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Blonde, blue-eyed dancer and model, Rae Randall, 24, was living at 6513 Bella Vista Way in June, 1946, when she was savagely beaten by brass polisher, William Talbert, 25, of 2255 Cahuenga after resisting his advances in an isolated spot in the Hollywood Hills. (See details blow) |
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Beginning in 1914, film people have made West Hollywood home. The city has been and still is a mixture of aspiring actors, has-beens, and established stars. Drugs, liquor, and sex of all kinds were easily available on the streets of West Hollywood. Arrests of drunks, dope addicts, prostitutes plus murders, suicides, and divorces have been almost an every day occurrence. |
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6245 Actor Bert Spencer was living at 6245 Banner Ave. in November, 1960, when he was injured while filming a scene on the "Laramie" TV series at Universal City. He was "riding shotgun" on a four-horse stage when it plunged downhill and he was trapped underneath the overturned stage. Doctor's at St. Joseph Hospital had to amputate his leg. |
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1975 In September, 1964, when Harry Torre, 75, manager of apartments at 1975 Beachwood Dr., did not return after he had gone onto the roof to adjust a TV antenna, his wife went up to check on him, and found him lying dead next to the antenna. There appeared to be no signs of violence and it was believed that he died of a heart attack or was electrocuted while working on the antenna. But during an examination of the body five hours later, the coroner discovered a bullet hole in Torre's head. The bullet had entered the back of his head and did not emerge. Police believed that a sniper nearby had killed Torre, and searched for the killer in an area bounded by Franklin Ave., Canyon Dr., Graciosa Way, and Vista Del Mar. |
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1975 In January, 1968, a greater alarm fire turned a four-story apartment building at 1975 Beachwood into an oven. Firemen reported that the fire started on the second floor, and burned through to the third floor. None of the elderly 47 tenants were seriously injured. In another fire here a week earlier, a woman died while smoking in bed. |
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2249 Screenwriter Lawrence White, 40, of 1401 Ridgeway Place, was arrested on the lawn of this home at 2249 Beachwood about midnight on April, 1928, for being drunk. He was taken to the Hollywood station and booked. About 4 a.m. the next morning, White was found lying on the floor of his cell. He was rushed to the hospital but died in route. It was later reported that White, the husband of actress Meeka Aldrich, had been out of work for sometime and was behind on the rent on his apartment on Ridgeway where neighbors said he had been drinking for sometime. Meeka, a bit actress in only a few films, died in San Bernardino in 1996 at age 93. |
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2281 Actor Mike Lally, 38, was living at 2281 Beachwood Dr. on April 27, 1933, when he was kidnapped the by two armed men who held him prisoner in a vacant duplex on Tamarind. He told later told the police the kidnapping occurred at the corner of Beachwood and Franklin. When the gunmen drove him to a telephone to call his family and ask them to deliver ransom, he broke away at Vine and Fountain and ran into the Filmarte Theater on Vine and up the stairs to the roof where he attracted the attention of occupants who called police. Lally, who appeared in over 100 films, was one of the organizers of the Actors Guild. |
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2428 Actress Lillian Millicent (Peg) Entwistle was born in England to parents who were both actors. She grew up with the burning desire to become a successful actress. In 1925, she made her debut on Broadway in Hamlet. In 1927, at age 19, she became one of the youngest actresses to star on Broadway. On April 27, 1927, she married actor Robert Keith, who had a six-year-old son, Brian, thus Peg became his step-mother. After a successful string of performances, her luck began to change – she and Keith divorced and her 1931-32 Broadway season was disastrous. In April of 1932, she moved to Hollywood hoping to find new success in the movies. After several months, she was signed to a contract by RKO Studios. In her first picture “Thirteen Women,: she had only a bit part. When the film was completed, the studio declined to pick up her option, her spirits were crushed. On the evening of September 18, 1932, the depressed actress left her home at 2428 Beachwood where she lived with her uncle, walked up to the end of Beachwood, then climbed up through the dense brush toward the huge thirteen-letter sign on the hill. Reaching the base of the sign, she climbed up the ladder to the top of the 50-foot letter “H” where she looked down on the town that had rejected her. Finally, with the sign’s lights flashing on and off – Peg jumped to her death into the darkness below. She was 24. |
