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Actress Mary Miles Minter rented a furnished home at 2183 Argyle in December 1922, less than year after her lover William Desmond Taylor was murdered. She moved in with her chauffeur and colored maid.

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2122      Composer, concert pianist, Percy Grainger and his wife stayed here in the home of Harry Huntington Shutts at 2122 Alcyona Drive. during Grainger's appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in August 1930. Grainger's mother, 60, jumped to her death from the 20th floor of a building in New York City in 1922 after rumors circulated that she and Percy had a sexual relationship. Grainger and Ella Viola Strom were married in 1928 on stage in The Hollywood Bowl. A sado-masochist, he established the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia, and donated many of his musical pieces and his collection of whips.
Where Are They Now?
Grainger died at age 79, in 1961. He willed his skeleton to the Melbourne Museum to be put on display, but he was buried next to his mother in West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide, South Australia.      

2156      Blonde actress Dorothy Taylor Flint, 33, was arrested at her home at 2156 Alcyona Dr. in May, 1938 on suspicion of drunk driving and hit-and-run after her car collided with another car in the 8400 block of Sunset Boulevard.      

2157      Roger Leighton 37, one-time manager of prizefighter Lauro Salas, was living here at 2157 Alcyona Dr. in May 1959 when he was fined $1,000 for failure to file tax returns for 1954- 55.   

2266     Actress Mary Astor and her director husband Kenneth Hawks, bought a home at 2266 Alcyona Dr. in 1927. On January 22, 1928, Kenneth drove to Clover Field in Santa Monica to board a plane that was going to be used to film a movie. The plane he was in crashed in the ocean near Pacific Coast Highway and he along with nine other men were killed. The bodies were taken to the Nolan Undertaking Company in Venice where director Howard Hawks identified his brother's body. Mary sold the home in 1932 for barely enough to cover the taxes.
Where Are They Now? Hawk's ashes were scattered into the Pacific off Point Vicente close to where he died. Astor died in 1987 of a heart attack at age 81, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, CA in grave N-L523-5. Facing the mausoleum, go 10 rows down the slope to your right. The grave is about 6 feet to the right of the large wide tree.  

2315      In July, 1928, Federal agents raided a large, three-story, furnished home here at 2315 Alcyona Dr. and seized a 300-gallon still and 750 gallons of rubbing alcohol valued at $15,000. The still, located on the third floor, was used to "clean" the rubbing alcohol so that the liquor could be sold. Ralph Wiser, 24, was arrested at the scene.      


440      Bullet, a 7-year-old black and white bull terrier, one of the best-known trained dog stars in films, was living at 440 Alfred with his owner film producer, director, actor, Leo Maloney, when he disappeared in February, 1927. The dog was never found. On November 2, 1929, Maloney, 41, died in his room in the Hotel Astor in New York where he had gone to book his first talking picture. Best known as the director of western pictures starring Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson, friends said that after eight weeks of heavy drinking while in New York, he died of a heart attack.
Where is He Now? Maloney’s ashes are in Hollywood
Cemetery in the Chapel Columbarium, 1st floor, southwest wall, T-5, N-2.      


500      In March, 1935, County health officials attempted to trace the source of a mysterious malady that for a week had made 22 residents sick. The outbreak, described as a severe gastric odor, affected only the 500 block of Alfred Street. Laboratory tests of both water and milk, failed to disclose a clew.     

935      Mrs. Marion Douglas, 37, charged her husband Gordon Douglas, 41, with extreme cruelty in a divorce action in 1949. She and Douglas were married in her home at 935 Alfred on September 24, 1934. Douglas, a movie director at Columbia studios, earned $1,000 a week. She asked that she be given sole ownership of the house that she says she owned before they were married. Douglas directed many "Our Gang" films, Liberace's Sincerely Yours (1955), and the sci-fi classic Them!.
Where is He Now? Douglas died of cancer on September 29, 1993 at 85. He is buried in Forest Lawn Glendale in the Great Mausoleum, Jasmine Terrace, Sanctuary of Constant Faith, C-16205.      

8428      Dr. Roland Schaumloffel was living at 8428 Allenwood in July, 1962 when he was sentenced to one year in County Jail for performing two abortions. He also had been convicted of the same charge in 1957 and in 1961.      


148      Pioneer film man John Frederick Jasper, 57, died here in his home at 148 Almont Drive in August, 1935 of complications of a stroke about a month after Federal agents and police arrested his nurse on a narcotics charge, and a bitter court fight over the guardianship of his estate. Jasper's widow Maybelle (he remarried after his first wife Marie died here in July, 1932,) and the husband of his first wife's sister were fighting over the estate. Jasper began his film career in New Jersey as an associate of David Horsley. When Horsley came to Los Angeles he came with him and became his general studio manager at the studios and zoo that Horsley operated at Washington and Main. He left Horsley in 1917 to join Charlie Chaplin and built Chaplin's studio on La Brea and Sunset. After he left Chaplin in 1919, he built the Jasper Studios on Las Palmas (now Hollywood Center Studios).
Where Are They Now? Japer is buried in Inglewood Memorial Cemetery. His first wife is buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.      

175      In May 1933, Susan Bailey found a note in her home at 175 Almont Drive from her husband Harry Louis Bailey that read: "Susan I will not be home for dinner." When Harry still hadn't shown up many hours later, she called police and reported him missing. The next day she found a note in a bedroom written on cigarette paper that read "I have gone to the sycamore trees just north of Wilshire Boulevard on Sawtelle Boulevard." She called police who went to the grove of trees located in a large picturesque hollow and there they found Harry dead with a bullet in his heart. An automatic pistol was found near his body. He had killed himself. Bailey, 50, an etcher and commercial artist, often went there with his brush and palette to paint. Funeral arrangements were made for Harry through Price-Daniels mortuary in West Los Angeles.      

