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At home with Joan in Holmby Hills, 1947
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"Actors are a singular breed," remarked Joan Bennett, notiing the "priceless
privelege of having been born into the theatre."
ABOVE:
At the driveway's arc, espaliered magnolias framed the entrance of Bennett's
Wallace Neff-designed house in Holmby Hills.
ABOVE:
Balconies ringed the circular entrance hall.
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In 1937 Bennett, at the time a divorced mother of two, embarked on the construction
of the 14-room French provincial-style house that would make her, as she put it, "one of the landed gentry." She encountered
"builders, contractors, decorators, and all the attendant labors and pleasures of building a dream house."
ABOVE:
Bennett, in 1947, crosses the expansive rear lawn where she had hosted numerous
war-bond sales events.
Books had always been important to Bennett, but it was her husband of 25 years,
Walter Wanger ("an erudite man," she commented, "interested in a world that went beyond the sometimes superficial and insular
one of Hollywood."), who would introduce rare and first editions to the household.
ABOVE:
Wanger was a six-time president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences;
the oak-paneled library later served as his office.
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Bennett wanted "a home life as free as possible from . . . problems that were
neither natural or necessary to childhood."
ABOVE:
The formal dining room ("No area was off-limits to us," recalls Diana Anderson,
the eldest of her four daughters) featured scenic paper on the walls.
The living room was decorated in bright yellows and blues; its brick hearth
was a favorite family gathering place.
In 1943, on "a Mother's Day to remember," wrote Bennett, the house caught fire,
looking for the next several months "like Wuthering Heights after a blitz." It took over a year to rebuild: The architecture
was duplicated exactly; the interiors retained their French provincial style.
The master bedroom was defined by the generous use of a blue-and-peach chintz.
At the time of the fire Bennett had finished filming MARGIN FOR ERROR and routinely worked at her bedroom desk organizing
clippings and publicity photos. The memorabilia ("fourteen years of my career") was destroyed in the blaze, and she
thereafter "never collected so much as a scrap."
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1947
Joan Bennett, Diana Anderson, Diana Markey, Melinda Markey, Melinda
Beno, Stephanie Wanger, Stephanie Guest, Shelley Wanger, Shelley Mortimer, John Marion Fox, Gene Markey, Walter Wanger, Richard
Bennett, Constance Bennett, Barbara Bennett, Barbara Downey, Adrienne Morrison, Adrienne Bennett, Mabel Bennett, Mabel Morrison,
Adrienne Ralston Fox, www.joanbennett.net
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