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2472 Larry Edmunds owned a book shop in Hollywood in the 1930s from which he sold books and pornography from a suitcase to the writers in the studios. One of his customers, director Billy Wilder said Edmunds was a homosexual. Edmunds’ business partner said Edmunds loved women and called him “Hollywood’s greatest seducer.” Edmunds, who also loved books and booze, had great charm, and was a hypnotic conversationalist. He became friends with John Barrymore, W.C. Fields, and writer Thomas Wolfe. They said that he never stalked women – they stalked him. |
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2491 Actress Maryland Morne Strong, 35, died of tuberculosis here in her home at 2491 Beachwood Dr. in 1935. In 1922, while appearing in films under the name Maryland Morne, she entered a nation-wide contest for the perfect face to adorn the special issue of the silver dollar that would commemorate the Armistice. Out of 10,000 contestants she was chosen to become "The Peace Dollar Girl" by a jury of sculptors and painters. |
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2836 In May, 1930, actress Fritzi Ridgeway was ordered by the city to build an 8-foot fence around her home at 2836 Beachwood Dr. to keep her vicious dog, Volk, an Alaskan male mute, from attacking her neighbors. |
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421 After months of illness and a nervous breakdown, Mrs. Elsie Rice, 37, of 421 Bedford street, Beverly Hills, leaped to her death in March, 1930 from the tenth floor of the St. Regis Hotel at 1254 West Sixth Street in L. A. Her body crashed through a glass awning just above the ground-floor entrance. Her husband told police that she been bedfast for several weeks and that she had left home early in the morning while her family was sleeping and drove downtown to the hotel. Seconds after the bellboy had left the room, she jumped from the window. |
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2114 Actor Billy Dee Williams, 58, was arrested in his home at 2114 Beech Knoll Rd. on February 1, 1996 on charges of assaulting his girlfriend. The woman, who police said appeared to have minor scratches and bruises, told officers that Williams had battered her. |
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2192 Designer Rudi Gernreich and his longtime lover, UCLA philosophy professor Oreste Pucciani., lived at 2192 Beech Knoll Dr for over 30 years. Gernriech, invented the first topless swimsuit, or monokini, as well as the pubikini (a bikini with a window in front to reveal the woman's pubic hair) and later the thong swimsuit. He was also known as the first designer to use vinyl and plastic in clothes, and he designed the Moonbase Alpha uniforms on the television series Space Patrol: |
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1425 In June, 1957, babysitter, Alice Lockwood, 55, was arrested in the home of famous Hollywood clothier Sy Devore at 1425 Belfast Dr. for stealing. Devore told police that he had been missing items of clothing, jewellery, liquor and food and suspicion pointed at her. When Police searched her large, expensive home at 136 McCadden, they found the house full of goods that appeared to have been stolen. She told police that she was "used to having money and nice things" and she now had to depend on her 50-cent-an-hour baby sitting jobs. Alice had been the Devore's sitter for three years. |
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6512 Dorothy Eileen Coe, 17, was living at 6512 Bella Vista with her mother, actress Maude Coe, in December, 1936 when she mysteriously disappeared while Christmas shopping. Several days later she was found by police in Arizona, walking along the highway near Tombstone, with 20 cents in her purse, a blanket over her shoulder and a few personal belongings in a paper shopping bag. When asked why she left home, she said "I just couldn't get along." In July, 1937, Dorothy, now known as Vivian Coe, was selected as Queen of the International Festival and Water Carnival in Long Beach. In September of 1936, she won a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers after winning another beauty contest. In 1938, she was Miss Los Angeles. She appeared in her first film "Moonlight in Vermont" in 1943 as Vivian Austin. She made westerns, musicals and dramas for the studio before retiring from the screen in 1948 because of health problems. |
