History Loves Company in Beverly Hills
The murals in the foyer and the animal-shaped molding in the nursery haven’t changed since 1922, when Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey, his second of four wives, moved into the modest Mediterranean-style house on North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills.
“Sometimes at night when I get in the pool, all the ghosts come out,” said the home’s owner, actress Patricia Barry, her eyes wide.
Barry and her late producer-husband, Philip Barry Jr., bought the home for $75,000 in 1964 but rented it for many years to tenants, including the consul general of South Africa. (Before they bought it, Chaplin’s estate rented the home to a who’s who of old Hollywood: Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Bill Powell and Jack Benny.)
For the last five years, Barry has lived in the house full time and never tires of sharing it. On Tuesday, she hosted a preview event (in party parlance, that’s a little party that drums up attention for a bigger one) for the Los Angeles Tony Awards Party on June 4. (That’s a party that drums up attention for a simultaneous one on a different coast.) The L.A. party features a satellite broadcast of the Tony show in New York and raises money for the Actors Fund and Aid for AIDS. (Info: [323] 933-9244, Ext. 54.)
On the patio, Barry stood under the Brazilian pepper tree around which the house was built.
“My children loved to climb this tree,” she said. Shaded by the tree’s arching limbs, the swimming pool isn’t much bigger than a bathtub. “Chaplin insisted the pool be so small because he went to the studio every day and said he had done 200 laps!”
The Barrys invited Lita over for dinner in 1992, three years before she died. Though she’d been out of the public eye for years, she resurfaced when Richard Attenborough’s film “Chaplin” was released.
“I was so nervous because it was her house,” Barry said. “But I hadn’t changed a thing, and she was thrilled.”
Lita signed a photograph that sits on a table in the living room. The crackly black-and-white is a picture of the Tramp and his 15-year-old child-bride. The inscription says: “To Patricia and Philip--in the good ol’ days in 1923 when I was 15 and he was 35.”
“Come back another day,” Barry said, “and I’ll tell you more.”
I’d love to.
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From old Hollywood to new. . . . The work that Dr. Drew Pinsky does--educating teens about sex on his “Loveline” show on KROQ-FM and on MTV--is admirable. But is the good doctor selling out?
His latest venture is “Drive Me Crazy,” a three-month Webcast to promote https://www.drdrew.com.
At the House of Blues the other night, Pinsky introduced a couple of strangers to each other before the “hopefully happy couple” embarked on a cross-country journey in a Dr. Drew-mobile (an SUV with his name splashed all over it).
Their trip will be broadcast on the Web.
I can’t imagine Pinsky advising callers that this is a healthy start to a relationship. The couple, Laurel Winslett and Ian Ford, were chosen from an open casting call. Sound familiar? Let’s hope Dr. Drew’s stunt doesn’t crash and burn like the show that made household names of Rick Rockwell and Darva Conger.
Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.
