Hollywood Home Tour: Dick Powell & June Allyson

After the Hollywood Home Tour bus broke down last season due to mechanical errors, the tour was canceled until further notice, but I'm happy to report it has been repaired and is ready to set off once again. Our bus driver, Al, will tell you more about where the Greyhound will be heading this summer.....

"Welcome, passengers! We are in for an exciting tour this season for not only will we be driving by the homes of some of the most famous movie stars, we'll also trek to the outskirts of Hollywood to see some of the ranches and larger estates of the stars. In a few moments, we will be heading west of Los Angeles to drive by one of these larger spreads, the 68-acre estate of crooner Dick Powell and his wife June Allyson, affectionately known as 'Junie'. 

"This estate is often called Amber Hills and is an enormous 12,000 square-feet in size. It was built in the early-1940s and has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a library, its own private lake, tennis courts, and acres of land for horses to roam. 

3100 Mandeville Canyon Road

"Here it is now, folks, coming up on your left. These are just the front gates, the driveway is a quarter of a mile long before you reach the house. It overlooks a canyon and Robert Taylor's equally large spread, which we'll be driving by soon as well. 

"Dick Powell is a hands-on kind of guy and he likes to remodel parts of the house, take apart the furniture to refinish it, or chop down the trees on the property for firewood. He often uses the workshop on the property. 

"June Allyson recalled that Dick Powell had driven her to the property and asked if it was too remote for her, 'Heavens, no', she replied, 'It's a nice community. How many people live here?' Powell's response, 'Just you and I, Junie. It's our 68 acres.'

Up-to-date Info: In 1962, Dick Powell and June moved to the Marie Antionette Apartments when effects from his lung cancer was getting the best of him. In the 1970s, the exterior of the house was used at the Harts property in the "Hart to Hart" television series. On June 25, 2018, the property went up on the market again - with a price tag of $35 million.  

Hollywood Home Tour - Norma Talmadge

"Everybody pile into the bus now! If we take any more lunch breaks like we have, we will still be on this bus in twenty years time. Once again, we'll be taking a slight detour to see an exceptionally beautiful home....the estate of that star of the silent era, Norma Talmadge. Fasten your seat belts and off we go!

649 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles

"On your right you will see the beautiful Spanish stucco St. Vincent de Paul church built in 1925. Just a few steps away is Norma's charming Tudor-style mansion, which is probably one of the most famous movie star homes in Los Angeles, not because Norma lived there, but because it passed hands between so many silent film stars of the 1920s. Originally it was built by Randolph Huntington Miner, a developer, and his wife, socialite Julita Miner, in 1904. Sumner Hunt was the architect who designed it. They lived here for about fifteen years and then sold it to that seductive vamp Theda Bara. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle bought it in 1921 but moved on after that scandal with the young starlet left his career in ruins. He sold the house to director Raoul Walsh and his wife, Miriam Cooper. Alla Nazimova also resided here for a spell."

"How long did Norma Talmadge live here then?"

"Not long at all. One whole winter season to be precise. Miss Talmadge and her husband, producer Joseph M. Schenck, purchased this house in October 1924 and were gone by February 1925. They went on to own many estates, but this one has long been associated with the Schenk's because it was featured on the front of a postcard bearing their name and was the first home they owned. 

"Inside is as beautiful as the exterior. There is a well-stocked library with a reading alcove which Norma enjoyed, and a drawing room featuring heavy beamed ceilings, ruby red velvet furniture and an antique writing desk where Norma would stack her piles of fan mail to respond to. The dining room features carved teak-wood furniture imported from China with embroidered curtains and bronze ornaments from the Orient as well. There is also a sun parlor among its fifteen rooms." 

Up-to-Date Note: To see the Talmadge estate today ( now called the Randolph Huntington Miner house ), simply click here for a street-view. It is still looking great!

Hollywood Home Tour - Walter Pidgeon

"All aboard the Silver Scenes Hollywood Home Tour Bus! Make sure you got all your belongings. Everybody in now? Off we go! 

"Since we've had a long lunch break, I'll be speeding up the bus quite a bit and showing you folks a number of beautiful Hollywood homes before we take our next break. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. 

710 Walden Drive, Beverly Hills

"The first home will be coming up on your left in just a couple hundred yards. This is Walter Pidgeon's Spanish stucco estate that he purchased in the late 1930s, just about the time when he was really making a name for himself in Hollywood. His mother, Edna, also lived with him and his wife, Ruth Walker, for a time at this house. The famous architect Walter Neff built this lovely home in 1926, but don't be deceived by its humble front, it is over 5000 square feet in size. 

"You enter the house through a rotund foyer and then as you make a turn into the living room you'll catch your breath as you see the two story cathedral beamed ceilings and exquisite iron railings throughout the place.

"Pidgeon's neighbors at the time included his long-time screen partner Greer Garson, as well as Arthur Hornblow Jr ( 704 ), Joe E. Brown ( 707 ), Gloria DeHaven and John Payne ( 708 ). 

