Hell’s Angels” and decided to redo the film as movies were being transitioned into sound pictures. He replaced the young starlet with Norwegian actress, Greta Nissan, who had too thick of an accent. In addition, rumors were circulating that they were hooking up as Hughes divorced his first wife in 1929. Apparently he was also seeing actress Billie Dove. Were the two actresses fighting over his affections?

Jean also managed to keep her hair platinum blonde by using a mixture of Peroxide, Clorox, Ammonia and Lux flakes. Alfred Pagano, her hairdresser, indicated that Jean used to come to Jim’s Beauty Studio every Sunday to get the highly toxic concoction imbedded into her scalp. Jim’s Beauty Studio was located at 6769 Sunset Blvd. at the corner of Highland Avenue and was later sued by director Eric Von Stroheim’s wife who was seriously burned in the parlor in October of 1933 undergoing a hair treatment. Lawyers claimed the treatment used was highly flammable and extremely dangerous causing her hair to be set on fire.

After the filming of Hell’s Angels, Jean and the Bellos rented another home located at 300 N. Maple Drive in Beverly Hills, a two bedroom bungalow. Below are photos of Jean and her mother in front of the house which as since then replaced with a seven bedroom house in 1993. Jean was cast opposite James Cagney in “The Public Enemy” for Warner Brothers and a few other films with various studios.

Jean began dating boyfriend and got her a two-picture deal at Columbia Pictures by giving a huge cash loan to studio head Harry Cohn. Zwillman also bought Harlow a jeweled bracelet and a red Cadillac. By this time, Jean and the Bello’s were rented an apartment at 152 S. Peck Drive in 1931. The Adelon Apartments were built in 1929 and consisted of three stories.

Now making more money, Jean and the Bellos were able to move into a bigger house located at 1353 Club View Drive in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. Built in 1929 by Adams and Associates contractors, the ten room English stone trim house overlooked the Los Angeles Country Club and had four bedrooms and three bathrooms. They rented this house for approximately four years.

Now Jean had a contract with MGM studios and befriended 42 year old studio executive Paul Bern. During the 1920s, Bern fell for troubled actress Barbara La Marr who was married and did not feel the same way. Bern, however, remained her close friend who assisted La Marr with her career, paid for her medical and funeral expenses and was by her bedside when she died. Now Bern was in love with Jean Harlow and the young 20 year old, who had always been cared for by her mother, was happy to have someone love her for who she was. When Bern asked Harlow to marry him in 1932, she gladly accepted. On June 20, 1932, they filed for a marriage license down at city hall and Jean’s stepfather, Marino Bello, accompanied them to be sure to get in the publicity photos.

After marrying one mother later, Harlow moved into Bern’s house located at 9820 Easton Drive, off of Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, a house that had several horrific events linked to it. Bern built the two-story Bavarian style cottage in 1930, which offered 1,100 square feet with two bedrooms and was tucked away from civilization above the quiet street. Bern also built a 4 room caretakers cottage right below. A few days before they married, Bern deeded this property to Harlow.

The Berns had only been married two months before Paul Bern allegedly committed suicide in the house. Harlow had spent the night at her mother’s house on Club View Drive and on September 5, 1932, Bern was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head in the bedroom. The butler found Bern and notified Harlow, who called MGM studio executives who came to the home before police were called. Who knows what they did prior to the police investigation. Police found a note that was signed from Paul that said, “Dearest Dear, Unfortunately this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and to wipe out my abject humiliation, I love you, Paul. You understand that last night was only a comedy.” A distraught Harlow tried to throw herself off of the balcony of the Club View Drive residence.

To add to the mystery of Bern’s death, he had a common law wife named Dorothy Millette whom he met in 1911. Bern financially supported Millette, who reportedly had a mental illness and ended up in a sanatorium in Connecticut. Millette traveled to Los Angeles in September 1932, where she reportedly visited Bern on the night of his death. Her body was found in the Sacramento River two days after Bern’s death. It was later determined that she had committed suicide by jumping from the steamboat Delta King. Several theories have surfaced claiming Millette killed Bern and MGM covered it up to avoid a scandal and keep Harlow’s career alive, but we will probably never know the truth. Four days before his death, Bern took out an $85,000 insurance policy and his doctor informed authorities that Bern suffered from depression and his aunt and cousin had committed suicide. Unfortunately, the life insurance police did not cover suicide. Jean sold the Easton property.

