Ila Bradley

Ila Reisch Bradley,96, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, passed away at Kindred Healthcare on Friday evening, January 16, 2015. Ila was born June 28, 1918, in Brooklyn, East New York City, New York, to Haskel and Minnie Reisch. Ila went to Hollywood, California, from Brooklyn when she was 21 years old to stay with her Aunt Edith in Eagle Rock, California, while she tried to get into the movie industry as an actress. Her first job was selling cigarettes, cigars and magazines at Wienstein's Cigar Store directly across from Warner Bros Studio in Burbank California, where she met Jack Warner (who gave her a tour of the studio) and many movie stars who came in to buy cigarettes, such as Ronald Reagan, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McRea, Errol Flynn and Bette Davis, to name a few. She joined the Actors Studio behind Schwab's Drug Store at Sunset and LaBrea and attended classes there with Shelley Winters, another aspiring actress at the time. Ila soon realized she was too shy to be an actress, but she did work in the film industry as a film technician at R.K.O. Studios in Hollywood where she met Stanley Bradley, former Hollywood stunt man, and her boss. She married Stanley in 1947. Ila is survived by her son, Michael Ellsworth Bradley of Lake Isa Bella, California; and her son-in-law, E.P. "Stove Pipe" Pette of Cheyenne, to whom she told many untold stories of her days in Hollywood and little known facts that happened while they went to lunch on Fridays. She will be greatly missed by all. She was preceded in death by her parents; sisters, Netty and Nan; husband Stanley; and daughter, Nancy Sue Pette. Private interment will be held in Mountain View Memorial Park Cemetery. Cremation is under the direction of Schrader Funeral Home.