2297 Holly Drive

2297 Holly Drive (originally listed as 2297 La Granada Drive), a multi-level Spanish style residence, was designed by architect Frederick Rowan and completed the 8 room house and detached 2-car garage in 1927.  The kitchen was remodeled in the early 1960s.  During the 1980s, a room was built over the garage to be used for storage.  In 2020, the crawl space was converted into a media room, the bedroom was enlarged on the third floor and all doors & windows were replaced.  The room above the garage is now used as a rental with the address of 2299 Holly Drive.  The house was first used as a rental.

2297 Holly Drive consists of 2,405 interior square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths and last sold in 2019 for $1,270,000.  The new owner remodeled the home beginning in 2020.  Hopefully they took the carpeting off the original hardwood floors and replaced the outdated drapery!

Newlyweds director Mervyn LeRoy and actress Edna Murphy rented this house briefly after by married on December 18, 1927.  LeRoy, 27, was a recent hire at First National Pictures and one of the youngest directors who started as a cameraman in 1920.  Murphy grew up in New York City, started modeling and began her film career at the age of 18 in a film for Vitagraph starring Alice Joyce.  Murphy first came out to Hollywood in 1924 to appear in a film for Hal Roach Studios and then returned in April 1926 with her best friend, actress Gertrude Olmstead.  

Many newspaper accounts listed Murphy as four years younger than LeRoy when they married, but she was actually 11 months older than him.  The two married in actress Colleen Moore and her husband, producer John McCormick's Beverly Hills home on December 18th.  Gertrude Olmstead was her maid of honor and McCormick stood as the best man.  Murphy was Olmstead's made of honor when she married MGM director Robert Z. Leonard in Santa Barbara a year before.  After renting 2297 Holly Drive for several months, the newlyweds rented another home just east of Beachwood Drive-2150 Hollyridge Drive where they lived for less than a year before taking a beachhouse in Malibu.

Both were busy with their careers.  Edna starred opposite Monte Blue in several Warner Brothers productions in 1928 while LeRoy was just getting his directing career started with actors Colleen Moore, Alice White, Jack Mulhall and Thelma Todd.  Two years into the marriage LeRoy directed his wife in the film "Little Johnny Jones" in which she played opposite Edward Buzzell and Alice Day.  LeRoy would later produce "The Wizard of Oz", was nominated for Best Director for "Random Harvest" in 1943, won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1976 and awarded a Star on the Walk of Fame in 1960.  

In May of 1932, Murphy's life was shattered when LeRoy came home to their beach house and told her he was leaving her outside in the moonlight.  One month later, she filed for divorce citing abandonment.  LeRoy agreed to pay her $1,000 per month in alimony as long as he continued a monthly salary of $1,750 or higher.  As soon as they were divorced, LeRoy was seen around town with actress Ginger Rogers and even rumored to be engaged.  Murphy left town abruptly and spend a year in Barcelona, Spain.  When she returned to Hollywood, October of 1933, she wanted to resume her acting career but no studio would hire her.  She was lucky to get a minor role in "Cheating Blondes" starring Thelma Todd with Larry Darmour Productions.  It would be her last film role.  Murphy took another extended vacation to Spain and later resided with her older sister in Malibu before she spent her later years in Santa Monica, never marrying again.  When she died in 1974, it was rumored that her wedding dress was displayed in her living room.  Below: The previous owner dedicated his front wall to the "Father's Right Movement" which caused somewhat of a stir in the neighborhood.  

Meanwhile, LeRoy married film executive Harry Warner's daughter, Doris in January of 1934; her uncle, Jack Warner, was his best man in the extravagant New York City wedding.  They had two children before divorcing in 1942.  In 1946, he married socialite Kitty Spiegel until his death in 1987.  In his 1974 autobiography "Mervyn LeRoy: Take One", LeRoy failed to mention his first wife or their marriage in the book.  Murphy died a year after the book was published.