Mrs. Paddleford

Nazimova’s neighbor, oilman George Paddleford, became the talk of Hollywood when he divorced his wife Genevieve, who’d proved to be a world-class grifter and gold-digger and whom he called “an International love pirate.” A few years later, thrice-married Hersee Gross set her sights on George Carson, a never-married, lifelong desert miner in his fifties who just won $20 million ($270 million today) in a lawsuit against the Anaconda Mining Company. The newlyweds set up housekeeping at Hersee’s house on the Sunset Strip, but there was trouble from the start. Before they divorced, Hersee built a castle called Mt. Kalmia on the Strip, which is still standing and was recently owned by Johnny Depp.