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6513 Blonde, blue-eyed dancer and model, Rae Randall, 24, was living at 6513 Bella Vista Way in June, 1946, when she was savagely beaten by brass polisher, William Talbert, 25, of 2255 Cahuenga after resisting his advances in an isolated spot in the Hollywood Hills. She suffered two black eyes, split and puffed lips, a possible broken right jaw and a fractured knee. The beating, she said, happened after a round of night-clubbing with Talbert and another couple on the Sunset Strip. . |
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6519 Burglars robbed the home of S.B. Herndon at 6519 Bella Vista Way of several hundred dollars worth of clothing in October, 1925. |
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7312 Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojiciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger had dinner at the El Coyote Restaurant at 7312 Beverly Blvd. on August 8, 1969, on the night they were murdered by the Manson gang. McConnell's Monterey Drive-In Restaurant was here in 1943. It was the Monterey Restaurant in the late 1940s and early 1950s until it became the El Coyote in 1955. |
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7701 Sandra Bowers, 26, a prostitute, was found murdered in a motel at 7701 Beverly Blvd. on September 16, 1982. A key witness in an investigation of the burglary and sex scandals plaguing the Hollywood Police Department, her throat had been slashed and she had a dozen stab wounds in her back. She was the second witness in the investigation to die violently. |
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8109 The Kon-Kre-Kota the Wonder Paint, paint store located at 8109 Beverly Blvd. was a front for one of Mickey Cohen's bookie joints in 1948. |
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8489 Actor John Drew Barrymore, 30, was arrested in 1959 in a service station at 8409 Beverly Blvd minutes after his sports car had smashed into a car at 9470 Santa Monica Blvd. - He fled the scene. Barrymore, the son of John Barrymore, failed to pass a sobriety test and was charged with hit-and-run and felony drunk driving. During the 1960s, he was often thrown in jail for drug use, public drunkenness, and spousal abuse. Although he appeared occasionally on screen, he became more and more reclusive. |
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8317 Flyer Ronald Wilson, 30, of 8317 Blackburn, and actress Corinna Marlowe, 27, of 7318 Blackburn were both arrested in 1933 after Wilson flew his sport biplane in a wild flight over a thickly populated residential area and crashing it into a telephone pole and tree in a backyard at 3275 Larga Street. With Miss Marlow as his passenger, Wilson for ten minutes flipped the plane through turns and dives in which he barely missed the Atwater grammar school during one manuever. In a low turn, the plane hit the top of a telephone pole in the backyard of the home on Largo, rolled over on its back and hit the ground. Both Wilson and Marlow jumped out of the plane, unhurt. They were both arrested for being drunk. |
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8459 Eleanor Gawne, 40, was arrested in her home at 8459 Blackburn Ave. for drunk driving in August, 1935. She was fined $50. |
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8459 Four women, who said they were actresses, were arrested here at 8459 Blackburn Ave. in October, 1953 by the vice squad and charged with running a house of ill repute. The women were entertaining a male guest at the time of the raid. Mrs. Eleanor Gawne, 48, was one of the "actresses" arrested. (Yes, the same drunk who was arrested in 1935) The stylish vice resort had been under surveillance for three weeks. |
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1807 Joseph Levi Ethridge was renting a palatial home at 1807 Blue Heights Dr. in February, 1973, when he was arrested for distributing heroin and cocaine. He would put up his customer/guests here then smuggle the drugs in from Mexico. |
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1476 Actress Juli Reding was living at 1476 Blue Jay Way in July, 1964, when she filed for divorce from oilman Reese Taylor Jr. She accused him of dragging her through the house, stabbing her, threatening to kill her, and with misconduct with four other women. She asked for possession of the family home here and $1,000 a month to supplement her income. |
