CELEBRITY ROW

Speaking of movie stars’ homes (“The Stars of Star Maps,” by Mary Melton, So SoCal, Aug. 25):

I grew up in the 700 block of North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Many a day, while roller-skating, I watched the procession of cars full of lookers. Star map makers of that era had a field day with Rexford. Living there were Boris Karloff, Betty Grable, Harry James, Hedy Lamarr, Orson Welles, Alice Faye, Chester Lauck (Lum of “Lum and Abner”) and Edward G. Robinson. As I recall, on Crescent and Alpine, the streets on either side of Rexford, lived Nigel Bruce (Dr. Watson of “Sherlock Holmes”), Jackie Cooper, Walter Woolf King and Norma Shearer. It was great sport getting pictures and autographs in those days. The stars would often answer their doorbells. The only two I recall inviting us kids in for lemonade were Gene Kelly and Patsy Kelly (unrelated), who lived on Rodeo. Joan Bell Jaffe

Seal Beach