Harry Martin (urologist)


Harry Watson Martin was a urologist and third husband of Louella Parsons.

Early years and education

Harry Martin was the son of Watson Jesse Martin, a dentist, and Annie Amelia Moriarty. He was the younger of two brothers. His paternal grandfather, David D. Martin, was also a physician. Harry Martin graduated from John Marshall High School, Chicago and received his M.D. from the University of Illinois, Chicago on June 4, 1912. He served in the Army Medical Corps during World War I.

Hollywood Physician

Martin moved to Los Angeles in 1919. He was a urologist who specialized in the treatment of venereal disease. He became medical director of Twentieth Century Fox studios in 1937. He performed abortions and dispensed stimulant drugs to the actors, as needed, to keep them alert while films were being shot.

Personal Life

On November 1, 1924, Martin married actress Sylvia Breamer at Glenwood Inn in Riverside, California. She divorced him in 1926, complaining that he failed to return home for meals and treated her with complete indifference, while Martin accused her of cruelty.
He married gossip columnist Louella Parsons in 1930; the couple remained together until he died.

Death

Martin died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital of a tropical ailment contracted while he served in the South Pacific with the Army Medical Corps during the Second World War. He had been a hospital patient for several weeks, and had been in a coma for a few days. The cause of the persistent fever from which he died was never diagnosed, although he visited Johns Hopkins Hospital, many other leading clinics, and consulted specialists. With him at his death
were his wife and step-daughter, Harriet Parsons, a motion-picture producer.

Selected publications