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1568 E.L. Doheny IV, 27, scion of the wealthy oil family, was sued by the owner of a house at 1568 Blue Jay Way in June, 1969 for not paying the rent. Doheny testified in court he was unable to pay his debts, including $4,854 in rent. The owner of the house said he rented it to Doheny and his actress wife, Carol Wells, 26, for $850 month and they moved out owing four months rent. Doheny told the court that he had spent all of his $500,000 inheritance. He agreed to pay $50 a month to the owner of the house. |
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1653 George Harrison of the Beatles rented a home at1653 Blue Jay Way in August, 1968. While here, he wrote the song "Blue Jay Way." Paul Simon leased the house after Harrison, and wrote the first two verses of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" here. |
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6909 The home of William Lipman of 6909 Bonita Terrace was robbed in March, 1935 of a fur coat worth $2000. |
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8738 Cesare Cardini, 60, the inventor of the Caesar salad, died in his home at 8738 Bonner Drive in November, 1956. He invented the salad in his restaurant and hotel in Tijuana iin 1924. |
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8742 Furrier George Simmons, 70, was living at 8742 Bonner Drive in March, 1940, when he shot and killed himself in his office at 635 S. Hill in downtown Los Angeles. |
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8467 British actress Patricia Cutts, 31, was arrested in her home at 8467 Briar Drive in November, 1958, for felony hit-and-run driving. She told police that she was on the way home from a party about 1 a.m. when her car collided with another car at Laurel Canyon and Kirkwood, she walked away from the scene, leaving her car and purse behind. She later told police that she could not remember much of what happened. Her doctor said that she had suffered a concussion and "retrograde amnesia." The charges were later dismissed. In early 1974, she was the first to play the role of Blanche Hunt on "Coronation Street." |
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8504 Actor John Carradine, 47, was living at 8504 Briar Drive in September, 1953 when he was arrested for not keeping up with alimony payments to his ex-wife Ardanelia Bennett. Carradine and his wife, Sonia. He is the father of two children, Christopher, 6, and Keith, 4. |
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2919 Mrs. Frances Rutherford, 38, wealthy Hollywood divorcee, was found dead in her home at 2919 Briar Knoll Drive in April, 1949. Her mother discovered her lying in her bed dressed in a lacy nightgown. Two empty sleeping pill boxes were on a bedside table. Rutherford, who had been divorced in 1948 had purchased the house in October of 1948. |
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7790 The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation transmitter station at 7790 Briar Summit Dr. was burglarized in September, 1948. $2000 worth of radio receivers and other equipment were taken. The station had been used by the Army and Lockheed during WWII. |
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2155 Billy J. F. Dillard, 30, a guitarist with the Red Norvo jazz trio was burned to death in a two story duplex at 2155 Broadview Terrace in June, 1956, when he fell asleep on the sofa while smoking a cigarette. |
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2157 After Winstead (Doodles) Weaver, musician and actor, and entertainer Evelyn Graham, got married in September, 1944, they moved into a duplex at 2157 Broadview Terrace. (This was the other half of the duplex where guitarist Dillard died in 1956). Doodles, a wacky member of the Spike Jones City Slickers band, was the brother of Sylvester Weaver, once the president of NBC. |
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2186 Theater manager, Michael Getz, 24, was arrested while living at 2186 Broadview Terrace in April, 1964 for showing a lewd film in the Cinema Theater at 1122 N. Western. Police said that the film "Scorpio Rising," dealt mainly with homosexuality. An all-woman jury found Getz guilty and he was sentenced to fifty days in jail or a $500 fine. |
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626 Karl Dane was working as a carpenter in Van Nuys when he was picked for the comedy role of "Slim" in the 1925 film The Big Parade with Renee Adoree and John Gilbert. He became a star overnight and was recognized wherever he went. Later, he appeared in other comedies and became a featured player. With his sudden fame and a lucrative MGM contract, he moved to Beverly Hills from his apartment in Hollywood. Then came talking pictures and his voice was unsuited for sound – his movie career was over. Embittered, he tried to rehabilitate himself as a carpenter and a mechanic without success. He kept hoping for a "comeback" that never came. |
