Peter the Hermit: The Original Hollywood Character
May 22, 2009 § 52 Comments
One of the great pleasures of making documentaries is interviewing someone who not only remembers great swaths of the past but is able to provide some perspective on them. Such a interviewee was Milt Entwistle, Peg’s brother, who at 90 vividly recalled his bucolic childhood in Beachwood Canyon as well as its Depression Era privations.
I had heard of Peter the Hermit, a Beachwood resident who during the 20’s and 30’s made his living impersonating a Biblical character on Hollywood Boulevard, where he posed for photographs with tourists. He was a legend. But Milt actually knew him and was able to report that Peter didn’t like kids. He also described the Hermit’s workday attire: long gray beard, staff and white robes, as well as his omnipresent collie dog. What this getup had to do with Hollywood is unclear, but to my mind proves Peter was the first to ply the tourist trade in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
Jack Sparrow, Hollywood & Highland. Photo by Hope Anderson Productions.
Last fall, while I was waiting at Hollywood and Highland for my son and his girlfriend to meet me at a screening, I struck up a conversation with the Jack Sparrow imitator, who can be seen stalking up and down the Boulevard seven days a week. After watching Jack give balloon animals to several kids whose mothers didn’t bother to tip, I felt compelled to give him some money. I also felt compelled to tell him about Peter the Hermit. “He was the original guy in costume in front of the Chinese,” I said. Not surprisingly, Jack Sparrow hadn’t heard of his patron saint, though he listened politely to the story before asking me for a job.
The main reason Peter the Hermit didn’t make it into the documentary is that I couldn’t find a single photo of him, despite long searches on the Internet and through library collections. Even James Zeruk, Peg’s tireless researcher, couldn’t find one. A lack of photographic evidence is always a dealbreaker in documentaries, but in Peter’s case it was also hugely ironic. How could a man who posed with thousands of tourists leave behind not a single photo of himself? I imagined countless Midwestern attics hiding albums of long-ago trips to Hollywood, complete with photos of Peter, under blankets of dust. But it didn’t help me.
Then today, out of the blue, James sent me this:
peter the hermit
This photo of Peter (and two very well-dressed, unidentified men) comes from Jeanne Ringland. She found it in the collection of her grandfather, Fred Allen Edgeworth, who worked as a still photographer for D.W. Griffiths and Mack Sennett and lived in Hollywood during the 20’s and early 30’s.
It’s always a pleasure to find an undiscovered piece of Hollywood history. Thank you, Jeanne and James. And thank you, Milt, for telling me about Peter the Hermit.
Under the Hollywood Sign 
I grew up in Hollywood, as did my father, who graduated from the first graduating class of hollywood high school (i graduated in 69). Anyway, i remember peter, and saw him often when i was a boy wandering the blvd. He spoke to me once, when i was entering an health food store, one of the first, on the blvd. He told me i was doing the right thing and smiled. He after that would always wave a hello to me. Funny, I handt thought of him in many years. Nice article.
Thanks for writing–I had no idea Peter was around so recently. I wonder when he passed away?
I knew Peter the hermit in 1956. He lived in a shack he built on my Dads property at 11700 1/2 Ventura Blvd studio city. Each morming he went scabbing behind grocery stores for his food and really lived as a hermit.
Robert Wurth bjwurth@aol.com
Robert, It’s heartening to confirm from your eyewitness account that Uncle Peter really was there. Looking back after meeting him all those years ago, and even recently finding the very row house where he lived, it seems like a dream or a fleeting image from a CinemaScope movie. To relive my memorable meeting with him, you can visit my blog post at http://peterhgreen.com/blog/?p=239 Peter
After doing some research after buying an old photograph at a car boot sale recently – I came across your blog- and I am sure that your Peter the Hermit is the same as mine. The frame is rather delapidated but the photo sound.
Could you please return an e mail address so I can contact you, if you are interested in the photo. It is by Bruno of Hollywood and hand signed on the back of the oak frame “Peter the Hermit” of “Hollywood” – California – : it really is a stunning black and white foto and the dog is a greyhound.
By the way I am in England, so it would interest me to know that how come a foto of Peter the Hermit made it’s way across the atlantic!!
