In case you just tuned in, I’m doing a little fact-checking as I go through Scotty Bowers’ “Full Service.” This will be fairly tedious except to a research drudge.

Now this is interesting – at least to me.

In the last post, I was puzzled over the location of the “large house” of Jacques “Jack” Potts mentioned in “Full Service” opposite the gates to the Harold Lloyd estate. Today, the estate’s address is 1740 Green Acres Drive and I said that none of the homes on that street existed in 1946.

Fact-Checking “Full Service”: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16

All true. However, further research reveals that the Lloyd estate was subdivided in 1977 and that the original address was 1225 Benedict Canyon Drive. (Fun fact: The mansion straddles the border of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, according to The Times.)

So let’s return to the Los Angeles County assessor’s website and see if we can find what was across the street from Lloyd’s address.

Here are the results:

1160 Benedict Canyon Drive, built in 1934, remodeled in 1940.

1200 Benedict Canyon Drive, built in 1935, remodeled in 1945.

1230 Benedict Canyon Drive, built in 1932.

1234 Benedict Canyon Drive, no information listed.

1244 Benedict Canyon Drive, built in 1949.

Very well, then. Let’s keep digging.

We can rule out 1160 Benedict Canyon Drive, which was the home of “Looney Tunes” producer Leon Schlesinger, who lived there from at least 1940 until his death in 1949.

The Times also shows that in 1943, 1200 Benedict Canyon Drive was the home of Mr. and Mrs.  Henry Mackie Isaacs, an attorney for Union Pacific. The Daily Mirror’s 1946 Los Angeles Extended Area phone book lists an H.M. Isaacs at 1022 Tower Road in Beverly Hills. But it’s unclear whether this is the same Isaacs.

Times stories from 1943 and 1951 say that 1230 Benedict Canyon Drive was the home of Lindsay C. Howard, identified as a “wealthy sportsman.”

A 1953 Times story says that 1244 Benedict Canyon Drive is the home of Mrs. John Jensen.

But what’s this? The 1946 phone book lists a J.S. Potts at 1110 Benedict Canyon Drive.

Is this the Jacques “Jack” Potts who figures in Bowers’ story? It’s unclear.

Google Maps shows the distance between 1110 Benedict Canyon Drive and 1225 Benedict Canyon Drive. Not exactly across the street from each other

So even if 1110 Benedict Canyon Drive is the right house (and I haven’t confirmed that yet), it can hardly fit this description:

he pulled out of the station and headed west on Wilshire Boulevard….. About twenty minutes later we were driving up Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills…..

He gestured toward the opposite driveway and told me that it was the home of Harold Lloyd, the famous silent movie actor.

Because anybody who stopped at 1110 Benedict Canyon Drive would be 0.2 of a mile away and would have to pass the house to get to the Lloyd estate.

Hm.