Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182 pp., 1930s
"One of Santa Monica's favorite sons, Leo Carrillo, chose a wooded strip of land along the creek for his home, an adobe hacienda with a barn and ample spaces for horses. Leo was a true Californio, tracing his ancestry back to Raymundo Carrillo, who arrived in California in 1769 as a soldier with the Portolá party and settled in Santa Barbara. His father, Juan, came to Santa Monica in 1881, started out as a fisherman and later rose to prominence as a judge and first president of the city's trustees.
"Leo was one of thirteen children and the most famous. He began his acting career on the stage in New York, and after returning to California appeared in some fifty films. He was a familiar sight at parades and other public events, with his white horse, elaborate outfits, and fancy silver saddles . . . A good friend of Will Rogers, he was an avid polo fan . . . Another close friend was Earl Warren; after managing Warren's successful gubernatorial campaign, Leo was appointed to the state parks commission, a post he held with distinction . . . His brothers Ottie and Jack also had homes in the canyon.
" . . ."
"533 West Rustic-The original house, which is still located at the rear, was commissioned by a Mrs. Montgomery and designed by architect John Byers in 1930 for sculptors Olger and Helen Jensen and their family. Helen make lifelike sculptures; his were less representational. They were known for such diverse work as the statue of Senator Jones in Santa Monica, a bust of Dr. Rufus B. von KleinSmid, animals at the San Diego zoo and the popular, "Laughing Head." . . .
" . . . Later the house was occupied by Nicolai Fechin, the famous Russian artist . . . who has a permanent exhibit at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City . . .
"After Fechin died in 1955, the house was sold to Sergei Bongart (-1985), a Russian artist who had come to the United States in 1947. . . he was the subject of the opening segment on the PBS series, "Profiles in American Art." . . . He married one of his students, Patricia LaGrand. . . ."
"487 Mesa . . . Douglas Shearer, brother of Norma Shearer and chief MGM sound technician, who was married to Marion, known for her friendliness and turned their badminton court on East Rustic Road into a social center for the lively group of artists and writers who lived in the neighborhood. It all came to an end in the mid-1930s, when she learned of her husband's infidelity and took her own life at the shooting gallery on the Ocean Park pier."
"410 Mesa . . . occupied in the 1930s by C.P.L. (Cecil Phillips Livingston) Nicholls, Superintendent of Aquatics, Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. His wife, Josephine, was a trained artist, specializing in watercolors . . . Nicholls developed the city system of thirty-two swimming pools, the chain of public beaches, the lifeguard system, several mountain parks, and the Cabrillo Beach Marine Museum. He organized aquatic events and was involved in the Olympic Games and the building of the Olympic pool in Exposition Park . . . "