Just received this Silver Screen article from 1938. Notable is the reference to Nelson and his mother as just moving from their home high atop Misty Mountain after he returned home from the studio to find 5 cars with out of town license plates and tourists making merry in his pool. This corroborates he was living there in 1937/38. Police records also indicate a June 25, 1937 auto accident where he listed his address as 1330 Angelo Drive. Now it gets confusing after this; a long blog titled Paradise Leased includes details of the Walter Neff estate which was sprawling and included multiple buildings on the property. The main estate, Enchanted Hill was owned by Frances Marion and her cowboy star husband, Fred Thompson and was later leveled by billionaire Paul Allen. Nelson dated Frances (a widow) in the mid-30s after he and Jeanette broke up in 1936 (during Rose Marie). He must have learned of the availability of leasing one of the buildings via Frances. At some point in 38 he leased another, more secluded property on the estate, the cowboy bunkhouse that he renovated as a hideaway for him and Jeanette which they simply called Mists. Anyway, this is an excellent article.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 02:04:22 +0000