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Suzanne
How fascinating that this photograph turned up in England! I know from your description that the picture is of Peter the Hermit. Not only does the description match, but the Bruno of Hollywood imprint makes sense too. Bruno (not to be confused with Bruno Bernard, who was known as Bernard of Hollywood and was famous for his pictures of Marilyn Monroe) was a prolific local photographer. You can e-mail me at http://www.hopeandersonproductions.com
I grew up in the Hollywood Hills off of Cahuenga Blvd. I saw Peter many times either walking up Cahuenga toward the hills or down toward Hollywood Blvd. The time would have been 1950 – 1955. Iwas ten to sixteen years old.
He did like kids and would talk to us at any time. He was older than the photo you have, was somewhat stooped and used a cane. He was always dressed in white and wore sandals. No dog, but often had a donkey or burro.
Cahuenga Blvd is maybe a couple of miles from Beachwood Canyon. I never saw Peter walking anywhere but up and down Cahuenga, which would have hinted that he lived above the Hollywood Bowl or on the other side near the Hollywood Dam (now Lake Hollywood). I hiked those hills and often came on matted grass and where a fire had been built.
He often left us with a saying of some sort, I think to give us kids some insight to what was important in life. I can’t remember any of them, but I suspect they are still in my head somewhere.
How fascinating! Thanks for writing–and please let us know if you remember any of Peter’s sayings.
It might interest you to know that in 1921 Ralph Barton drew a caricature for Vanity Fair which depicts a number of Hollwood personalities, among which it appears, is Peter the Hermit. You can see it at the Wikipedia article on Barton–Peter is the first figure on the left.
Thanks for the tip–I’ll check it out.
I am an intern at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles and we actually do have some pictures of him in our archives. In fact, a few moments ago I was researching negatives of him to enter into our database, and I stumbled onto your blog. It would probably interest you to know that because he was such a local celebrity, he was actually one of the featured “stars” in a 1927 women’s personality pageant hosted in Hollywood.
Thanks for writing–I didn’t know the Natural History Museum had photo archives. I relied on the LA Public Library and USC collections for my documentary.
It is all so interesting as my father, George Morrison, painted 2 pastels portratis of Peter the Hermit when I was very small (around 1935). I have the larger one in my home. It is a fabulous portrait of Peter. The other hung in the Hollywood Men’s shop on Hollywood Blvd for years. It was of Peter standing on a hill with his Greyhound. I don’t know where that is. I wiash I did.
I spoke with him around 1960 at Hollywood & Highland near then Lee’s Drugs. He remembered sitting for the portraits and asked where they were. I told him. He passed away not long after.
Lila
Thanks so much for writing, Lila. I’d heard about the portrait in the Hollywood Men’s store from an interviewee. It would be fascinating to see the portrait you’ve kept–do you have a picture of it?
My Mother lived on Wunderland in Laurel Canyon in the 1920S and oftern played around the Hollywood sign, she told me of a “Hermit” that was a sometime actor that lived in a cave by the sign the kids would visit. from her description sounds like Peter. Ill show her some of these pics and ask her.
Yes, that was definitely Peter the Hermit. According to a newspaper interview, he moved to Laurel Canyon because construction on Hollywood Blvd. had made his life unbearable. Nevertheless, he returned to Hollywood after a year or two to pursue his livelihood.
Thanks for writing!
Talked to my Mother, That was the guy she said his name was Peter, she puts it at 1929 remembers a dog, and said he had a fig tree, which interested the kids.
In 1951 I was 6 years old and lived near Mullholland Dr. in the hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. Peter the Hermit was my friend. I used to hang out with him in his hard scrabble garden and corral where he kept his mule. He loved that mule and would give me rides on him as he walked him thru the hills. I always thought he was special and that I was too because Peter liked me and considered me his friend. I read that “he didn’t like kids”. From my experience I would say NOT TRUE!
Michael McDaniel
I recently found two bronze bookends of The Hermit at a local thrift store. The label on it says “Peter the Picturesque, Beloved Hermit of Hollywood”. They were produced by Novel-Arts of Hollywood, Copyright 1927. I would send pictures but I can’t figure out how to include them in this message. If you are interested, please reply back.
Thank you,
Jean
Hi, I too have recently found a bronze of the “Hermit” exactly as described in your 8/18/10 message except I doubt that mine is a bookend, not heavy enough but it depicts him as a smiling, bearded, casually dressed happy type person. It looks like a desk piece. I can send you a picture if you are interested. Thanks for the information, it was very interesting. Richard
Hi Richard,
sure, I would love to see a picture of your bronzed piece of THE HERMIT. My bookends are marked on the front bottom “THE HERMIT” and also have a paper label identifying him as the Hollywood Hermit along with the maker, etc. You can email me at jbower8849@aol.com.
