Is this a house of evil destiny? That was the rumor floating around Hollywood in 1924, as 2183 Argyle Avenue earned a reputation for cursing its famous occupants — but the worst was yet to come for each of them.

“It does not look sinister,” noted Screenland writer Lucille Larrimer in “The Hoodoo House of Hollywood,” her February 1924 exposé detailing the travails of Max Linder, Mary Miles Minter, Sigrid Holmquist, and James Kirkwood. “Purple foothills hem it in. By day it looks upon clusters of cozy homes, bathed in golden sunlight and shaded by graceful pepper trees and stately eucalyptus. By night it overlooks a fairy city of a hundred thousand twinkling lights.”

But looks can be deceiving.