[3] He grew up in Los Angeles, California, graduated from Harvard Military School in 1901 and attended Stanford University, but left to go on the stage.

[4] In 1908, Heron, his wife and daughter, came to the art colony at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where he built a home and was among the earliest writers.

[4] In 1910, he approached James Franklin Devendorf, co-founder of the Carmel Development Company, to purchase a lot for an outdoor theater.

There was no electricity at the theater, so Heron used limelight floodlights brought by covered wagon from Monterey to light the stage.

It was David, a biblical drama by Constance Lindsay Skinner, under the direction of Garnet Holme of University of California, Berkeley.

[7][6][8] The play was reviewed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco newspapers, and it was reported that over 1,000 theatergoers attended the production.

In Carmel, he became part of the cultural circle that included Jack London, James Hopper, Mary Hunter Austin, Alice MacGowan, and Sinclair Lewis.

[11] In 1916, Heron left Carmel with his wife and children for Los Angeles to be a director of the Little Theatre at the request of producer Aline Barnsdall.