Thank you,
Jean
In August of 1963, before returning to my final year of graduate school—in a last fling of summer and a final procrastination of my architectural thesis project—I bought a circle ticket for an extended bus tour, with stops to visit friends in El Paso, Tucson and Carlsbad Caverns, ultimately reaching Los Angeles. There I met up with Bonnie, a friend of my sister’s, who kindly acted as my chauffeur, guide and companion on my Southern California tours. She showed me the Riverside Inn—an historic hotel with its many picturesque architectural features added over the past century—the La Brea tar pits and the L. A. Zoo, among other marvels. On one sunny August day I decided to look up my great Uncle Peter Howard, my namesake and one of my grandmother’s twin brothers. Their other brother Jerry had long been deceased, but Peter, having chosen a nomadic, outdoor existence, had apparently benefited from a healthier life style.
A family legend, he had migrated from Chicago to California—a mecca for him to seek, if not fortune, a bit of fame, and the state’s noted tolerance of unconventional people. Characteristically, he was featured in the November 21, 1938 issue of Life magazine in an article entitled, “Cuckooland: Screwy California May be the Future Athens of America.” There in stark black and white, on a page headlined, “California’s Deep Desire for Population Filled the Land with Odd & Eccentric Folk,” stands Great Uncle Peter. He is shown bestriding a hillside pasture, braced by a rugged walking stick in his left hand and a trusty greyhound at his right, clad only in a dark, monkish robe and hiking boots, his white mane and beard flowing in the wind, looking mystically skyward,
beyond earthly concerns. The caption reads, “Peter the Hermit, formerly Peter Howard of Chicago, is one of the many hermits who live in wooden shacks in the hills around Hollywood. Peter likes to be close to nature. His only companions are a burro, a herd of goats and a dozen greyhounds.” I had briefed Bonnie on our eccentric family, and her eager anticipation matched mine, as we entered the city of Hollywood and began to look for Peter’s house…
If you would like the whole story, please send me an e-mail address. I appreciate seeing the studio photo from England. If I ever work up an act about my great Uncle Peter, I’ll need a proper model for the hair and beard. Thanks for your research.
Dear Peter Green,
You have no idea how many people I have told throughout my life that Peter the Hermit was my friend.
I would really like you to send me the “whole story”.
Thanks,
Michael
Michael, I’ve sent it to Hope Anderson, author of this blog, since she had a way to give me her e-mail address, and I’ll figure out how to release on the web soon.
Thanks for your continued interest. He was a character, all right. I feel lucky to have met him.
[…] Hope Anderson's blog on Peter the Hermit […]
The “whole story” is now available at http://www.peterhgreen.com/blog. I hope you enjoy it! Peter
[…] blogged her first picture of Peter the Hermit in the spring of 2009, and this past weekend shared yet another relayed vintage snap (pictured) of one of […]
As a boy growing up on Cahuenga Blvd a few blocks north of Hollywood Blvd, we saw Peter the Hermit many times. He often stopped by our house for a drink of water and to sing with us at an old pump organ my mother played. He was always dressed in his spotless white outfit that smelled of eucaliptus. We visited his home one day and met his pet donkey. I have a 8″ by 11″ black and white photo of him in good condition. I’d be happy to send it along to another admirer.
Please do! I’d love to post it, with your permission. Thank you for writing.
He had a powerful singing voice, and would dance around the floor demonstrating it. You can see my description of our meeting at the link with the “whole story” referenced above.
Please send me your mailing address so I can mail you my photo of Peter. Thanks.
i HAVE QUITE A FEW PICS OF PETER THE HERMET. They are from the 1930’s. In one he is riding a donkey,in several others he is posing with my aunt and some other children. They are from our family album.
I would love to see them. You can email me at hopeanderson09@gmail.com
It’s amazing that my Great Uncle Peter still lives on in the memory of so many. For my post about the time I traveled to Hollywood to meet him, see: http://peterhgreen.com/blog/?m=201011
Peter
I grew up in Hollywood in the early 60s and saw Peter the Hermit, an icon, walking around downtown Hollywood. I didn’t know his name, yet, and his image was like a magnet to me.
The very first time I was walking on Hollywood Boulevard by Johnny Weismuller’s Hollywood Health Foods store. Peter was talking outside with Tarzan, the ‘real’ Tarzan. I’d never seen a man such as Peter the Hermit, dressed in white cotton, thick staff and full white beard. With his strong appearance he appeared to represent some kind of a classical Truth from other centuries, a Truth I may have been searching for. I was suitably gob smacked; I’d never seen his kind of man before.
