Hollywood death and scandal sites

October 13, 2015September 29, 2017

Mary Miles Minter’s Former Mansions

The death of William Desmond Taylor remains one of Hollywood’s most notorious unsolved mysteries, over 90 years after its occurrence. On the evening of February 1st, 1922, the 50-year-old director was shot and killed in his Westlake apartment complex. Though there were suspects aplenty, no one was ever indicted in the murder and the case was officially closed without resolution (for the second time) on February 23rd, 1938, never to be re-opened. Common belief, though, has long since held that the guilty party was Charlotte Shelby, the mother of 19-year-old starlet Mary Miles Minter, with whom Desmond was said to be having an illicit May-December affair. I became fascinated with the case after reading Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood and stalked the site of Taylor’s former bungalow as part of my 2014 Haunted Hollywood postings. So this year I thought it only fitting to venture out to visit two mansions that once belonged to Mary and Charlotte, the addresses of which I found thanks to my buddy E.J. Fleming’s new book, Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites: Seventeen Driving Tours with Directions and the Full Story.

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The life of Mary Miles Minter was a strange one. The actress was born Juliet Reilly on April 25th, 1902 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Her mother, then known as Lilla Pearl Reilly, soon tired of what she deemed a lowly existence in the Bayou and moved Juliet and her sister, as well as her widowed mother, Julia Miles, to New York, hoping to catch a taste of the good life. Lilla changed her name to Mrs. Charlotte Shelby and quickly became the stage mom to end all stage moms, pushing her daughters into the limelight. Charlotte was the OG momager. Before there was a Dina Lohan, before there was a Kris Kardashian, there was a Charlotte Shelby. It wasn’t long before Juliet caught the eye of theatre producer Charles Frohman, who hired the nine-year-old to act in rather sexy stage productions. When Juliet’s age was questioned by child labor advocates, Shelby’s response was to acquire the birth certificate of a 16-year-old dead relative named Mary Minter and pass it along as her daughter’s. The scheme worked and from that point on the youngster was known as Mary Miles Minter. Shortly thereafter, Charlotte relocated the family to Los Angeles and Mary quickly secured a $1.3-million contract with film magnate Adolph Zukor, going on to act in 54 silent films.

After finding success, Charlotte, using Mary’s money, leased the family a mansion in Hancock Park that had once belonged to silent screen star Mary Pickford. Today, the estate, which still stands at 56 Fremont Place, is a popular filming location, appearing in everything from Taken (screen capture below) to CSI: Miami to Beverly Hills, 90210. During the time the family was living there, Mary landed a role in the 1919 movie Anne of Green Gables. William Desmond Taylor, who was then 47, was the director. For 17-year-old Minter, it was love at first sight. Though rumors of an affair between the two are still persistent to this day, Tinseltown author William J. Mann asserts that Taylor kept her at arms length. Either way, Mary was smitten and wanted nothing more than to marry Desmond, retire from the film industry and have his children. Charlotte would have none of it, though. Mary was her meal ticket and she did not want the gravy train to end.

In late 1920, when the lease on the Hancock Park mansion was up, the family headed to the East Coast for a brief vacation. Upon returning, Charlotte, using Mary’s money once again, purchased a 20,000-square-foot, 3-story, 40-room mansion that they named Casa de Margarita (or Casa de Marguerite, depending on which website you are reading). They lived at the property for a short time before beginning a renovation project in the fall of 1921, at which point they relocated to a house at 2039 Hobart Boulevard in Los Feliz, where they remained until the spring of 1922. It was while they were living on Hobart that Taylor was murdered in his bungalow. Mary’s career came to an almost screeching halt.

Charlotte was immediately painted as a prime suspect. Shelby had vocally opposed her daughter’s adoration of Taylor for years, had done everything she could to keep the two apart, and had even once threatened him publicly, saying “If I ever catch you hanging around Mary again, I will blow your goddamned brains out.” A grand jury was convened at one point, and while they chose not to indict her, the murder plagued both Charlotte and Mary for the rest of their lives.

At the time of William’s murder, Hollywood was in a precarious position thanks to the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, which had hit the industry hard financially. Studios did not want their stars to have connections to any sort of salacious behavior as it proved detrimental to the success of their movies. The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation decided that Mary had to go. When she was informed that her contract would not be renewed, she was just shy of her 21st birthday. The unemployed actress had just moved out of Casa de Margarita and into a Hollywood Hills bungalow. The move had caused an estrangement between the star and her mother and, unfortunately for Mary, it was Charlotte who held the purse strings. Without a studio contract, she no longer had a way to pay the bills.

By the summer of 1923, Mary was in dire straits. She was broke, had lost the love of her life, her career had disappeared, she had developed a heroin problem and gained a large amount of weight. To stir up publicity (which would hopefully lead to a job), she created a fake story claiming an attempt had been made on her life and that the killer’s intentions had been to forever silent her on what she knew about Taylor’s death. Neither the police nor the tabloids bought her story, though. The starlet then moved to New York for a time, hoping to carve out a career on the stage, but it never took shape. She eventually began legal proceedings against Charlotte in order to regain the money she made as a young star. For reasons that are not entirely clear, but that I am guessing have to do with the lawsuit, Shelby was forced to sell Casa Margarita at auction in December 1932.

Mother and daughter eventually reconciled. Ever the shrewd businesswoman, Charlotte had invested Mary’s money rather wisely and the two moved in together, first to an estate in Beverly Hills and then, in the 1950s, to a spacious, 6-bedroom, 9-bathroom (!!!), 5,501-square-foot home known as the Bishop Conaty House in Santa Monica. The pad, which sits on 0.46 acres, was originally constructed in 1907 for the Reverend Bishop Thomas Conaty of Los Angeles and San Diego. Charlotte and Mary would live there for the rest of their days.

