Wonderful Wanda Wiley … Who? Part Two – lost on Beaudry
Wonderful Wanda Wiley is my favorite rediscovered silent film comedienne. Her charm, girl-next-door appeal, and athletic stunt-work are on great display in her 1927 comedy short A Thrilling Romance.
Wanda portrays a struggling novelist, buried by stacks of rejection letters.
Things get worse when the mailman throws back Wanda’s piles of rejection letters, prompting her apartment landlady to evict Wanda by unceremoniously rolling her down two flights of stairs.
Wanda’s apartment setting intrigued me, so many unique details – the strangely configured corners, upper floor entrance stairs, a small store to the left side (notice the “OLF’S GROCERIES at back), the 327 address, and the uphill corner at right.
The apartment also stood on a corner a very short block from a trolley line (see the passing trolley above right).
While the “OLF’S” grocery store sign clue led nowhere, a breakthrough came noticing the sign for “TEMPLE SWEET SHOP” across the street. Temple Street had an active trolley line.
Wanda’s apartment (star) stood on the corner of Beaudry (blue) and Angelina near Temple (orange) -1909 map. The wonderful circle of homes on North Court – South Court now lie beneath the 110 Freeway.
By tracing vintage maps and aerial photos, I noticed a matching configuration of streets and corners at Beaudry Avenue at Angelina just south of Temple.
Wanda’s “327” address appears on the building, and a quick search for “327 Beaudry” on the Calisphere photo archive search site revealed three remarkably detailed photos of the now lost building.
As we see, Wanda filmed at the Northwest Apartments (now lost) at 327 N. Beaudry on the southwest corner of Angelina. The apartments were later occupied by Japanese-Americans prior to their evacuation to internment camps in 1942.
It’s rare to ponder about an unusual filming location, suddenly solve it, and then quickly find three separate vintage photos precisely documenting the long lost site.
As mentioned, despite her glamor and charm, Wanda was a slapstick heroine. Also from A Thrilling Romance, that’s her leaping between moving automobiles, heading south down Vine St., as described in my first post about Wanda. The post also shows Wanda filming on Vine south of the Famous-Players Lasky Studio – please read the post HERE.
It’s tragic Wanda has been almost completely forgotten, and that nearly all of her films are lost. But you can enjoy several of her films on Joseph Blough’s YouTube Channel, including Queen of Aces (1925) HERE, Won By Law (1925) HERE, Jane’s Trouble (1926) HERE, and Even Up (1927) HERE, as well as A Thrilling Romance posted below. Also, thanks to author/historian Jim Dawson for reminding me Ben Model and Steve Massa host the Danish Film Institute’s copy of Wanda’s A Speedy Marriage (1925) HERE. I hope you’ll check my YouTube Channel as well.
Below, Wanda’s long lost apartment stood on this now empty near left corner of Angelina St.
