Trivia

She was one of the first Californians to become rich in the motion picture industry; she was also probably the first to become an actress after being a scenario writer first. MGM chief Louis B. Mayer chose Hedy Lamarr's name in honor of Barbara La Marr.

LaMarr's beach house was blown up for a scene in the film "Inside Daisy Clover"(1965) starring Natalie Wood.

The morning after her marriage to Lawrence Converse, he was charged with bigamy. He banged his head against his cell bars, calling for her, until he was knocked unconscious.

She developed an addiction to painkillers after being prescribed morphine for a sprained ankle while on the set of Souls for Sale (1923). Supposedly it was studio-ordered so that she could continue filming.

Arrested at age 14 for underage burlesque dancing.

Was, for a time, great friends with the actor William Haines until a falling-out in 1923. They never spoke again.

In the 1920s she lived at 6672 1/2 Whitley Heights Terrace, in a Mission Revival mansion in the Whitley Highs district of the Hollywood Hills.

In 1923 she secretly had a child from one of her numerous affairs. She "adopted" the child to save face and named him Marvin Carville La Marr. After her death in 1926, little Marvin was adopted by good friend Zasu Pitts and her husband Tom Gallery. He was renamed Don Gallery.

Barbara was adopted by a foster family when she was a month-old baby. No birth certificate was ever found.

On the 1900 and 1910 Censuses for Portland, Oregon, and Fresno, California, it states that Barbara La Marr was born in the state of Washington. In the Los Angeles Times, her sister, Violet Ake, is listed as her half-sister who was from her mother Rose's first marriage. It is highly unlikely that she was adopted, and a tale that she made up for her show business career.

Although her foster family maintained she was born in North Yakima, Washington, she always listed Richmond, Virginia as her place of birth on all official documents, including marriage certificates.

Stage actress and cabaret artist.

Her brother, William W. Watson Jr, was a 20s vaudeville comedian who went by the stage name of Billy DeVore.

Phil Ainsworth, husband #3, wound up in San Quentin for passing bad checks.

Her half-sister, Violet Ake, was also an actress. In January 1913, Ake and a friend were arrested for taking 16-year-old La Marr on a car ride. Her parents issued warrants for her arrest to bring back La Marr. It was published in the Los Angeles Times.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1621 Vine Street.