Or since!
I saw him again and again as I drove down ‘the boulevard’ never speaking with him. One sunny day I seized the opportunity and offered him a lift to where ever he was going. I found out he lived on a hill not far above the Vedanta Society Temple in H’wood. I was driving an older white pick up truck with running boards that day. Peter shook my hand, thanked me for the lift, smiling with blazing blue eyes shining like a sun through my open window. I felt warm. I remember the grip; the wizened and wrinkled hand imprinted mine; it felt like a hand from a different time and place. He stood on the running board as I slowly drove up the hill to his small bungalow. He offered me tea and fruit. He asked me with a deep commanding voice if I see auras and gave a clearer explanation of the phenomena than I’d heard before. Then Peter offered to show me his aura. I looked at him as astutely as I could manage, I was only 17, and watched transfixed as he appeared to grow in size and stature, somehow puffing himself up psychically. He was really quite serious and riveting standing in front of his white wall Peter’s sparkling blue eyes blazing into my scull and I could almost smell ozone.
I couldn’t see his aura. I’m sure it was brilliant. A few minutes later he gave me grapes and cherries and I left.
The fruit was delicious and the flavour and ambrosia of that day are still with me!
༗
Paul, Your observations are consistent with mine. If you haven’t already done so, you can read them at http://peterhgreen.com/blog/?m=201011 . Thanks for chiming in on this fascinating subject!
Just three days ago, my husband and I were reminiscing about Peter the Hermit. We both grew up in Studio City, and I attended Carpenter Avenue School near the junction of Ventura Blvd.and Laurel Canyon.
Peter was a familiar sight, traversing steep mountain paths above the school and sporting his white robes, white beard and long staff. I must say, I wondered how he managed to keep his clothes so clean living up there. I still do.
I think Peter may have lived near Errol Flynn’s house then–at least that’s the part of the mountain where we saw him. As I understood it, he had his own little shelter up there and no one bothered him about it. That wouldn’t happen now!
Peter provided a most unusual vision for us as young children –especially in the early morning when the sun shone directly on the mountain and highlighted his figure. He seemed quite biblical.
To those of us who were children in Studio City in the late 1940s, Peter stood out as a larger-than-life figure in a place where there were many larger-than-life figures. I didn’t really notice the other ones (well, there was the frequent sight of Gene Autrey driving his sparkly gold Cadillac convertible with the huge, curly steer horns on the front), but I certainly do remember Peter.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful memory. And thanks for reading Under the Hollywood Sign.
Wow! I am so glad to have found this blog! My spiritual and painting teacher, Herman Rednick, his work in on fireintheheart.net, used to live in Hollywood in the 40’s and knew Peter the Hermit. I used to hear all about him. At some point, Herman gave me the portrait he did of Peter. It is amazingly precious. Today, while going thru my grandfather, Winthrop Gage’s old photos from when he used to work on movie sets in the ’40s, there was a photo of a white haired man with a greyhound. It wasn’t labeled but it looked familiar. So, I googled Peter the Hermit and found lots of photos. It was him! Interesting… amazing circles we all travel in.
Maria,He was my great uncle–my maternal grandmother’s brother. I onlt met him once, but it was unforgettable. You can read about. it at my blog http://peterhgreen.com/blog/?m=201011 . Glad to hear from you!
Fascinating! I’ll just add my recollection. I guess it was about 1956 or 1957 when I met Peter. I was about 16 years old, and I was in the family car with my mother, of blessed memory. I were on Laurel Canyon, or maybe Ventura Blvd. near Laurel Canyon. My mother spotted Peter, and she said “There’s Peter the Hermit. Let’s offer him a lift”. Peter had his flowing white beard and was dressed all in white. I don’t recall the bilabial robes, but rather trousers and a jacket — like parts of a suit. Other people’s recollections mention biblical style clothes, so i may be mistaken about that after 50 years. I don’t recall his shirt, but that must have been white too. All very clean, as others have remembered. And, yes, there were the sandals. Well, Peter gratefully accepted the lift. He had no animal with him, and we took him a little ways up into the hills to what must have been near his dwelling. We exchanged just a few words while he was in the car. Maybe I asked “Are you Peter the Hermit”, but he answered “No, I am not a Hermit, and I have never been a Hermit.” Then he noticed that I had crossed my legs in the car, and he said “Don’t cross your legs. It’s very bad for you.” (I seem to recall that he spoke with an Irish brogue, but that may be an inauthentic recollection, based on “contamination” from other sources.) Then he got out of the car and I never saw him again. (Shortly after I moved away from the area to go to college and never returned.) Of course, he was right to reject the designation of Hermit, that word meaning someone who shuns the company of other people. Peter’s choice of life style would rather be considered marginal — living in temporary or makeshift accommodations, surviving on tips who from people who took pictures. Was he happy that way? He certainly exuded energy and confidence. So what became of him? What led him to choose that kind of life? How long did he pursue that existence? How did he finally leave the world?
