Celebrity Homes – IAMNOTASTALKER

April 10, 2019April 10, 2019

JFK and Jackie’s Former Georgetown Homes

Considering how much I love history, I know shockingly little about former President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline. So I was thrilled when the Grim Cheaper gifted me with Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill last Christmas. The 2018 biography and its depiction of the women’s intensely complicated relationships with each other as well as with their significant others was fascinating all the way through. And it even reminded me of two residences related to the former First Lady that I stalked during my visit to Washington, D.C. in September 2016. I learned about the homes thanks to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, who just prior to my trip emailed me a list of area attractions he had compiled. Even though I was not well-versed in anything pertaining to Jackie O at the time, I decided to add the addresses to my stalking itinerary which turned out to be quite foresightful.

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Upon returning home from World War II, John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy worked for a brief time as a foreign correspondent for Hearst Newspapers prior to embarking on his political career which brought him to Washington D.C. After landing a seat in the House of Representatives in 1946, he moved around to a couple of different Georgetown properties until ultimately leasing a picturesque pad at 3260 N Street NW in 1951.

He would remain there for the next two years.

It proved an eventful time in young Jack’s life. During his tenure at the 5-bedroom, 2.5-bath, 2,220-square-foot dwelling, not only did he meet his future wife, Jacqueline Bouvier, who was then working at the Washington Times-Herald, but he also won his 1952 Senate seat.

Jack proposed to Jackie in June 1953 (supposedly at neighborhood favorite Martin’s Tavern, which I blogged about here) and vacated the N Street house that same year. After dotting around to different residences, the newlyweds settled into an estate in McLean Virginia known as Hickory Hill. The sprawling property soon proved too large for the fledgling couple, though, and they sold it to Robert F. Kennedy in 1956 before heading back to Georgetown, eventually moving into a mansion at 3307 N Street NW, just one block over from their old house.

Standing at four stories, the handsome Federal-style residence, built in 1811, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, and over 4,000 square feet of living space. Along with JFK and Jackie lived the couple’s daughter, Caroline, and their nurse, cook, butler, and maid.

The family’s time at 3307 also proved eventful. While there, JFK announced his candidacy for president, ran a successful campaign, was elected to office, and, on November 25th, 1960, celebrated the birth of son John F. Kennedy Jr.

It was also from the stately pad that Jack and Jackie left for the inauguration on the snowy morning of January 20th, 1961, at which time they moved into their most famous home, the White House.

Countless pictures were taken of the Kennedys outside of 3307 N Street during their years there, including this one snapped by JFK’s official campaign photographer Jacques Lowe. Jack was also often documented addressing the press right from the front door. As Thomas Wolfe wrote in a 1960 Washington Post article, “Our next president doesn’t take the old, easy way of making his announcements about new cabinet ministers, the fate of the new frontier, etc., from his office on Capitol Hill — where, if one need edit, the corridors have steam heat. He just steps right out on the old front porch at 3307 N St. NW and starts talking. And disappears back into the manse.” Seeing the brief happy moments captured at the residence is jarring considering the tragedy that will befall the family in such a short time and the eerie realization they bring that the man standing front and center is gone while the house remains virtually untouched.

After the assassination in 1963, Jackie returned to Georgetown, first moving into the home of a friend and then, in February 1964, to a Colonial dwelling just a few blocks east of her previous residence at 3017 N Street NW with her sister, Lee. (I failed to stalk that particular location while in D.C., but an MLS photo featured on Zillow is pictured below.) The 12-room manse was selected by Radziwill and, per Jackie, Janet & Lee, of the choice, designer Billy Baldwin said, “It had been chosen for Jackie with the greatest possible bad decision by her sister. I think the home was designed by someone for purposes of publicity. There was no hope for privacy, it was out in the open, high atop a mountain of steps. When I saw it, it looked like a monument. I thought, ‘Why, Lee, why? Why?’” As predicted, the place did quickly become an attraction for lookie-loos, with tour buses stopping by throughout the day and people camping out on the sidewalk in front hoping for a glimpse of the resplendent Jackie. Needless to say, she didn’t last long there. In July 1964, she took her two children and moved to a spacious apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue in New York.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about these locations!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: From 1951 to 1953, while serving in Congress, John F. Kennedy lived at 3260 N Street NW in Georgetown. In 1958, JFK and Jackie settled into a pad one block over at 3307 N Street NW where they remained until moving into the White House in January 1961. The property Jackie briefly called home following the president’s assassination is about four blocks east at 3017 N Street NW. Martin’s Tavern, where JFK is said to have proposed to Jackie, is located nearby at 1264 Wisconsin Avenue.

October 29, 2018October 16, 2019

Boris Karloff’s Former Home

The Haunting of Hill House is giving me life right now! To say I am obsessed with the spooky new Netflix original series would be an understatement. I am currently only five episodes in (so no spoilers please!), but am absolutely mesmerized by the storyline, the characters, the actors (it is amazing how much the child stars resemble their adult counterparts!), and the locations. Sadly, it was filmed in Georgia (the eponymous house is actually Bisham Manor in LaGrange), so I won’t be stalking its locales anytime soon, but when I brought the show up to my grandma recently, she mentioned that the most frightening movie she had ever seen was the original Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff as The Monster. She first watched the 1931 classic as a child and said it absolutely terrified her and still does to this day. The conversation reminded me that I had stalked Karloff’s former residence a few years back, but had failed to blog about it. I learned about the pad thanks to my friend Scott Michaels’ 2013 article for Discover L.A. titled “The 13 Scariest Places in Los Angeles,” in which he wrote, “Frankenstein’s monster thespian Boris Karloff was a gentleman who had a passion for gardening. He was especially proud of his rose garden. Legend has it that several of Karloff’s friends willed their cremains to him, so they could permanently reside in his rose bed.” So the actor who played what is arguably moviedom’s most famous monster supposedly buried the ashes of multiple friends in his yard? There couldn’t be a more appropriate locale for my Haunted Hollywood posts! I honestly don’t know how the place sat in my stalking backlog for so long. Thank you, Grandma, for reminding me about it!

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Though I was most interested in the 1927 Spanish-style hacienda thanks to its Karloff connection, it turns out that the property’s macabre history dates back prior to his ownership. In July 1923, the place was leased by Katharine Hepburn, who had just won a role in A Bill of Divorcement which prompted a move from the East Coast to the West. Per the book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, written by my buddy E.J. from The Movieland Directory, she lived in the dwelling with best friend, actress Eve March, and a family maid. All soon became convinced the pad, most notably the pool apartment, was haunted. E.J. writes, “One night March watched the door latch open and close by itself, and the next day Hepburn and March watched a ghostly man walk from the pool into the apartment, closing the door behind him. The first time Hepburn’s younger brother Richard stayed overnight, he told her that a young man stood over his bed all night staring down at him. He was too afraid to move until sunrise.” Because of the hauntings, Katharine did not stay on the premises long, moving out in 1934 at which point Karloff (real name William Henry Pratt) moved in with his wife, Dorothy.