237      Famed dress designer, Irene, 60, (Mrs. Irene Gibbons) was living at 237 Almont Drive in November 15, 1962, when she jumped to her death from the 11th floor of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood . Police said that she had tried to cut her wrists before she decided to jump at 3:20 p.m. Her body landed on the lobby roof of the hotel. Several suicide notes were found in her room. One read: 'I'm sorry to this in this manner. Please see that Eliot is taken care of. Get someone very good to design and be happy. I love you all, Irene." The note indicated she was worried about financial troubles and distressed over the illness of her husband, screenwriter Eliot Gibbons, who had recently suffered a stroke and was in a convalescent home. In another note, she wrote to her neighbors in the hotel, "Neighbors: Sorry I had to drink so much to get the courage to do this. She and Eliot Gibbons were married in 1937. Brother of actor Cedric Gibbons, Eliot was supervising art director at MGM for many years.
Where Are They Now? Irene’s ashes are in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, in the Great Mausoleum, Florentine Columbarium, Niche 8032. Eliot died in 1965 at age 61.      

355      Ill and despondent because of his fading movie career, actor Herman Bing, 57, shot and killed himself in the home of his daughter Ellen, at 355 Almont in July, 1947. Ellen and her husband Robert were eating breakfast when they heard a shot. They found Bing's body on the floor of a front bedroom, a pistol was still clutched in his hand. Two notes to his daughter were found. One read: "My beloved Ellen. Please forgive me! My nerves! Eternal Love! Daddy. I tried so hard for a comeback." His check for $1000 was attached to the note. The other note read: "Dear Ellen: Such insomnia! I Had to commit suicide! Your daddy." Nearly always cast as a comic waiter, excitable musician, or self-important official, Bing became famous for his wild-eyed facial expressions and his thick, "R"-rolling Teutonic accent.
Where is He Now? Bing is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Section 8, Lot 199.      


459       Actress Lucile Watson, 61, of 161 N. Bundy, was arrested in the home of Barbara Fliescher at 459 Almont in May, 1940 for being drunk while in a car that was being driven by Fliescher, who was also drunk. Both were taken to the Lincoln Heights Jail. Watson, a former Broadway star, was known as the "Queen of the Dowagers" because of her several roles as motherly types in film. In 1943 she was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role as Bette Davis's mother in the film "Watch On The Rhine."
Where is She Now? Lucile died in 1962 in New York City at age 83, and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.      


1111 Singer June Hutton and her husband Alex Stordahl were living at 1111 Alta Loma Dr. in December 1951 when burglars broke into their home and stole a $5200 mink coat, a $1250 mink stole and two diamond watches.
Where are They Now? Hutton died in 1973 at age 53. Stordahl died in 1963 at age 50. They are buried together in Forest Lawn Glendale in Section Kindly Light, Lot #538.      

1117      Burglars broke into actress Janet Gaynor's home at 1117 Alta Loma Dr. in August 1934 while Gaynor was out of town. Gaynor's maid, who lived in a small house on the property, told police that someone entered Gaynor's house and ransacked several rooms, but she could not tell if anything of value was taken. The burglar got into the house by cutting the screen of a French window in the living room and then breaking the glass in a door. She was still living here in 1936.
—    Dr. Archibald Macleish, 76, died here in his home in May 1930. He was a world authority on diseases of the eyes.
Where are They Now? Gaynor died in 1984 at age 78, and is buried next to her husband. designer Adrian, in Hollywood Cemetery, in the Garden of Legends (formerly Section 8), Lot 193. Macleish is buried in Rosedale Cemetery.      

1131      When the police raided the Old Colony Club at 1131 Alta Loma Dr. in 1934, they found at least 500 people gambling inside. Two fashionably women fainted and others became hysterical while officers dismantled a roulette wheel, two crap tables and two card tables. Seven card dealers and manager George Goldie were arrested. By placing operators in the club as waiters, the officers were able to get inside with membership cards. Being in formal attire, the raiding crew of six picked deputies did not arouse suspicions of others with whom they rubbed elbows. The officers played the various games about half an hour before announcing that the place was being raided. Located in a 26-room mansion, the club was owned by Lew Wertheimer. Jacqueline Ginette Grimaldi, wife of MGM film editor Hugo Grimaldi, operated a children's school here in 1945.     

1215      In January 1945, artist John Decker gave one of his famed parties here in his home at 1215 Alta Loma Drivr where a brawl broke out between the famous guests which included actors, Jack LaRue, Lawrence Tierney, Alan Mowbray, Diana Barrymore, and William Kent, owner of a Strip night club. It all started when the guests were leaving the party. Tierney told police that Kent was insulting and obnoxious to him during the party. He told me that anyone who liked Errol Flynn was no good. "He taunted me as I was leaving the party, then he hit me. We came to grips and rolled around on the ground. When LaRue came out, he saw us and tried to separate us, but was knocked to the ground and hit his head on the running board of a car." Tierney also said that actress Diana Barrymore slapped him several times during the scuffle. Kent said that Tierney was insulting to my girlfriend at the party. "I guess he thinks he's Dillinger off the screen too. He waited for me outside and jumped me." Decker said of the fight, "All I know is that there are fights around here all the time – almost every night. There are so many of them that I don't even pay attention to them – too many night clubs around this neighborhood, I guess. Certainly there was drinking here. What would a party be without drinking? When the last of the guests left after 3 o'clock. I went to bed. We had a nice party though."
Whatever Happened to Decker? Decker died of a heart attack while in New York City in June, 1947. His services were held here in his home where a recording he made six weeks before he died, was played in which he recited a speech from "Cyrano de Bergerac." Prominently displayed near his casket was his famed death sketch of John Barrymore. Mourners included actors Errol Flynn, Vincent Price, Peter Lawford, Thomas Mitchell, and Alan Mowbray.
—    Actress Paulette Goddard who bought the home from Decker's widow Phyllis, sold it in 1950 to George C. Hall for $42,500.     


