Whitley Heights 101

6746 Wedgewood Place

6746 Wedgewood Place was built in 1923 by builders Cornelius & Blaisdell and was known for as the house that actor W.C. Fields rented in 1927. However there was a young newlywed couple: singer & actor Morton Downey and his wife, Barbara Bennett, who rented this house in 1930. Barbara was the middle sister of the famed Bennett sisters: Constance, Barbara and Joan (pictured below in that order).

The Bennett’s parents were both vaudeville actors; Richard Bennett and Adrienne Morrison. In 1916, the entire family appeared in the silent film “The Valley of Decision”, based on the novel written by Edith Wharton, which was published in 1902. The three daughters all played “unborn souls” in the film when they were 12, 10 and 6 years old.

Richard encouraged his daughters to perform; Barbara was a gifted dancer, a Broadway actress and a film actress from 1916 to 1930. Barbara, who was characterized by others as mercurial, moved out to be near her current fling, married actor Richard Barthelmess in 1926. However, Barthelmess was looking to cool things off because of Barbara’s mood swings and before the media got wind of their affair. Barbara was living at the Ivar Apartments, located at 1825 Ivar Street (still there) at the time, the building that author Nathaniel West would occupy and base his characters in his book, “Day of the Locust”, which would be later made into a film in 1975.

When Barthelmess dumped Barbara, she became depressed and attempted suicide in her apartment on Ivar. Her live in maid caught her spraying Lysol in her mouth and called the police. Barbara was hospitalized and denied that she was trying to kill herself. Although Barthelmess was not named in the tabloids, reporters brought up her romance with her previous dance partner, Louis Basauldo. Barbara was then picked up by Fox Film Corporation to appear in “Black Jack” starring Buck Jones in 1927 and then began work on “Syncopation”, RKO’s first sound musical.

Allegedly, Joseph Kennedy, who at the time, had clout in the film industry, helped het his buddy, Morton Downey, get the lead in that film. Barbara was smitten with the playboy, who was known for his frequent escapades with numerous dancers. She didn’t care-she was in love. Three weeks after they met, they were married in New York. After they were done filming, they moved to Hollywood and rented this house in 1930. Kennedy helped Downey with another film, “Mother’s Boys” in which Barbara also starred in. The movie turned out to be flop. It was so bad, Downey walked out of the movie premiere in the middle of the film. Barbara appeared in one other film, “Love Among Millionaires”, Clara Bow’s attempt to revive her crumbling career, before Downey decided the film industry was not being kind to him. “Love Among Millionaires” would be Barbara’s last film.

Downey was an Irish Catholic who believed women should be at home, taking care of their husbands and having lots of babies. Barbara also wanted the same thing. They moved back to New York where Downey opened up a nightclub, eventually settling near Greenwich, Connecticut and having five children (one was adopted). However, Barbara began to grow depressed. Morton was often out of town working and she was alone with the children. She began to drink heavily.

In 1937, Morton decided to rent a house in Beverly Hills at 1737 Angelo Drive, the former house of MGM producer, Jack Warner. Once they moved in, Barbara rekindled her friendship with actress Louise Brooks, who was dating a B film cowboy actor named Addison “Jack” Randall at the time. Barbara was intrigued by Randall and as soon as Brooks grew tired of him and left for New York, Barbara swooped right in and they started having an affair. Downey was gone all of the time and did not even notice. Randall became Barbara’s #1 drinking partner and would temporarily move in the Beverly Hills house when Downey was out of town.

Barbara was in “drunk la-la land” love and hastily announced to the world that she was leaving Downey in 1940 while he was in New Orleans for a work assignment. This did not sit well with the much embarrassed husband who was probably engaging in his own extra-marital affairs but discreetly. He brought out the big guns during the divorce asking for full custody of the children. His legal team wore Barbara down and she gave up her rights as a mother. The Downey’s divorce was finalized in 1941 and Downey moved with the kids back to Connecticut. The settlement provided Barbara with supervised visits at the house but she had to be sober at all times and on her best behavior. A few days after her divorce became final, Barbara and Jack Randall eloped in Mexico.

Without custody of the children and marrying Randall, Barbara did not have any alimony or child support; Randall was making little money with bit parts. The Randalls moved from their 13,000 square foot home on Copley Place in Beverly Hills to the valley. Due to the strict arrangement, Barbara visited her children only a few times and when she did, things were very tense and she only stayed for an hour. In 1945, Barbara’s world crashed down around her. Randall was killed on a movie set. While riding a horse, he lost his hat and tried to retrieve it and fell off the horse, struck a tree and was killed instantly. Barbara moved into Joan’s guest house at 515 S. Mapleton Drive in Beverly Hills and drank herself into a stupor.

Joan’s husband was able to get her a job as a literary representative in New York as Joan could not stand watching her sister drink herself to death. In 1954, Barbara overdosed on sleeping pills in her New York apartment and survived. Her job did not last. She would return to Joan’s house at times to get moral support. In 1953, she was found in a Cadillac in a Beverly Hills parking lot with a man drinking vodka out of the bottle and both were arrested for public intoxication. The man turned out to be Randall’s brother, Robert Livingston, the famous western actor, who was now broke and unemployed. They eloped in Las Vegas but the marriage lasted only a few months.

Barbara went back to New York in 1954 and met a journalist named Laurent Surprenant and married him on a whim. Surprenant was also a heavy drinker and was very physically abusive towards Barbara. They moved to Montreal and Barbara knew she had made a big mistake. In 1958, Barbara wrote to Joan asking if she could move in her Stone Canyon home but before Joan could respond, Barbara died in her home on August 9th of a heart attack. Her heart could not take the years of alcohol abuse. Barbara really suffered from years of untreated mental illness which caused the onset of her alcoholism.