So this is my father, in a photo at a studio, surrounded by beautiful women. I have recently purchased a copy of the original photo, minus all the text. I even know now who took the picture way back in 1940. I didn’t know, until about a year ago, that these photos still existed. That they had been donated to a library here in California. The fact that at least one of the ladies is still with us, (Millicent, in the black dress), was a wonderful piece of knowledge I have also recently received. New knowledge and acquisitions have necessitated a few minor revisions to my book, but it’s all good.  Looking at this particular picture reminds me of what my mom, Norma, once told me-that Eddie enjoyed being around pretty women.  Like being surrounded by flowers.

Something I have discovered in the last five years about my father, is that Eddie enjoyed getting married, too. I learned that Norma, my mom, was his fourth wife.  I always knew Eddie had been married once before mom, and that I had a half sister from that earlier union, but the fact that Eddie had two more wives was news to me.  I only found out through my census searches.

Eddie married for the first time in 1909, to a lady born about the same time he was born, and in 1910 he and his wife had a daughter.  By 1930, Eddie’s first wife and their daughter were living in Philadelphia, and Eddie was married to his second wife, a twenty-nine year old nightclub dancer, and living in Manhattan. This second marriage only lasted two years.  By 1932, Eddie married wife number three, a twenty-two year old Trenton, New Jersey lady.  They lived in Harlem on 138th Street. This marriage was the first marriage Eddie discussed in a newspaper interview saying his wife would stay home and listen to his radio broadcasts and then tell him how he sounded. Eddie said that sometimes with him “his voice gets too high.” This third marriage lasted through 1940 or so while Eddie was in his first movie making venture.

By 1944, Eddie moved to Los Angeles, alone.  One of Eddie’s friends was Louise Beavers (an actress who appeared in the movie Imitation of Life). Eddie boarded with Louise in her house in the “Sugar Hill” district of Los Angeles, until he found and bought his own house, announcing that “he was just waiting for the right lovely to come along.”  Enter wife number four, my mom, Norma, twenty-two years old.  Mom was Eddie’s last wife, as he died in 1950.  Mom was young and beautiful, and she had a lot of young and beautiful girlfriends who were always hanging around the house, because, she said, their house was the place to be.  Eddie was a lucky man, a gentleman and a Star.

Thank you, for stopping by.