The property quickly became his paradise. During his tenure, Boris kept a menagerie of animals on the grounds including a tortoise, ducks, chickens, six dogs, a cow, a parrot, and a 400-pound pig named Violet. In the book Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration, author Gregory William Mank says, “For Karloff, home was his Mexican farmhouse — a bizarre aerie, high amidst the oak trees and honeysuckle of Coldwater Canyon, in the mountains above Beverly Hills. Twenty-three twenty Bowmont Drive, with its pool and beautiful, rambling gardens, previously had been the address of Katharine Hepburn. The actress sincerely believed a ghost haunted the house, moving the furniture, jiggling the latch on Ms. Hepburn’s bedroom door and looming over the guest bed — so terrifying Hepburn’s brother Richard that he couldn’t sleep ‘one single night’ during his visit. After Kate’s friend Laura Harding tried to have her dogs ferret out the ghost — to no avail — Hepburn vacated, and Boris and Dorothy had moved into the haunted hacienda in the spring of 1934. ‘We felt rather sorry for the ghost,’ said Laura Harding — after all, the spirit had likely met its match in the star who’d played Frankenstein’s Monster! Perhaps Boris scared away the ghost, or maybe they were kindred spirits, for the star loved his ‘little farm.’”

Indeed he did. Dorothy and Boris created an oasis at the home, which at the time boasted a sprawling 2.5 acres of land, planting laurel and eucalyptus trees (which still line the property to this day), farming a massive fruit orchard, landscaping a rambling lawn, and cultivating a plethora of terraced gardens including a large rose garden with more than 20 varieties of the flower. It is there that Karloff is said to have sprinkled the remains of more than one friend, which I can presume only added to the hauntings. As Mank relayed to the Los Angeles Times in 1995, Boris buried “under the roses the cremated remains of old stock-company cronies whose last wish was to rest in their now-famous friend’s Eden.” A supremely bizarre request, especially considering the actor’s horror background, but I guess the heart wants what the heart wants.

Karloff lived on the premises until his divorce from Dorothy in 1946. The majority of the land surrounding the hacienda was subsequently subdivided, leaving behind a much smaller 0.95-acre lot. Today, the pad boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, 4,984 square feet, white-washed masonry walls, tile and hardwood flooring throughout, beamed ceilings, multiple patios and courtyards, a whopping SIX fireplaces including one outside, an exterior pizza oven, a chef’s kitchen, a pool, maid’s quarters, a wine cellar, a bar, a library, a tiled staircase, a den, and a sun room. The residence, which you can see photos of here, is absolutely exquisite! It very closely resembles the La Quinta Resort & Club, at least how the hotel looked prior to its recent (and unfortunate) remodel. Sadly, outside of the front gate and garage (pictured below via Google Street View), virtually none of the estate is visible from the road. (Because the latter is situated quite a distance up from the former, I did not realize it was part of the Karloff residence when I was stalking the place and failed to snap photos of it.)

As I’ve said before, though, that’s why God created aerial views.

Several other stars have called the Bowmont pad home over the years, including rocker Eric Burdon, who also reportedly moved out due to the hauntings, and director Gottfried Reinhardt. Per The Movieland Directory, producer Leland Hayward and his wife, actress Margaret Sullavan, lived on the premises at one point, as well. But the home’s storied pedigree doesn’t end there! Realtor Elaine Young told People magazine in 1991 that the property, which she was responsible for leasing out during the many years it belonged to Producers Studio head Fred Jordan, has a “quasi-demonic history.” LOVE IT. Young says, “Donovan [Leitch] leased it and did something to the toilet paper rack. Elliott Gould leased it and threw the furniture in the pool. Everybody did something.” Jordon sold to Frasier actress Peri Gilpin in 2003 who subsequently sold to Friends writers/producers Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan in 2007. Per Yolanda’s Little Black Book, the abode is currently owned by producer John Goldwyn and his husband Jeffrey Klein, who bought it for $7.3 million in 2015. Despite the multiple changes of hand, the dwelling apparently remains largely in its original state because in Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, Mank writes, “ . . . a recent owner relates that a late-in-life Katharine Hepburn (who died in 2003) suddenly appeared one day without warning, mysteriously dressed in black and inspecting the house and grounds. ‘Well,’ said Hepburn to the owner, ‘I’m glad to see you haven’t f*cked the place up!’”

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Scott Michaels, of the Find A Death website, for writing about this location and to my Grandma for reminding me of it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Boris Karloff’s former house is located at 2320 Bowmont Drive in Beverly Crest.

October 24, 2018December 17, 2019

Liz Purr’s House from “Jawbreaker”

Upon reading today’s title you might be thinking, ‘Hey! Jawbreaker is not a horror movie! What is it doing showing up in a Haunted Hollywood post?’ But hear me out. Last September, a fellow stalker named Mariana emailed to inquire if I had any intel on the “castle-like” pad where Liz Purr (Charlotte Ayanna) lived in the 1999 flick. I had never seen the film at the time (in fact, I was so unfamiliar with it, I kept referring to it as “Jawbreakers”) and asked Mariana to send over some screen captures so that I could try to track the residence down. I then promptly started researching the movie, which centers around three popular high schoolers who accidentally murder their best friend. Though technically billed as a black comedy/thriller in the same vein as 1988’s Heathers, it sure sounded horror-like to me. Director/screenwriter Darren Stein even classified it as “a blend of dark comedy with an underbelly of horror” to Broadly in 2016. So I figured Liz’s house would fit in perfectly with my October postings and was thrilled to hear back from Mariana later that same day. It turns out she didn’t need my help to ID the pad because she wound up finding it herself while using Google Street View to scour the Hancock Park area where she figured the stately Tudor was most likely to be located. During her hunt, Mariana also unearthed an even bigger Haunted Hollywood connection – Liz’s mansion was formerly owned by horror king Rob Zombie in real life! A dwelling that not only appeared in a thriller, but also once belonged to a renowned scary movie director?!? Um, yes, please! So I promptly added it to my HH To-Stalk List and, though it was too late to include in my 2017 postings, made sure to visit it in time for this year’s.

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Rob Zombie (real name Robert Bartleh Cummings) purchased the 1924 manse, which boasts 5 bedrooms, 7 baths, 7,401 square feet, a formal entry, a pub room, 4 fireplaces (one with a marble hearth), a chef’s kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a theatre, a gym, a wine room, a half-acre lot, a guest house, a pool house, a pool, a spa, and multiple patios, for $1.799 million in September 1999. He subsequently sold the pad in January 2014 for $3.55 million. Not a bad profit for a four-and-a-half-year investment! You can check out some photos from the listing here. The residence is all wood-paneled walls, beamed ceilings, and ornately carved doors. It looks like a virtual castle inside!

The subsequent owners put the property up for sale at a whopping $7.849 million in December 2016. By that time the interior had been significantly modernized (as you can see in this virtual tour and these photos) and, in my opinion, most of its charm was lost. I mean, who covers over wood paneling with gray paint?!? Someone sure liked the alterations, though, because the residence sold less than a month after hitting the market for $50,000 over its asking price.