Mary’s later years were not happy ones. The former starlet started turning into a recluse. Shortly after Charlotte passed away in 1957, Minter married a real estate developer named Brandon O’Hildebrandt. When he passed away in 1965, she grew even more reclusive. Last year I attended a Q&A about Tinseltown and photographer Michael Childers happened to be in attendance. He spoke of meeting Minter at her home in her final years and described her existence as a very “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? situation.“ Apparently, the then obese actress surrounded herself with photographs from her younger years and continued to wear the hairstyle and clothing from her movie star days. On one particularly bad night in 1981, a robber broke into Mary’s residence, tied her up and stole $300,000 worth of items. It was later discovered that her caretaker was behind the theft.

On August 4th, 1984, Mary Miles Minter passed away silently at the home, her film legacy largely forgotten, but her entwinement with one of Hollywood’s most infamous unsolved murders still very much intact.

Casa de Margarita served many incarnations after it was sold by Charlotte in 1932. For a time the property was utilized by a seminary, then it became a home for unwed mothers, and then a shelter for children. Today, it is a family service center named Children’s Institute, Inc. According to this article, the dwelling still boasts much of its original décor, including large fireplaces, a grand staircase, built-in bookcases, a central courtyard with a fountain, and hardwood flooring. It is also supposedly haunted. You can see some interior photos of it here.

A big THANK YOU to my friend E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, for providing these addresses. For those who are as into Haunted Hollywood locales as I am, I highly recommend his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites: Seventeen Driving Tours with Directions and the Full Story (the second edition was just released via McFarland). The tome is chock full of macabre spots (I swear, one year virtually all of my Haunted Hollywood locations came from the first edition), all of which are well-researched and well-documented. As I have mentioned many times before, E.J. is one of the very few fellow stalkers whose information I trust. He is a rare breed in this field in that his data is accurate, his locales unique (read: not regurgitated from all of the other websites out there), and his story-telling bar none!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Casa de Margarita, aka Mary Miles Minter’s former mansion, is located at 701 South New Hampshire Avenue in Koreatown. The home where Mary spent her final years can be found at 144 Adelaide Drive in Santa Monica.

October 29, 2014September 29, 2017

The Silent Movie Theatre

I am very excited to announce that I recently started writing for the L.A. Tourism & Convention Board website, Discover Los Angeles. I have done two posts for the site so far – one on iconic horror movie locations and another about area hotels that have been immortalized onscreen. Before I was given my first assignment, my editor emailed me a few articles to use as examples, one of which was written by my buddy Scott Michaels, of the Find a Death website. The 2013 column, titled The 13 Scariest Places in Los Angeles, had me practically foaming at the mouth. The vast majority of locations mentioned I had never even heard of before, let alone stalked, and one in particular had me especially intrigued – the Silent Movie Theatre in Beverly Grove, where owner Lawrence Austin was shot to death in 1997.

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The Silent Movie Theatre was originally constructed in 1942 for silent film buff John Hampton and his wife, Dorothy. John, an Oklahoma native, had collected silent movie reels and showcased them at his home from the time that he was a young boy. In 1940, the couple headed west and settled in Los Angeles. The following year, they purchased a vacant plot of land and commissioned a small, two-story silent movie theatre to be built on the premises. The upstairs floor served as their apartment.

The theatre opened for business in February 1942. By that time, silent movies were a thing of the past and John wanted to pay homage to the almost-forgotten genre. You can check out what the property looked like in its early days here. According to the Dead History Project website, a 1943 Los Angeles Times article described the 250-seat movie house as having “staggered seating,” a “bowl-shaped floor,” and “acoustical sound.” The theatre proved extremely popular and such celebrities as Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith were even known to stop by from time to time to catch viewings of their early films.

John had long been in the habit of restoring and redeveloping old films in his bathroom. The Dead History Project states, “Mr. Hampton transformed his bathtub into a film lab, dyeing and redeveloping old, nitrate film. His Phantom of the Opera, probably the best version of the original in existence, took acquiring eight separate prints over five years. Then, for over two months, he rebuilt the film – spliced the best parts of each print into a single version and meticulously dyed the frames to make sure they matched.” Sadly, in 1980, the harsh chemicals used in the process caught up with John and he developed cancer. He closed the theatre during his long battle with the disease and eventually passed away in 1990. A friend of John and Dorothy’s named Lawrence Austin purchased the theatre shortly thereafter and and renovated the space. He also changed the wording on the marquee from “Old Time Movies” to “Silent Movie.” The space re-opened for business on January 18th, 1991. You can check out a photo of what the property looked like after Austin took over here.

During the renovation process, Austin had hired a man named James Van Sickle to paint the Silent Movie Theatre. Despite a forty-year age difference (Austin was 67, Van Sickle was 27), the two hit it off romantically. Van Sickle eventually moved into the upstairs apartment with Lawrence and began working as the theatre’s projectionist.

On the evening of January 17th, 1997, the theatre was set to air a showing of Sunrise, proceeded by two short films. During one of the shorts, an audience member left the theatre and headed to the lobby, where Austin was standing behind the candy counter with Mary Giles, a concessions clerk. The man pulled out a .357 and first demanded that Lawrence hand over the money in the cash register. After he complied, the man shot him in the face. Lawrence died immediately. He was 74. The man then shot Mary twice in the chest, before turning back to Austin and shooting him two more times. Thankfully, Giles survived and was able to describe the shooter to the police, which eventually led them to a 19-year-old named Christian Rodriguez. It did not take long for Rodriguez to cave and inform detectives that he had been hired for $30,000 to kill both Austin and Giles and make the scenario look like a robbery. The person behind the scheme? None other than James Van Sickle, whom Austin had just recently named his beneficiary. Van Sickle was set to inherit the Silent Movie Theatre and over a million dollars in cash. Both James and Christian were eventually convicted of murder and are currently serving life sentences.