6655      Cinematographer Gordon Pollock lived at 6655 Alta Loma Terrace in 1929. He worked on the films "Queen Kelly" in 1929 and "City Lights" in 1931. He and his wife, a Hollywood society leader, gave many parties here in the house. Pollock was living here when he died in a plane crash on April 15, 1956 over Lake Erie. In 1964, L.A. County bought 16 houses here in the 2100 block of Highland Avenue,(between Milner and Odin) across from the Hollywood Bowl for a site to build a $6.5 million Hollywood museum. But one of the homeowners, Steve Anthony, 33, a bartender at Barney’s Beanery and a former marine who owned the former Pollock house, refused to move out. He was offered $11,750 for his half of the house (L.A. County owned the other half) but he refused the offer and stood off eviction for 10 weeks with a loaded shotgun. When he and his wife and three young children were finally kicked out in February 1964, the bulldozers tore it down. (Alta Loma Terrace, which ran east from Highland just south of Odin Street was also bulldozed). But after spending $1.2 million on the project operated by film mogul, Sol Lesser, the county shut off all funds and the museum was never built and the land became a spillover parking lot for the Hollywood Bowl. The Hollywood Museum now sits on the south part of the lot Anthony’s home sat at the north end of the lot where Alta Loma Terrace once was located He said the home was deeded to him by Pollock.
Whatever Happened to Anthony? Anthony spent six months in jail then moved to Sonora California were he became a general contractor. In March of 1976, his son Stephen Jr. shot himself to death a week before his 15th birthday.      

6727      Harry Fox, 34, threatened to kill his mother and knocked her almost into insensibility here at 6727 Alta Loma Terrace on February 6 1941. Mrs. Marion Fox testified that her son slapped her, then held a knife to her throat and said "I'm going to finish you the hard way." When she screamed, neighbors went to her rescue and Fox ran from the house. He was convicted of beating his mother and given a 30-day jail term and put on probation for one year and was ordered to stay away from his elderly mother and under no circumstances lay a hand on her.    

6824      Shortly after actor Alexander Carr and his wife Helen were married in October 1924, he beat her in their home at 6824 Alta Loma Terrace and pawned the prenuptial gifts he had given her. In her divorce complaint in July 1925, she charged he also accused her of misconduct. Among the gifts he pawned were a $2500 engagement ring and diamond bracelet of the same value. He gave her the pawn tickets and told her that she could get them if she wanted them. She also complained that he took a roadster that he given her as a wedding present. They separated a few days later after he beat her again here in their home. Carr, at the time, was also a defendant in a alimony suit by his first wife actress Mary Carr. In August 1925, Carr and his second wife, Helen made up and she went back to him.
Where is He Now? Carr, 68, died in 1946 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Section 17, Row V, grave 102.   

6824      Singing teacher Guido Caselotti and his wife, Maria were living here at 6824 Alta Loma Terrace in 1932 with their two daughters Louise and Adriana. Louise was a nationally known mezzo-soprano. In 1937, she sang with the Chicago Grand Opera Company with Raoul Carrere. In June 1947, singer Adriana Caselotti and her mother Maria handed over a check for $715 to the rent control division of the OPA. The check went to screen writer Louis Borel, who, the OPA said, was overcharged when he rented Mrs. Caselotti's apartment here. Adriana, the younger sister of Louise, was the voice of Snow White in Walt Disney's film "Snow White" in which she sang the song "Someday My Prince Will Come." She was paid $20 a day to sing and read the lines for the role for a total of $970.
Where Are They Now? Adriana died of lung cancer in 1997 at age 80. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the ocean off Newport Beach. Maria, a member of the Royal Opera in Rome for many years, died in 1961 at age 68. She is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, in the Court of the Apostles, northwest section, column 2. Louise died in 1999 at age 88.      


801      On August 1, 1925, Actress Vola Vale filed suit for divorce from her first husband, director Albert Lerche. She complained that he refused to find work for three years and that she had to work as an actress to support herself and her 7-year-old son. They were married on October 28, 1916 and separated in July 1925. In December, 1926, Vale and producer/director/writer John Gorman were married here in her house at 801 Alta Vista Place.. One of the most popular silent screen leading ladies, she starred in the film Alias Jimmy Valentine for Metro while here in 1926. She retired from films shortly after.
Where is She Now? Vola died in Hawthorne, California on October 17, 1970 at age 73 of heart disease and is buried at the Roosevelt Memorial Park in Gardena, California.      
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1412      Film extra Betty Montague Gottlieb, 25, was living at 1412 Alta Vista Place in August 1927, when she and her boyfriend Hamilton W. Mannon, 26, met to talk out their future. Mannon, a vice-president at Tech-Art studios picked up Betty here about midnight on the 26th. They drove around for awhile and finally stopped at a secluded spot on Formosa near Melrose. When Mannon told Betty that he wanted to end their love affair, she pulled out a revolver and shot him in the head. Turning the gun on herself, she put another bullet in her own head. As she slumped over his body, her foot engaged the starting button on the car and its incessant turning attracted the attention of a resident of a home nearby who discovered the nearly dead victims. They both died before reaching a hospital. Thier bodies were taken to the LeRoy Bagley Mortuary at 5440 Hollywood Boulevard where they lay side by side.
         Mannon came to Los Angeles from New York in 1924 to work for Tech Art Studios. He met Betty in early 1926 and he started going with her. Betty, divorced with a small daughter, came here from Arizona in 1923. Even though she was attractive, she did not have any success in films and eventually went to work as a retoucher in a commercial photographer's studio.
        Meanwhile, Mannon was moving up in films and the two drifted apart. Betty became desperate that she was not able to hold onto her man. She told friends that she wanted him to marry her right away but he refused. Found in Betty's apartment were some sentimental poetry and various underscored passages from classics. Producer Joseph M. Schenck said that "Mannon was both respected and loved by the movie industry." Director Edwin Carewe said of Mannon, "He was one of our important executives, a man liked by all, a man whose death will be felt for a long time to come."
Where are They Now? Mannon's body was shipped back to New York where he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. It was unclear whether Betty would be buried in Arizona or Mexico. Betty's mother was living in a one-room home in Nogales, Arizona with Betty's 6-year-old daughter, Olgaleen.      


