In 1947, that extraordinary year for lurid headlines - "Black Dahlia Sex Fiend Killer," "Flying Disc Crash at Roswell, New Mexico" etc. - another odd story that remains a mystery to this day was the puzzling death of Vera West, head fashion designer at Universal Pictures from about 1935 to 1947. If you've seen a Universal Picture from those days - Abbott and Costello, Maria Montez, Lon Chaney Jr. and Evelyn Ankers, Deanna Durbin or Sherlock Holmes, even Hitchcock classics - the credits invariably say "Gowns by Vera West."
Vera West, head of Universal Pictures fashion, 1940's.
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Vera walked away from Universal in 1947 and it is not clear why - perhaps it was related to some turmoil involving new management during the mid 40's when the studio became Universal-International Pictures. Vera left and designed a Spring collection for a tony fashion salon at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel. In the middle of the night on June 29, 1947, she was found drowned in her swimming pool, clad in a nightgown, by a Life photographer who was renting a guest house on the property at 5119 Bluebell Avenue in North Hollywood (near Coldwater Canyon and Magnolia). Can't imagine a more difficult or unpleasant way to commit suicide than to drown yourself in a swimming pool, and West's estranged husband claimed she "hated the water," didn't know how to swim, and wouldn't go near the pool unless he was sitting nearby. It was all very strange. There were two hastily scribbled suicide notes in the house, both addressed to "Jack Chandler," although her husband's name was Jacques "Jack" C. West. The notes referred to a fortune teller who had told her that death was the only escape from a blackmailer who had dogged her for decades. Her husband, who used aliases during his life, assured police that there was no blackmailer; it was all a figment of Vera's troubled imagination.
1947 newspaper article about Vera's death
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Jacques West said that he and Vera had a violent quarrel the day of her death, that she was having health problems (including heavy drinking) and was planning to visit a divorce lawyer. He said he drove towards Santa Barbara after their fight, decided instead to stop along the highway and sleep in his car, then turned around in the morning and returned to Los Angeles, checking into a hotel in Beverly Hills where he read about his wife's death in a newspaper. Some friends of Vera's, such as 20th Century Fox fashion designer Yvonne Wood suspected murder, but had no proof or evidence, and the case was quickly closed. It does seem like one of those TV police procedurals where the cops do little follow-up, then slap a suicide verdict on the death certificate so they can move on.
Shortly after Vera's death, her husband had the beautiful William Mellenthin -designed ranch-style house with its pool and grounds bulldozed. He sold the land and "disappeared." Today, three large, generic 1970's/80's houses occupy the site.
Postscript: Don't find reference to builder and contractor William Mellenthin here at NLA, but he was a key figure during the Noir Era L.A. housing boom, building over 3,000 homes, mostly in the San Fernando Valley, from the 1930's through the 1950's.
William Mellenthin Homes Sales Office, 1930's
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From about 1934 to 1939, he built hundreds of attractive homes in a kind of 1930's "California Traditional" Ranch-House style, often with Colonial and Regency touches, especially around North Hollywood and Studio City. Similar houses are commonplace in West Los Angeles and the Brentwood flats (although I don't know the builder or builders of those). Larger Mellenthin houses might have Monterey elements. A number of Hollywood personalities such as radio and movie singer Kenny Baker and actress Gertrude Michael owned Mellenthin houses in the Valley. Mellenthin frequently used an architect named Leo F. Bachman during this period.
Typical Mellenthin House, North Hollywood, 1934
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Today, Mellenthin is primarily known as the originator - in the Valley during the 50's - of the "Birdhouse" classic suburban Southern California ranch house, which was replicated by the thousands from Glendora to Downey to Orange County. Often with birdhouses, dovecotes, or cupolas atop the roof, diamond-paned picture windows, red brick fireplaces and pine-paneled kitchens, they epitomize the family-oriented suburban Los Angeles look of the 1950's, and are still prized by many househunters. The great difference today is that their ubiquitous cedar-shake roof shingles have long been outlawed in favor of less-attractive but safer composition shingles.
Mellenthin-designed 1950's "Birdhouse" Ranch House
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Here is an interesting overview of The William Mellenthin story entitled "Before The Birdhouse - Some Early Mellenthin Houses" from a website called "Paradise Leased;'
https://paradiseleased.wordpress.com...lenthin-homes/
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Back in the day there was a Red Onion roughly where the Farmer Boys is and the AAA was a Velvet Turtle. The Red Onion attracted the under 30 crowd on weekends--the Velvet Turtle not so much. Sylvia Palmer Mudrick is the retired PIO for the City of Fullerton and a friend of mine.
--joining the few, the proud . . .
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