After the murder, the Silent Movie Theatre was put up for sale. A man named Charlie Lustman happened to pass by the property in 1999 and became intrigued. Though he knew nothing about silent films, he decided to purchase the theatre at a cost of $1.3 million. He remodeled the space and added a new marquee. The cinema re-opened its doors on November 5th, 1999. Besides showcasing films, Lustman also offered the theatre for special events. It proved to be a popular venue. In 2006, after falling ill, Charlie sold the property to Dan and Sammy Harkham. The brothers then formed Cinefamily, a “nonprofit organization of movie lovers devoted to finding and presenting interesting and unusual programs of exceptional, distinctive, weird and wonderful films.” The group currently showcases about 14 films a week at the Silent Movie Theatre. Last year, over 50,000 people attended screenings on the premises, none of whom were scared off by the ghosts of John Hampton and Lawrence Austin, who have been known to regularly haunt the historic venue.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Silent Movie Theatre is located at 611 North Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles’ Beverly Grove neighborhood. You can visit the official Cinefamily website here.

October 27, 2014September 29, 2017

Pete Duel’s Former House

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. That adage rings true for today’s story, about actor Pete Duel who shot and killed himself at his Hollywood Hills home in the early morning hours of New Year’s Eve 1971. I had Duel’s address written down in the Haunted Hollywood portion of my To-Stalk list, though I cannot for the life of me recall how or where I obtained it. I am unsure if a fellow stalker gave me the information or if I came across it in a book. I really need to start keeping notes on my sources. Regardless of how the address came my way, I was thankful for it and stalked the residence a couple of weeks ago while in L.A.

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Pete Duel was born Peter Ellstrom Deuel in Rochester, New York. He started acting as a child and, in 1959, moved to Manhattan to try his hand at stage productions. Deuel landed a role in a touring production of Take Her, She’s Mine in 1962, which brought him to Hollywood. Once there, he decided to stay. Peter gave himself five years to “make it” in the biz and make it he did. He quickly landed guest roles on several television shows which eventually led to him being cast as John Cooper on the series Gidget. When that show was cancelled after one season, he won a starring role in Love on a Rooftop. That series did not fare well, either, and was also cancelled after its inaugural season. It was at that time that Peter Deuel shorted his name to “Pete Duel.” He moved on to films shortly thereafter and was successful. Then, in 1970, he was cast in a leading role in the western-themed television series Alias Smith and Jones. It was a quick hit. The long hours proved hard on Pete, though, and he fell into a depression. He also developed an alcohol habit. Despite finally achieving the fame he had sought for years, he was not happy. A do-gooder by nature, Pete felt that he should be bettering the world and that his acting in Alias Smith and Jones was too trivial to accomplish that. The man who seemingly had it all wanted more.

In the summer of 1971, Pete and his girlfriend, Diane Rey, moved into a brown-shingled two-bedroom residence in the Hollywood Hills. At the time, the home was a small bungalow set back from the road. It has since been remodeled and a large front portion, which sits perpendicular to the original structure, was added. You can see what the property looked like when Pete lived on the premises here.

The large addition is pictured below. Today, the pad features four bedrooms, four bathrooms and 2,401 square feet of space. I believe that the property may currently be a multi-family home.

December 30th, 1971 began like any other day for Pete. He worked on his series and then, when shooting wrapped, was dropped off at home. Diane and Pete settled in for the evening to watch the latest episode of Alias Smith and Jones. Pete apparently was not pleased with it, which was not unusual. Diane went to bed shortly after, while Duel stayed up to watch a Lakers game. At around 1:30 in the morning, he walked into the master bedroom and grabbed his .38 revolver. A few minutes later, Diane heard a gun shot and ran into the living room where she found the actor lying nude underneath the Christmas tree. At the tender age of 31, Pete Duel was dead by his own hand – though whether it was an accident or on purpose the coroner couldn’t say. Duel’s blood alcohol level at the time of the shooting was 0.31, so it might very well have been accidental. The fact that shortly before his death he had scheduled his answering service to give him a wakeup call for 6:30 the following morning also lends credence to that scenario. There is a third possibility, as well, though, which many online truth-seekers believe – that Diane actually murdered Pete and altered the scene to make it look like he had killed himself. While Rey was questioned by the police, Pete’s death was officially ruled a suicide.

It took less than 12 hours for producers to recast Duel’s role on Alias Smith and Jones with actor Roger Davis. Audiences never warmed to him, though, and the series, which had been so popular prior to Pete’s death, was cancelled the following year. It is said that money does not bring happiness. Apparently, neither does fame.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pete Duel’s former house is located at 2552 Glen Green Street in the Hollywood Hills.

October 24, 2014September 29, 2017

William Desmond Taylor’s Former House

Last Saturday, my mom, the Grim Cheaper and I attended a book signing for William J. Mann’s latest tome, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood. My mom had heard about the event on our favorite desert radio show, The Bill Feingold Show Featuring Kevin Holmes, and thought I would be interested in the book as it is about the 1922 murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor, which remains unsolved. Ironically enough, I had just stalked Taylor’s former home two weeks beforehand, though at the time I knew little about his killing and the ensuing scandal. The signing, which featured a talk by Mann (that’s him in the rather blurry pic above), turned out to be intriguing and I cannot wait to delve into Tinseltown – and hopefully discover some new stalking locations along the way.