"However, no use straining your eyes trying to catch a glimpse of Pidgeon...he no longer lives here. In the 1940s he purchased an English-style home ( very befitting to his onscreen persona ) over on Strata Corda Road in Bel-Air, where he still lives today. We'll be driving over that way later in the tour, so you can bring out your cameras at that time."

Up-to-Date News : This Neff estate fetched a whopping $7 million in 2013 when it was listed for sale. Pidgeon passed on in 1984 after suffering a series of strokes at his home in Bel-Air. 

Hollywood Home Tour - Fredric March

It's been awhile since the Hollywood Home Tour bus last passed by any celebrity homes, but Al is here today to introduce you to the latest home you will see : 

1065 Ridgedale Drive, Bel-Air

"Hi folks! It's Al here, welcoming you back to the Hollywood Home Tour bus. We're heading away from Bette Davis' home to take a gander at one of the truly legendary Bel-Air structures. 

"Back in 1932, Fredric March and his wife Florence Eldridge, commissioned architect Wallace Neff to design a spacious home for the couple to reside in while in Hollywood making films. What resulted was a 12,000 square foot French Normandy estate set in beautiful Bel-Air, a rural area at the time. 

"Let me stop the bus so that you can take pictures. Here it is on your right. Construction on the home began in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. As one of the biggest stars of the era, March had his home built as extravagantly as one would expect of a star. There were twenty-two rooms, eleven bathrooms, an octagonal dovecote tower, a private screening room, his-and-her living rooms, a wine cellar, an enormous swimming pool and, of course, the prerequisite tennis courts. 

"Wallace Neff had also designed Pickfair - the home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford - as well as homes for Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, and Charlie Chaplin. He is often referred to as the Architect of Hollywood's Golden Age so it is no wonder that Fredric March chose him to design his residence.

"If you take a glance across the street you can see Frank Morgan's beautiful home. We'll get a better look at that house a little later in the tour."

Up-to-Date Info : Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston purchased the house in 2001 for $13 million, spent a tidy sum renovating it, and then sold it for $28 million five years later. Click here to see pictures of the March house when it was under construction.

Hollywood Home Tour - Bette Davis

We're off on another Hollywood Home Tour! This time the Silver Scenes bus will be taking us past the former home of none other than Bette Davis. Here is Al to tell you all about what you are seeing out of your window : 

9918 Toluca Lake Avenue

"Welcome back to sunny LA! It sure is good to be back in California after our journey to New Hampshire. Since we saw Claude Rains home last, I thought you folks might want to take a peek at the charming cottage of his frequent co-star, Bette Davis. 

"Keep your eyes to the left side and you can see her house coming up now. I'll stop here so you can get a better look. 

"Bette lived in this bungalow only for a very short time; she moved in here in April 1932, renting the house from Charles Farrell, and then moved out in June of the same year. The Warner Brothers Studio, whom Bette had just signed a seven-year contract with in 1932, is just around the corner and so it was convenient for her to head to work. 

"During the early 1930s, Bette was trying to break into starring roles and fought for good parts. She made it into the limelight two years later when she landed the role of Mildred in Of Human Bondage. Bette was a single gal at the time and her mother Ruth and sister Bobbie tagged along with her wherever she moved.  

"The tudor was built in 1929 and boasts four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Don't let its cottage look fool you, the house is over 3,500 square feet and the backyard leads right into beautiful Toluca Lake. "

Up-to-Date Info : The house is practically unchanged today, with its clinging ivy still clinging. Click here to see a lovely image of a neighboring tudor whose yard also leads into the lake. 

Hollywood Home Tour - Claude Rains

The Hollywood Homes Tour was temporarily cancelled the last few weeks owing to motor trouble, but now the bus is fixed and revving to go and Al, our driver, is here to tell all the passengers where the bus will be taking them next. 

357 Rt. 109, Sandwich, New Hampshire

"Hello everybody! It's good to be back in the driver's seat today, and to thank you for your patience, I've got a real treat in store. We will be going on an extended journey for this outing. In fact, we won't even be anywhere near Hollywood. So if you want to take a bathroom break please do so now, because we will be on the road for 46 hours. We're off to Sandwich, New Hampshire! Did I not tell you that you will be getting your money's worth for this ticket price?

"If you want to grab a sandwich, it might be a good idea to get that now too, for who knows if they serve sandwiches in Sandwich. In spite of the long hours, it is well worth the road trip to drive past the home of one of the greatest character actors Hollywood ever saw the likes of - the great Claude Rains. 

"Rains began his acting career at the age of 10 when he performed on stage in his hometown of London, England. By 1914 he was in New York working at New York Theatre Guild, and by the end of the 1920s was in Hollywood, where he stayed for the remainder of his career after becoming a smash success in the 1933 Universal horror classic The Invisible Man. 

"As much as he loved acting, he never desired to live among the glitter and glamour of Hollywood. Rains always wanted a farm and in 1933, at the age of 44, he used his savings to purchase a 50-acre farm in Hunterton Hills of New Jersey. Once he was raking in the big-dough he upgraded to a 320-acre estate in West Bradford Township, Pennsylvania where he, his fourth wife, and only daughter, lived from 1941-1956.

