Beverly Hills Confidential : A Century of Stars, Scandals and Murders by Schroeder Barbara & Clark Fogg

Author:Schroeder, Barbara & Clark, Fogg [Schroeder, Barbara & Clark, Fogg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Schroeder, Beverly Hills, Fogg, Crime Book
ISBN: 9780615933054
Publisher: The Answers Productions, LLC
Published: 2013-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

The murder took place at the Hayden Home at 817 North Whittier Drive

Samuel Hayden and his new wife Ann were victims of a burglary in their new home; perpetrators had cut the phone cord.

Investigators were able to lift fresh fingerprints off kitchen counters because the maid had cleaned on the morning of the murder.

Peggy King tearfully embraces her brother, crying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

1955

The “Fur King” Al Teitelbaum Case • Tenor in Trouble

In an era when furs were elegant to wear, the most coveted coats were the slinky minks from the Teitelbaum Furs store at 414 North Rodeo Drive. Owner Al Teitelbaum was a genius at marketing. The press dubbed him “Furrier to the Stars,” noting with glee that his store walls were lined not with wallpaper, but with mink. And that furry lingerie on display? Genuine ermine and real chinchilla.

Movie studios loved Teitelbaum too; his luxury fur-rental program was novel and budget friendly. Starlets were grateful as well. They couldn’t afford to buy a signature ten-thousand-dollar “Black Mist” mink, but they could afford to rent one for a night, looking like fur-wrapped Cinderellas at their movie premieres. They all wanted to look as exquisite as Marilyn Monroe did when she covered up her famous cleavage with one of Teitelbaum’s snow-white mink stoles, lined with triple-pleated ivory silk.

About the only thing Teitelbaum enjoyed more than draping an icon in one of his sixty-five-thousand-dollar black Russian sables, was socializing with the celebs. When the once-famous superstar singer Mario Lanza was down on his luck and in a career slump, he came to his friend Teitelbaum for help; would the furrier consider buying back the furs Lanza had bought for his wife? The operatic tenor was in serious financial trouble—he’d squandered his fortune and had failed miserably at an attempt to become a pop-singing movie star—and now the IRS was after him for back taxes.

Teitelbaum sensed an opportunity. Maybe he could make some money by resurrecting the singer’s career; after all, Lanza had been RCA’s best-selling artist at one time. A 1951 Time magazine cover called him “The Voice of the Century.” He made the singer a deal: not only would he buy back the furs, but he would also loan Lanza some money to pay his bills. In exchange, Teitelbaum would become Lanza’s personal manager and do for him what he’d done for the fur business: market him to success.

Lanza happily accepted the offer. His career was cold as ice; maybe the furrier could warm it up. Unfortunately, Lanza wasn’t the cash cow Teitelbaum had hoped for. The singer was a wreck, struggling with extreme weight gains and losses, showing up drunk at the big comeback event that Teitelbaum set up in Las Vegas. There would be no prosperous payday.

The fur business wasn’t what it used to be, either. Demand was down, and soon Teitelbaum found himself in need of money. While he never would have sold fake furs, it apparently did occur to him to engineer a fake robbery and collect hundreds of thousands in insurance money.

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