It is from the handsome dwelling that Liz is kidnapped by her friends, Courtney (Rose McGowan), Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) and Marcie (a pre-Dexter Julie Benz), as a birthday prank in the opening scene of Jawbreaker. The girls’ stunt goes horribly wrong, though, as – spoiler alert! – Liz winds up choking to death on the jawbreaker that Courtney stuffs into her mouth to stifle her screams. (And let me just say that the image of the massive ball lodged in Liz’s throat will haunt me forever.)

The mansion pops up in several additional scenes, as well, including one in which Courtney, Julie, and Marcie bring Liz’s dead body back home in an attempt to stage a murder scene in her bedroom and cast blame on an unnamed rapist.

At the time of the filming, the residence was thoroughly visible from the road. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

The property is currently obscured by fencing and a large amount of foliage, which I am guessing was installed by Rob Zombie for privacy reasons. The front steps have also since been altered. While the home boasted a single exterior staircase when Jawbreaker was shot, today the entry is marked by a double set of steps that lead up to the gate.

The interior of the mansion was also used in the filming . . .

. . . as was the backyard. You can check out some behind-the-scenes footage of the segments shot at the house here.

Amazingly, the home’s Haunted Hollywood connections don’t end there – per The Movieland Directory website, during the 1970s the pad belonged to Dan Blocker who was best known for playing Eric ‘Hoss’ Cartwright on Bonanza. On the morning of May 13th, 1972, the actor woke up at the residence feeling dizzy and short of breath. His wife rushed him to the hospital where he died a few hours later from a blood clot in his lungs, an adverse effect resulting from a gallbladder surgery he had undergone a few weeks prior.

Fellow stalker Mark, from the NYC in Film website, let me know that the very same mansion also portrayed the supposed Jamaica Estates-area home of the McDowells in the 1988 classic Coming to America.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Mariana for finding this location!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Liz Purr’s house from Jawbreaker, aka Rob Zombie’s former residence, is located at 555 South Muirfield Road in Hancock Park. The Tate mansion from Soap can be found just up the street at 511 South Muirfield. And Nat King Cole’s longtime home is a block away at 401 South Muirfield.

October 19, 2018October 16, 2019

Chateau Emanuel from “The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley”

I am a HUGE fan of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movies, as I have mentioned previously. Passport to Paris, When in Rome, New York Minute – all favorites, even though I am just a wee bit off age-wise when it comes to their target demographic. So when fellow stalker Chris (he’s the one who tracked down the location of the Full House downhill derby) emailed me this past summer and mentioned that he knew of a few other locales from the twins’ many productions, I was all in. One he informed me of, Chateau Emanuel from “The Case of Thorn Mansion” episode of The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, especially piqued my interest. The massive property sits high atop a bluff overlooking pretty much all of Eagle Rock and I was shocked that in my 15+ years of living in neighboring Pasadena and stalking its environs, I had never come across the place. Because it played an abandoned and haunted house in the episode, I figured the pad had all the makings of a great October post. So I ran right out to stalk it.

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Chateau Emanuel was originally commissioned by Bekins Moving Company founder Martin Bekins. Designed by architect F. Eugene Barton, whom Martin also secured to design the seven-story Bekins Storage Building in nearby Glendale, the Dutch Colonial-style manse was completed in 1927.

When Martin passed away in 1933, the residence was acquired by philanthropist Wilfred “Bill” Lane, who made his fortune by inventing a perforating gun that expedited oil well drilling. The property did not change hands again until 1965, when Lane’s widow sold it to Emanuel and Maria Kvassay. It then remained in the Kvassay family for the next five decades.

The Kvassays, who founded the Sierra Packaging Company, emigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia after it fell to communist rule. The couple became activists, working to free their native country from communism, and, as such, held numerous fundraisers and political events at the home, which at the time was known as the “Bekins-Lane Mansion.” The dwelling was also the site of countless press functions, weddings, meetings, and galas during the Kvassays’ tenure. Just a few of the politicos and luminaries who attended gatherings there over the years include Stan Lee, Oliver Stone, Marion Ross, Shirley Temple Black, Dr. Edward Teller, Eric Roberts, Rita Wilson, Jesse Jackson, Archbishop José Horacio Gómez, and Lech Wałęsa. Ronald Reagan even hosted a fundraiser for his presidential re-election campaign at the residence in 1984.

When Emanuel and Maria passed away, their three sons inherited the property. Two of the boys remained living on the premises and eldest son, Robert, became the main caretaker, rechristening the place “Chateau Emanuel” in honor of his late father.

The sprawling manse became too much for Robert to handle in recent years, not to mention too expensive – per the Tracy King Team website, water and power bills ran a good $3,500 each month and the lawn took a whopping four hours to mow! In 2010, Robert put the pad on the market with a price tag of $5.99 million. There were no takers, though. He relisted it the following year at a reduced $4.45 million, but no one bit. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles eventually expressed interest in purchasing the residence in 2016 in order to turn it into a retreat and prayer center. In an interesting twist, Katy Perry was even involved in the deal. The pop star offered to buy the pad for the church as part of her ongoing quest to acquire the former Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent in Los Feliz. That plan never came to fruition, though, due to zoning problems and in 2017, Chateau Emanuel was listed once again, this time for $5.5 million.

Per the real estate listing, which describes the place as a “compound,” the property boasts a 5,700-square-foot main house with 9 bedrooms, 10 baths, 2 full kitchens, numerous fireplaces, a wet bar, a game room, 2 sitting rooms, an art room, maid’s quarters with a full bath and separate entrance, and a dining room with space for 40 guests. There are also 2 detached guests homes on the premises, the first measuring 3,500 square feet and the second 1,100. The lush 2.1-acre grounds feature a greenhouse, a croquet court, a bistro, a pool, a spa, a stage, rose gardens, a pond, several fountains, pathways, arbors, four gates, cabanas, and parking for 40+ cars! I was particularly taken with the charming wooden footbridges, which look like something out of a fairy tale. I half expected to see Snow White running across one while we were there!

In January of this year, Chateau Emanuel finally sold to none other than Chris Hardwick for $5,250,000. The comedian does not plan on living in the abode, but instead purchased it out of a desire to protect it. Chris was first informed of the dwelling by his mom, real estate agent Sharon Hills, and was quickly smitten. As Curbed Los Angeles explained in an article about the sale, “His purchase of the Bekins estate was motivated in part by the worry that, because the property is so large, it could be sold and redeveloped or otherwise altered. ‘He truly bought this property to preserve it,’ says Hills.’” A man after my own heart! Chris is said to be keeping the home open to historical organizations who wish to hold events there. I’m guessing it will also be available for filming.