"It was after Rains married his sixth wife in 1960 that he decided to move to New Hampshire. His friend Charles Uhle, was a summer resident of Sandwich and often invited Rains to visit him there. The quaint town touched his heart and he purchased this stately country house at the junction of Little Pond Road and Rt.109 in 1963. He believed in honoring the integrity of historic homes and kept much of the house as it was when he purchased it, except for updating the kitchen and turning an ice house into an art studio for his wife Rosemary.

"Rains is an avid reader and this house boasts a bookshelf that reaches from floor to ceiling with books that Rains cherishes. He also takes pride in the yard and, as you can't see ( because it is autumn ) it is brimming with magnolias, hydrangeas and lilacs. Townsfolk claim he often takes long walks but since we won't be staying long I'm afraid we probably will not be catching a glimpse of him outside the house. Too bad, for they say he wears a cape, broad-brimmed hat and dark glasses so as not to be recognized. Perhaps he really is invisible under that disguise!

Up-to-Date Info : Claude and Rosemary Rains died in the late 1960s and are buried at Red Hill Cemetery in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. On his stone is the epitaph "All things once/Are things forever/Soul once living/lives forever"

Hollywood Home Tour - Clark Gable

"Here we come to one of the most famous of movie star homes - the ranch shared by Clark Gable and his wife Carole Lombard from 1939 -1942.... 

4525 Petitt Street, Encino

"The spacious nine-room white brick and wood ranch was nicknamed "The House of Two Gables" when the couple moved in. While Gable was off making Gone With the Wind, Lombard had the interior completely re-done in a beautiful Early American style, renovating two of the first-floor bedrooms into an office for Gable and a room to showcase his ever-growing firearm collection. Outside on the grounds were citrus groves, fields of oats and alfalfa, stables, a hen house, cow barn, and a pig-less pigsty. I'll pull up to the curb here, so you folks can get a better look at the place."

"Did Gable actually farm the property?" 

"Yes, he really did enjoy being on the ranch and especially loved to give reporters the grand tour of his mini-farm - it was 20 acres - often posing for photos on his tractor or milking cows for them. It was a peaceful respite away from the hustle of Hollywood for him"

"The house was the former residence of director Raoul Walsh. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard had previously visited the home and were admirers of the property, so when they got wind that it was up for sale in the fall of 1938, Carole put up $50,000 to purchase it. In March of 1939 the couple were married and moved in shortly after...however, this was only to be a temporary residence. The lovebirds were planning on starting a cattle ranch and were looking to purchase a large piece of land either in Arizona or Wyoming. Carole Lombard's death in an airplane crash put an abrupt end to their dream plans and, brokenhearted, Gable put the Encino ranch up for sale, not bearing to stay there any longer. A good friend of his, Al Menseco, convinced him to change his mind and while Gable was fighting overseas during WWII, he had the ranch kept running by a few house servants and a caretaker. After the war, the King again put it up on the market and pulled it off shortly thereafter. Gable currently lives on the ranch with his fifth wife, Kay Spreckles Gable. "

Up-to-date Note : In 1973, his wife Kay sold the ranch and it was subdivided into a housing development called Gable estates. Today, the house still stands although it sits on less than an acre of property. Click here to view images of the interior of the home at this great Carole Lombard website.

Hollywood Home Tour - Jean Arthur

For this month's Silver Scenes bus tour, Al is going to take us past the home of one of the sweetest actresses in Hollywood. Take it away, Al!

512 N Beverly Dr

"Welcome back to the bus, everybody. I hope you have had a good stretch of the legs, for we're off to the far corners of Beverly Hills to take a gander at a lovely cottage, owned by a most lovely lady - Jean Arthur. 

"Jean Arthur started her career in Hollywood in 1923, debuting in the silent film Cameo Kirby, directed by John Ford. However, she really hit stardom in the 1930s when she became the everyday heroine in Frank Capra's classics You Can't Take it With You, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. During the 1940s, her and her husband, producer Frank Ross, lived in this charming home. 

"Although it looks cozy on the outside, it is deceptively large within, spanning 4,300 square feet. This Spanish stucco house has four bedrooms and three baths. I don't know much more about it, other than that, folks. Ms. Arthur no longer lives here....so please don't bother the current resident. After her final film appearance in Shane she left the limelight of Hollywood and now lives in a beautiful little cottage in Carmel overlooking the Pacific. "

Up-to-Date Note: The Carmel Point cottage Jean Arthur lived at, once known as "Driftwood", was put up on the market in 2012 for $4,295,000. Beautiful photos of the house, outside and inside, can be seen here. 

Hollywood Home Tour - James Stewart

"Today we're going to take a short spin three blocks west of Rodeo Drive and head on over to Roxbury Drive to catch a glimpse of the beautiful English tudor home of James Stewart.....