The main house is actually accessed on Rimmele Drive which is restricted by a gate and little can be seen from the road. Effective in 1970, this house uses the address of 9810 Easton Drive and the cottage which was built below uses the address of 9820 Easton Drive just to add to the confusion. After Bern’s death, Harlow moved back in with her mother and stepfather in Westwood.

The Bern house was eventually owned by Security National Bank of Pasadena who added a greenhouse to the property in 1933 and socialite Carmelita Parma moved into the home by 1935. She had been living a 6707 Milner Road in Whitley Heights when Bern had died. Parma sold the Easton home by 1950 and moved back to Santa Barbara where she had been born. Movie engineer Lauriston Clark and his wife, Virginia purchased the home, but the 45 year old died of a blood clot following an operation in July of 1950. Robert Fly and Nelson Barclift purchased the home in 1962 and rented the house hair stylist Jay Sebring who met his untimely death across the canyon with his ex-girlfriend, actress Sharon Tate. Tate was photographed at the Easton residence.

During an interview with journalist Dick Kleiner, Tate recalls an eerie encounter that happened one night while she was staying alone at Sebring’s house. According to the story, Tate woke up in the middle of the night and saw a strange, little man in her bedroom. Frightened, she ran out of the room and down the stairs, where she saw a figure tied to the staircase with his or her throat slashed. The article speculates that the encounter wasn’t just a dream, but actually, a premonition predicting her and Sebring’s heartbreaking fate. Though Tate’s family and friends vehemently deny that she ever had any such premonition, the article has to lead many to believe that perhaps the ghost of Paul Bern returned to the home as a warning of what was to come. Interesting and eerie side note-now back to Harlow.

In September of 1932, Jean Bello was issued a permit to build a 12 room, 2 story mansion located at 214 S. Beverly Glen Blvd. in Holmby Hills. Nicknamed the “Whitest House in the World” as Mama Jean spent $25,000 furnishing it with such things as a walk-in fridge, polar bear rug, a portrait of herself, ermine covered toilet seats, and for her Baby, an ermine covered headboard for her bed. The house was two stories and had four bedrooms. It had a Gregorian façade, French interior, and outdoor pool with two dressing rooms.

After the house was complete Jean and the Bellos moved in from the Club View Drive residence in 1933. Jean had just wrapped up filming “Dinner at Eight” which was directed by George Cukor and starred Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Lee Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, and Billie Burke. Jean was now among the A-listers. She had also starred in “Bombshell” with co-star Lee Tracy and directed by Victor Flemming.

On September 18, 1933, 22 year old Jean Harlow married 38 year old MGM cameraman Harold Rosson, who worked with Harlow on the sets of “Red-Headed Woman” and “Red Dust” in 1932. The two reportedly dated for a year after Bern’s death and the news was a “complete surprise” to Hollywood. Marrying Jean Harlow meant marrying Mama Jean who controlled her daughter’s every move.

In addition, Jean looked like her mother and they shared the same name and were refered to as “Big Jean” and “Little Jean”. Rosson was also a dead ringer for Paul Bern while Bern closely resembled Marino Bello. Quite the family picture. Below are mother and daughter at the Hal Roach 20th Anniversary Party in Hollywood in December 1933. (Reminds me of the mother-daughter relationship of actress Brittany Murphy and her mother and looked what happened to her!)

In October, before Harlow and Rosson were heading to Hawaii for their honeymoon, she was rushed to the hospital after the two returned home from dancing at the Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel and complained of a pain in her side at their apartment at 8221 Sunset Boulevard, aka Chateau Marmont. By December, rumors were already circulating that Rosson was living at the Chateau Marmont while Harlow moved back to the Holmby Hills mansion with her mother and step-father. In May 1934, it was announced that Harlow and Rosson were separated and seeking a divorce. In December, Harlow issued a 5 page complaint citing mental cruelty and they were legally divorced by May of 1935.

