Bob Hope’s Former House – A Trick-or-Treating Mecca

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As I have mentioned a couple of times before on this blog, this stalker absolutely loves herself some Los Angeles Magazine – especially the ever-witty and always-informative “Ask Chris – The City Explained” write-in column, in which Associate Editor/author Chris Nichols answers Angelenos’ random questions about life in the City of Angels.  This month’s column featured a letter from a Valley-area reader with a tidbit of Halloween information that I had never before heard.  She wrote, “When I was a kid, we always went trick-or-treating at Bob Hope’s house in Toluca Lake, where they handed out whole candy bars.  Does his widow keep up the tradition?”  (Sadly, the issue hit newsstands just a few days before Dolores Hope passed away on September 19th.)  Chris replied, “The Hope house has long been known for doling out the best Halloween loot, from those full-size candy bars and silver dollars to nose-shaped kazoos and Frisbees imprinted with a caricature of the funnyman, who passed away in 2003.  At 102, Dolores Hope leads a pretty active life (I reached her on vacation in Europe), but after chartered buses showed up with scores of children last Halloween, Dolores decided to end the tradition at her historic estate.”  Well, I thought that was just about the coolest thing I had ever heard (aside from the whole chartered buses showing up thing, of course) and as soon as I finished reading Chris’s words, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

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Sadly, not much of the home, which was built in 1939 and boasts 8 bedrooms, 11 baths, 34 rooms, 14,876 square feet, and sits on over 4 acres of land, is visible from the street.

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Bob and Dolores purchased the residence, which as you can see in the above aerial view is absolutely GINORMOUS, in 1940 and it was there that Bob, sadly, passed away on July 27th, 2003.  Amazingly, the legendary comedian was making people laugh right up until the very end.  According to this CNN interview with Bob’s grandson Zachary, when asked where he wanted to be buried while on his deathbed, Bob replied, “Surprise me.”  Gotta love it!

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While we were stalking the home, the GC and I ventured around to the property’s side gate on Ledge Avenue where several mourners had placed flowers in memory of Dolores.  So incredibly sweet.  Smile

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And I do have to say here that I think the fact that Bob and Dolores maintained such an awesome Halloween tradition for so many years is absolutely extraordinary.  What an amazing couple!  As Candy Waldron, one of the Hope’s longtime neighbors, said in this July 2003 Los Angeles Times article, “He could have closed his gate and ignored the holiday.  But every year he’d give out hundreds of toys.”  Apparently, one Halloween the couple even handed out autographed photos of Bob!  Oh, how I wish I had grown up in Toluca Lake!  All Hallow Steve, from the FABULOUS Halloween Addict blog (which I somehow only recently discovered), was just as fascinated as I was with the Hope’s Halloween traditions and managed to dig up a comment on the Trend Hunter website from a Toluca Lake native which said, “I always think fondly about Bob Hope around Halloween. His old estate is right by my parents’ house, and we’d go trick-or-treating there. Each year, his butler would pass out a sack filled with king-sized candy bars, one sack to each child. There would always be a Bob Hope toy too, like a mini glow-in-the-dark Frisbee with his profile and “Bob Hope 1990″ or something like that.  I’ve never forgotten his generosity.”  All Hallow Steve even managed to track down a photograph of one of those Frisbees (pictured above).  LOVE IT!

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In the Ask Chris column, Chris Nichols finished up his response about the Bob Hope house with, “Dedicated trick-or-treaters might think about taking their chances in Las Vegas, where Mayor Oscar Goodman is said to give out lucky poker chips.”  Randomly enough, while vacationing at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego a few years back, the GC happened to spot Oscar Goodman sitting next to us at one of the property’s outdoor patios.  And, let me tell you, I literally almost had a heart attack when the GC walked right up to him to ask for a picture!  Yes, the Grim Cheaper, a man who could care less about the Alicia Silverstones, the Kyra Sedgwicks, and the Jermaine Jacksons of the world, not only recognized, but actually went up to and asked the Mayor of Las Vegas for a photograph!  Oscar happily obliged and then gave him one of the aforementioned poker chips (the front and back of which is pictured above), which the Mayor apparently uses as a business card.  SO COOL!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Bob and Dolores Hope’s former house is located at 10346 Moorpark Street in Toluca Lake.

Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa from “House, M.D.”

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The third and final location that I stalked while vacationing in Lake Arrowhead this past Thanksgiving with my family and the Grim Cheaper was the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa, which was featured prominently in the Season 6 episode of House, M.D. titled “Known Unknowns”.  The property, which was originally named the Arlington Lodge, was first built in 1923 by A.L. Richmond, the owner of the Arlington Hotel in Santa Barbara, and was designed by architect McNeal Swasey at a cost of $500,000.  The upscale Lodge boasted numerous luxuries, including ornate drawing rooms, outdoor terraces, guest quarters with private bathrooms, and a main lobby, dubbed the “Great Hall”, which featured a 45-foot tall vaulted ceiling, a large fireplace, and a grand staircase.  The resort was opened to the public on June 23, 1923 and became an immediate success.  According to legend, such Hollywood luminaries as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Roy Rogers, Carole Lombard, and Gary Cooper were all frequent guests.  The hotel also attracted movie crews and such films as 1952’s Just For You, which starred Jane Wyman, Natalie Wood, Bing Crosby, and Ethel Barrymore – Drew’s great-aunt, 1965’s I’ll Take Sweden, which starred Bob Hope, Tuesday Weld, and Frankie Avalon, and 1973’s made-for-TV movie A Summer Without Boys, which starred Barbara Bain and Michael Moriarty, were all filmed on location there.  Sadly though, the Arlington Lodge burned to the ground in October of 1938.  And while it was rebuilt shortly thereafter, the entire resort was razed in December of 1976 in order to make room for a new hotel, the Arrowhead Hilton Lodge, which opened to the public in 1982.  And while Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, and Baron Hilton – Paris’ grandfather – were all in attendance for the resort’s grand opening, it doesn’t seem as if many celebrities frequent the hotel today.  Currently the property, which is now known as Lake Arrowhead Resort, boasts 162 guest rooms and 11 suites, a full-service spa, a fitness room, a coffee bar, an upscale restaurant named BIN189, and a 40-foot pool. 