918 North Roxbury Drive

"Coming up on the right you'll see the house. The ivy-covered home is accented with a wide lawn, long stone walk and birch trees lining the sides. James Stewart purchased this house in 1949, shortly after he married Gloria and before he began filming on Winchester '73 and Harvey. 

"The 6,300 square foot house was originally built by director King Vidor in 1928. It features a spacious entrance hall, living room, large library, dining room, kitchen, breakfast room, and five bedrooms upstairs. In the backyard a walled English garden adds a touch of privacy. 

Both Jimmy and his wife had green thumbs and enjoyed growing flowers and vegetables in their garden. Whenever they had a bountiful harvest they shared their crops with the occasional giant rabbit and with their neighbors. I do believe some of these neighbors you are quite familiar with....anyone ever hear of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz? How about Jack Benny? Jeanne Crain, Rosemary Clooney, the Gershwins, and that acerbic wit Oscar Levant also lived further down the street. We'll take a closer look at these homes further on in our tour folks." 

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Up-to-date Note: During the 1970s James Stewart purchased his neighbor's property and tore down the house so that he could expand his garden. He could be seen walking his dogs along Roxbury up until his death in 1997. After his death, his house was purchased by the founder of a brokerage service who called it a "dump" and tore it down within weeks. You can view photographs of the inside of Stewart's house over at the Architectural Digest website. Obviously, Stewart had a great home and was an avid reader too.

At Home with Phil Harris & Alice Faye

In 1947 Radio Mirror featured an article on Phil Harris and Alice Faye apart of their regular "Come and Visit with..." series. The subtitle to the article was "How a bachelor's life was changed by three lovely blondes - changed for the happier". While most of the article seems to be true, one little fact was altered...Phil Harris, the popular novelty singer and radio host, was not a bachelor when his life was changed by those lovely blondes. He was married to Marcia Ralston from 1932 up until he met and married Alice Faye in 1941. But oh well, so the fan magazines like to stretch the truth a little.....

Harris built a magnificent ranch out in the Encino foothills ( 4544 Encino Avenue ) and it was here that he met Alice Faye, who lived a short distance down the street in a ranch of her own. Their Dobermans got in a scuffle one day and after they argued about who started the dogfight Phil invited Alice out for dinner. They married in 1941. Alice was a big fan of antiques and old china and when she moved into the house she loved Phil Harris's place just the way it was. As she states in the article : 'I liked the feeling that you could put your feet on anything you liked. The house invited you to let your hair down and relax'.

They kept the house for many years but in 1951, Phil Harris, an avid golfer heard that a new housing development was being created directly on the Thunderbird golf course. He couldn't resist that. The Harris' were the second couple to purchase a home in the new development and, although they intended to use it only as a weekend retreat, ended up remaining in the house until Alice Faye's death in 1998. Their Encino home was later sold to George Gobel in 1957. Only recently did their children have to sell the Thunderbird property, due to its expensive upkeep. You can see a postcard view of this home at the bottom of this article. 

We'd like to give a special thanks to the folks at OTRRpedia for digitizing the following text. Enjoy! 

From the April 1947 issue of Radio Mirror : 

It's very easy to get lost driving out from Hollywood to the home of Alice and Phil Harris. The wandering, crooked road changes its name a dozen times as it climbs up into the Encino foothills from Ventura Boulevard. You have plenty of time to wonder what sort of setting Phil has conceived for the three beautiful, blue-eyed blondes who are the women in his life, his wife, Alice Faye, and their two daughters, Alice, who is five years old now, and Phyllis, who is three. Whatever your preconceptions are, you are certain to be surprised.

The women-folk may rule in numbers, as it turns out, but there is nothing delicate or Dresden-tinted about the sprawling ranch house where the Harrises live. Phil built the place fourteen years ago when he was a confirmed bachelor, and the feminine invasion has only slightly modified its mannish character. The siege of this particular one man's castle began seven years ago when Alice came there as a bride.

"I loved the place just the way it was," she recalls. "I liked the feeling that you could put your feet on anything you liked. The house invited you to let your hair down and relax." She liked the big, rather bare rooms, the massive fireplaces.

She was a little startled - as one is, visiting there today - to find silver-mounted riding saddles - rather than old Georgian coffee pots - in the dining room, and a professional size pool table and enormous gun cases (but no books) in what in most houses would be the library, but she got used to it. So would you. It takes about five minutes for the relaxation to set in.

"I wouldn't have changed a brick or a board of it," Alice confides, "but things happened."

"We didn't expect," she adds, with a broad grin, "to have all these children."

In its original design, Phil's house provided for one "family" bedroom - a good big one, with bathroom and dressing room built to scale. The only other sleeping rooms were the servants' quarters and they were far away on the other side of the house.

The low sprawling house Phil built fourteen years ago.

The low sprawling house Phil built fourteen years ago.

The first baby's impending arrival five years ago posed a problem. With eight acres to spread out on, there was plenty of room for the house to grow but Alice didn't want to change the compact feeling of it. Consequently, architects and builders were called in, a hole was knocked in the roof, and a second story -a bedroom, two baths and two dressing rooms for Phil and Alice - added. The former "master bedroom" became the baby's nursery.

