Whitley Heights 101

6624 Whitley Terrace

6624 Whitley Terrace was built in 1939 by famed Hungarian architect Paul Laszlo for Hollywood’s “Doctor to the Stars”, Hans Schiff. Sitting on a downslope, this 2-story modern style home was built with 2,980 square feet containing 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms and a 2 car garage on the upper floor (main entrance). The house was featured in the February 1940 issue of The Architectural Forum and also photographed by Julius Shulman in 1939 where the photographs are available in the Getty Museum research collections.

Paul Laszlo (1900-1993) was both an architect and interior designer who worked in the field for over 80 years. Laszlo, pictured below, was a Jewish immigrant who was born in Austria-Hungary and was hidden by his friends from the Nazis until he was able to flee on a boat headed to New York City in 1936. From there, he purchased a car and drove to Los Angeles and opened his design office in Beverly Hills. Not only did he design a furniture line for Herman Miller Company in 1948, he designed several department stores in Los Angeles. According to Architectural Digest in the 1950s, “if you were an actor or a producer, you likely either lived in, partied at or coveted at a Laszlo home”. Celebrities such as Cary Grant, Barbara Hutton, and Fritz Lang all lived in one of his architectural designed homes.

While Paul Laszlo was known as the “architect to the stars”, Hans Schiff was the physician to them. Hans Schiff traveled to the United States to specifically tour Los Angeles hospitals in 1936, leaving his wife, Alice, daughter Eva, age 11, and son Hans Jr., age 9, all in Switzerland, in order to permanently move to the United States. Schiff opened up his practice in the Taft building and a few months later, his family joined him. Schiff first rented 6654 Whitley Terrace (pictured below) where he grew fond of living. The Schiffs moved to 729 S. Orange Grove Avenue in 1938 while he bought a plot of land on Whitley Terrace and hired Paul Laszlo to built his dream home.

Alice Schiff was also a doctor and became head of the pediatric department at Mount Sinai Hospital. Hans was able to grow his private practice into the world of Hollywood’s movie industry. According to the Autobiography of Cecil B. Demille, “Cecile died at five o’clock in the morning of January 21. Cecilia and Joseph Harper were at his bedside, together with his physician, Dr. Hans Schiff, and his nurse, Mrs. May Carter”. In “Ecstacy and Me: My Life as a Woman” by actress Hedy Lamarr, “When I was in Europe traveling, Jack Warner had a terrible automobile accident. At the hospital they told me he wouldn’t live. I knew the greatest doctor in Europe, Dr. Hans Schiff. He was on vacation with his wife, Alice. I begged him to help and he came back and saved Mr. Warner’s life”. Schiff was also Lamarr’s treating physician as she was mentioned several times in the newspaper being sick with the flu.

In “Eddie: My life, my loves” by Eddie Fisher, “But on the West Coast, in Max’s absence, I became a patient of Dr. Hans Schiff, a far more conventional and less controversial medical man than Max”. Jesse Lasky was also treated by Dr. Hans Schiff, as well as actress Anne Sterling, dubbed the “Polish Ava Gardner”, she appeared in several horror films of the 1940s. In October of 1954, both Sterling and Dr. Hans Schiff made front page headlines when she was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance when she was thought to have taken another overdose on pills. After the doctors pumped her stomach, they had learned that she was hallucinating from eating mushrooms.

Sterling’s physician was out of the country and he had recommended Dr. Hans Schiff to her in his absence. Sterling had called the good doctor indicating she needed help and hung up the phone. Schiff had not idea where Sterling lived and he alerted the police who arrived at her apartment at 7760 Hollywood Boulevard who found her lying naked in her bed unconscious. After giving the mushrooms to the hospital, she was given a blanket to cover up with on her way home. She was previously treated at the hospital for a drug overdose in February. Sterling’s drug use had led to many past accusations in the past including; men kidnapping her and beating her up, being thrown out of an apartment for resisting an oil man’s advances, and accusing a roommate for stealing her jewelry.

Schiff was good friends with Austrian born director Joseph von Sternberg (1894-1969) who discovered Marlene Dietrich (and had a steamy affair with her) and also worked with Clara Bow. Von Sternberg also taught Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek while working as a teacher at UCLA film school. Later, The Doors musicians cited Von Sternberg as being a major influence on their music. Pictured below, Von Sternberg with Marlene Dietrich.

On July 29, 1943, the nearly 50 year old Von Sternberg married his former secretary, 21 year old, Jeanette McBride, in Schiff’s Whitley Heights house. Von Sternberg told the press that he was 45 years old to lessen the blow of a 49 year old man marrying a 21 year old woman. The newlyweds, pictured below on their wedding day, moved into a 5,000 square foot home on Outpost Drive to begin their life together. Their marriage only lasted less than two years.

Below is the floor plan which was included in the 1940 Architectural Forum article.

Alice Schiff remained at 6624 Whitley Terrace even after Hans Schiff’s death in 1962. Hans and Alice were vacationing up at Carmel-by-the-Sea in August where Hans suffered a heart attack and died. Alice put the home on the market in 1978, marketing the house as “Architect Paul Laszlo designed this 2 story deco classic for movie colony doctors”. Owner Robert Robertson added a patio, pool, and 8×8 cabana in 1988 before selling the home to a director and furniture store owner in 2000. The new owners hired designer Jane Hallworth to update the kitchen and expand the living room area by eliminating the maid’s room and give the house an updated look. Below, before and after photos of the front entry area.

6624 Whitley Terrace has also been featured in several home design books including; “Rooms to inspire in the city: stylish interiors for urban living” by Annie Kelly and “Home” by Ellen Degeneres.