About

House built in 1925 by Harry Coger, a remarried widower with three children: Hazel, Doris, and Edwin.

The Cogers came to Los Angeles from Lansing, Michigan, because of Mrs. Coger’s ill health (tuberculosis). For a short time they lived with relatives in Pasadena as they built a house on Wilton Avenue, south of Melrose. Mrs. Coger died before the home was completed.

Harry Coger became “well-to-do” in the automobile business and remarried Florence. She was keen to move into Los Angeles society and needed a grander house for entertaining. Thus, the Franklin house was built for Florence. The Wall Street crash ruined Harry Coger, and the house became a burden. Harry spent the rest of his life working in gold mines, while Florence lived in the house until she died, renting out rooms to “strange theater folk.” Any profits from the eventual sale of the house were eaten up by outstanding debts. (Source: granddaughter of Harry Coger, Marjorie Hartley, Brea, CA: 2004).

Harry S. Webb (October 15, 1892 –July 4, 1959), an American film producer, director and screenwriter, lived in the home at the time of the 1940 census.  Webb produced 100 films between 1924 and 1940. He also directed 55 films between 1924 and 1940. He was the brother of “B” film producer and director Ira S. Webb and the husband of screenwriter Rose Gordon, who wrote many of his films.

In 1933 Webb and Bernard B. Ray created Reliable Pictures Corporation with a studio at Beachwood and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Reliable produced and released many Westerns, starting with Girl Trouble (1933), until the company closed in 1937. Its final release was The Silver Trail. [1] Webb and Ray then started Metropolitan Pictures Corporation in 1938, which produced and released several films until 1940, its last being Pinto Canyon.[1] Webb then produced Westerns for Monogram Pictures. (Wikipedia)

Harry S. Webb was one of the early jack-of-all-trades in silent Hollywood, although his work was confined mostly to the “wrong side of the tracks” called Poverty Row.  Born in 1896 (some sources claim 1892), Webb broke into movies as an actor, working at what was then the largest studio on earth, “Uncle” Carl Laemmle’s Universal Pictures. After a few turns in front of the camera, Webb moved into production and, like many of Laemmle’s relatively few unrelated employees, left for what he felt were greener pastures.

In 1926, Webb hooked up with legendary serial producer Nat Levine to make the serial The Silent Flyer (1926) (ultimately sold and distributed by his old studio, Universal) just prior to the formation of Levine’s Mascot Pictures. As half of Webb-Douglas Productions, he continued at Mascot for about a year, directing the first three of the newly formed company’s cliffhanger serials. Webb-Douglas moved out from behind Mascot, continuing to produce serials and low-budget westerns.

In 1933, with Bernard B. Ray (who also worked as a director under the pseudonym “Raymond Samuels”), Webb formed Reliable Pictures, which lasted until 1937. Metropolitan Pictures, another Webb production company, briefly rose out of the ashes of Reliable. Ray soon went to work at lowly Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC), while Webb signed on with Monogram Pictures. His movie career petered out by 1941 and he spent the war working at a defense plant. Webb retired from pictures, save for a brief assistant director’s credit on Columbia’s The Parson and the Outlaw (1957). (Internet Movie Database).

Agreement for property between Cecil B. DeMille and Albert W. True et al.: Book 234, page 172, Los Angeles official records.

1930 census:
5215 Franklin Avenue (value: $36,000): 1) Harry J. Codger, head of household and owner; white male 52 years of age, married at age 35; born in Michigan; parents born in Michigan; not working; not a veteran. 2) Florence A. Codger, wife; white female 42 years of age; married at age 25; born in Minnesota; parents born in Minnesota; not working. 3) Dorris L. Codger, daughter; white female 26 years of age, single; born in Michigan; is a clerk in a collection agency. 4) Finn Buck, father-in-law; white male widower 87 years old; born in Illinois; father born in Ohio, mother born in Vermont; not working; is a veteran.

1940 census:
5215 Franklin Avenue (Value $19,000): 1) Harry S. Webb, head of household; white married male 46 years of age; born in Pennsylvania; producer in the motion picture industry; earns more than $5,000. 2) Rose Webb, wife; white married female 40 years of age; born in Indiana; secretary in a motion picture studio; earns $3,000. 3) Gordon Webb, son; white male 4 years of age; born in California. 4) Robert Webb, son; white male 2 years of age; born in California. 5) Samuel W. Webb, father; white widower 72 years of age; born in Pennsylvania; not working. 6) William Webb, brother; white single male 21 years of age; born in Pennsylvania; receptionist in a motion picture studio; earns $936. 7) Caroline George, maid; white married female 50 years of age; born in England; housekeeper in a private family; earns $420.