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William Desmond Taylor was born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner in County Carlow, Ireland on April 26th, 1872. He began acting in school productions as a youngster and then, in 1890, headed to America, first to Kansas and then to the Big Apple, with dreams of becoming an actor. His marriage to Ethel May Hamilton, the child of a wealthy broker, in 1901, and the birth of their daughter two years later put his acting plans on hold. Things appeared to be going well for the family, though. William opened up an antiques store and he and Ethel became well-known members of New York society. Then, on October 23rd, 1908, Taylor disappeared. While his wife surmised that he might have gotten lost during a bout of amnesia, the truth was that William had simply abandoned his family. Upon leaving New York, he traveled with an acting troupe around Canada and parts of the U.S and decided to try his hand at directing. He arrived in Hollywood in late 1912, armed with a new passion and a new name, William Desmond Taylor. He directed his first movie in 1914 and became wildly successful after that, going on to direct over 60 films.

In 1922, William was living at the Alvarado Court Apartments in Westlake. The upscale complex was comprised of eight, two-unit Spanish-style bungalows situated in a U-shape around a central garden. A 1948 view of Alvarado Court is pictured below.

William’s bungalow is denoted with the orange arrow below. He lived in the eastern side of the structure, in Apartment B.

Sadly, the Alvarado Court Apartments were bulldozed in the 1950s. Today, the site where they once stood is a parking lot for a Ross Dress for Less store.

Taylor’s apartment was located in what is now the northeastern portion of the parking lot . . .

. . . in the area pictured below.

On the morning of February 2nd, 1922, William’s butler, Henry Peavey, arrived at the bungalow and discovered his boss laying dead on the living room floor. Police were called, but before they appeared, Charles Eyton, the General Manager of Paramount Pictures, entered the home, went into Taylor’s bedroom and removed several letters and documents. The papers were never to be seen again and what was contained within them is anyone’s guess. William’s death had occurred during the midst of the Fatty Arbuckle rape trial, the fallout from which had hit Hollywood hard financially. It was a perilous time for the industry and the last thing studio executives wanted was another scandal, so they had come to “clean up.”

The first doctor to arrive on the scene surmised that Taylor had died of natural causes. It was not until the body was later turned over by the coroner that a bullet hole was discovered. It is believed that Desmond was killed at around 8 p.m. the evening prior. He suffered a single gunshot to the back. Though suspects were plentiful, his death remains unsolved to this day. One commonly-held theory is that William was killed by Charlotte Shelby, the mother/manager of actress Mary Miles Minter, with whom the director was romantically involved. Williams was almost thirty years older than the 20-year-old ingénue and if rumors of the illicit affair were to get out, it would have derailed Minter’s career. Being that Mary was Shelby’s very-valuable meal ticket, the momager was against the romance from the start. Some believe she killed William to put an end to it once and for all. (As it turns out, Shelby had been correct in her fears. Word of the affair quickly got out after Taylor’s murder and Mary’s career did not recover from the fallout.) While we may never know for sure who killed Taylor, William J. Mann claims to have solved the case during his research for Tinseltown and I am chomping at the bit to read his theory.

On a side-note – I also had the pleasure of meeting legendary Hollywood photographer Michael Childers at the Tinseltown signing. He and William J. Mann are close friends and when Mann mentioned his name, I recognized it immediately and raced over to get a picture as soon as the reading was over.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: William Desmond Taylor’s former home was located at 404-B South Alvarado Street, in the Alvarado Court Apartments, in Westlake. Today, the site is a parking lot for a Ross Dress for Less store.

June 25, 2014June 24, 2014

The Viper Room from “Entourage”

Once I found the location of Zebra tattoo parlor, on which Jeremy Piven’s name was displayed during the opening credits of Entourage each week (I blogged about it here), I just had to track down the spot where cutie Jerry Ferrara’s moniker was showcased. Upon finally doing so, I was a bit embarrassed that I had not recognized the place beforehand, being that it is one of Hollywood’s most well-known landmarks – The Viper Room in West Hollywood.

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Although arguably most famous for the fact that it was where River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993, The Viper Room had a long, storied history prior to that time. The space was originally the site of a night spot named The Cotton Club, which then became Greenwich Village and then the Rue Angel – all during the first half of the 20th century. When the Rue Angel was burned in a fire in 1950, its doors were shuttered. The site reopened shortly thereafter as The Last Call, a drag show venue, which did not prove fruitful. The Last Call was closed in April 1951 and was subsequently transformed into The Melody Room, a small jazz bar that opened on June 14th of that same year. The Melody Room was successful for almost two decades and was reportedly frequented – and maybe even backed -by mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen.

In 1969, The Melody Room was sold and became Filthy McNasty’s, a live rock ‘n’ roll venue. Sometime during the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, the property’s name was changed once again, this time to “The Central.” By 1993, The Central, which had remained a forum for rock ‘n’ roll acts, was on the verge of closing. When actor Johnny Depp found out, he decided to invest. Along with a few partners (one of whom, Anthony Fox, mysteriously went missing in 2001), he revamped the place and dubbed it “The Viper Room.” It opened to the public on August 14th, 1993, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers serving as one of the inaugural acts. The Viper Room was immensely popular from the get-go, especially with the young Hollywood set. Just a few of the celebrities who were spotted there during the early years include Christina Applegate, Drew Barrymore, Jen Aniston, Nicole Eggert, Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Johnny Cash, Tommy Lee, Pamela Anderson, Gwen Stefani, Ellen DeGeneres, and Michael Keaton.