Thanks for sharing your recollection, Laurin! After I wrote this, I was contacted by Peter the Hermit’s great-nephew Peter Green, whom I later met. You can read his piece here http://www.peterhgreen.com/peter-the-hermit-my-great-uncle/ As I recall, Peter the Hermit was born in Ireland; he worked as a movie extra and bit part player (often in sword-and-sandal epics) when he wasn’t plying the tourist trade on Hollywood Blvd. He lived as he wanted, for a long time occupying a cabin at the end of Beachwood Drive. He died in an apartment in Hollywood in the late 1960’s, at which point he was in his eighties and had lived in the area for over 40 years.
Thanks, Laurin, for your memories. You ask, what caused him to lead a life like that? As I’ve been able to gather, Peter Howard had several siblings–including my grandmother in Chicago, a brother Jerry,and perhaps more in County Cork Ireland. The blog post at the link tells more about him and gives some clues to his character: Irish Catholic upbringing, a wanderlust typical of his sister Mary as well and the gift of gab. As you can tell from my post, he was bit of rake, a ladies’ man, and it doesn’t surprise me that he noticed your legs, as my article also notes. He was featured in Life Magazine in the 1930s for being one of Hollywood’s unique characters, practicing, alternative religions and lifestyles.
Thanks to you,Hope, for posting the link. It still works! I hope all is well,
Best, Peter Green http://www.peterhgreen.com
I have an autographed 8×10 portrait of Peter the Hermit.
Well these folks are offering is autographed picture although they do not list a price; hand signed by the hermit although it was taken in the late 40s or early 50s so he is someone elderly in the photo:
http://leadinglightsautographs.com/arts-literary-theater/peter-the-hermit-legendary-hollywood-eccentric-laurel-canyon-interest-autographed-photo.html
I have an antique souvenir ash tray with a bust of this man, and the words Hermit of Hollywood on it. It’s a bronze color. I’ve been researching it and found this message string…
I have a newspaper obituary, clipped by my mother about “Peter the Hermit” that says he lived in a tent on Lookout Mountain. My mother and father lived on Lookout Mountain Road in the late 40s and must have known him.
Joel S. Goldsmith talked about Peter, the Hermit in several of his classes that were tape recorded between 1948-64.
The following is a transcript of one qouted story:
“We have a man in Hollywood called Peter, the Hermit, who is probably the happiest man on earth— at least if he’s ever had a moment of unhappiness, nobody has ever witnessed it, and if he’s ever had a moment of disease, nobody has ever heard him speak of it or complain of it. Materially he has nothing. In fact he hasn’t even got two of anything including a shirt.
He won’t have two of anything except shoes, and he needs two to make a pair, and he doesn’t wear those too often either— mostly in bare feet. He goes to extremes in that direction. He won’t even permit enough food in his cabin for tomorrow. No food is ever carried over from one day to the next. If there’s any food left over today, he carries it out to somebody that he thinks has less than he has. And he starts each morning with no food and no money, and then lives on that day. Whatever of joy or peace or satisfaction he’s finding in the world, then he’s finding not through exchanging money for it, or property. He’s finding it within his own being.
605B 1951 Second Portland Series – Self-Government of Organs, Functions, Food
I stumbled on this article while trying to verify a photo with a note on the back that the picture is of Peter the Hermit. It is a photo of Peter and Paul Bragg the founder of Bragg live food products, best known for their apple cider vinegar. It is a clean 8×10 image and looks to be done by a professional photographer. My guess is it is from the early 1930s. I know this is quite an old article but feel free to contact me if you are still interested
I’d be interested to see it if you want to email it
More Peter the Hermit reference:
There’s a limited edition book
Hermits of Laurel Canyon
by Bernice Cornell
The Getty Museum has ( or had) a copy.
Thanks!