8339      Publicist Anthony Christian Kent was living at 8339 Anthony Circle in the home of actress Leslie Caron and her husband meat packing heir,George Hormel II, in March 1954, when he was arrested on a narcotics charge. He was arrested in Hollywood driving a bright red imported sports roadster registered to Caron. He denied any knowledge of the 12 benzedrine tablets found in the car. Kent was arrested after he offered a ride to officer G.W. Palmer, a police undercover agent on Hollywood Boulevard. Kent claimed that Palmer helped him start his car, after which he offered him a ride home.      


8782      Burglars broke into the home of composer Rudolf Friml at 8782 Appian Way in July, 1943 and stole a radio and 35 of his original recordings and assorted bric-a brac.
Where is He Now? Friml died in 1972 at age 93 and is buried in Forest Lawn Glendale, in the Great Mausoleum, Court of Honor, directly beneath the Last Supper window.      

8815      Actress, dancer Gilda Gray and her husband Hector Briceno de Saa, were living at 8815 Appian Way in July, 1934 when they were notified that his uncle, Baron Fernando de Saa, a Spanish nobleman had died in Casa Blanca and left them over $600,000. Miss Gray, once the world's highest paid artist who originated the "Shimmy" dance, said "Isn't it wonderful. Isn't it marvelous. Isn't it grand. I'm so excited. I could almost break into a shimmy." "My husband also inherits the Baron's title. That would make me a Baroness. And it wouldn't be proper for a Baroness to shimmy. I am not going back on the stage, I just want to a perfect wife for my husband, and devote hours to raising flowers in my yard and to caring for my pet ducks and rabbits." On October 2, 1934, Miss Gray was sued by a New York Fifth Avenue exclusive shop for non-payment of a bill of $277.50 for clothing that she purchased in January of 1933. Miss Gray and her Baron/husband were divorced in May 1938.
   Actress Virginia Myers, 19, was living here in the house in 1935 when she married alcoholic actor Warren Hymer.
Where are They Now? Gray, 58, died in 1959 while living with friends on Hollywood Blvd. She is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Inglewood, CA in Section S, Tier 46, Grave 67. The Motion Picture Relief Fund paid for her funeral.       

8856      Burglars broke into the home of Clare Trask at 8856 Appian Way in July 1943 and stole seven gas rationing books.

6812      Gladys Baker bought a six-room, 3-bedroom home here at 6812 Arbol Dr. in 1933. She and and her 7-year-old daughter Norma Jean (the future Marilyn Monroe) moved into the house in August, 1933. Later, she rented out the house to a couple and she and Marilyn lived in the back bedroom and shared the living room bath, and kitchen with the couple, Mr. and Mrs. George Atkinson. Gladys sold the house in late 1934.
—    Helen Klein, 28, was living in the house in 1939 when she married Eugene Fodor, 33. Fodor was the author of the famous Fodor travel guide books.
Where Are they Now? Marilyn died in 1962 at age 26, and is buried in Westwood Memorial Park in Westwood, in the Corridor of Memories, Crypt 24. Gladys died in Florida in 1984 at age 84. Fodor died in 1991 at age 85, and is buried in East Cemetery in Litchfield, Connecticut
    (Arbol Drive does not exist anymore. The Hollywood Bowl front parking lot is now on the site of the Monroe house. Arbol started at Highland Avenue on the east and ran west for one short block between Odin Street and Hollywood Bowl Road. Hollywood Bowl Road runs west from Highland on the north side of the Bowl. Arbol was destroyed when the Hollywood Freeway was built in 1952).      


2423      Samuel Levy was arrested in his home at 2423 Argosy Way in December, 1925 on a fugitive warrant from Philadelphia charging him with wife and child abandonment. He denied the charge and said that he had been sending money to his wife regularly.      


1831      William Erwin Walker, 28, was arrested here in his apartment at 1831 Argyle in December 1946 for the murder of a California Highway patrolman. Walker, a former Army lieutenant and employee of the Glendale Police Department, was taken only after a furious fight and gun battle with detectives, who surprised him as he slept, a sub-machine gun on the bed beside him and a .45-caliber automatic at his bedside. Even though he was shot twice, he struggled with police until his strength ran out.
Whatever Happened to Walker? He was found guilty and sentenced to die in the gas chamber. On December 11, 1947, Walker's father, Weston, a County Flood Control engineer, killed himself. In 1949, Walker was held insane and given a reprieve. He escaped from the Atascadero Mental Institution in 1959 but was captured several days later. In 1961, Governor Brown commuted his death sentence to life in prison.      