Harlow co-starred with William Powell in “Reckless” which aired in 1935. Thirty-five year old Powell, who resembled Rosson, Bello, and Bern, fell for the 22 year old platinum blonde. However, Powell, who had once been married to the young starlet, Carole Lombard, was still weary of loving someone so young.

In September of 1935, Big Jean filed for divorce from Marino Bello citing cruelty. Perhaps she was tired of Bello living off of Little Jean and cheating on Big Jean. Was Big Jean going to go back to using her birth name, Jean Harlow? Big Jean decided to make use of her time by going into the decorating business. Meanwhile, Harlow completed another picture, “China Seas” co-starring with Clark Gable. Mother and daughter continued to live in the “Whitest House in the World”.

In August of 1935, Harlow and Powell were spotted in Santa Barbara shopping for kitchenware and on another occasion, Harlow was wearing a diamond ring. Rumors were also circulating that they secretly wed. Did she move into his home located at 809 Hillcrest Road in Beverly Hills? In 1933, Powell purchased the three acre property and tore down the house that was built for Hobart Bosworth. He built a 11,131 square foot home in the Trousdale Estates area which has since then been owned by producer Albert Broccoli and designer Tom Ford.

By the end of the year, Harlow dyed her hair a darker color for a movie role. In May of 1936, Harlow finally legalized her name to “Jean Harlow” after 25 years. In June of 1936, 214 Beverly Glen was sold for $80,000 to producer Nat Levine and Harlow leased 512 N. Palm Drive in Beverly Hills as rumors now circulated the Harlow-Powell romance was “cooling off”. This five bedroom, five bathroom house consists of 4,425 square feet and was built in 1928 which Harlow would buy.

In January of 1937 Harlow and Powell were spotted dancing Harry Sugarman’s Topics. She now became a redhead for the last two films she would ever make: “Personal Property” costarring Robert Taylor and “Saratoga” costarring Clark Gable.

In April, Harlow was hospitalized with a bad toothache-her wisdom teeth were bothering her. One month later, she was home with a gall bladder infection and a sore throat. The doctor said she was suffering from influenza but was on the “road to recovery”. Then on June 8, 1937:

Jean Harlow was pronounced dead at 11:37 a.m. at the Good Samaritan Hospital after 2 hours and 16 minutes of trying to pump oxygen into her to save her life. In May, while filming her last film, Harlow complained to the assistant director Tommy Andre that “I don’t know what is the matter with me, but I feel so ill I haven’t the strength to hold up my head to remove my makeup”. She was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery and William Powell purchased her $25,000 private room in the Sanctuary of Benediction.

Above is the interior view of the Sanctuary of Benediction at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale. Directly at the end of the sanctuary may be seen the iron doors which are closed, protecting the remains of Irving Thalberg. To the left of the iron doors, may be seen the “Statue of Curiosity”, which enshrouds the private room for the remains of Jean Harlow, donated by William Powell at a cost of $25,000. The third cript from the bottom in the first tier of the third section from the entrance of the sanctuary, lie the remains of Marie Dressler. The remains of Alex Pantages lie in the second tier in the first section of the sanctuary from the front.

Since Harlow died in the middle of making “Saratoga”, actress Mary Dees was chosen to finish the film but was only filmed from behind. She had a higher-pitched voice than Harlow, so a second double was hired to do the voice of the character.

In September of 1937, Mama Jean sold the house located at 512 N. Palm Drive and moved to West Hollywood. According to her biography “Bombshell”, there were signs that Harlow’s health was declining with her “swollen face, slate grey skin, frequent fatigue, and abnormal pulse”. To make matters worse, Harlow drank alcohol and refused to give up drinking gin. She was known to drink the entire bottle. Below is the last recorded photo of Harlow on the set of Saratoga one day before her untimely death.