Shortly after its opening, The Viper Room would be forever marred by the death of 23-year-old actor River Phoenix, who passed away on the sidewalk just outside the club’s front doors in the early morning hours of October 31st, 1993. Following the tragedy, the venue closed down for a full two weeks.

While stalking The Viper Room recently with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, we were shocked to see a payphone nearby. (I wasn’t aware those things still existed!) After some research, I learned that it was the payphone where Joaquin Phoenix made his now infamous call to 911 following River’s collapse. The phone is located in front of the Sun Bee food mart at 8860 West Sunset Boulevard. And yes, I realize how morbid this subject matter is, but I was absolutely astounded to discover that it was still standing, all these years later, especially considering the fact that payphones are such a rarity in today’s world.

In 2004, in the midst of a lawsuit with his partners, Johnny Depp sold his portion of The Viper Room. Today, the property is owned by Harry Morton, son of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton. You can check out some photos of the venue over the years in all of its many incarnations here and you can see some pictures of what the interior of the club looks like today here.

In the Entourage opening credits, Jerry Ferrara’s name was shown in neon lettering above The Viper Room awning. As I mentioned earlier, I am embarrassed to admit that I did not recognize the site during all my years of watching the series. No, it was not until a couple of weeks ago, when I did a Google search for “Terner’s Liquor,” a neighboring storefront visible in the Entourage credits, that I made the connection. In my defense, though, The Viper Room looked quite a bit different in the opening, as you can see below.

You can watch the Entourage opening credits by clicking below.

The Viper Room has been spotlighted onscreen several times over the years. In 1983, when it was still operating as The Central, its interior popped up in the movie Valley Girl as the site of the club where Randy (Nicolas Cage) took Julie Richman (Deborah Foreman) shortly after meeting her. Only the interior of The Central was used, though. The exterior was a bar in Hollywood that has since been torn down.

In 1991’s The Doors, The Central masqueraded as the London Fog where Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) and the group played in their early days. At the time, the exterior, which has since been painted black, looked considerably different than it does today.

The real life interior of the club also appeared in The Doors.

In 2005’s Be Cool, The Viper Room was where Chili Palmer (John Travolta) heard Linda Moon (Christina Milian) sing for the first time. Only the exterior of the site was used in the shoot.

The interior of the club that appeared in Be Cool is far larger than The Viper Room’s actual interior. I have been to The Viper Room a few times over the years (one of my acting class friends used to date a bouncer there, so we were VIP all the way, all the time! Winking smile ) and the inside of it is tiny. I’m talking tiny. Like I’m pretty sure my apartment has more square footage. I am guessing that the interior of the Be Cool bar was a set. Either that or filming took place inside of a a different Los Angeles nightclub.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Viper Room, from the opening credits of Entourage, is located at 8852 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the club’s official website here.

October 29, 2013September 29, 2017

George Nader’s Former Home

Earlier this year, while doing research on the various Coachella Valley-area houses formerly owned by pianist Liberace, I came across a blurb in fave book Palm Springs Confidential about the city’s first ever triple homicide, which took place in a Las Palmas Estates residence that once belonged to actor George Nader. After wiping the drool from my chin Winking smile , I added the site to my Haunted Hollywood To-Stalk list and finally managed to drag the Grim Cheaper out there a couple of weekends ago.

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The 3-bedroom, 3.25-bath, 3,608-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1961, has quite a distinguished Hollywood pedigree. Upon its completion, the dwelling was first inhabited by George Arnold, the longtime producer of Las Vegas’ popular Rhythm on Ice show. When he moved out in the mid-60s, the pad was purchased by The Merry Widow actress Gregg Sherwood, who continued to own the place until 1976, when she sold it to a race track executive named Ed Friendly and his wife, San Francisco socialite Sophia. The couple did not live there long. At around 7:30 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, October 12th, 1978, Sophia, who was then 71, and Ed, who was 74, were just preparing to eat a fish dinner that had been prepared by their housekeeper, 67-year-old Frances Williams, when the doorbell rang. The visitor was granted access to the home and proceeded to have a brief conversation with Sophia, during which he pulled out a .45-caliber handgun. Sophia tried to flee down a hallway, but was shot in the back of the head and died instantly. The killer then entered the kitchen and shot Frances, who had just placed the Friendlys’ dinner in a warming oven. Ed, who was hard of hearing and likely unaware of the carnage taking place just a few feet away, was shot last, in the bedroom where he was watching TV. Before leaving, the killer grabbed a fedora from the hallway and placed it over Sophia’s face. None of the neighbors saw or heard a thing.

At 7:30 the following morning, the pool man showed up at the property and spotted Frances’ corpse through the window. When police arrived later, they discovered the bodies of Ed and Sophia, as well as spent shell casings in the den, kitchen and hallway. The warming oven, with the Friendlys’ dinner inside, was still turned on. The house was in disarray, but nothing appeared to have been stolen. And while the case led investigators all over the globe, it was eventually dropped due to a shortage of funds, the death of two key witnesses, and a lack of evidence, and remains open and unsolved to this day. Police do have a theory, though, and, boy, is it tawdry!