1837      Fred Bohanan, 22, was living at 1837 Argyle in January 1928 when his former lover, Miss Rudell Heath, 19, walked into the Gower drug store at 6066 Hollywood Boulevard where Bohanan worked at the soda fountain, and fired five shots at him. Four shots missed him but one tore a hole in his apron as he ran for cover in the rear of the shop. When police arrived, Bohanan was barricaded in the back room and Miss Heath was firing through the door. Heath, who lived in the El Rey Hotel at 511 E. 6th Street in Los Angeles, told police that she formerly lived with Bohanan, but they parted several months before and had quarreled bitterly since that time. She said she warned him that she would kill him unless he got out of town. The El Ray hotel was converted into the Weingart Home for the homeless in 2002. A mini-mall is now on the site where the Gower drugstore used to be.
—    Artist Madame Gregoria de Ajuria, one of the world’s most famous miniaturists, lived here in June, 1917. She was decorated by royalty and known by notables of two continents whose likenesses she painted.   

1900  Dr. Adolph Guido Schloesser, who struck it rich in the silver mines in Nevada, came to Hollywood in 1907 and bought eight acres of lemons here at the northeast corner of Franklin, which he subdivided into lots, some of which were immediately built upon. A year later, in 1908, he decided this area was the best place to build his dream castle so he bought his old tract back, a lot at a time.
      Schloesser's mother belonged to the von Groppe family of Germany. His uncle, Francis A. Hoffman served as lieutenant-governor of Illinois during the Civil War. His great aunt, who was a singer of note, became the wife of Count Paul von Hopffgarten, who was the favorite bodyguard of Emperor William I. Her cousin, was the well-known General Victor von Vahlkamph.
      Schloesser (also known as A. G. Castles) hired architects Dennis and Farwell to build a replica of a Scottish baronial castle on the northeast corner Frankin and Argyle (formerly Grandview). He called it Castle Glengarry. It had 18 rooms including five bedrooms. A den and a billiard room were built in the tower. Two Carrara marble lions of Carrara marble one hundred and fifty years old, which formerly guarded the palace of the Doges at Venice, stood at the entrance of the the Castle. When finished in 1909, it was a show place that ranked among the top tourist attractions in Southern California.
      In October, 1912, Schloesser sold Castle Glengarry to J.F. Riley, a multi-millionare banker for $100,000. Riley also purchased 23 feet of adjoining frontage north of the Castle and planned to spend a large sum to transform the Castle's extensive grounds and the extra frontage on Argyle into a beautiful private park. He and his mother occupied the place as a summer home.
      Actor Sessue Hayakawa was living here in the castle on March 30, 1919, when he gave a reception here for singer Tamaki Miura, the famous Japanese Prima Donna. Just about everybody who was anybody in Hollywood attended. He was gone by August 1924, and the castle stood vacant until 1926 when it was converted into the Temple Israel Synagogue of Hollywood. It was torn down in the early 1950s. An apartment building is now on the site.
Where is He Now? Hayakawa died in 1973 at age 84. He is buried in Chokeiji Temple Cemetery in Toyama, Japan.

1919      Dr. Adolph Schloesser built a Spanish-style, seven-story apartment building here on the site of his former Castle Sans Souci estate in 1928 at a cost of $265,000. The architect was Leonard L. Jones. The Castle Argyle was built on a plot 170 feet by 190 feet, the main portion was L-Shaped enabling the erection on the rest of the site of a garage that held 50 cars. The garage part was topped with a roof garden. The upper six stories contained 156 rooms. There was a spacious lobby with parlors and card rooms on the ground floor. Three tiers of duplex apartments, each occupying two stories, and containing six rooms each, were a special feature. Most of the other apartments were doubles, there were some singles. Castles and his family moved into eight rooms on the top floor.
Where is He Now? Adolph Guido Castles Schloesser died here in 1933 at age 81. He and his wife are buried in Section 6 in Hollywood Cemetery.   

1919    Actor Gary Cooper moved into an apartment at 1919 N. Argyle Avenue in 1929. He made the films The Virginian and The Texan, and A Man From Wyoming while here. He was living here in 1931 when he was arrested for driving going 45 in a 15 mile zone on Wilshire Boulevard.
Where is He Now? Cooper died in 1961 at age 60, and is buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Southampton, New York, in the Jesus & Mary Section.

1919   Actress Laura Lee, 19, was living here in April, 1930 when she was signed by Warner Brothers for $1000 a week.   

1919    Actor Robert Williams was arrested here in September, 1931 for attacking a process server in his apartment. Williams told the judge that a man knocked loudly on his door early one morning, and when he opened it, the man put his foot in and reached for his pocket. Thinking that he was reaching for a gun, Williams hit him. The judge ruled that Williams was justified in his action and dismissed the case.
Where is He Now? Williams died in 1978 at age 74, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, in Section R, Tier 53, Grave 11.   

1919   On April 12, 1932, actor Monty Banks asked the police to search for his wife, actress Gladys Frazin, 32, who he said had been missing from their apartment here for almost a week. He said she left home about 1 a.m. without leaving an explanation. On April 16, Banks filed suit for divorce. After testifying in court on April, 29, that Gladys would disappear for several days at a time, and often would come home drunk and that she treated him abusively, the judge granted the divorce. When Banks sailed from New York for Europe a week later, he waved goodbye to Gladys who was standing on the pier. Before sailing time, she had given him a bunch of gardenias.
Where Are They Now? On March 9, 1939, Gladys jumped to her death from a sixth-floor bedroom of her parents' apartment in New York. She was 38. A note to her parents said she "could not suffer any longer." Banks died of a heart attack in Italy in 1950 at age 53, and is buried in Italy.

1919    Songwriter Sammy Cahn and musician Alex Stordahl lived here in 1942 when the apartments were known as a musician's hotel.   

1919   Actor Charles "Chet" Marshall, 21, took an overdose of sleeping pills here in the apartment of television singer Ginny Jackson in July, 1953. His parents said he been despondent over not being able to get any film roles. After treatment at the Hollywood Receiving Hospital, his parents took him home.   

