Beverly Hills Confidential : A Century of Stars, Scandals and Murders

by Schroeder, Barbara

  Frankly, it’s a story told throughout the ages in places all over the world, but it plays much more dramatically in Beverly Hills, a town that’s renowned for its glamour, all shiny and irresistible. Beverly Hills has earned its rightful place in the pantheon of famed cities. “If there were a Camelot on earth,” a city councilman once said, “it would be Beverly Hills.” A Camelot, may we submit, filled with secrets as dark as the sunshine is bright.

  Acknowledgements

  First, we’d especially like to thank Beverly Hills Chief of Police Dave Snowden for his love of history and for introducing us. His simple “You two should meet” started it all. Retired Officer Richard L. Clason and his careful documentation proved invaluable to this project, as did the late Chief Clinton Anderson’s book, Beverly Hills is My Beat, and officers’ scrapbooks found in the Beverly Hills Police Department archives, particularly the one from the late Captain Ray Borders. Many thanks to Beverly Hills Reserve Officer Michael Schwab for opening doors to get this project up and running.

  We’d also like to thank the caretakers of history who helped on this adventure, especially the archivists and librarians whose professionalism was exemplary: Gail Stein, City of Beverly Hills historian and archivist; and Christina Rice, acting senior librarian and manager of the photography collection at the Los Angeles Public Library, as well as her team of Terri Garst, Fernando Sauceda, and Katarina Mekel. Special thanks to the UCLA Special Collections Library, where Angela Riggio, Carol Nishijima, Ann Watanabe-Rocco, and Brandon Bardon provided much invaluable help. Our gratitude to Erica Varela and the team at the Los Angeles Times. Dace Taube, head of the Special Collections at USC Doheny Memorial Library, lived up to her stellar reputation in every way, and we are grateful for her assistance. We thank, too, Katherine Timme for her expertise on the history of Greystone Mansion, and Delmar Watson Photography Curator Antoinette Watson, Daniel Watson, and his father Garry, who endeared us with stories from news-photography days in the 1950s. It was a pleasure to work with Marc Wanamaker, the founder of Bison Archives. We are so glad we met Gregory Paul Williams, author of The Story of Hollywood, and had access to his incredible Cliff Wesselmann collection.

  Several books by journalists long gone proved to be a treasure trove of background information, none more so than Newspaper Woman by Los Angeles Evening Herald & Express City Editor Agnes Underwood, and My Hollywood Story by Adela Rogers St. Johns.

  Many thanks for the conversations and information provided by the following: investigative journalist Pat Lalama, former L.A. Times reporter Cecilia Rasmussen; Tim Bird from the antique car dealership, The Chequered Flag; Darrell Rooney, co-author of Harlow in Hollywood; and Bob Board, Marion Davies’s number-one fan. Thanks to Ernest Marquez, author of Noir Afloat, for his input, and to Paul Chamberlain, a former FBI agent with intel he still won’t share, a class act all the way.

  To graphic designer Hilary Lentini and her team, Alan Altur, Allie Williams, Leanna Hanson, and Tory Black: we can’t thank you enough for bringing this book to visual life. And finally to the Angel City Press team, Jim Schneeweis, Lynn Relfe, intern Niree Perian, the ever-vigilant Scott McAuley and, most of all, Paddy Calistro McAuley; your vision and skill made this book everything we hoped it could be.

  —Barbara Schroeder and Clark Fogg