In “The Case of Thorn Mansion” episode of The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, which was released in 1994, Chateau Emanuel portrays the abandoned Thorn Mansion, supposedly located on Black Widow Lane in Transylvania, where the Olsen & Olsen Mystery Agency detectives (“We’ll solve any case by dinner time!”) investigate a supposed haunting. Spoiler alert – the pad turns out not to be haunted. As the twins discover, the “ghost” that neighbors reported seeing on the property was just Mr. Thorn’s granddaughter who was tending to her late grandfather’s beehives.

The property’s real life interior also appeared in the episode.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chris for finding this location! Smile

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Chateau Emanuel, from “The Case of Thorn Mansion” episode of The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, is located at 1554 Hill Drive in Eagle Rock.

October 17, 2018October 16, 2019

Ray Raymond and Dorothy MacKaye’s Former House

I have been told that I am ridiculously easy to buy presents for. Anything pink or sparkly, dainty and gold, or having to do with Los Angeles automatically fits the bill. Some gifts are so perfectly suited to me when it comes to the latter category, in fact, that I have received them on multiple occasions. Case in point – The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals, a 514-page tome dedicated to Tinseltown’s most famous crimes, which my mom originally bought me for Christmas in 2013. When the Grim Cheaper came across the publication a few years later while perusing the stacks at our local Barnes & Noble, he snatched it right up and gave it to me the following Christmas, not realizing that my mom had already done so. Both copies remain on my bookshelf today, heavily highlighted, dog-eared and annotated. Chapter 5, titled “The ‘Almost Perfect’ Murder,” about the 1927 killing of Ray Raymond at the hands of his wife’s lover, especially piqued my interest. Prior to reading it, I had never heard of the actor or his homicide, but I devoured the story in minutes, promptly added the address of his former home to my To-Stalk List, and finally made it out there last month while prepping for my Haunted Hollywood posts.

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Ray Raymond was born in San Francisco in 1887. Described as a “song and dance man,” he found success on the vaudeville circuit early in life. While acting in a play in New York in 1921, Ray’s eye was caught by his much younger leading lady, Dorothy ‘Dot’ MacKaye (also sometimes written as “Mackaye”), and, despite a 12-year age gap – he was 34, she was 22 – and the fact that he was already married, he quickly took up with her, ditching his wife in the process. Ray and Dot reportedly wedded that August (though it has been claimed the two never actually tied the knot) and a baby girl the couple named Valerie was born the following year. In 1926, the family of three moved to Los Angeles, eventually settling into a small bungalow located at 2261 Cheremoya Avenue in the Hollywood Hills.

Their 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,622-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1922, still stands today boasting a 0.16-acre lot and a detached 2-car garage, which is just visible in the images below.

The quaint dwelling, largely hidden from the road, was not the site of many happy times for Ray and Dot. Not only did Ray reportedly have a major drinking problem, but he spent most of his time touring the country playing vaudeville shows. And Dot . . . well, Dot was in love with someone else.

During Raymond’s time away, MacKaye rekindled her longtime friendship with so-called “tough guy” actor Paul Kelly, whom she had met as a teenager while acting in a play in New York. Born in 1899, Kelly was a true child star having appeared in more than 55 movies before he even turned 18. The red-haired looker moved to Los Angeles around the same time as Dot and Ray and settled into an apartment conveniently located right around the corner from their home at 2420 North Gower Street. It was not long before the two were engaged in a torrid affair, of which neither took great pains to hide. As Dot’s maid later testified, when Raymond was touring, the young mom often did not come home at night, instead choosing to stay over at Paul’s. Newspapers of the day also reported that the couple regularly asked Kelly’s “Japanese houseboy” Jungle to serve them meals and gin fizzes, their apparent drink of choice, in bed.

Ray returned from touring in mid-April 1927 distraught over the affair. He confronted Dot about it and she did little to deny things. Ray also mentioned his wife’s indiscretion to friends, which apparently set Paul over the edge. On the evening of April 16th, under the pretense of going out to buy Easter eggs (I’m not making that up), Dot headed to Paul’s place where the two got drunk on gin fizzes (natch). She told her lover that Ray had been spilling the tea to his buddies and Paul, inexplicably enraged, called Ray to confront him. Raymond suggested that Kelly come to the Cheremoya house to talk in person and, at around 7:30 p.m., Paul headed over. Upon arriving, Ray demanded to know where Dot was. An argument ensued and things rather quickly turned physical, but the 5’7”, 135-pound Raymond was no match for the 6’, 180-pound Kelly, who was 12 years his junior. Paul pummeled Ray, punching him six times in the head and the actor collapsed to the floor. Ray’s housekeeper and daughter witnessed the entire altercation.

Though Ray appeared to be OK in the hours following the fight, he fell into a coma the next day. Dot, hoping to avoid publicity and questioning from authorities, called in a favor from a doctor who was a personal friend and her husband was quietly transported to Queen of Angels Hospital (now Dream Center) at 2301 Bellevue Avenue in Echo Park. The damage had been done, though. Raymond passed away at 5:20 a.m. on April 19th. After being slipped $500, Dot’s doctor friend signed off on the death certificate, claiming “natural causes.” Someone at the hospital smelled a rat, though, and notified the newspapers that an actor who was badly beaten had died. Police were contacted and an autopsy was ordered. Ray, it was found, had actually died from brain hemorrhaging caused by the beating. Paul and Dot were arrested.

Their trials were reportedly the most attended in California history up until that time. Kelly wound up being convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to one to ten years at San Quentin. He served two and was released on August 2nd, 1929. Dot was convicted of compounding a felony and was sentenced to one to three years, also at San Quentin. She was released after ten months. The two, of course, found their way back to each other and were married in February 1931. Hollywood inexplicably embraced the duo despite the murder. As Paul Drexler stated in a 2018 San Francisco Examiner article about the case, “Killing someone is not generally considered a good career move. It is frowned on in the bible and there is no mention of this technique in any of the books of Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey, or Tony Robbins. For Paul Kelly, however, this act secured a long and successful acting career.” Kelly indeed made a huge comeback, starring in hundreds of films post-release. He even won a Tony award in 1948! Dot also walked away from the affair fairly unscathed, penning a play based upon her experience behind bars titled Women in Prison, which was later made into the 1933 movie Ladies They Talk About starring Barbara Stanwyck. The couple’s wedded bliss did end up to be rather short-lived, though. On the evening of January 2nd, 1940, Dot was involved in a car accident and, in an eerie echo of Ray’s death, while she appeared fine in the hours following, she passed away from internal injuries three days later. Kelly, who later remarried, died of a heart attack at the age of 57 in 1956. That karma never forgets! Ray and Dorothy’s marital home is the only element of the whole sordid tale that seems to have fared well in the end. Per Zillow, the tiny bungalow is currently worth a whopping $1.58 million!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Ray Raymond and Dorothy MacKaye’s former home is located at 2261 Cheremoya Avenue in the Hollywood Hills.