1919    Sonny & Cher were living here in the 1960s. Sonny later wrote that Cher was a messy, pimply, lazy girl, who stayed out all night and slept during the day and rarely changed her underwear.
Where is He Now? Sonny, 68, was killed when he hit a tree head-on while skiing in 1998. He is buried in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, in Section B-35, #294.

1919    The seven-story apartment building was sold in 1971 for $500,000. When reopened in 1973, the former 56-unit luxury building had 98 units for low and moderate income families and senior citizens. Rents ranged from $84 for a single unit to $106 for a one bedroom apartment. In 1988, the apartments and the nearby streets were "an open-air supermarket for drugs" according to the police. In the 1990s, the apartments were still infested with drug dealers and drug addicts before they were converted into 90 small apartments for low-income tenants. In 1993, the Castle Argyle tenants formed a union in an attempt to take over the run-down and drug-infested building    

1924    At midnight on June 9, 1927, actress Doris Williams, 21, also known as Doris Dore, was attacked here in her apartment at 1924 Argyle by an assailant who carved the letter "K" on different parts of her body. She told police that a gorilla-like individual broke into her apartment and attempted to attack her and when she hit him, he overpowered her and carved her with what she thought was a safety-razor blade. She fainted, and when she came to 30 minutes later, she was lying in a pool of blood. Police said that the wounds looked like they may have been made with a pin, needle, or a pen knife. The cuts and scratches would not disfigure her, she said. After several days of investigating , police suspected that she had made the story up but they were unable to prove it.   

1938    The Weber Apartments at 1938 Argyle Avenue were built in 1921. Actresses Helen Chandler, and Florence Lawrence, were living here in 1925.
Where Are They Now? Lawrence, the world’s first “movie star,” died on December 28, 1938 when she swallowed ant paste at age 52 in her apartment on Westbourne Avenue. Her career ended in 1914 when her face was disfigured by a fire on the set. She is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Section 2, near the pump house, across the road from the tall Griffith obelisk. Chandler, a drug addict and alcoholic, was committed to a sanitarium in 1940. In 1950, her face was disfigured in a fire in her apartment on Whitley Avenue in Hollywood. She died in 1965 following surgery for a bleeding ulcer at age 68. Her ashes are in the Chapel Of The Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.
    Miss Eva Burnett was the on-site manager of the apartments in January, 1929, when she bought the first new Dodge Senior Six Sport Roadster in Los Angeles.     

1938 The landlord of the rat and cockroach-infested, run-down Weber Apartments was sentenced to live 28 days in a second-floor apartment in November, 1989, after he failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to make repairs, provide heat and hot water, fix broken windows, faulty plumbing, broken toilets, missing screens, defective fire doors, fire hoses and extinguishers in the two-story, 24-unit building. The dilapidated building was nearly empty of tenants.      

1954    In August 1929, actor and apartment manager Harry Drago, was convicted of a charge of battery after he slapped 11-year-old Early Deane Jr., here at 1954 Argyle. The slapping incident followed a fight between Dean and Drago's son Tommy, 7. Drago was sentenced to pay a $100 or 20 days in jail.      

2006    The Hollywood Community Housing Corp. renovated the former vacant and drug invested Argyle Court Apartments here at 2017 Argyle in June, 1998 and rented them out to people with HIV for an average of $610 per month.      

2017 When the Hollywood Apartments opened here at 2017 Argyle on April 2, 1927, 1000 guests were invited to attend. An orchestra supplied the entertainment.    

2017    Screen writer Paul Thompson was living here in April, 1928, when a free-for-all fight broke out in his apartment. When neighbors complained to police about the loud noise coming from the apartment, they found Thompson and cartoonist/artist, John Decker fighting with each other. Decker got the worst of it. He required treatment for cuts and bruises. Furniture in the apartment was damaged in the fight which Decker described "as a friendly tussle." Thompson, Decker, and writer J.J. O'Neil were fined $20 each for being drunk, then were released.
Whatever Happened to Decker? Decker, a drinking buddy of actors John Barrymore and Errol Flynn, died in June 1947 at age 52 in his home on Alta Loma Drive. The 71-unit apartments here were sold in 1941 for $110,000.    

2017    Hy Cahn, manager of the apartments here, was arrested in October, 1944 for beating 8-year-old Patricia Lewis when he found her alone in the apartment from which he had ordered her family evicted. At his trial, the girl testified that Cahn came into the apartment while her parents, the former managers, were out looking for a place to live. "He grabbed me by my arms and shook me and shook me and my head bumped up against the wall. He kept yelling "Get out!, Get out!"    

2017    Actress Patricia Styles, 25, daughter of radio entertainer Hal Styles, was living here in December 1948 when she shot herself to death after trying to kill her boyfriend Nate Sugarman, 44, in North Hollywood. Sugarman told police that Miss Styles called him here to her apartment and asked him to take her to a girlfriends house in the Valley. She also told him she had a birthday present for him. During the drive, Sugarman told her about his engagement to a radio singer, and she told him about her engagement to a doctor. When they arrived at her girlfriend's home at 11816 Riverside Drive, she thanked him then suddenly drew a pistol from her purse and fired at him, wounding him in the head and the leg. She then put the barrel of the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.
     In September 1949, Patricia's mother, Dorothy Styles, was seriously burned here in her apartment when her robe caught on fire while she was making coffee.    

