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Chapter 24
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Ghapter 24 fter selling The Enchanted Hill, Frances moved herself and the boys and then George into two different homes, each time thinkjng that she would use it as a base to look for something more permanent . She had bought beach property in Venice with two houses on it, but in her determination to maintain their friendship, George took one of the houses after the divorce and she kept the other for weekends or renting. She was looking for a house in town when her friend Hector Turnbull, the head of the scenario department at Paramount, and his wife, Blanche, asked if she was interested in leasing their large Hollywood home for ayear while they went east. Looking forward to a retirement away from the film business, they were rebuilding a farmhousein Pennsylvania. Frances still saw Hollywood as "a quiet little village except for its few main streets." Between Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, just off Fairfax, was Selma Avenue, with half a dozen large houses, each on several acres, laced with pepper trees, magnolias, and pines. The Turnbull home, styled as an English country house and set in the middle of a beautiful garden complete with a large pond and a tennis court, looked like a great, if temporary , solution. Their next-door neighbors were the newlyweds Fay Wray and the screenwriter John Monk Saunders. Frances thought the area was growing into "a mosaic of friendly neighborhoods" and provided "a rather normal and healthful environment to bring up children."1 With George back in Venice, Frances came to feel truly at home at the house on Selma and dreaded the time when she would have to leave. Then came the news that Blanche Turnbullwasillwith pneumonia and when she died a short time later, Hector told Frances he could not possiblylive there again. He was going to settle his contract and return to Pennsylvania. Would she be interested in staying and perhaps buying the house?2 As sad as she was for Hector, Frances welcomed the opportunity to truly settle down. With the help of Billy Haines, she slowly proceeded to decorate and make it into a real home for herself, Fred, and Richard, now four and three years old. The library took on Gatsbyesque proportions and she 279 A WITHOUT LYING DOWN turned the yard into a playland for the boys. She installed swings that looked like airplanes, let them sail boats in the fish pond, and bought ornate cars they could pedal along the paths and the tennis court. Two free-standing garages, one with an apartment perfect for Ed and Sigrid, sat at the back of the property. The two-story home featured five bedrooms and several baths upstairs and a large living room, separate dining room, and a library on the main floor. Frances's favorite rooms were what she called the Pine Room, serving as an informal den and family area, and the Sun Room, with a great bay window that made it ideal for writing in the afternoon. There was plenty of room for the live-in staff and the French governess the boys called Mademoiselle. A Saint Bernard and her puppy were added to the several dogs already in residence, as were a pair of baby lambs.3 More often than not, Frances would awaken before dawn and write in bed for several hours before the boys came in to greet her at seven. "Her hair was down, but she was sitting up with papers all over her bed." She'd make her early-morning phone calls to friends like Hedda and her sister-inlaw Janet, "starting the day off on a high note, intermingled with laughter. Some were gay and full of hope, some talks were philosophical. Sometimes we merely let off steam, but they were a ritual part of my day." By nine, Frances was up, "dressed and ready for work and wearing pearls" when a secretary arrived to type up the product from her yellow pad. She usually headed to the studio in time for lunch and afternoon meetings, with evenings often filled with previews, screenings, and more meetings.4 On her way home from Europe, Frances had started several original stories , including a comedic drama about a chorus girl, designed for Marion Davies. She called it Three Blondes and while there were already several scripts in varying degrees of completion with that name in the studiofiles, Frances's was a new tale entirely.5 Thalberg approved her treatment of "the...