Whitley Heights 101

2045 Highland Avenue

In the early 1900s before the Hollywood Bowl existed, houses existed up and down Highland Avenue near the Cahuenga Pass. 2045 Highland Avenue was actually situated where Chateau Camrose, 6824-6842 Camrose Drive, a 10 unit apartment complex was built in 1939. The American Legion building is just south of where this house used to be located. Below is the house in 1934.

Below is Chateau Camrose circa 1940 where the house used to be located.

This Mission style bungalow was built in 1904 by William A. Fruhling, the manufacturer of ornamental iron, who hired brothers, Kenneth and Frederick Brown, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to build this one story residence with three bedrooms and one bathroom.

Fruhling and his wife, Emily, resided in the home where he died in the house in 1917. Emily sold the residence in 1920 for $25,000 to Canadian manufacturer, Frank G. Hayward, who used the property as a rental. For a period of time in 1923, actor William Russell rented the house. Russell (1884-1929) appeared in over 200 films up until his death in 1929.

While renting this home, Russell was between wives. He had divorced actress Charlotte Burton in 1921, whom he had appeared in several films together. In 1925, Russell married actress Helen Ferguson, a 1921 WAMPAS baby star; they remained married until his death in 1929.

While Russell was residing at 2045 Highland Avenue, trouble seemed to come knocking at his door at least twice. On December 4, 1923, Louis J. Wertheimer, a wealthy Texas oil operator, was arrested in the house by the US Marshalls. Wertheimer had been a fugitive in the state of Texas since February 1921 where he was indicted defrauding his investors and was out on a $10,000 bond. It is unclear how Russell knew Wertheimer and how long he had been hiding in the Highland Avenue house, but Russell was the one who bailed him out of jail.

In May of 1924, another scandal was tied to 2045 Highland Avenue. Jack Kearns, promoter of fighter Jack Dempsey, was arrested on May 13th, along with Carlos de la Cruz, a Filipino houseboy who lived at 2045 Highland Avenue. Both were arrested for having lured Francis Marion Emmerson, a motion picture extra, to the house on Highland Avenue and attacking her. Emmerson (aka Mary O’Brien, Mary A. Tenney), a 25 year old widow, was living at 749 El Centro Street. Emmerson phoned the police from the house the night of the attack. She claimed she met Kearns on the Universal movie lot where Jack Dempsey was filming (he filmed several shorts in 1924). Kearns offered her a ride home and she agreed as she had no other way to get home. During the ride home, Mary told Kearns about her 5 year old son that she had been trying to get into acting. Jack Dempsey and Jack Kearns in the photo below.

Kearns stopped at 2045 Highland indicating he knew someone who lived here who could help her. When they entered the house, no one was home and Kearns got out a bottle of whiskey. According to Mary Tenney (pictured below), Kearns tried to put his arms around her after giving her some mineral water and then she fainted. When she came to her senses several hours later, she was lying on a bed with a locked door claiming Kearns and the house boy both attacked her. She found a phone and called the police.

When the police got to the house, Lou Wertheimer (yes the former Texas fugitive) and screenwriter Ed Kaufman were at the house. According to a 1924 voter registration record, Kaufman was living in the house; he knew William Russell when he co-wrote the screenplay of “Soulmates” in 1914 which Russell starred in.

The houseboy was found asleep in his room in the basement and denied the incident but stated Kearns came by the house earlier with a young lady. Wertheimer explained Kearns was a friend and was allowed to use the house. Emmerson refused to get examined at the hospital. She, however, agreed to be questioned with her lawyer, Benjamin Lewis, down at the police station.

On May 26, 1924 she sued Kearns for $200,000 after the district attorney refused to charge Kearns with a crime. The DA found out that she was involved in a similar scandal in Baltimore in 1922. Emerson previously made a similar claim against a man in Baltimore and settled with cash. Jesse Rosenstein of the National Piano Company, gave her $700 under the name of Mrs. Zenney. She claimed he hit her in his car in January of 1922. The case went to trial and Kearns was exonerated from any crime on February 26, 1925.

Louis J Wertheimer was shot to death in his manufacturing plant in Dallas on March 3, 1925. Just before he was shot he testified in a federal case against Senator Burton K. Wheeler from Montana related to an oil scandal. The autopsy indicated it was suicide. William Russell died of pneumonia at age 44 in 1929.