2017    Several weeks after Reuel Leon Noyes and his wife Ruth separated, she suspected that he had a lover. She hired several private detectives who planted a microphone here in his apartment in February, 1949. Then they rented an apartment across the hall, from which Mrs. Noyes and the detectives sat back and listened to his conversations. On the night of February, 19, only the snoring of two people could be heard. On the next night they heard a woman's voice say, "Sonny, I love you, do you love me? "You bet," Noyes answered. Mrs. Noyes and the detectives then broke into the apartment and found Noyes and blonde divorcee, Mrs. Helen Sachs, 39, naked in bed. Armed with cameras, they took pictures of the couple. At the divorce trial, Noyes admitted that at the time of the raid, he was lying in bed without clothing but denied Mrs. Sachs was in the room. He explained that she had gone into another room for a robe and that she had been lying on a couch opposite the bed. It wasn't until Mrs. Sachs was on the witness stand denying she was in the room, that the photographs were produced in evidence. Mrs. Sachs, who was formerly married to clothing merchant Edward Sachs, had two sons. Mrs. Noyes demanded $1500 monthly alimony and half of her husband's $200,000 worth.    

2017    The body of John Woods, 23, was found here in the bathroom of his apartment in June, 1976. Woods had been stabbed in the base of his neck, and his left ear had been slashed with a sharp blade before he was shot in the head. Police questioned Wood's 27-year-old roommate but no charges were filed. Police investigator John (Jigsaw John) St. John said that the two main suspects were connected to the "trash bag" killings, a series of at least 15 murders in the past 10 years in which most victims were homosexuals.

2017    In November, 1994, slum charges were filed against the owners of the building, which they received as a gift earlier this year from a convicted slumlord in violation of a judge's order. Named in the criminal complaint were Alejandro Camacho, 24, and his wife, Tina, 30, who lived in the four-story, 72-unit apartment house.  In February, 1995, the dilapidated building was ordered fenced off and boarded up.      

2025    Bill Tilden, former world tennis champion was found dead by his landlady here in his apartment at 2025 Argyle in June, 1953. Alone and living on handouts, Tilden, 60, had died of a heart attack. Some say that Tilden was the greatest tennis player who ever lived. In the late 1940s, he was arrested and sentenced to two jail terms, one for committing homosexual acts with a 14-year-old boy, and one for violating his parole.
Where is He Now? Tilden is buried in Section D in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

2025   In September, 1955, when Mrs. Barbara Cartwright, 25, a cocktail waitress, came home to her apartment here on the first floor, she found that her husband Bruce, 26, was not home like he should have been. She suspected that he might be in the apartment of Miss Lola Mann, 26, who lived on the second floor. When she went out to the back by the trash cans, she heard his voice coming from Miss Mann's apartment. He was laughing and having a good time. She went back to our apartment again and got a 5-inch paring knife. She then went up Miss Mann's apartment and opened the door with a pass key. There she found her husband on a bed in the living room with Miss Mann on the bed beside him. Miss Mann, who later told police that she had gone into an adjoining bedroom when Barbara came in, heard a door slam and heard Cartwright shout "Send for a doctor. I've been stabbed." The pregnant Mrs. Cartwright was arrested later in a service station two blocks away and charged with attempted murder. The next day, Mrs. Cartwright was released when her husband refused to press charges against her. He told police it was all his fault.  

2034    In October, 1938, when Fernand Le Norman, came here to 2034 Argyle to apologize to his fiance, dancer Mercedes De Valasco, 25, for the quarrel they had the night before, he found her talking to her mother on the telephone. She was telling her mother that she had taken an overdose of sleeping tablets and was going to kill herself. He called police who took her to the hospital for emergency treatment. In a note addressed to Le Norman, she had written that she found "life is so futile." Doctors said that she would recover.   

2034    On New Year's Day, 1955, Miss Dolores McQuaid, 30, a right-handed thrower with excellent control, established herself as a candidate for any baseball team's pitching staff after police were called here to her third-floor apartment to quell a disturbance. They found Dolores and a friend, Armando Aguello, 35, engaged in a dilly of a fight. Police arrested Aguello for being drunk and left to put him in their squad car. But Dolores decided to get in a final blow. From a window of her third-floor apartment, she took aim with a heavy glass ash tray. Aguello, some 50 feet away at ground level and flanked by two officers, was hit squarely on the head. As Dolores was being led off to jail, she commented "I'm a pretty good shot."

2034    Mrs. Helen Moore, 72, was living here in a house in November, 1914, when her son asked the court to have a guardian appointed for her. He told the court that she owned property worth about $150,000 and that she was incompetent to manage her affairs. Her home here was valued at $21,500. The home was later torn down and apartments were built on the site.     

2046      When John Lynd, 30-year-old merchant Marine lieutenant suspected that truck driver Ben Sullivan, who lived at 2046 Argyle in October, 1945, had been making love to his pretty wife Janet while he was away, he went looking for Sullivan. He found Sullivan in a bowling alley and while they were sitting in a car talking the situation over, Sullivan kicked Lynd. Lynd invited him out and the two got into a fist fight in which Sullivan was knocked to the ground. He died several days later. Lynd entered a guilty plea to manslaughter. The judge placed him on probation for seven years.

2062 Actress Renate Hoy, 22, wife of actor Brett Halsey was living at 2062 Argyle in January 1955, when she was injured while posing for a publicity photo. She was taking part in a contest held to pick a "girl of the golden west" by the Western Harness Racing Association when she fell through a glass floor. She sued for $6500 damages for leg cuts that she received. Miss Hoy participated in the 1952 Miss Universe Contest as Miss Germany.      