Prior to meeting Ed, Sophia was married for 24 years to Curtis Wood Hutton, who just so happened to be the first cousin of Woolworth heir Barbara Hutton. Curtis and Sophia had two children, Edward and Sophia (yes, she apparently named her daughter after herself). At some point during the early years of the marriage, Barbara gifted Curtis, who was said to be one of her favorite relatives, a $1 million trust fund. When he joined the Navy during World War II, Sophia, nervous that her husband might be killed in the line of duty, leaving her penniless, had the trust amended so that it would be payable to her upon Curtis’ death. If she happened to precede her husband in death, the two Hutton children would inherit the money. The amendment turned out to be irrevocable, so even after Curtis and Sophia divorced in 1951, she still stood to inherit the $1 million if he passed away before her. Then, in 1977, the sh*t hit the proverbial fan. Not only did Sophia amend her will, disinheriting her son and daughter, but Curtis also became terminally ill. Edward, who was destitute at the time, realized he had to act fast if he ever wanted to see a dime of his father’s trust fund. Police speculate that he paid Andreas Christensen, a London-based friend of his who was no stranger to crime, to commit the murders. Things went according to plan, too, because Curtis died on October 28th, just two weeks after Ed and Sophia, and the Barbara Hutton trust, which then amounted to $1.3 million, was divided between Edward and his sister. As I said, tawdry stuff! You can read two fabulous, more in-depth articles about the murders on the DuJour magazine website and on the SFGate website.

Actor George Nader and his life partner, Mark Miller, purchased the property in 1991. They owned the place until George’s death in 2002. According to Palm Springs Confidential, at the time that they purchased it, the couple had no idea that a triple homicide had taken place on the premises. Miller said, “We were never told about the murders. We found out two years later.” Nice disclosure job from the real estate agent. Winking smile

Sadly, the residence was sold in August 2011 and the new owners have since completely remodeled the place. You can see what the home used to look like via Google Street View below and in these photographs from the 2011 real estate listing. I personally prefer the pre-remodel design. So Old Hollywood!

On a side-note – I would like to wish a big CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and her new husband, Keith Coogan. The two tied the knot this past Saturday in Malibu and a fabulously pink time was had by all. (Can you tell that I was just a little excited to be partnered up with none other than Jeremy Miller during the ceremony?? Smile ) You can read a great write-up on the festivities, which included the bride and groom driving off in a DeLorean, on the Mike the Fanboy website here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: George Nader’s former house, where Ed and Sophia Friendly were murdered in 1978, is located at 893 Camino Sur in Palm Springs’ Las Palmas Estates neighborhood.

October 24, 2013September 29, 2017

Dan Aykroyd’s Former Haunted House

Another spooky locale that I learned about thanks to fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory, and his fabulous book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites was the longtime home of Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd and his wife, actress Donna Dixon. The residence piqued my interest due to Aykroyd’s claim of numerous hauntings taking place there over the years. So I, of course, immediately added it to my Haunted Hollywood To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there back in early May.

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Dan Aykroyd is not the first celebrity to live in the two-story, country-style abode. In fact, the property’s tenancy records read like a Who’s Who of Hollywood and include such luminaries as Natalie Wood, Ringo Starr, Alfre Woodard, (possibly) Renee Zellweger, and “Mama” Cass Elliot. According to the book Swans and Pistols, during Cass’ tenure there, the singer encouraged famous guests like Eric Clapton, Ryan O’Neal, David Crosby, and Don Johnson to write notes on a “graffiti” wall in the living room. (How cool would that have been to see?) Dan and Donna purchased the site sometime during the 1980s and it was not long before strange occurrences started taking place.

A 2003 iVillage article quoted Dan as saying, “A ghost certainly haunts my house. It once even crawled into bed with me. I rolled over and just nuzzled up to whatever it was and went back to sleep. The ghost also turns on the Stairmaster and moves jewelry across the dresser. I’m sure it’s Mama Cass because you get the feeling it’s a big ghost.” Dan’s bed must have been a pretty busy place because in 2005 he told ContactMusic.com that the spirit of a man who died at the home in the 1960s bunked with him, as well. That same year he also spoke of the specter in a Huffington Post interview, saying, “Have I personally ever seen a ghost? Not one. Have I ever felt an unseen presence near me? Damn right. In my bed no less when we lived in Mama Cass’s Hollywood estate.” You can watch a video below of Aykroyd talking about selling the Cass residence and the fact that he had to disclose that there had been some “unusual activity” on the premises “that could not be explained rationally or physically.”

And after going through my photographs of the property yesterday, I tend to believe him. The picture below, which gave me the chills when I saw it, has not been altered in any way. Creeeeeeepy!

Aykroyd apparently put the house on the market several times while owning it, but the place never sold. I guess not many people are willing to cuddle up to ghosts. According to The Real Estalker, in 2006, the actor tried to lease it out at the whopping rate of $30,000 a month. It remained on the market for over 450 days, though, until he decided to offer it for sale in November 2007 for $4.2 million.

According to Berg Properties, the estate was finally sold one month later to none other than actress Beverly D’Angelo (of the Vacation movies) for $3.8 million. She, too, has been visited by Mama Cass’ apparition, as she talks about in the below (overly dramatic) clip from a Season 3 episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories.

Sadly, not much of the 4,828-square-foot residence is visible from the street. According to The Real Estalker, the estate, which was originally built in 1951, boasts 5 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, a master bedroom with an attached office and weight room, a library, 6 fireplaces, over one acre of land, a pool, and a motor court. There also seems to be some sort of tree house on the premises, as you can see below. You can check out some interior photographs of the pad – wallpapered kitchen ceiling and all – here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dan Aykroyd’s former haunted house is located at 7708 Woodrow Wilson Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

October 16, 2013September 29, 2017

The Former Site of Mulholland Farm

Another locale that fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory, mentioned in Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites was the spot where Mulholland Farm – the former home of actor Errol Flynn – once stood. And while I knew next to nothing about Flynn at the time I read the book, the blurb caught my eye due to a macabre practical joke that was allegedly played at the property involving John Barrymore (grandfather of Drew), which I thought would interest my friend Ashley, of The Drewseum website. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place way back in mid-February while the two of us were in L.A. for a weekend visit.

