"Pandemonium" at 470 Layton Drive

When I was browsing fan magazine articles about Franchot and Carole Landis' relationship earlier this year, I stumbled upon this article about Franchot living at the Layton Drive address with photographs! This is the home listed on Franchot's World War II draft card (here) that I did a brief post on last year (here.) When Bubbles Schinasi and actor Wayne Morris called it quits leaving their home vacant and open to tenants, Franchot and his pal Burgess Meredith ("as gay a brace of bachelors as ever haunted the sleep of the countless impressionable co-eds throughout our wonderful democracy") moved in. Hollywood was surprised that two bachelors would take on a large, elegant property. Jimmy Durante even asked, "Those guys and that house—what have they got in common?"

How did they end up living in such style? Burgess settled into the extra room at Jimmy Stewart's Santa Monica house when he arrived in Hollywood for film work. Soon, photographer John Swope became Jimmy and Burgess' housemate as well. All men enjoying and being popular with the ladies, the house grew crowded fast. Buzz (as Burgess was known to friends) found a beach house in need of repairs to reside in, but Jimmy and John didn't want to break up the gang. It was decided that the beach house would just be for Buzz to sleep in, but the guys would all hang out at Jimmy's house during waking hours.

Then, Franchot arrived from New York and needed a place to stay. Franchot and Buzz were roommates in New York shortly after Franchot's divorce from Joan Crawford and remained lifelong friends. Both Franchot and Buzz were acting in plays at the time and found they shared equal passion for acting and being fixtures at the hottest nightspots. Buzz and Franchot decided to lease the Morrises' chateau, now nicknamed Pandemonium. Their neighbors included Nelson Eddy, Anna Sten, and Frank Capra. Franchot felt the place was perfect for his return to Hollywood as a bachelor.

Franchot and Buzz threw a cocktail party after getting settled in and locating domestic servants. In the article, the descriptions of the rooms are pretty exaggerated in comparison to the photographs. Yes, they are beautiful, large nice rooms, but Screenland refers to their living room as "Dali-esque." Their living room was described as a "surrealistic masterpiece...The walls were a pale blue set off by a gray carpet. Two disconsolate love seats done in yellow leather hugged the fireplace, over which a mural by Lee Blair (a South American cockfight framed in blue mirror) looked down..."

The living room.

Buzz's room was decorated in red and white walls ("calculated to woo sleep"), a sea green carpeted floor, and "flaming" draperies.

The bedroom of Burgess Meredith.

Franchot shared his room with a Great Dane named Bad Boy (pictured with Buzz and Franchot in the top photo), who used the former outdoor tennis court as his play area. Franchot's room would "stand up as the most sexy and glamorous bedroom in Hollywood...it houses the biggest bed in California—a little number measuring exactly ten feet long, ensconced on a pale grey rug and sporting a half-canopy of coral fish net...the walls are pale blue...the lights are soft and harem-like."

The bedroom of Franchot Tone.

Burgess would recall in his biography and he and Franchot "shared many a bottle and many a girl, both in New York and Hollywood, in our bachelor days. There were also some quiet times in Canada at his hunting lodge...But he enjoyed life to the end, loving and being loved by an army of fans and friends..."

Sources:
Franchey, John R. Hollywood's Gayest Bachelors! Screenland. May 1941. p. 28-29, 88. 
Meredith, Burgess. So Far, so Good: A Memoir. Boston: Little, Brown, 1994. 72-76. 

On Publicity Leaps and the Crawford-Tone Theatre

Even though Katharine Hepburn had apparently ordered that all reporters be kept off the set of Quality Street, Franchot smuggled Ben Maddox of Screenland into his dressing room. Maddox reported that Franchot was "secretly amused at such temperament".  With Maddox, Franchot shared:

This mold I've had to pour myself into is a fierce one to take.  What can I do? When I got my contract with Metro, before I'd even stepped onto the train, a leading columnist announced me as a society playboy whose chief objective was backing shows! Well, I had more surprises. I arrived here to be nearly typed as a stuffed shirt hero. Next I learned that all that interviewers really wanted from me was data on Joan. There's no one I'd rather discuss, but not publicly. It's presumptuous of me; anyway, I've no desire to cash in on her success! Out here they're so anxious for fancy scoops that they leap to amazing conclusions. They leap so fast and frequently that after a bit I figured, "Oh, what's the use of denying that dizzy tale? Another whopper will be circulating in its place next week!"

Franchot then illustrated his point by talking about the theatre at the Crawford-Tone residence:

For instance, that myth about the little theatre we have in our garden should be exploded. It is not for Joan to learn stage acting in, and never was so intended! I've read that it was built so I could teach her the technique of the footlights. That's a sample of the incredible situations I've been in since I've been here. Joan doesn't require any special coaching from me or anyone else to be able to act on the stage. She is an actress. And she couldn't do much emoting in that theatre of ours, despite the touching tale that was printed of horrible stage-fright when she made her debut the other evening — before our customary 'gathering of intellectuals.' They're another joke, incidentally. We have interesting friends, but none of us claim to be "intellectuals"! To get this matter of the theatre straightened out once and for all, when the swimming pool was put in Joan designed a bathhouse for one side and a small, matching theatre for the other. Just a theatre where movies could be run. The widely touted stage is nothing more than a raised platform, elevated so that our sound machine will go underneath it!

Joan & Franchot's Brentwood Home. Source: www.ebay.com