We can still watch reruns of Willliam Frawley playing the grumpy old landlord, Fred Mertz, in the long-running I Love Lucy television show. He was often called upon to bring the air-headed Lucille Ball back to earth. After the show went off the air, Frawley spent five years playing in the situation comedy, My Three Sons.
Frawley’s health declined such that the studio could no longer provide him with health insurance, and he was released from the show, bringing an end to his long acting career, which spanned from 1933 to 1965.
I recently discovered that William Frawley died at the Knickerbocker Hotel, one block from where we attend church in Hollywood. After watching a movie on March 3, 1966, Frawley suffered a fatal heart attack on the sidewalk in front of the Knickerbocker, where he had previously lived. He was brought into the lobby, to no avail.
More about the Knickerbocker Hotel:
Rudolf Valentino used to hang out at the hotel bar and liked to dance tango here. On July 21, 1948, famed director, D.W. Griffith, died of a stroke while standing under the lobby’s $1 million chandelier. Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio honeymooned here in January of 1954. Elvis Presley stayed in suite 1016 while filming “Love Me Tender.” Frank Sinatra, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Mae West, Laurel & Hardy, Larry Fine (of the Three Stoges), and Cecil B DeMille all lived here.
What else is happening within one block of where I – or any of us – live our lives?