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Sadly though, I have to say that the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is truly nothing special.  Don’t get me wrong, the place is O.K., but after the website had touted its “idyllic” and “majestic” ambiance, I had expected a heck of a lot more than what was actually there.  The setting is absolutely gorgeous, but truth be told, ALL of Lake Arrowhead is that beautiful.

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  And while the BIN189 restaurant is absolutely GORGEOUS, I cannot in any way, shape, or form recommend eating there.  While we were stalking the hotel, we popped into the restaurant and were enticed by its roaring, oversized fireplace and decided to grab a drink there, but as soon as we sat down, a woman came into the eatery with her large dog (which one would think would be a health code violation, but I guess not) and the dog proceeded to bark hysterically at the top of its lungs.  The dog was so terribly loud that we had to get up and leave.  All of the patrons in the restaurant at the time were quite upset over the barking dog and three groups besides ours ended up walking out in the middle of their meal.  You’d think at an average cost of $35 a plate, the management would have done something  -like kick the freaking woman and her dog out -but because the hotel is “pet friendly”, the servers all said that there was absolutely nothing they could do.  So, that was pretty much it for that place!  My family literally could not get out of there fast enough and I therefore did not get to stalk very much of the resort!  🙁

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In the “Known Unknowns” episode of House, M.D., in which doctors Gregory House (aka Hugh Laurie), James Wilson (aka Robert Sean Leonard), and Lisa Cuddy (aka Lisa Edelstein) attend a pharmacology and public policy conference in the Adirondacks, extensive use was made of the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.   According to a review that I read on Travelocity, the vast majority of the hotel – including the restaurant and pool – was closed off during the filming, yet the hotel management failed to inform guests of that fact when they made their reservations – which sounds pretty much right on par as to the level of customer service that we experienced while there.  Anyway, filming of the episode took place in the lobby area;

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down by the lake;

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on the outdoor terraces;

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in one of the meeting rooms;

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and in BIN189, which was both the site where the big 80’s party scene was filmed;

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and where the doctors ate breakfast on the last morning of their conference.

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I am fairly certain that the two guest rooms shown in the episode were not actually Lake Arrowhead Resort hotel rooms, but were sets that were built on a studio soundstage, as they just don’t seem to match up to the rooms that are pictured on the hotel’s website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Even though I REALLY wouldn’t recommend stalking this particular location, Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is located at 27984 California 189 in Lake Arrowhead.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

Bob Hope’s Palm Springs House

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While in Palm Springs this past weekend, I dragged my boyfriend – ahem, fiance (I swear, I’m never going to get used to saying that!) out to stalk Bob Hope’s former residence, which is located high up on a cliff at the very top of Southridge Drive.  I wasn’t so much interested in seeing the home because it had once belonged to Bob Hope, but rather because it was designed by famed architect John Lautner.  And I am absolutely obsessed with Lautner homes!  Once upon a time, I actually hated his designs – I thought they were just simply too weird.  But over the years they have really grown on me.  I love that all of his homes are so incredibly unique and recognizable.  One look at a poured concrete wall or a curving roof line and you know immediately if a house was designed by Lautner.  It’s no wonder that his homes have been used in countless Hollywood productions over the years including Charlie’s Angels, Diamonds Are Forever, The Big Lebowski, and Lethal Weapon 2.

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Not everyone is as big a fan of John Lautner as I am, though.  Legend has it that Bob Hope wasn’t exactly happy with the house that Lautner designed for him.   According to this article, Judith Lautner, John’s daughter, states that Bob “made life hell for my father.  He destroyed a lot of the thinking.  He just stepped in and said ‘No, no, no.'”   Legend also has it that Bob never even spent one night in the home, but instead used it solely for entertaining purposes.  The home, which was built in 1979 and was designed to look like the skirts of a volcano, measures 17,531 square feet, has 6 bedrooms and 9.75 bathrooms!

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Unfortunately, Bob’s former home is located in a private, gated community, so I wasn’t able to get very close to it.  🙁  And, judging from the signs pictured above, the neighborhood is not very stalker friendly!  When I saw the sign which read “Trespassers will be photographed and may be prosecuted”, I was pretty much outta there!   Bob’s former community is very exclusive and was once also home to actors Steve McQueen and William Holden.  Lautner also designed another home – the Elrod House – just down the road from Bob’s, but, unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after I got home, so I didn’t get any photographs of it!  Ugh, I am such a blond sometimes!

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Because I couldn’t get very close to the house while stalking it, I had to settle for doing some cyberstalking as soon as I got home.    It’s funny, but in aerial images the home actually appears to be rather small, but rumor has it that the open circle cut-out in the roof is so large that a helicopter could actually land there!!  I don’t know if that is true or not, but being that the home measures almost 18,000 square feet, it is definitely a possibility!  Another rumor floating around about the former Bob Hope residence is that the shape of the pool was loosely based on the comedian’s profile.  So cool!  You can see another amazing aerial view of the home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Bob Hope’s Palm Springs house is located at 2466 Southridge Drive.  The Elrod House is located just a few houses down at 2175 Southridge Drive.  Both are in a private, guard-gated community, so DO NOT trespass.  If you are into hiking, apparently the nearby Araby Trail offers some great views of both homes.