In January of 1937, both Harlow and her mother had the flu with Mama Jean recovering quickly compared to her daughter. When Harlow was admitted to the hospital for the toothache, the dentist wanted to remove the four wisdom teeth in separate operations but Mama Jean insisted they be done at once. She was operated on by a plastic surgeon who did not practice dentistry. While on the operating table, Harlow’s heart stopped beating after the removal of three teeth so they had to stop the operation. Harlow barely recovered after an 18 day stay at the hospital.

When it was publicized that Harlow was home recovering in July, she found out that she had Still Harlow went back on the set of Saratoga. Unable to urinate, she secreted waste in her breath as Clark Gable smelled and in her sweat; the stench was unbearable. Acute nephritis indicated the her kidneys had been failing for years. At the age of 15, Harlow had contracted scarlet fever while at camp and then had a kidney infection which had degenerated her kidneys ever since.

The Whitley Heights Connection

Jean Harlow has been associated living in several homes in Whitley Heights, all of which have been unfounded. However, she has been confirmed as a frequent visitor of one of the homes.

Myth #1: 6793 Whitley Terrace was originally built in 1929 in Whitley Heights and was rumored that Jean Harlow lived in the home in the 1930’s after her marriage fell apart to Harold Rosson. Clark Gable allegedly tried breaking down the front door to the house to save Harlow shortly before she died. The rumor started after the house was relocated to 1817 Park Street in Huntington Beach in 1949. A selling point? Actress Irene Dunne lived in this house in 1931. Author Chris Epting, a Huntington Beach historian has written about “Harlow’s House”.

Myth #2: Harlow allegedly lived at 2015 Whitley Avenue while filming “Hells Angels”. As the legend goes, Howard Hughes rented it out for her. In actuality when the house was for sale by actress Sybil Danning in the 1970s, she mentioned it. As a result, this has been mentioned in the book “Hollywood: : the movie lover’s guide: the ultimate insider tour to movie L.A.” by Richard Alleman (2005) and the April 1996 issue of Architectural Digest. In 1996, when the house was for sale “the old home of Jean Harlow” Realtor Barry Sloane mentioned Harlow’s name in the marketing and 250 people showed up.

Myth #3: “Hollywood Remembered: An Oral History of Its Golden Age”, written by Paul Zollo, claimed Harlow resided at 6603 Whitley Terrace stating, “this house, with its massive fortress-like garage at the corner of Whitley Avenue and Whitley Terrace, was the home of Jean Harlow. Likely, 6603 Whitley Terrace was confused with 6613 Whitley Terrace-the house that Jean Harlow’s voice coach once owned. Actress Beverly D’Angelo lived here.

Myth #4: Jean Harlow resided at 2002 Whitley Avenue. Perhaps another selling point for the house, but voice teacher Irene Brums lived in this house in 1944. This house may have been mistaken for Harlow’s voice coach Samuel Keysers house which was 6613 Whitley Terrace.

Truth: Jean Harlow often visited her voice coach, Samuel Kayser for voice lessons; Kayser resided at 6613 Whitley Terrace from 1931 to his death in 1943, taking over the lease from actor J.C. Nugent. Kayser was brought to Hollywood by Howard Hughes to work with actresses Billie Dove and Jean Harlow and was on MGM payroll earning $1,000 per week.

Burton Holmes, who resided in actor Francis X. Bushman’s residence at 2000 Grace Avenue, filmed Jean Harlow exiting Keyser’s residence and entering her car on Whitley Terrace in 1931. At the time, Harlow would have been residing at her Club View Drive residence in Westwood.

Other actors and actresses worked under Kayser’s guidance such as Ann Harding, Anita Louise, Frances Dee, Janet Gaynor, Paulette Goddard, Irene Hervey, and Virginia Bruce. In 1931, actresses such as Harlow, Billie Dove, Dolores Del Rio, Carmel Myers, Frances Beranger, Noel Francis, and Charlotte Greenwood would have lessons with Kayser in the Whitley Heights house.