October 10, 2018October 16, 2019

Gia Scala’s Former House

I am embarrassingly ignorant when it comes to Old Hollywood. So much so that when a fellow stalker named Alan tipped me off to a few celebrity death sites including that of Gia Scala via a comment on my Challenge Lindsay page in early 2017, I thought he was referring to the ‘70s supermodel who was the subject of an eponymous biographical film starring Angelina Jolie. As soon as I inputted the name into Google, I realized my mistake – he was actually alluding to a raven-haired actress best known for her role in 1961’s The Guns of Navarone. Upon researching further, I became quite a bit transfixed by the starlet’s mysterious death, as well as the pedigreed Hollywood Hills home where it occurred. So I added the address to my To-Stalk List and headed on out there earlier this year.

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Born Giovanna Scoglio in Liverpool, London on March 3rd, 1934, Scala migrated to Italy with her parents at three months old. At 15, she headed to the U.S., Long Island specifically, where she lived with an aunt and attended high school. The acting bug hit her early and upon graduation, Gia moved to New York City, began studying under Stella Adler and worked as a reservations clerk at Scandinavian Airlines to make ends meet. She landed a studio contract in 1954, a role in All that Heaven Allows with Rock Hudson the following year, and fame came shortly thereafter.

Image result for gia scala

Sadly, her years in show business were marred by scandalous headlines and severe despondency, both largely stemming from the passing of her mother in 1958, a death which she was said to have never gotten over. Gia attempted to jump off the Waterloo Bridge just a few months later while filming The Angry Hills in London.

Scala found temporary happiness in 1959 when she married actor/stock broker Don Burnett. The two settled into a picturesque 1940 Cape Cod home boasting two bedrooms, three baths, maid’s quarters, and a den at 7944 Woodrow Wilson Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

The couple eventually separated in 1969, divorced the following year and Gia was given the residence in the settlement. Following the dissolution of her marriage, she found herself disconsolate and the subject of tabloid fodder once again. In May 1971, the actress was arrested for drunk driving and, during the subsequent hearing, she passed out in the courtroom. The judge sent her to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation, which caused her to miss a different hearing for a different charge – this one for assaulting a parking lot attendant the month prior. Photos from that arrest are a far cry from images of the actress taken early in her career. In July, Gia suffered injuries, including the loss of a portion of her index finger, after her car overturned on an embankment. It took rescue workers 45 minutes to retrieve her from the wreckage. In November, she was in court yet again for harassing her ex-husband who had since remarried. Gia, Burnett claimed, had not only set his car on fire, but had kicked a hole in his front door. Scala was not in a good place.

Things came to a tragic end on April 30th, 1972. As reported in the newspapers of the day, early that morning, Gia got into an argument with Larry Langston and three other “hippie-type” young men who were staying in her home. The actress had apparently hired the men to do odd jobs around the property. When Gia informed them the arrangement was no longer working out, an altercation occurred. Langston and his friends, who claimed Gia had been drinking heavily and taking barbiturates, decided to leave. They supposedly put her to bed at 6 a.m. Langston then returned that evening at 8 p.m. to gather his belongings and say goodbye to Scala. When he headed upstairs to her bedroom, he found her nude lifeless body sprawled on the bed surrounded by both liquor and prescription bottles – which all sounds rather suspicious to me. Gia fires four men working in her home, an argument ensues and one of those men then finds her dead a short time later? That’s a lot of red flags, especially considering some reports claim her body was bruised and her pillow stained with blood. Coroner Thomas Noguchi (who also performed Marilyn Monroe’s autopsy) ruled the death accidental, though, caused by acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication and advanced arteriosclerosis. Gia’s good friend, male model William Ramage, thinks the latter explains her erratic behavior in the years leading up to her death. As he said in a 2009 interview, “Her brain simply was not getting enough oxygen.” It was a grim ending for someone with such potential.

Shortly after the actress’ passing, her home was purchased by Sally Kellerman, aka Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan from M*A*S*H, who proceeded to live there for the next four decades, initially with first husband, Rick Edelstein, and then with second husband, Jonathan D. Krane, and their two children, Jack and Hannah. At some point, she also purchased the cottage next door at 7932 Woodrow Wilson. Jack, who grew up on the premises, became convinced the two pads were haunted. As he told People magazine in 2016, “I always asked if someone died in one of these houses, and my parents said no. I have always felt something strange. That house is haunted, for sure. I’ve had a few ghost stories over there. It’s creepy.” He didn’t elaborate on who exactly the spectral visitors were, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one was Gia Scala.

Several years after moving in, Kellerman invited her friend Frank Gehry over for a meal. The renowned architect took one look at the property and immediately suggested a renovation. As Sally told the Chicago Tribune, “Frank Gehry came to dinner and he was like, ‘This is how you live, big movie star? We can gut the upstairs, and change everything in every room, and add a three-story contemporary wing with a rooftop garden.’ So I have a combination Frank Gehry-Cape Cod house.” (The three-story contemporary addition is pictured below.)

Gehry completed his work on the pad in 1983. During the renovation, he left many of the dwelling’s original, traditional elements intact, partially covering them with modern touches. The result of his efforts is a home that looks much like Gehry’s own residence in Santa Monica.

Sadly, Kellerman and Krane lost the property to foreclosure in 2014. You can check out some photos of what it looked like around that time here. It was then snatched up by flippers who gave the place yet another renovation before putting it on the market once again in 2015. (Post-reno pics can be viewed here.) The home, which today boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, 4,412 square feet, a pool, a spa, beamed ceilings, a massive walk-in closet, gardens, and a 0.22-acre lot, was purchased later that year by One Direction’s Niall Horan for $4 million. But its Hollywood pedigree doesn’t end there! Per the 2015 real estate listing, at some point during his pre-acting days Harrison Ford did carpentry work on the residence. Talk about some major Tinseltown connections!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Alan for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Gia Scala’s former home is located at 7944 Woodrow Wilson Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

October 8, 2018October 16, 2019

Neve Campbell’s Former Haunted House

I love a good haunted house, especially at this time of year. One owned by a celebrity is even better. One owned by the star of my favorite horror film of all time? Well, I can’t think of anything more thrilling – or more perfectly suited to my annual October postings. So when I came across a mention of a ghost-inhabited pad formerly belonging to the Scream Queen herself, Miss Neve Campbell, in the book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites (written by my buddy E.J. Fleming, from the Movieland Directory website), I just about came unglued and promptly added the place to my To-Stalk List. Identifying the residence in person wound up taking quite a bit of legwork once I finally got out there, though, thanks to a mysterious and misleading address placard. But more on that in a bit.

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Per Berg Properties, Neve purchased the 3-bedroom, 4-bath, 2,347-square-foot home at 8875 Wonderland Avenue in 1996 for $745,000. Upon moving into the dwelling with then husband Jeff Colt that summer, shortly after wrapping production on the first Scream installment, Campbell, a classically-trained ballerina, installed a dance studio on the premises. Other amenities included a pool, a spa, a 0.17-acre lot, and plenty of privacy thanks to a large amount of foliage surrounding the perimeter. Of the purchase, the excited actress told Detour magazine, “I just moved into my first house with Jeff Colt and we’re very, very excited. It’s in the Hollywood Hills . . . all of a sudden I’m obsessed about houses and furniture. I walk around the Party of Five set thinking, ‘That’s a nice table.’”

