Norma Shearer & George Hurrell

Norma Shearer as photographed by George Hurrell, Hollywood, 1932.

Murder At The Greystone Mansion

The largest home ever built in Beverly Hills, Greystone manor, wasn't built by a movie star, even though many movies have been filmed at this spectacular estate.
This fortress-like Tudor mansion was built by famed oil-tycoon Edward Doheny in 1928, as a gift to his son Ned. Despite their incredible wealth (a fortune of over $100 million), the members of the Doheny family had their share of tragedy. Edward Doheny was involved with bribery charges in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal, and his son's life ended in a bizarre murder-suicide.
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Greystone Mansion

Out With The Stars

Ava Gardner and Mickey Rooney at Los Angeles Ambassador's Coconut Grove on 7 June 1942.

New Year's Eve 1957

Capucine fanning herself at a New Years Eve party held at Romanoffs in Beverly Hills, 1957.

Hollywood Roots

Accounts of the name, Hollywood, coming from imported English Holly then growing in the area are incorrect. The name in fact was coined by Daeida Wilcox. On a train trip to the east, Wilcox met a woman who spoke of her country home in Ohio named after a settlement of Dutch immigrants from Zwolle called "Hollywood". Daeida liked the sound of it and upon returning to Southern California, bestowed the name to the family ranch.
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Season's Greetings From Hollywood

Nighttime Noir

My sister Judith has recently launched a new radio program out of KMUN, Astoria, Oregon. Nighttime Noir, is a weekly half-hour program with stories for adults, featuring classics from Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Christopher Isherwood and others. Her current reading, “I Am Not Ashamed” by scandalous 1940s-50’s actress Barbara Peyton, is presented in six installations. This book is a juicy tell-all, chronicling the fast rise and fall of one of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses. Click Here & Listen!