One of the less savory aspects of the William Talman raid in 1960 was one of the members of the party: Lola DeWitt.
On March 12, 1960, TV show Perry Mason actor William Talman was arrested in West Hollywood, along with seven others, on narcotics charges after officers found marijuana.
Besides Talman, we have his friend James H. Baker, a producer, a married couple, Peter and Suzanne Helpelt, a married woman named Mrs. Peggy Louise Flannigan who later married Talman, and a woman named Mrs. Willie Donovan.
Another member, Richard Reibold, the host of the party, could barely be called respectable. Reibold held a high-paying ad executive job. But only a few years before, Reibold had been accused of attempting to kidnap and rape Mrs. Ann Burkhard, 24, from the Bloomingdale’s department store in Fresh Meadows, Queens, NY.
And then we have the seventh member of the Talman group, Lola DeWitt: a human catastrophe who destroyed everything she touched.
Lola’s “Beauty Turned Her Head”
Born April 11, 1928, in Wisconsin to Luella DeWitt (later, Gunther) and Paul Douglas DeWitt, Lola DeWitt was trouble from the start.
Lola always wanted to be theatrical, her mother later recounted. Even as a little girl, Lola craved the limelight.
Mrs. DeWitt said that her daughter was beautiful, perhaps even “too beautiful.” This may very well have been mother-daughter rivalry, because Lola DeWitt was attractive but not a stunner. Still, Lola may have gained some of the male attention her less-than-attractive mother Luella DeWitt never had.
According to her mother, Lola’s beauty as a young girl “turned her head” and it was enough to get her in with fast company.
Lola and Freddie Stewart
Then Lola DeWitt met, married, and became pregnant by Freddie Stewart.
Born Morris Joseph Lazar, Stewart shed his name for a more Anglo-Saxon one–a common practice in show business at the time. He combined the names of Freddie Bartholemew and James Stewart to produce Freddie Stewart.
Freddie Stewart was in show business but he wasn’t exactly fast company. In fact, he was an ambitious actor and big band singer of some renown at the time.
On January 13, 1952, Lola gave birth to a daughter, Fancy.
If Lola DeWitt knew what was best for her, she would have played it straight and stuck with Stewart. But thankfully for Stewart, they separated and they went their separate ways.
And Lola just kept getting in trouble. Next time, in New York.
Lola’s New York Arrest
Lola DeWitt was now living in New York, sharing an apartment at 333 West 56th Street. DeWitt had managed to secure a part as a maid in the comedy play Pajama Tops.
A French bedroom farce starring Diana Barrymore, Pajama Tops was a knock-off of the wildly popular and better known Pajama Game. The copycat show even prompted the producers of Pajama Game to sue the Pajama Tops producers–a suit they lost.
Pajama Tops could have been an avenue to the limelight that Lola so desired, except she managed to wreck her prospects once again.
On February 12, 1953, at 3:13 am at the Lyric Theater, 229 W. 42nd St. New York, Lola DeWitt was arrested for assaulting an officer.
Lola and companion TV actor James T. Robinson went to a late showing of the movie “Stop, You’re Killing Me.”
Lola lit a cigarette. The theater’s security guard asked her to put it out; she refused.
“Go away, you’re bothering me–drop dead,” she told the guard.
The guard called the New York City Police. Officer George Intermont showed up and asked her to put it out. She once again refused.
“I came here to be entertained,” she said to Intermont. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
As Intermont tried to haul DeWitt back to the station, DeWitt attacked Intermont.
The judge sentenced DeWitt to 30 days in women’s jail.
On December 29, 1954, she was fired from the play for “insolence and insubordination.”
Harry Clay Blaney, a producer of the play said that she showed a “complete disinterest” in the play and that she often failed to appear.
Lola Kills Fancy
As DeWitt pursued her acting career, she would bring her daughter to the theaters and even to clubs late at night.
Said one fellow actor:
[DeWitt] used to bring three-year-old Fancy, her adorable little daughter, to the Blackstone Theater in Chicago every night and keep her in the dressing room. Afterwards, she and the child would go night-clubbing until the wee hours. Several members of the company, including myself, thought more than once of reporting her to the Children’s Aid Society, but never did anything about it. I’ve a hunch the others are experiencing deep feelings of remorse today. I know I am.
On February 26, 1955, Lola DeWitt killed 3 year-old Fancy Stewart at the Hayes Hotel, 6345 University Ave., Chicago.
She was sentenced to Elgin State Hospital on October 19, 1956 and was freed on April 5, 1957. Before that, she spent 10 months in prison in Kankakee. So, DeWitt spent about 14 months in prison for killing her daughter.
Lola DeWitt made it out to Los Angeles to continue her acting, but nothing really came of that. She spent most of the time as a prostitute for parties like the one at Richard Reibold’s home that William Talman attended.
DeWitt died on February 19, 1967.