Things weren’t all sunshine and roses, though. As author Elina Furman explains in her 2000 book Neve Campbell: An Unauthorized Biography, the star awakened one night “after sensing what she believed to be the presence of a young woman’s ghost. Concluding that her new house was haunted, Neve dubbed her resident specter Madame X. The story got even more interesting when she discovered that a twenty-two-year-old maid had been brutally murdered in the house in 1991. The domestic was working for a mystery writer when a delivery man entered the home and committed the crime. Years later, the furnace in Campbell’s house would turn off and on by itself and the lights would dim of their own accord. Unwilling to be frightened out of her new home, Neve made friends with the spirit, much as her character in The Canterville Ghost had befriended Simon de Canterville. She now considers the specter one of the family. ‘She’s cool. I’m cool. We don’t bug each other, so it’s all right,’ she confirmed to Detour in March 1998.”

The actress also talked about the haunting during her 2011 press tour for Scream 4 (though she mentions living in the home with friends and not her ex-husband). As she told Daily Mail, “I know that ghosts exist because I’ve seen one. A few years ago I moved into a haunted house in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, with some friends. It turned out that it was inhabited by the ghost of a woman who had been murdered there in 1991. Doors would repeatedly slam, windows would open and ashtrays would fly off dressers. Then there were times when the ghost would actually walk into the room. After a while it felt normal. I’d pass her in the hallway and casually wish her good morning.”

Though I have no doubt as to Neve’s claims about the residence being haunted, I do question if a murder actually happened on the premises. I cannot find a reference to such a killing anywhere – though searching for a homicide that occurred on Wonderland Avenue, or in the Laurel Canyon area in general, is admittedly difficult considering that almost every result kicked back has to do with the infamous Wonderland murders, which took place just down the street in 1981. My hunch, though, is that the story is pure conjecture, a tale told to Campbell by a mischievous neighbor or perhaps a real estate agent with a penchant for the macabre.

Though I can’t say for certain whether or not a murder occurred there, one definite odd element concerning the property is its address placard, which reads “8909.” When I first showed up to the corner of Wonderland Avenue and Holly Place, where Neve’s former pad was supposed to be located per both Google and my GPS, I was thoroughly confused to see the 8909 number. Figuring both map programs were off by a few hundred feet or so, I proceeded to walk up and down the block looking for 8875 Wonderland. I came up empty. I was further surprised upon returning to 8909 to discover that its address did not coincide numerically with its neighbors. I surmised that the number had to have been changed at some point, snapped some photos of the place, and headed home to investigate the matter further.

Searching Google and newspapers.com for “8909 Wonderland Avenue” and “8909 Holly Place” yielded pretty much nada. So I headed over to the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety website to look through old records. An inquiry into that database for “8909 Holly” also yielded nothing. But “8875 Wonderland” kicked back a treasure trove of info, all of which assured me that the house I took photos of was not only Neve’s former residence, but that it bears the address 8875. As you can see in the permit below, filed in 1990, 8875 is noted as being on the corner of Holly and Wonderland, right where my GPS said it would be.

Another permit I dug up from that same year featured a diagram of 8875 that perfectly matches the layout and placement visible in aerial views of the structure with the 8909 placard.

And a parcel map available on the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor website also shows 8875 Wonderland in the exact spot where the 8909 placard is currently hung. Why a different address number is displayed at the property is a complete mystery, but what I do know is that Neve Campbell’s former haunted house is most definitely located on the northeast corner of Holly Place and Wonderland Avenue.

The actress sold the pad in February 2000 for $850,000 and it has not changed hands since. I guess the current owner doesn’t mind having a phantom roommate, either.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of the Movieland Directory website, for finding this location!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Neve Campbell’s former haunted house is located at 8875 Wonderland Avenue in Hollywood Hills West.

September 12, 2018September 8, 2018

The “How to Marry a Millionaire” Apartment Building

One of the things I love most about L.A. is the direct access the city has to a myriad of unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Case in point – Essentially Marilyn, The Paley Center for Media’s latest exhibit featuring costumes, personal artifacts, clothing, and memorabilia from none other than Miss Marilyn Monroe herself, including the starlet’s personally annotated script from The Seven Year Itch AND a replica of the infamous dress she wore in the 1955 movie’s iconic subway grate scene. (If you feel like going down a rabbit hole of information regarding the legendary frock, check out these fabulous articles on The Marilyn Monroe Collection website here and here.) Fingers crossed I make it out to see the exhibit before it closes on September 30th. In the meantime, I thought I’d blog about an MM locale I stalked back in April 2016 while in New York – 36 Sutton Place South, aka the building where Pola Debevoise (Monroe) lived with her BFFs Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable) and Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall) in How to Marry a Millionaire.

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Though Marilyn’s performance in the 1953 comedy definitely plays to type, it is one of my favorites of hers. Legend has it that when she asked director Jean Negulesco about her bespectacled character’s motivation, he replied “You’re blind as a bat without glasses. That is your motivation.” The advice led to some of the best comedic moments of her career, in my opinion. For those who have never seen the film (and you really should), it centers around three bachelorettes who, hoping to land millionaire husbands, sublease a penthouse apartment in a tony Manhattan building. To portray the girls’ fancy digs, producers looked no further than 36 Sutton Place South.

Originally built in 1949, the 17-story complex boasts 101 units.

Consisting of a brick and limestone façade with glass balconies, the place has something of a postmodern feel.

The white-glove building, which became a co-op in 1962, features a canopied entrance, a doorman and a concierge, an on-site gym and laundry room, and a rooftop deck with a garden and river views. You can see some interior photos of the property here.

36 Sutton Place South only actually appears twice in How to Marry a Millionaire, first popping up in the movie’s opening scene in which Schatze arrives at the building to sublease the unit.

It is then featured in a later scene in which the unit’s owner, Freddie Denmark (David Wayne), returns home and attempts to retrieve a document he has stashed away inside. Only the exterior of the property was utilized in the filming.

All interiors were part of an elaborate set built at 20th Century Fox Studios in Culver City, including the building’s lobby;

the inside of the women’s apartment;

and their balcony, which does look very much like 36 Sutton’s actual rooftop deck. You can see photos of it here and here.

I am fairly certain that close-up shots of the building’s front doors were also shot on a set.

Though the entrance shown in How to Marry a Millionaire does look a lot like 36 Sutton’s actual entrance, the complex’s real life doorway is much larger than its onscreen counterpart. The window that should appear in the right-hand portion of the frame below is also missing and, while the bottom part of the planter to the left of the main doors is slanted in real life, it is flat in the movie. Though these elements could have been changed in the 65 years since filming took place, I do not believe that to be the case.