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636 A gas explosion here in the old Beaumont Apartments in 1987 destroyed 10 units of the three-story building at 636 S. Burnside. |
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851 Actress Renee Adoree, 26, was living at 851 Burnside Ave. in February, 1927 where she was confined to her bed from physical exhaustion as a result of being snow-bound in the High Sierras for nearly three weeks while shooting a film. In June, 1929, she married merchant W.S. Gill while living here. Her former house was sold to B.B. Lang in June, 1934 for $6,500 |
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927 Miss Margaret Bell, 20, was arrested at 927 Burnside Ave. in July, 1931 while attempting to rob an apartment. She was taken into custody after she out-fought Mrs. J. Wood, whose apartment she was ransacking, and a neighbor woman who had gone to Mrs. Wood's aid. Struggling like three Amazons, the women pulled hair, scratched and kicked, but the girl-bandit broke loose and got to the front door of the apartment building where she ran into the arms of two policemen, who had been called by other neighbors. She later told police that she would leave her hotel room at 729 W. 8th Street in L.A. every morning, take a bus to the Wilshire district where she looked around until she found an apartment where no one was home, then crawl in a window and rob the place. |
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1234 When Mrs. Lillian Fisher came to the house of Lewis Barnard at 1234 S. Burnside Ave. in April, 1934, she was carrying her small dog which she said she wanted it to be friends with Bernard's police dog, "Fellow." When they took their dogs to the front yard, Mrs. Fisher's dog growled and barked at Barnard's dog, causing Barnard's dog to lunge at the smaller dog. Mrs. Fisher turned at the same time, and was bitten by "Fellow" when he missed his objective. Several days later, Mrs. Fisher filed suit in court asking $2000 in damages. Bernard told the court, that his dog did what any self-respecting dog would have done. "Her dog used insulting and abusive language, and my dog was grieved, irked, humiliated and driven to desperation by the audacity of such a little upstart coming into our front yard and addressing him, an aristocrat, in that manner." Bernard also said that the bite did not break the skin, as he and his wife examined it immediately afterward. |
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8749 Actress Susan Peters was living at 8749 Burton Way in 1945. While on a duck-hunting trip with her husband on New Year's Day of 1945, her rifle accidentally discharged when she went to pick it up from the ground and a bullet lodged in her spine. As a result, she was permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Constantly racked with pain, she went into virtual seclusion suffering from acute depression. |
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8761 Actor Abel M. Fernandez, who played the role of Bill Youngfellow, a federal agent on the TV show "The Untouchables," was arrested in his apartment at 8761 Burton Way on February 25, 1964 on a charge of evading state income taxes. He failed to file forms for 1959 to 1962 when his gross income was $84,200. Fernandez, 33, was a former heavyweight boxer. |
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8963 Dr. Stuart Nolan, 40, and his beautiful, red-haired wife Katherine, 26, a former model, were found dead in their apartment at 8963 Burton Way in November, 1941. Mrs. Nolan's nude body was discovered in bed, her arms crossed. Around her neck was an expensive solid jade necklace. The body of Dr. Nolan, also nude, was discovered in a a tub in the bathroom next to the bedroom. He apparently had opened a vein in his wife's wrist with a scalpel, then used surgical scissors to open arteries in his left arm. They both bled to death. Since very little blood was discovered on the bed, police believed that Dr. Nolan used a bucket to catch his wife's blood. On a table in the bedroom was a note written by Dr. Nolan to Mrs. Nolan's father in which he wrote: "She sends her love and we both agreed that this was the only thing for us to do." Investigation of the couple, who had been married only three months, later revealed a history of prolonged drinking and financial problems. |