Now, with Phyllis getting big enough to want a room of her own, the house has growing pains again.

"As soon as we can get materials," Phil says, "we're going to build a suite for the children on top of the garage. They' ll be far enough away from our room to make as much noise as they like." 

The present arrangement makes for one stringent "house rule." No yelling until 10:30 - for mama and daddy, who like to stay up late and chat or play cards with their friends, Mary and Peter Lind Hayes, the Tufty Gaffs, the Andy Devines - don't like to be awakened at six. The white cockatoo Phil brought home with him years ago from Australia had to be housed for this reason a good quarter of a mile away from the house. He wouldn't abide by the house rules.

"The kids are getting more like the cockatoo every day," Alice says. "They refuse to be shushed."

"Oh," she groans, "those good old days, those lovely old days, of sleeping until noon, the breakfast in bed. All gone now."

Breakfast by the big fireplace in the dining room is almost as good as breakfast in bed. The dining room, in fact, is the pleasantest room in the house - and the one most apt to get the play when guests arrive.

It is scarcely a dining room in the conventional sense - rather more a dining-sitting room of the hunting lodge, western ranch variety. It is simply enormous to begin with, and as inviting as a country inn on a rainy day with its bright red curtains, the circle of massive red and white sofas and easy chairs drawn up to the outsize fireplace, the generous sparkle of polished copper and brass.

Phil designed the room, and there was method in his madness. Phil is a hunting enthusiast - and professional enough about it to know that McAllen, Texas, on the Gulf Coast, is the best place in the country to go for white wing dove, Saskatchewan the haunt of Hungarian partridge and prairie chicken, and the wooded flatlands out of Dallas the best place to look for deer. His favorite form of entertaining is to invite his best friends to come and eat the shoot - and to cook the dinner himself.

Such dinner parties are much more fun for the cook if the convivialities go on not too far from the kitchen.

The living room, which in an ordinary house would be called informal, is almost company stuff at the Harrises'. The walls are turquoise (the blondes in the family have had a say in this!) . The same greenish blue is combined with beige in the upholstering fabrics, and the floor is carpeted from wall to wall with a luxurious deep·pile beige rug. This was a big concession on Phil's part. In the sitting.dining room, the floor is cement-painted dark green. The only rugs are hand·braided throw rugs in front of the fire and under the big sawbuck dining table. "I like floors sweepable," says Phil.

"People in California are crazy to spend so much time fussing with details indoors," Alice agrees. "We live outside - around the pool in the summer, down at the stables when it is cool."

The stables are occupied for the present only by Phil's horse, Sonny. But Alice has been riding with Phil in Palm Springs during their frequent desert vacations, and as soon as she is ready Phil wants to buy her a horse of her own. And in a year or two, the children will be old enough for ponies.

Riding, hunting, cooking game dinners for your friends - life is full of wonderful things to do, in Phil's opinion. And he is a little rueful that at present so much good playtime must be spent at work. With two radio shows a week, his own and Alice's on Sundays, and the Jack Benny show on which he is a regular performer, to prepare for, and rehearse, and broadcast, Phil is a busy man.

"I see much too little of my daughters," he says. "Much too little of my friends. Thank heaven my beautiful wife works with me, or I would never see her." It's a hard life, you gather from Phil, this getting rich and famous.

Despite their father's conviction that he is neglecting them shamefully, Alice and Phyllis tell everybody who will listen that their daddy is the greatest man in the world. He can ride. He can shoot straight. He can fix their broken tricycles. And he is the best tickler in the world.

"The girls will do anything," their mother says, "if Phil will promise to tickle them before they go to bed. Eat their spinach, wash their hands before supper, put the toys away - anything."
Tickling is a nightly routine.

"Cissy - Cissy is Miss Griffith, the children's nurse - gets the nursery all neat and tidy, the beds clean and white and crisp, the children scrubbed and beautiful. And then we wreck the place. I am the First Assistant Tickler. If Phil and I can't tickle them to sleep - then Cissy has to finish the job."

Alice shakes her head a little after she tells this story.

"How did two such sane parents get such crazy children?" she wants to know.

"Maybe," she adds on second thought, "it's just Alice. Phyllis thinks her big sister is so wonderful that she is content to parrot everything she says. 

"All day long it's 'Mama, may I have a graham cracker?' from Alice, followed by 'Mama, may I have a gwam cwacker?' from Phyllis. Or 'Daddy, please tickle me,' from Alice, then 'Daddy, pwease tittle me,' from Phyllis."

So far as her parents know, little Phyllis has never had a thought of her very own.
They are a wonderful pair to watch. They look alike - a little like their mother, a little like their father. Cissy dresses them in identical pinafores. They have dolls alike, push-peddle autos alike, cowboy suits alike for visits to Sonny's barn.

"And," says Phil, "if you're going to tickle one of them you'd better have strength enough to tickle two."