How to Marry a Millionaire is not 36 Sutton’s only claim to fame. During the 1950s, Joan Crawford and her husband, Pepsi-Cola Company chairman Alfred N. Steele, made the place their New York home.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The How to Marry a Millionaire apartment building is located at 36 Sutton Place South in New York’s Sutton Place neighborhood.

November 27, 2017November 26, 2017

Richard Simmons’ House

I, along with the rest of the world, became absolutely transfixed by the first season of Serial, the 2014 podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig which detailed the murder of Baltimore teenager Hae Min Lee and the subsequent conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed for the killing. Not only did the Grim Cheaper and I listen to the entire thing three times through, but we also voraciously devoured Truth and Justice (née Serial Dynasty) and Undisclosed, two of Serial’s unaffiliated offshoots that further investigated the crime. Since then, I have constantly been on the lookout for other engrossing podcasts, but finding ones that fit the bill has proved difficult. Some, like In the Dark and Accused, definitely hit the mark. Others like Someone Knows Something and My Favorite Murder were horribly disappointing (though to be fair I only listened the first season of the former). Then in February of this year, Missing Richard Simmons dropped and I felt as if my prayers had been answered! The GC and I couldn’t get enough! Created by director/producer Dan Taberski, a close friend of the eccentric fitness guru, the series is extremely well-executed, intelligently written, and absolutely gripping. Prior to the podcast, I knew very little about Simmons and never would have thought he’d be someone I’d be interested in listening to 3.5 hours worth of dialog on, but thanks to Taberski’s engaging narrative, I was hooked right from the start. At the forefront of the story is Richard’s palatial Hollywood Hills West mansion. So I, of course, just had to stalk the place.

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For those who haven’t listened to Finding Richard Simmons (and if not, you really should!) and don’t know much about the mystery shrouding the icon’s life as of late, I’ll break it down for you. On February 15th, 2014, Richard did not show up for the exercise class he had been teaching thrice weekly at Slimmons, his Beverly Hills studio, since 1974. No explanation was given – nor was one given when he failed to show up the following week. At the same time, Simmons also cut off ties to his legions of regulars and, from what it seems, all of his close friends, including Taberski. His calls, emails, and texts just ceased. He also stopped talking to the media, stopped giving interviews, and stopped doing promotions. Richard Simmons hasn’t been seen in public since (unless you count his blanket-covered homecoming after a four-day visit to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in April 2017). Reportedly holing up in his Colonial-style mansion, rarely (if ever) venturing past the fence line, the star pulled a gone guy – with his longtime housekeeper, Teresa Reveles, acting as a gatekeeper. Friends, colleagues, and fans were understandably concerned and attempted to get in touch. Richard wasn’t talking, though. According to the podcast, outside of his brother, manager, publicist, a friend in Minnesota, and Teresa, Simmons went radio silent on the world.

Why the silence? Why the hiding? Why the mystery? That is what Taberski sought to find out. And he left no stone unturned in his quest for the truth – contacting countless friends and associates of Richard’s, traveling to New Orleans to interview his brother, and showing up at Simmons’ house (where he used to be a frequent guest) a couple of times unannounced. All of it is recorded, documented, and broadcast to tantalizing effect in the podcast. On his trek to the massive dwelling during the taping of episode 1, titled “Where’s Richard?”, Dan is shocked to discover that a 6-foot wall has been erected around the residence since the last time he visited. As you can see in the Google Street View images below from June 2011 and May 2014, while there has always been a fence surrounding Simmons’ home, since his self-imposed exile, a secondary barricade, one built of concrete, has replaced the white picket enclosure that once ran along the property line. The result is a house that is much less accessible and welcoming, which I’m sure is the point.

A funny side-note – Teresa, Richard’s housekeeper who I mentioned earlier and who figures prominently in Missing Richard Simmons, is visible moving Simmons’ trash cans (just as she did during Taberski’s second visit to the house in episode 2, “Stakeout”) in Google’s Street View imagery from November 2015.

According to the Mary Cummins website, Richard purchased the two-story residence in 1982 for $670,000.

Per Zillow, the 1937 pad, which features 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, 4,119 square feet of living space, a 0.56-acre lot, and a 2-car detached garage, is worth a whopping $5.2 million today.

The property also boasts a massive black-bottom swimming pool, as you can see in the aerial view below.

Though definitely ornate, the house is not nearly as over-the-top and ostentatious as one would expect considering its owner.

Simmons has been known to give the place its own grandiose spin, though. As Taberski says in episode 1, “He loves to tell people his house was featured as a plantation house stand-in in the opening credits of Gone with the Wind, but I’m gonna call bullshit on that one.” Dan was probably smart to do so. I did the legwork and watched the GWTW credits and while Richard’s residence does bear a striking resemblance to a property featured in it (pictured below), I do not believe the two are one and the same.

I was most excited to check out the home’s mailbox, which, as noted in the podcast, boasts a touch of the star’s ostentatious flair and is, thankfully, still visible from the street despite the new fencing. As you can see below, the letter drop is a miniature replica of Simmons’ antebellum mansion.

So what is the outcome of Taberski’s quest, you ask? Does he get to the bottom of the icon’s disappearance? How does Missing Richard Simmons end? Sadly, Dan does not really uncover any definitive answers. All he hears over and over again is that Richard is tired and wants to retreat from public life – which he is perfectly entitled to do. But to do so by cutting off ties to virtually everyone he has ever been close with and essentially becoming a recluse overnight? Well, that smacks of something problematic (in my opinion, at least). What that something is, I have no idea. But I don’t begrudge Dan – or the rest of Richard’s friends – for wanting to find out. And though the podcast was met with quite a bit of controversy, I believe Taberski’s intentions were pure. He just wanted to make sure that Simmons, someone he cares a lot about, is OK. In doing so, he created a podcast that showcases the amazing person that Richard is. Prior to listening, I had no idea of Simmons’ incredible generosity and kindness, nor his astute business sense. All I really knew of the guru centered around his eccentricity, his love of costumes, and the fortune he made sweatin’ to the oldies. Dan taught me – and legions of other listeners – that Richard is so much more. I hope that whatever he is currently doing and for whatever reasons he is doing it, that he is happy.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Richard Simmons’ house is located at 1350 Belfast Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

October 16, 2017October 16, 2017

Marie McDonald’s Former House

There are strange Hollywood crimes and then there are strange Hollywood crimes. Today’s locale fits into the latter category. Last week, my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me to let me know about a mystifying case concerning an actress that was detailed in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly (issue #1485, dated October 6th, 2017). In the article, titled “Hollywood’s Original Gone Girl” (you can check out the online version here), author Joe McGovern chronicles the 1957 kidnapping of starlet Marie McDonald, who was better known to movie audiences as “The Body,” the nickname bestowed upon her after her vivacious curves stole the spotlight in 1942’s Pardon My Sarong. Though the story does not involve death, murder or hauntings, and the whole episode is largely believed to have been a hoax executed by Marie herself, Owen thought it would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme and I wholeheartedly agree. I was immediately transfixed by his Cliffs Notes version of the scandal and ran right out to buy EW and stalk the house where the kidnapping was said to have occurred.

