Three Days With Yvonne De Carlo

Robert Wagner

In the 1950s, actor Robert Wagner was an upcoming star, a teen heartthrob, and quite the ladies man. Before his long on-again-off-again relationship with Natalie Wood, Wagner was making the rounds with the women of Hollywood. Some were young starlets and some were already notable stars. On one occasion in the 1950s, Wagner had a brief fling with the star actress Yvonne De Carlo. 

Yvonne De Carlo

De Carlo had already made a name for herself in films like Criss Cross and Brute Force. She was still a few years away from starring in her most famous role, that of Lily Munster, in the 1960s television show, The Munsters.

Sometime in the 1950s, Wagner was on his way to the Santa Monica drive-in restaurant, Jack's at the Beach.  When Wagner pulled his 1950 Ford convertible into the restaurant parking lot he noticed in the car next to him was De Carlo. He looked her over and she nodded for for him to come over to her. Wagner then parked his car in the back of the restaurant and hopped into De Carlo's car. According to Wagner, in his book "Pieces of My Heart," their exchange went like this:

"I'm Robert Wagner."

"I know. I'm Yvonne De Carlo."

"I know. I'm such a fan of yours."

The two left Jack's at the Beach and headed for De Carlo's house. It wasn't until three days later that Wagner went back to get his car.

Wagner doesn't exactly say what happened over those three days, but like watching early movies, we can use our imagination.

A week later Wagner ran into fellow actor and playboy, Tony Curtis.  According to Wagner, Curtis said, "You can't imagine what just happened to me. I pull into Jack's at the Beach. Yvonne De Carlo pulls up next to me! She looks at me, I look at her. Well, to make a long story short..."

Jack's at the Beach (1975)

Photo: Santa Monica Public Library

Jack's at the Beach was a restaurant that started in 1917, in Venice, California, by Jack Compselides. In the 1940s, he teamed with Til Hecht, and the restaurant relocated to the Pacific Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica, where it stayed until March 1975. Above is a photo from the Santa Monica Public Library image archives showing the restaurant as it appeared in 1975. 

Steve McQueen in East Los Angeles

Steve McQueen (c) LIFE

Before all the hipsters moved into the East Los Angeles neighborhoods of Echo Park and Silver Lake, making the area cool central, the original "King of Cool," Steve McQueen, once called the place home. 

McQueen was born on March 24, 1930, in the Midwest state of Indiana and was raised there, and later Missouri, by his grandparents Victor and Lillian Crawford and a great-uncle, Claude. McQueen's father had left shortly after his birth and his mother, Julian, eventually left him with her parents. Julian, just a young 19 year-old girl when she had McQueen, still had some partying to get out of her system. She lived a wild life and traveled around, eventually making her way to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Julian met the abusive alcoholic, Hal Berri. The two married in 1937, at which time Julian uprooted McQueen from the Midwest and brought him out to Los Angeles to live with her and her new husband. The three of them lived in a home at 1810 Ewing Street in Echo Park Los Angeles.

 1966 Preston Ave, Echo Park

After moving two times in as many years, Hal, Julian and McQueen moved just around the corner from the Ewing residence, to a split level home at 1966 Preston Avenue. Depending which route you take to visit this home, driving through this residential area, which is not far from downtown Los Angeles, is like going for a roller coaster ride. There are plenty of hills so steep that when you drive up you feel like your car is going to start, not rolling, but falling backwards. By the time you get to a top of a hill you can't see the road in front of you until your car has made it over the peak, like a roller-coaster preparing for its first steep drop. The roads are also very narrow and with cars parked on the street, leaves only enough room for one car to drive down a lane at a time.

According to the book Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon, it was at this home that McQueen suffered many beatings and verbal abuse from Hal. In the book, McQueen is quoted as saying, "He apparently beat me for the sheer sadistic pleasure it gave him - which included the joy he obviously derived from my pain. I was young. I even thought of bearing the beatings, vowing simply to hold on until I was old enough to run away. But I just couldn't. It wasn't in me. I just started fighting back."

McQueen, just a child, tried fighting back but was no match for the much larger adult, Hal. 

1966 Preston Ave, Echo Park - View from Ewing Street

The photo above and the photo below are of the home at 1966 Preston Avenue but taken from Ewing Street. This side view reveals a little more of the home. The front of the home, as seen from Preston Ave, is blocked by a large wall.

