Milwaukee Gives Up a Few More Secrets

There are countless stories about well-known people with connections to Milwaukee in one way or another. Some people have enriched the city by having been here. Others, not so much…

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Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols

In the mid-1950s, actress Nichelle Nichols, a talented singer and entertainer, was in town for a two-week engagement at the Tradewinds nightclub. The jazz club, at Third and Kilbourn, had alleged financial ties to Frank Balistrieri, a boxing and concert promoter who owned a number of Downtown entertainment spots. Nichols’ shows were filling the venue nightly and Balistrieri convinced her to perform at the club for another 10 weeks. 

She came to regret the decision to stay in town because one of the Tradewinds’ regulars was prominent criminal defense attorney Dominic Frinzi. He began paying too much attention to her, offering Nichols a fur coat and expensive jewelry. He also invited her to an apartment in the Jackson Hotel. In her autobiography, Nichols said she was uncomfortable with accepting any the gifts because, “In his $1,000 silk suits, he was suave and cunning as a snake”.

Nichols, familiar to Star Trek fans as communications officer Uhura, had another brush with the underworld as a child. Her father, Samuel Nichols, was the mayor of Robbins, Illinois, a small town near Chicago. Nichols was terrified when three men in dark suits unexpectedly showed up at the familiy’s front door. One of them introduced himself as Ralph, the brother of “Scarface” Al Capone. Nichols immediately knew the men had come to kill him for stealing from the Chicago mob. After Nichols provided solid evidence proving he was not the thief, Capone saw Nichelle’s mother hiding her daughter under a blanket. She was also pointing a revolver at Capone’s midsection. He was impressed with the family’s courage and promised they would never see him again.

Smooth Operator

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Public Domain

George W. E. Perry

George W. E. Perry

With his bulging eyes, paunchy build, and receding hairline, George W. E. Perry would never have been mistaken for Clark Gable or Errol Flynn. Perry’s other attributes included prominent gold teeth, a cataract in his right eye, and a visible scar near the bridge of his nose. Still, Perry was a smooth operator who seduced more than eight women into hasty marriages, sometimes only days after they met. For twenty years, Perry was legally married to his first wife, Mary Nickels. His debonair, charming manner is likely what made him so dangerous. 

Perry was born in Milwaukee in 1871 and grew up on the south side. He married Mary Nickels in January 1912 and the couple rented a flat at 1117 W. Pierce Street. Perry drove a truck for Reliance Laundry and Mary worked at a nearby box factory. They lived in extreme poverty because Perry spent most of their money at neighborhood taverns. He was banned from a few because he started fights when intoxicated. A newspaper reporter learned that Perry sustained severe blows to the head in four of the barroom brawls.

In 1928, Perry abruptly abandoned his wife and their three children. Less than a year later, he married a schoolteacher, Cora Belle Hackett, in the Milwaukee Courthouse. Perry murdered Hackett in Lac de Flambeau on July 6, 1930. He then courted lonely women in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. Hackett’s badly decomposed body was discovered in October, 1930 with a bullet hole in the base of her skull. After a nationwide manhunt, Perry was apprehended in San Francisco and returned to Vilas County for trial. Testimony gathered from witnesses revealed that Perry had fleeced at least nine gullible women out of their life savings.

“Give me two weeks with any woman and she’ll give me the key to her heart,” Perry boasted to the reporters gathered in the courtroom. Forty-two minutes later, a jury found him guilty of first degree murder. Perry fell to the floor and sobbed as the judge sentenced him to life imprisonment at the state penitentiary in Waupun. He went to jail in September 1931 and died there in 1950. The 58-year-old bigamist and murderer was buried in Milwaukee’s Calvary Cemetery near the stadium. 

Sunset Boulevard

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Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures

William Holden and Nancy Olson

William Holden and Nancy Olson

“This is the stuff that dreams are made of,” says Humphrey Bogart at the end of The Maltese Falcon. No doubt that’s what Nancy Olson, a 21-year-old actress from Wauwatosa, was thinking when Paramount Pictures put her under contract for $75 a week. While Olson had virtually no experience in front of the camera, the legendary director Billy Wilder cast her as Betty Schaefer in his 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. The film starred seasoned actors William Holden and Gloria Swanson in a macabre story that exposed the dark side of Hollywood. That Olson went toe-to-toe with these pros and held her own is remarkable to say the least. She instinctively knew to be herself and let the script do the work. “I learned that the camera saw even the smallest facial expression”, she said. “A close-up of a tear in someone’s eye was more effective than a half-page of script”.

At age 95, Olson remains a sharp, lively conversationalist willing to talk about the amazing world she entered 77 years ago. During an interview, she recalled that it was a supporting role in a Juneau High School play that changed her life forever. “When the play ended, something was very different,” she said. “Teachers and other adults whispered to each other and smiled at me.” At her urging, Olson’s father arranged for her to attend Wauwatosa High School with their highly acclaimed theater and drama program. 

“After graduation, I moved to Los Angeles and took some classes at UCLA’s Theater Arts program,” she coninued. “I loved it so much I never wanted to go back to Wisconsin.” A talent scout from Paramount saw one of her shows and arranged for Olson to have a screen test at the studio. “Paramount liked the result, and I was given a contract,” she said. After her performance in Sunset Boulevard, Olson starred in several more films with William Holden, as well as others with John Wayne, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray. Not bad for someone who tapped into her considerable skills while still in high school.