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From start to finish, Marie’s life was the stuff tabloid reporters’ dreams are made of. Born Cora Marie Frye in 1923 to a former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, McDonald spent her childhood in Kentucky before moving to the Big Apple during her teenage years. She entered the pageant circuit, worked on Broadway, and eventually headed to California where she secured a contact at Universal Pictures. It wasn’t long before the blonde bombshell found success in movies, appearing alongside such actors as Alan Ladd, Fred MacMurray, Gene Kelly and Cesar Romero (in Lucky Jordan, Standing Room Only, Living in a Big Way, and Once a Thief, respectively), to name a few. McDonald became much more well-known for her off-camera antics, though, which included a total of six marriages (she twice wedded – and twice divorced – shoe store magnate Harry Karl), an escape from an Australian psychiatric ward, a tryst with mobster Bugsy Siegel, an arrest for forging prescriptions, a DUI hit-and-run that culminated with the actress kicking one police officer and biting another, and, of course, her abduction, by far her most infamous escapade.

As the story goes, shortly before midnight on January 3rd, 1957, while in the bedroom of the Encino home she shared with her three children, housekeeper, chauffer and large dog (at the time she was estranged from Harry Karl, for the second time, awaiting a divorce), McDonald was startled by a noise outside. That noise, according to Marie, was caused by two men, one carrying a stick, the other a sawed-off shotgun. The men entered the residence, a sprawling one-story ranch house that Entertainment Weekly noted as being located at 17031 West Magnolia Boulevard (thanks, EW!), and told the starlet, “We want your rings, your money, and your body.” After ransacking the pad of valuables, the duo proceeded to spend quite a bit of time cutting mismatched letters out of newspapers to fashion a ransom note. (They must have gone to the JonBenét Ramsey school of ransom-note creation!) The abductors then inexplicably put the note in Marie’s mailbox. (I mean, that would be the first place I’d go looking for a ransom note if I discovered a loved one missing.) McDonald was subsequently blind-folded and forced into the men’s car.

After driving for about an hour, the threesome arrived at a small home where Marie was stashed away in a bedroom (one that strangely had a working telephone) and drugged. The men then made two calls, one to McDonald’s mother, Marie Tuboni (yes, both mother and daughter were named Marie), and one to Harry Karl, informing them of the kidnapping. Though told not to, Tuboni immediately contacted police, who headed to McDonald’s residence, where the gate and front door were found standing open. Detectives also discovered the ransom note in the mailbox (how they thought to look there is beyond me, but maybe mailing ransom notes back in the day was common practice), which oddly read “She won’t be hurt to get money.” A few hours later, back at the kidnappers’ den, Marie awoke and spotted the telephone. She proceeded to call, not the police, not her mother, but gossip columnist Harrison Carroll. (As one does when seeking rescue from a kidnapping.) It did not take long for the story of the actress’ abduction to catch fire with the media from that point. Marie’s second call was to her boyfriend, actor Michael Wilding, and the third, to her manager, Harold Plant. (Again, as one does.) It was at that time that the men discovered Marie had been using the phone (duh!) and roughed her up a bit before blind-folding her once again, leading her outside, and forcing her into their car. The duo then headed east to Coachella where they tossed McDonald down a dike near the side of the road and took off.

Slightly worse for wear, Marie managed to climb 25 feet back up to the road and flag down a passing motorist. It was 11:15 p.m. on January 4th, a little under 24 hours since she’d been taken. The starlet was quite a sight, bruised and bloodied, missing two teeth, and wearing a bathrobe and slippers. She was shuttled to the hospital where she doled out the chaotic tale to police. Though she was adamant in her tellings, the plethora of strange circumstances had detectives, reporters, and fans alike wondering if the whole thing was nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to revive Marie’s lackluster career. The many discrepancies discovered by law enforcement did nothing to help her case. One LAPD officer, Edward Walker, found the ransom note especially puzzling, saying, “It is far-fetched to believe that any kidnappers would take that much time and trouble to make up a note in the home.” (John and Patsy Ramsey apparently didn’t get that memo.) Most damaging of all, though, was the copy of The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown found at her residence. The 1956 novel (later turned into a movie starring Jane Russell), about the abduction of a pajama-clad movie star, bore striking similarities to Marie’s tale. McDonald was definitely the Sherri Papini of yesteryear. And then things got really strange.

On January 9th, five days after she was rescued, LAPD officers staged an elaborate reenactment of Marie’s kidnapping on location at her home, an event described by McGovern in EW as “one of the most spectacular charades in California law enforcement history.” Dozens of reporters were on-hand to witness the spectacle, during which McDonald was front and center- and in full costume (natch!). One reporter, James Bacon, later penned an article in which he said the exploit “had everything any Cecil B. DeMille epic ever had – except camels. There were four scenes requiring six takes; a bedroom shot and an outdoor location; a producer and director (both policemen)!” A photograph of the bizarre affair is pictured below. Owen included the image in his email to me along with the exciting news that the white brick gate posts pictured in it are miraculously still standing, more than 60 years after the fact!

Sadly, aside from said gate posts and the exterior fencing surrounding the property, not much of the 5-bedroom, 5-bath, 4,419-square-foot home is visible from the road. You can check out some images of the 1948 dwelling here, though. The pad, which last sold in 2014 for just over $2 million, also boasts a 3-car garage, a chef’s kitchen, a library, maids’ quarters, a whopping 4 fireplaces, parquet wood flooring, an indoor spa, a pool, a pool house, and a 0.93-acre lot.

Marie’s sordid tale doesn’t end there, though. The actress’ kidnappers were never found and a grand jury eventually determined there was not enough evidence to file John Doe indictments against them. Then, a little over a year after her rescue, McDonald contacted police to let them know that she had tracked down and met with her abductors. In exchange for $5,000, the men told her who was the mastermind behind the crime – her estranged husband, Harry Karl. Harry agreed to a polygraph, though, which he passed, and police cleared him of any involvement. The two finalized their divorce shortly thereafter and most who followed the case went back to believing the whole thing was a poorly-executed hoax. Marie’s career never recovered and on October 21st, 1965, husband number six, Donald Taylor, found her slumped over her dressing table at their home at 5337 Jed Smith Road in Hidden Hills. The actress was dead from a drug overdose at the age of 42. She went to her grave vehemently denying her kidnapping had been faked. Fifty people showed up to her funeral, where, according to my friend Scott Michaels, of the Find a Death website, three of Marie’s divorce attorneys served as pallbearers. There are still more oddities to come, though. Just nine weeks later, Taylor was also found dead. He had swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills and passed away a few feet from the spot where he had discovered his wife’s body. And in one final remarkable twist, after McDonald’s passing, her three children were taken in by their father, Harry, to be raised alongside Carrie Fisher and her brother, Todd. Harry, of course, was married to none other than movie star Debbie Reynolds at the time. Only in Hollywood!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Marie McDonald’s former home is located at 17031 West Magnolia Boulevard in Encino.