1966 Preston Ave, Echo Park

McQueen, afraid to go home, often roamed around the streets of Los Angeles. This usually led to the young McQueen getting into trouble, such as stealing or getting into fights with people. Julian decided to call Claude and arranged for McQueen to move back with him in the Midwest, as an alternative to reform school.

After some time back in the Midwest, McQueen decided to runaway with a carnival, but his employment with the carnival did not last long. McQueen worked his way back to Los Angeles by hitchhiking and hopping freight trains. When McQueen made it back to Los Angeles things picked up right where he left off. Hal continued to be abusive toward McQueen and McQueen continued to get into mischief. Once, after being caught stealing hubcaps from a Cadillac, McQueen even had to appear in court.

3266 Descanso Drive, Silver Lake (Los Angeles)

By 1943, Julian and Hal divorced and Julian moved into a new home at 3266 1/2 Descanso Drive in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. This home is located not from from the house on Preston. It is also located directly at the top of the well known Laurel & Hardy "Music Box" stairs. Those stairs were made famous by Laurel & Hardy in a short film where the two men play movers who struggle to deliver a piano up what seems a never-ending flight of steps. You can learn more about the steps and see a video here.

3266 1/2 Descanso Drive, Silver Lake

McQueen stayed at the Descanso Drive residence until 1945 when he was forced by court order to stay at The Boys Republic in Chino, California. McQueen was continuing to get into trouble and The Boys Republic was a last chance effort at reforming his behaviour. The Boys Republic was and still is a combination reform school, farm, and campus for troubled teens.

3266 Descanso Drive, Silver Lake

According to the real estate site Zillow.com, the residence on Descanso Drive is a 1660 square foot home with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The site also says that the home was built in 1923 and is currently valued at $424,500. 

Your thoughts?

Howard Hughes Headquarters

Howard Hughes Headquarters

7000 Romaine Street, Hollywood, Ca

It was from this art deco building located at 7000 Romaine Street that the multi-millionaire playboy, Howard Hughes, ruled his vast empire of businesses. Other than the deco dressing, the building is quite simple, especially when you think of the impressive entrance gates that were built for the Paramount or MGM studio lots. The building, originally a bakery and then the home of Multicolor, an early color film lab, is a few blocks south of the busy Hollywood and Sunset boulevards in the more factory part of town. Nearby are several other studio lots, film labs, and other industrial buildings associated with the film business.

Hughes made his money from the Hughes Tool Company and with that money he pursued other interests including making movies and building planes. When Hughes purchased the Romaine Street building in 1927 (or 1930 depending on the source) he was already involved with the motion picture business. At that time movies were primarily in black and white, other than a few early experiments in color. Hughes, predicting color films would someday displace black & white films, the same way talking pictures did to silents, purchased Multicolor as a place to experiment with color photography. 

Hughes's most famous film, Hell's Angels, starring Jean Harlow, was filmed at the Metropolitan Studio just down the street, but the film was edited in the Romaine headquarters. In the book "Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel" by Darwin Porter, there is an interesting story about Carol Lombard being cast as a replacement to Thelma Todd in the lead role for Hell's Angels. According to the book, the following explicit exchange took place between Lombard and Hughes the day of her screen test:

"Ben Lyon tells me you like a gal with tits." Right in front of him, she manipulated her dress to expose her left breast. "You're not entitled to look at the right one until you've signed me to play Helen. Then you can have whatever you want. It's all yours, baby!"

"The part calls for a woman to be a bit of a slut," Howard said, standing up from his desk. "At least you qualify for that."

After her screen test, Hughes invited Lombard to dinner at the Brown Derby. Instead they had dinner at the Romaine headquarters where Hughes spent time showing Lombard his color film experiments. In the end, of course, Lombard didn't get the role of Helen, but that didn't stop her from becoming a popular film star.

Other well known Hughes films edited at the Romaine headquarters include Scarface, starring Paul Muni and The Outlaw, starring Jane Russell.

7000 Romaine Street, Hollywood, Ca

Although initially purchased for the color film lab, the Romaine headquarters would become the command center for all things Hughes. He oversaw his tool company, his film projects, and later his airline ventures all from the Romaine offices. Even Hughes's army of personal staff were stationed here. When Hughes needed someone picked up he dispatched a chauffeur from the Romaine building. If anyone needed to contact Hughes they needed to call the Romaine headquarters where a team was in place to transcribe messages and pass them on to Hughes. 

Today, the building looks pretty much the same as it did during Hughes's time there. I'm not sure if or what the building is being used for now, but I would love to take a tour of the inside. Could you imagine sitting in the same screening room space that Hughes once locked himself inside?!