2183      Actress Mary Miles Minter, 20, rented a furnished home at 2183 Argyle, in December 1922, less than year after her lover William Desmond Taylor was murdered. She moved in with her chauffeur and colored maid who lived in rooms on the lower floor of the hillside home. From the porch at night, she could see Los Angeles and its lights that glittered like gems at the feet of a queen. While here she became frightened several times at being there with only her servants, so she had friends move in with her until she moved out on June 10, 1923.
   In the later part of June, 1923, actress Sigrid Holmquist, 23, a close friend of Minter’s, rented the home. In the later part of July, Miss Holmquist invited six close friends for dinner here in the home. Just after dinner, while the guests were on the porch, a shot rang out and a bullet whistled past the guests and knicked one man in the hand. Mary, who had spent the afternoon at the house but left before dinner, was believed to have been the target. 
         Miss Holmquist later told police That "We had just finished dinner. When one of the men stepped out on the porch to admire the view over the city. I was almost behind him, when suddenly, bang, there was a shot. The bullet whistled right by me. My friend held up his right hand, the bullet had cut a groove on his wrist and began to bleed. Then we all ran out of the house and down the hill." The flash of the gun was seen by the man who was hit by the bullet. It came from a spot where there was much shrubbery. No trace of the shooter was ever found.
        Miss Holmquist and her guests believed that the bullet was meant for Mary Miles Minter as Holmquist resembled Miss Minter in the half light that streamed from the dining room windows onto the upper porch overlooking the Valley. Holmquist had just stepped through the French doors to the porch at the same instant of the shot.
        A few nights after the shooting, Miss Holmquist was awakened by a flashlight beam that was aimed through the French doors of the lower porch flashing upon the ceilings and walls of the bedrooms. She jumped out of bed and called her servants who looked for the intruder but found nothing. The bedroom was the same one used by Mary Miles Minter when she occupied the house.
Whatever Happened to Them? Minter’s last film was The Trail of the Lonesome Pine in 1923. She married real estate developer Brandon O'Hildebrandt in 1957. He died in 1965. In her later years Mary became a recluse, developing diabetes and a severe weight problem. Minter died on August 4, 1984 in Santa Monica at age 82. She left an estate of $1.5 million. Cremated, her ashes were scattered at sea. (It was this writer's good fortune to have visited with Mrs. O'Hildebrandt several times in her home in Santa Monica in 1983).
        Holmquist known as the Swedish "Mary Pickford" came to Hollywood in 1920, but retired from films in 1925. Leaving Hollywood, she moved to London, England, with her first husband, a banker. In 1936, she was reported to be out of work and penniless, but by 1941, she had re-married and resettled in Sydney, Australia, a successful business woman.
Holmquist died in Sydney on July 9, 1970 at age 71. She was cremated.

2183   Vivian Duncan, dancer and actress, was renting the Minter house in 1927 when she was arrested for speeding. She was going 35 to 40 on First street between Rampart & Vermont. Vivian and her sister Rosie were world famous as the Duncan Sisters. Vivian was married in 1932 to actor Nils Asher.
Where is She Now? Vivian Duncan died in 1986 at age 86, and is buried in Forest Lawn Glendale on the Cathedral Slope, lot #1946 G-3. (When this writer knew Vivian in the late 1970s, she often played the piano at parties, singing and telling risque jokes).      

2183    School teacher Diane Cecilia Dufault was living in the Minter house at 2183 Argyle in March 1967 when she was arrested for being under the influence of drugs at a hippie love-in Elysian Park. Police said she was attempting to jump off a cliff.   
   


325 Mrs. Ruth Evelyn Anderson, 44, was living at 325 Arnaz Dr. in May, 1957 when she was arrested for being drunk and taken to jail. Thirty minutes later, she was found dead in her cell. She had used her bathrobe cord to hang herself.    








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Actress Mary Miles Minter’s secret hiding place in 1922. (See 2183 N. Argyle for de

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Actress Sigrid Holmquist rented Mary Miles Minter’s secret hiding place in 1923. (See 2183 N. Argyle Avenue for details)

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Actress Vivian Duncan was arrested in 1927 for speeding. (See 2183 N. Argyle Avenue for details)

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Actor Gary Cooper was arrested for speeding in 1929. (See 1919 N. Argyle Avenue for details)

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Actor Monty Banks accused his wife of abusing him in 1932. (See 1919 N. Argyle Avenue for details)

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Cher rarely changed her underwear while going with Sonny in the 1960s. (See 1919 N. Argyle for details)

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Tennis player Bill Tilden found dead in 1953. (See 2025 N. Argyle Avenue for details)

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Concert pianist Percy Grainger was a Sado-Masochist. (See 2122 Alcyona Drive for details)

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Mary Astor’s husband killed while filming airplane scene in 1927. (See 2266 Alcyona Drive for details)

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Designer Irene leaped to her death from a Hollywood Hotel in 1962. (See 237 Almont Drive for details)

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Actor Herman Bing killed himself in 1947. (See 355 Almont Drive for details)

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Actress Lucile Watson was arrested for drunk driving in 1940. (See 459 Almont Drive for details).

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Artist John Decker’s home was scene of drunken brawl in 1945. (See 1215 Alta Loma Drive for details)

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Singer Adriana Caselotti was singing voice of Snow White in 1932. (See 6824 Alta Loma Terrace for details).

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In 1925, actress Vola Vale divorced husband who would not get a job. (See 801 Alta Vista Place for details)

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Shimmy dancer Gilda Gray was sued in 1934 for not paying clothing bill. (See 8815 Appian Way for details)

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Marilyn Monroe’s home in 1933 is now a Hollywood Bowl parking lot. (See 6812 Arbol Drive for details)

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Actress Doris Dore was attacked by a gorilla-like man in 1927. (See 1924 N. Argyle Avenue for details)

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Artist John Decker was beaten up in a free-for-all fight in 1928. (See 2017 N. Argyle for details)

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 and still are easily available on the streets of West Hollywood. Arrests of drunks, dope addicts, and prostitutes, plus murders, suicides, and divorces have been almost an every day occurrence.


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