5 Silent Film Stars who called Whitley Heights Home
Neighborhoods (and real estate listings) across Los Angeles abound with celebrity resident claims. The iconic Whitley Heights neighborhood in Hollywood is no exception, boasting dozens of film luminaries, both in front of and behind the camera. This area was never more popular than during the heyday of silent films in the 1920s. Here is a list of five silent superstars who are still bringing up the property values of Whitley Heights today.
Rudolph Valentino
Valentino only lived in Whitley Heights for a short period of time (approximately 1922-24) but because of his tremendous fame, he is probably the best-known resident of the neighborhood. He shared his two-story, eight room villa with wife Natcha Rambova, who also designed many of the interiors. When their love affair hit the skids, Valentino vacated the premises and built what would be his final home, Falcon Lair. Valentino’s Whitley Heights dwelling is the only one on this list that did not survive the construction of the 101 Freeway and was demolished in the early 1950s.
Marie Dressler
Character actress and comedienne Marie Dressler was making good on her second chance at success in Hollywood when she arrived in Whitley Heights. Dressler, a vaudeville veteran, had done well in a few early silents but was rejected as an “old fossil” in the early 1920s. Screenwriter Francis Marion helped pull Marie out of obscurity and back into the limelight, where she earned enough to purchase an exclusive address in the new neighborhood on Milner Avenue. Over the years, Dressler is rumored to have lived in three different Whitley Heights homes.
Janet Gaynor
Winner of the first Academy Award for Best Actress, Janet Gaynor was also one half of an early Hollywood power couple, her husband being the famed MGM costume designer Adrian. They lived in Whitley Heights on the secluded Watsonia Terrace, an address fit for Hollywood Royalty.
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson lived right across the street from Janey Gaynor and Adrian, and co-starred with Rudolph Valentino in 1922’s Beyond the Rocks. Her rented digs on Watsonia Terrace (where she reportedly lived while filming Sunset Boulevard) were also home to William Faulkner while he was writing in Los Angeles.
Barbara La Marr
Barbara La Marr, the girl who was deemed “too beautiful” to stay in Los Angeles alone when she ran away from home at 14, spent part of her short, intense life tucked away in a home on Whitley Terrace. She shared it with her infant son, Marvin, whom she gave birth to secretly in 1922. Marvin’s paternity was a secret La Marr took to her grave when she passed at age 29 (in 1926, the same year her neighbor Rudolph Valentino died).
Want to know more about the inhabitants of the iconic Whitley Heights neighborhood? Join us Saturday, December 3rd at 10:30 AM PT via Zoom for Famous Faces and Places of Hollywood’s Whitley Heights.