"They are tireless," Alice adds. "They have the run of the whole eight acres all day. Signs over all the drives warn guests to be 'Careful, Children.' They run and romp and shout until I'm tired just from watching them. If they have to sit down five minutes for lunch they feel abused."

"And," this from their father, "they are indestructible. One of them will fall down and bruise a knee. Alice will patch it up with stuff from the First Aid box in the kitchen. Before the bandages are put away, the other knee is black and blue. But do they stop running? Not those two."

Energy seems to be a family trait.

Alice finds time for two careers - in films and on the radio - without cutting corners on either of the jobs she considers really important, those as Phil's wife and the children's mother.
Phil, for his part, does five men's work in his profession and still has leisure for more useful "puttering" around the place than many a less harried husband.

Phil wanted a barbecue, complete with turning spit, for outdoor dinners. So he hauled the bricks himself, and built it. Somebody gave him a camellia bush - he transplanted it, cultivated it - now it's blooming wildly in the flower border at the edge of the flagstone patio. One night recently he came home from a rehearsal hankering for an old-fashioned Southern dinner, the fried chicken and cornbread kind of dinner he remembered from his Tennessee boyhood. It was the cook's night out, so Phil cooked it. Before dinner was half done, the smells emanating from the kitchen were so promising that Alice called up Mary and Peter Hayes and the Golts, who came right over to help consume the feast.

"What a household," the guests sighed with satisfaction, as they stretched out after dinner in the roomy chairs around the dining room fireplace.

"What a husband," said Alice.

And the house, her husband's house, she might have added, is not for sale.

Hollywood Home Tour - Don Ameche

We're off again on our bus tour, but this time we're going a little ways off the beaten track and taking a spin around Encino to see the beautiful ranch home of the debonair actor, Don Ameche. Here's Al to tell you more about Don and his home : 

"Welcome back to the bus folks, and a very happy new year to you all! Can you believe that we've been on this bus since last May and have only visited six Hollywood homes? My goodness, at this rate we won't finish the Hollywood Tour till 1971. But, what does that matter... when you're on a time-travelling bus, what's a few years gone by?


"Since the gals are doing a salute to the "South American" 20th Century Fox musicals this month, I thought we'd take a drive out to see Don Ameche's lovely ranch. He made so many great musicals with Alice Faye and Betty Grable. Here's the house now, coming up on your left, down that long driveway...

4684 White Oak Avenue, Encino, California

"This beautiful Spanish stucco home was purchased by Mr. Ameche in the mid-1930s. The great comedian W.C Fields rented the home from 1934-1935 for $300 a month before the owner put it up on the market. 

"Don Ameche was just becoming a rising star in the 1930s when he fell in love with this property. The 3,000+ ft. house is situated on five acres and includes a tennis court, swimming pool, aviary, orange groves, a truck garden, and a healthy crop of cows and chickens. Mr. Ameche was very happy in the years he spent here with his wife and their four sons...Donny, Ronny, Tommy and Lonny. 

"He remained there until the mid 1940s when he, supposedly, won in a poker game a 22-room house that Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler built out in Encino, and moved the family there. ( Don actually paid $28,000 for that home, but it sounds so much better when you tell others that you won it. ) 

Update : The current owners added a second-story to the house in 2003 , bringing it's square-footage up to 6,800. They claim the "spirit" of W.C. Fields resides in the home with them. 

Hollywood Home Tour - Warner Baxter

We're off on another bus tour again! This time the Silver Scenes bus is taking us past the beautiful Tudor estate of that delectably debonair actor Warner Baxter. With his rugged masculine face Ohio-born Baxter became a star in the early 1920s in silent pictures such as The Great Gatsby and...

"Hold on a minute gals! Who's conducting this tour?"

688 Nimes Road, Bel-Air

Oh gosh, that's right....sorry Al. Go right ahead, we'll just head back in the kitchen and make some more chicken sandwiches for the passengers. 

"As the girls were saying, Baxter became a Hollywood star during the silent era, but once the soundies came he catapulted into mega-stardom. He played the Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona ( 1928 ) which became his most famous early, talking role. He earned an Oscar for this too, making him the first American to win a Best Actor award. Baxter then went on to make such hits as 42nd Street ( 1933 ), Broadway Bill ( 1934 ) and Kidnapped ( 1938 ). He reached his peak in popularity in the mid-1930s and was the highest paid actor in Hollywood at that time, earning $284,000 a year. 

"It was during this time that Warner Baxter and his wife, Winifred, moved from their lodgings at 138 S. Beachwood Drive into this beautiful Tudor estate in Bel-Air. You can see it coming up on your right folks, just over the hill. 

"Look at those lovely lush gardens...Warner Baxter was one of the first actors allowed to build in Bel-Air and in 1932, construction began on this magnificent home. Baxter, inspired by early spook films, added a network of secret panels so you could play hide-and-seek throughout the house. And what a place to hide! At 16,000 square feet, it was one of the largest homes built by any Hollywood star. The estate included 18 bathrooms, seven kitchens and well over forty bedrooms ( no one took the time - or effort - to count them all ). Some of the closets alone are bigger than most people's living rooms. 

At the time the house had a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean, but recent tree plantings are beginning to obscure it. Baxter was a quite a tinkler when he was not acting and surely he must have had a room set aside as a workshop where he could invent. One of his inventions is in constant use today...a radio device that permits emergency crews to change a traffic signal from over two blocks away. 

"During the 1940s, when Baxter began to drift into B-films and The Crime Doctor series, his family downsized to a comfortable estate at 911 North Roxbury Drive.

"Warner Baxter died on May 7, 1951 at the age of 62, after suffering from a bout of pneumonia."

Update: Today this lovely home no longer stands, having been replaced by a modern glass and concrete structure. Jack Ryan purchased the property in late 1962 and turned the house into, what the Daytona Beach News, dubbed "The greatest glittering pad in Bel-Air". Ryan had made his fortune in doll designs...anyone heard of Barbie doll? Just down the street is Kirkeby estate where The Beverly Hillbillies  were filmed and Elizabeth Montgomery, who later starred in the popular television series Bewitched, purchased Baxter's Roxbury Drive residence in the mid-1960s. 

Hollywood Home Tour - John Boles

"Well, the Metzinger gals were unable to find me a map of Los Angeles so I thought let's just chuck the whole map idea... I don't know this area very well but I do know a movie star's home when I see one! And speaking of Hollywood homes, here I see John Boles estate coming up on the right.

2265 Canyon Drive, Los Angeles

"My! is that a beautiful home. The landscaping is just magnificent. John Boles always was one to have an eye for beauty. He married the beautiful Marielite Dobbs shortly after graduating from high school and, unlike most Hollywood marriages, they stayed a couple till his death in 1969. 

"Boles started his film career back in the days of the silents but when the talkies arrived he made the switch and that's when his career really took off. He was one of the most popular leading men of the 1930s. Musicals were his forte, and RKO and Warner Brothers used his good looks and fine singing talent to advantage in such lavish musicals as  The Desert Song, Rio Rita, and Song of the West. In addition to musicals, he excelled at dramatic films such as The Age of Innocence ( 1932 ), Craig's Wife ( 1936 ) and Stella Dallas ( 1937 ). He also starred in several Shirley Temple films. His most popular role today remains his portrayal of Victor Moritz in Frankenstein ( 1931 ). 

John Boles and his family lived in this spacious Spanish stucco manor during the early 1930s. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Yes Al...where did Boles move to later on?"

"In the 1940s he purchased a home out in Beverly Hills on South Roxbury Drive and then they moved to North Oakhurst Drive after that. Any other questions?....Okay, off we go to see what other Hollywood homes we can find!"

This post is apart of the Silver Scenes Hollywood Home Tour, hosted by Al the bus driver. 

Hollywood Home Tour - Buster Keaton

"We're going to be heading a bit off course for today's featured home...we got a special request to drive by Buster Keaton's Los Angeles mansion so that's where we'll be going right now" 

"It's a good thing the Silver Scenes bus can not only take us back in time but knows where she's heading to as well, for I sure don't know where to go this time! I lost our L.A map back in front of Rochester's home. I'll have to ask the Metzinger gals if they can get me another copy. 

"Here we are folks...I'll park a little in front so you can get a better view. This grand manor was one of thirteen homes that Buster Keaton owned while living out here in California. This may have been one of the houses he lived in during his marriage to Natalie Talmadge.  


"That was a rather unhappy marriage. They hopped around from house to house and finally settled on building a elaborate estate to rival that of her sisters Constance and Norma. It was a huge 10,000 square ft residence over in Beverly Hills that Buster called the "Italian villa". We'll visit it a little later in the tour. Right now I'd welcome any information about this house. Just holler out if you got something to share!


"Our tour would be cut short if we stopped here, so since we are in the neighborhood let's swing on over to the prostegious Hancock Park so everyone can get a look at his other home...

"This beautiful Tuscany estate was designed by Smale & Blaize architects in 1923. It spans nearly 6,000 square feet, with six bedrooms and six bathrooms, a grand foyer entrance and a beautiful water fountain in the back. The house was featured in Architectural Digest a few years later but by 1926 Norma Talmadge was tired of the place and plans were underway to have the Italian villa built. 

"Yes, it's no wonder Buster has a sad face....such opulence and yet such discontentment."

543 South Murfield Rd, Los Angeles

Up-to-Date Note : The South Murfield house looks as glamorous as ever and recently sold for $3,895,000. 

This post is apart of the Silver Scenes Hollywood Home Tour, hosted by Al the bus driver.

Hollywood Home Tour - Hattie McDaniel's Estate

" Just around the corner, less than two miles from Eddie Anderson's palatial mansion, we come to Hattie McDaniel's estate. Hattie McDaniel was one of the most popular African-American actresses in Hollywood from the early 1930s-1950. Her house is coming up on the left here....I'll stop the bus in front if anyone wants to take photographs. "

2203 South Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles 

" Wow, that's beautiful! " ( bus passenger )

" Yes sir, it sure is. Ms. McDaniel purchased this home in 1941, but not after a fight. Some of her neighbors complained that there was a 'restricted covenant' in West Adams Heights, dating back to 1902 that prevented the house being sold to non-Caucasians and so she had to fight that lawsuit in court...and she won. Louise Beavers and Ethel Waters were able to save their homes in West Adams because of this action as well.  

" There are 17 rooms in all, a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry,  kitchen, service porch, library, and four bedrooms. It was decorated in a Chinese theme. Every year she would hold a big party and many of the legends of Hollywood attended - including Rhett Butler... Clark Gable. 

" Hattie McDaniel died several years ago, in 1952, of breast cancer not far from here - at the Motion Picture House. She was 57 years old. " 

Up-to-date Note : Today the house is used by a non-profit organization, Families for Families. 

This post is apart of the Silver Scenes Hollywood Home Tour, hosted by Al the bus driver.

The Silver Scenes Hollywood Home Tour - Off and Away!

Did you know that it costs $45 per person to take a bus ride in Hollywood to get a glimpse of the stars homes? Ee gads, how prices have soared! What's worse, most of the grand mansions belonging to the stars of the golden age have since been demolished; so you are probably going to see Omarosa's new zillion-dollar manor or some soap opera star's overpriced Bel Air bungalow instead. 

Well, don't worry about missing out on the grand homes of the classic movie actors anymore...we're going to take you on a tour of all of the great Hollywood actors homes - AND you won't have to pay one single penny to see them! ( How lucky can you get! )

That's right, Silver Scenes is going to host their own imagination-fueled Hollywood bus tour and take you on an extra long drive past all of the now-extinct million-dollar mansions that once surrounded the fair tinsel town. How are we going to accomplish this? On a time-travelling bus. We couldn't afford a new bus so we purchased an old rusty 1956 Greyhound Viewliner and lo and behold, can you imagine our surprise when we found out that while driving in that bus you get a view of 1956 Hollywood! Super neato!

So now you'll get to see how the stars' homes looked in the good ol' days....before the 1970s slump took over LA. We'd print up a map for you to follow along with, but we aren't planning on driving around the streets in any particular order. In fact, we love a leisurely ride so much, we're only going to drive by one or two houses per month. Better make sure you use the bathroom before you leave home, this tour is going to take several years ( or however long Silver Scenes stays afloat ) to complete. Don't forget to lock the house too.

Here's Al, the bus driver now, he can tell you more about this grand tour.  Al's a great guy. He's been in this business for more years than you can count. He'll stop the bus in front of the houses if you want to take a snapshot, or even let you pick grapefruits from Richard Widmark's fruit trees. ( Mr. Widmark is used to having his grapefruits snitched by fans )

"Welcome to the Silver Scenes Hollywood Home Tour. My name is Al Starr, and I'll be your guide on this Starr-studded tour. You can pick up your free souvenir tickets at the information booth and I'll stamp them for you, otherwise just pile into the bus. It's hot outside and this baby of mine's got a brand new ice box installed!" 

( Editor's Note: Silver Scenes hired a mechanic to completely restore the bus for Al. He loves it. ) 

"Take a seat anywhere you like folks. We'll be seeing lots of great homes so make sure you got your camera. If you need any extra film during the ride just let me know...I got some spare Kodak rolls up here with me. Is everybody settled in? Well, let's begin the tour!
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" First off, let me give you all an overview of what you will be seeing on this tour. We'll start off in downtown Los Angeles, pass into Hollywood and drive by Forest Lawn Memorial Park. There, remains to be seen can be seen. Then we'll take a spin down Wilshire Blvd., head right through the heart of Beverly Hills, Sunset Boulevard and onto Bel-Air and beyond. You'll see the homes of Don Ameche, Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Doris Day, Will Rogers, Red Skeleton, Jane Withers, Ann Sothern, Sessue Hayakawa, Charlton Heston, Pal Newman, William Powell, and many many more. If you want a see a house that isn't on our route...holler out! I love to go off the beaten path. And feel free to ask questions."

"Fasten the kiddies in and grab yourself a sandwich - they're in the cooler in the back of the bus, we got chicken or liverwurst...made fresh by the Metzinger sisters. Now let's get this baby on the road!" 
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"The first home we see coming up here on your right is that of comedian Eddie Anderson, best known as Jack Benny's quipping sidekick and valet, "Rochester". Jack Benny isn't as stingy as we believe him to be! Rochester's weekly paycheck must be a heck of lot for him to afford this white palatial mansion. He must need a staff of at least six servants himself just to take care of it. And to top it all off : while other stars live on streets with general names like Palomino Drive or Carmelita Avenue, Eddie Anderson lives on Rochester Circle! Doesn't he have beautiful landscaping? "

1932 Rochester Circle, Los Angeles, California

Up-to-date Note: This once beautiful manor still stands at 1932 Rochester Circle and is now a hostel known as the Mansion Hostel. It doesn't look like the neighborhood is now what it once was. So sad....