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The Tasmanian-born Flynn, who became an overnight sensation and Hollywood’s original bad boy after playing a swashbuckler in 1935’s Captain Blood, purchased an 11. 5-acre plot of land hidden away at the top of a ravine off of Mulholland Drive in 1941 and proceeded to build a two-story, country-style home there. He dubbed the $125,000 property, which he helped design, “Mulholland Farm.” The residence was a virtual den of iniquity, boasting a black marble pool, a tennis court, a barn, circular stables, a casino, a master bedroom with a mirrored ceiling, an obscene mural involving fish genitalia that ran behind a set of humongous fish tanks that lined the walls of his den, and a bar that covered a secret passageway leading to a hidden viewing area overlooking the women’s guest bathroom. The estate became a popular party pad (for obvious reasons) and such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, Jack Warner, Mickey Rooney, Tyrone Power, and Flynn’s longtime friend and drinking buddy John Barrymore all hung out on the premises. There were also plenty of female visitors. Just a few of the starlets Flynn “entertained” at the home include Hedy Lamarr, Ann Sheridan, Linda Christian, Ida Lupino, Faith Domergue, and Dorothy Lamour. It should come as no surprise that the phrase “In like Flynn” came about thanks to the actor and his propensity for getting women into bed.

Flynn loved practical jokes and legend has it that, on May 29th, 1942, several of his drinking buddies pulled a whopper on him at the Farm. As the story goes, on the night that John Barrymore passed away, Flynn’s friends bribed a mortuary worker to let them “borrow” the corpse for a few hours. They drove it to Flynn’s house where they propped Barrymore up in a chair with a cocktail in his hand. When Errol returned to the Farm later that night after several hours spent drinking, he walked in to find the dead actor sitting in his living room. Of the event, Flynn wrote in his autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, “My God, the light went on and I stared into the face of Barrymore! His eyes were closed, and he looked puffed, white, bloodless. They hadn’t embalmed him yet. I let out a delirious scream.” With friends like that, who needs enemies? Flynn took the experience in stride, though, offering the pranksters a drink and cordially refusing to help them return the body to the funeral home. And while several sources claim that the Barrymore anecdote is pure fiction, it sure makes for one heck of a story!

In 1953, Flynn left Mulholland Farm and moved to Europe in order to avoid paying back taxes to the government and alimony to two ex-wives. At some point thereafter, he lost the property to his first wife, Lili Damita. She sold off some of the acreage, on which new homes were eventually built (one of which, at 7740 Mulholland Drive, is the dwelling featured in the photographs that appear in this post, but more on that later). In 1959, Errol’s former residence and the surrounding 7.5 acres of land were purchased by gospel singer Stuart Hamblen and his wife, Suzy. They lived there for the next twenty years. And while the couple reported no strange goings-on, when pop star Ricky Nelson purchased the site in 1980, his family witnessed all sorts of odd behavior, leading them to believe that the pad was haunted by Errol. I’d venture to guess, though, that it was Barrymore’s ghost who had come back to terrorize the place. Sadly, in 1988, Mulholland Farm was sold to a real estate developer who bulldozed Errol’s former residence and subdivided the remaining land. Helen Hunt purchased one of the parcels (at 3100 Torreyson Place) in 1997 and proceeded to build a mansion on it. She never lived there, though, and in 2002 sold the estate to none other than Justin Timberlake for $8.2 million.

The address of Mulholland Farm during Flynn’s tenure there was 7740 Mulholland Drive, as you can see in this 1942 newspaper article. At the time, his was the only house in the vicinity. (The 11.5 acres that comprised the Farm are roughly denoted by the orange circle below.)

Today, there are seven different residences located on those 11.5 acres. The house which now stands at 7740 Mulholland Drive, on what looks to have been some sort of horse riding arena in Flynn’s day, was built in 1967 on a parcel of land that had been sold off by Lili Damita.

You can watch a video about Mulholland Farm by clicking below. And you can click here to purchase a book written about the property titled Errol Flynn Slept Here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Mulholland Farm, Errol Flynn’s one-time home, was formerly located at 7740 Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

October 14, 2013September 29, 2017

Larry Edmunds’ Former House

Just a few doors north of Peg Entwistle’s former residence (which I blogged about on Friday) is the guesthouse where iconic bookseller Larry Edmunds committed suicide in 1941. I was absolutely shocked to come across the location in Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, which was written by fellow stalker E.J. of The Movieland Directory, because at the time I was under the impression that Edmunds was still alive. Ever since moving to SoCal, I had been a regular patron of Larry Edmunds Bookshop, which was founded way back in 1938 (yes, I really should have realized its namesake was most likely no longer living Winking smile ). The bookstore/memorabilia boutique is one of my favorite places in L.A. and is the preeminent spot to procure any tome, memento or trinket at all related to Hollywood and its history – stuff like lobby cards, headshots, movie posters, and fan magazine back issues can all be found there. Even Barbara Stanwyck’s The Night Walker script was being sold at Larry’s back in 2011. So I was absolutely gobsmacked to learn that the shop’s founder had not only passed on, but had killed himself over seven decades ago, and I decided right then and there to include his former home in my Haunted Hollywood postings.

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Larry Edmunds was born Lawrence O’Connell Edmunds in North Carolina on March 13th, 1906. He migrated to Hollywood at some point and landed a job working for bookseller Stanley Rose. He then branched out on his own in 1938 and opened his namesake bookshop at 1603 North Cahuenga Boulevard. And while the place did not specialize in movie-related publications at the time, it became a huge hit with the Hollywood set and Larry struck up a friendship with several of his famous patrons, including W.C. Fields, Basil Rathbone, William Faulkner, and John, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore. Rumor has it that he became more than friends with a few starlets, as well, such as Mary Astor, Marlene Dietrich and Paulette Goddard. Sadly, mental illness and alcoholism got ahold of Edmunds and in February 1941, while living in a guest house behind the property pictured below, he stuck his head in his gas stove, killing himself. He was 34.

In Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, E.J. writes, “His suicide note explained that when he found himself cutting off the heads of the little men that were crawling through the walls to kill him, he realized he was seriously disturbed and had to kill himself.” Ya think? Edmunds willed his store to an employee named Milt Luboviski. It was Milt’s wife, Git, who had the idea to turn the place into the movieland mecca that it is today. The shop has moved twice since then – first to 6658 Hollywood Boulevard in 1955 and then to its current location at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard in 1990. When Git decided to retire in 2007, she sold the site to longtime employee Jeffrey Mantor. He continues to run it today.

According to Zillow, the property where Edmunds last lived consists of two 1925 bungalows on an “over-sized lot.” The front house features two bedrooms, one bath, a living room, a dining room, a fireplace, hardwood flooring, an updated kitchen, an enclosed sun porch, a separate laundry room, an outdoor patio, and a garden. The rear house, where Larry resided, is a one-bedroom, one-bath unit with a living room, a den, and an updated kitchen (thank God!). Sadly, the back dwelling is not visible from the road, but I did manage to dig up the MLS photos pictured below.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Larry Edmunds’ former house is located at 2470 ½ North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood. Peg Entwistle’s former home (which I blogged about here) is located just a few doors south at 2428 North Beachwood. Larry Edmunds Bookshop is located at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the store’s official website here.

October 11, 2013September 29, 2017

Peg Entwistle’s Former House

Another location that I learned about thanks to the fabulous Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites book, which was penned by fellow stalker E.J. of The Movieland Directory, was the one-time Beachwood Drive home of Peg Entwistle, the tragic blonde actress who only achieved fame after her 1932 suicide, in which she jumped to her death from the Hollywood Sign. And while I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the residence just a few days after reading about it, I figured it would be the perfect spot to feature in my Haunted Hollywood postings and held off on blogging about it until now.

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Peg was born Lillian Millicent Entwistle across the pond in London, England in 1908. After her mother passed away suddenly when Entwistle was about eight, she and her father, Robert, packed up and moved to New York in the hopes of starting a new life. While there, Robert remarried and had two sons. Tragically, he was killed about six years later by a hit-and-run driver while walking home from work. Peg’s brothers were then sent to California to live with their uncle, Harold Entwistle, while Peg stayed behind to try her turn at acting. She quickly secured a role in a Broadway production of Hamlet and garnered favorable reviews. It was not long before the petite beauty was acting steadily, earning parts in over ten different Broadway productions. Sadly, most were flops. In 1927, Peg met actor Robert Keith and the two were later married. The union was quickly dissolved, though, when Entwistle discovered that Keith had not only been married previously, but had a son (Family Affairs’ Brian Keith, who also later committed suicide, as did his daughter, Daisy).

In 1931, Peg heard Hollywood calling and moved to the West Coast, originally renting a room at the Hollywood Studio Club. She instantly won a role in the short-lived play The Mad Hopes, which also featured Humphrey Bogart and The Wizard of Oz’s Billie Burke. Stardom was almost within reach shortly thereafter when she landed a part in RKO’s Thirteen Women, but, sadly, when the movie premiered in 1932, it was lambasted by critics and the studio subsequently re-edited it, cutting Peg’s role almost entirely. RKO cancelled her contract just a few weeks later and the actress was forced to move into her uncle’s house at 2428 North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood. Peg then made plans to return to New York and the Great White Way, but, unfortunately, could not come up with the necessary train fare. Times were dire.

On the evening of Friday, September 16th, 1932, Peg informed Harold that she was heading to a local drugstore. Instead, she walked a mile and a half up Beachwood Drive to the Hollywood Sign (which then spelled out “Hollywoodland”), climbed up a maintenance ladder to the top of the 50-foot-tall letter H, and jumped to her death. She was 24. The following morning, her clothing and purse were discovered by a hiker. Inside the purse, was a letter that read, “I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.” (The image below is a screen capture taken from an E! Mysteries & Scandals episode about Entwistle. I am unsure if the letter pictured is Peg’s actual letter or a facsimile.) The hiker gathered the clothes and purse and dropped them on the steps of the Hollywood Police Station anonymously. The next day, detectives located Peg’s remains. Investigators were unable to identify her, so they published the suicide note in the Los Angeles Times in the hopes that someone would recognize the handwriting. Harold did, called the police and later identified the body. Peg was cremated and subsequently interred at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio.

Supposedly, a letter from the Beverly Hills Playhouse offering Peg the lead part in a play arrived at Harold’s house shortly following her death. The role? A beautiful woman who commits suicide. I am fairly certain that is just Hollywood lore, though – an anecdote dreamed up to make Peg’s story all the more tragic (especially being that, according to Wikipedia, the Beverly Hills Playhouse was not founded until 1954, over two full decades after Entwistle’s suicide).

Harold’s tiny bungalow, which was originally built in 1913, boasts three bedrooms, one bath, 1,650 square feet of living space, and a 0.16-acre plot of land. The property last sold for $35,000 in November 1974. Zillow estimates its worth today at $980,000. Not a bad return on an investment!

Pictured below is the view from the front of Peg’s former home. I cannot tell you how haunting it was to be standing in front of the residence with the Hollywood Sign looming over us.

You can watch the E! Mysteries & Scandals episode about Peg by clicking below.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Peg Entwistle’s former home is located at 2428 North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood.