Falcon Lair – The Former Estate of Rudolph Valentino

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Way back in December of 2009, I got an email from a fellow stalker named Todd who wanted to know if I had any information on Falcon Lair, the former Rudolph Valentino estate which he had heard was in the process of being torn down.  Amazingly enough, before receiving Todd’s email I had never before heard of Falcon Lair, nor did I know much about its legendary owner.  Rudolph Valentino, as it turns out, was the Brad Pitt/Johnny Depp – or, if you ask me, the Matt Lanter Winking smile – of his day.  The 1920’s Italian-born silent film star, who was dubbed the “Latin Lover” by the press, was so beloved by fans that on the day of his funeral in 1926 over 100,000 mourners lined the streets of New York near Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church to pay their respects to the fallen icon.  So after reading Todd’s email, I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place to see if it was still standing.  Sadly though, it was pouring rain on that particular day and I was only able to jump out of the car for a brief moment to snap the above photograph and could not poke around the property to see if the estate had been razed.  And even though the mansion had remained at the very top of my “To Stalk” list ever since, the GC and I did not make it back out there until two weekends ago.

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Falcon Lair was originally built by Beverly-Hills-real-estate-developer George Read in 1923 and was purchased by Rudolph Valentino two years later for $175,000.  Valentino dubbed the property “Falcon Lair” in honor of The Hooded Falcon, a never-completed movie the film star tried to produce with his wife Natacha Rambova in 1924.  The isolated Benedict Canyon manse, which Valentino decorated with lavish antiques, fine art, and imported European furnishings, was to be the couple’s dream house, but sadly Natacha divorced him shortly after they moved in.  Sadder still, Valentino died from peritonitis less than a year later, on August 23, 1926, at the tender age of 31.  The estate was then sold and much of the land parceled off.  After a succession of different owners, Falcon Lair was purchased by heiress Doris Duke in 1953.  The reclusive Duke, who at birth had been dubbed “The Million Dollar Baby” thanks to her father’s extensive tobacco fortune, sadly passed away at the Lair on October 28th, 1993 at the age of 80.  Her death became a scandal when it was uncovered that Duke had not only made her butler, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of her will, a job for which he was paid $500,000 a year, but that she had also bequested him a whopping $5 million from her estate.  Lafferty was eventually accused of playing a role in the heiress’ death, but those accusations were later proven unfounded.  In 1998, the Doris Duke Estate sold Falcon Lair for $2,294,000 and in 2003 the new owners began an extensive restoration and renovation project to bring the mansion back to its original grandeur. Sadly though, and apparently due to bureaucratic red tape, the construction was halted and the house put on the market shortly thereafter.  It was purchased yet again in 2006, at which point it was razed completely.  And with that another important piece of Los Angeles history was wiped away.

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During the time that Valentino lived there,  the 4700-square foot, two-level Falcon Lair boasted over 8 acres of land, 16 rooms, three master bedrooms, three baths, several fireplaces, a library, a detached four-car garage complete with a 120-gallon gasoline pump and upstairs four-bedroom servants’ quarters, a horse stable where Valentino kept his four Arabian horses, and extensive gardens filled with imported Italian trees.  Upon moving in, the star also had to construct a 9-foot cement wall surrounding the perimeter of the estate in order to keep out his more aggressive fans, who would often try to sneak onto the property.

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Sadly, all that remains of the original Falcon Lair today are the front gates . . .

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. . . and the former garage/servants’ quarters.

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If you head away from the property by driving west on Bella Drive and then east on Cielo Drive, you can see the retaining wall that Valentino had built to keep out his trespassing fans.

Falcon Lair aerial view

And if you position Bing’s aerial map of the property facing south, you can catch a glimpse of the mansion before it was torn down, albeit not a very good one.

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You can also see an aerial view of the backside of the mansion on fave website Virtual Globetrotting.

Falcon Lair stables

According to fave book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide, at some point in time the Falcon Lair stable was sold off and transformed into a private residence.  I was unaware of that fact at the time I stalked the place, though, so I unfortunately did not get any photographs of it.  An aerial view of the former stable/now house is pictured above.  You can read a more extensive history of Falcon Lair, as well as see some interior photographs of the estate, on the Rudolph Valentino Homepage website here.

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Directly across the street from Falcon Lair is the absolutely AMAZING John Lautner-designed Schwimmer Residence, where the Carter family (Backstreet Boy Nick and his siblings B.J., Aaron, Leslie, and Angel) lived during the filming of their short-lived 2006 reality series House of Carters.  (I apologize for the crap-tastic screen captures, by the way.  Unfortunately, I had to get them off of YouTube, which is why they are so fuzzy.)

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Sadly though, none of the Schwimmer Residence, which was built in 1982 and boasts 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and almost 6,000 square feet of living space, is visible from the street.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see that house!  You can check out some great photos of the residence on fave website Zillow here and on the Plan It Locations website here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Todd for asking me to stalk this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Falcon Lair, the former Rudolph Valentino estate, was located at 1436 Bella Drive in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills.  Directly across the street, at 1435 Bella Drive, is the Schwimmer Residence where the House of Carters reality series was filmed.  Rudolph Valentino’s former horse stables can be found at 10051 Cielo Drive, just down the road from Falcon Lair.  And just up the street from the stables, at 10066 Cielo Drive (formerly 10050 Cielo Drive), is Villa Bella, the mansion that was built on the site of the home where Sharon Tate was murdered.

Kyle Richards’ Former Palm Springs House

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Last weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I once again headed out to Palm Springs for a little weekend getaway and while there I, of course, just had to drag him out to stalk the vacation home formerly belonging to Kyle Richards and her husband, Mauricio Umansky, which was featured in the Season 1 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills titled “Chocolate Louboutins”.  I found this location thanks to a Real Housewives message board on the Survivor Sucks website and wrongly assumed that it was going to be quite the easy little stalk.  And I should mention here that I absolutely CANNOT stand Kyle Richards (I think the woman is just a big ol’ bully who completely manipulates her older sister, child star Kim Richards), but because I love the show, I was absolutely dying to stalk the residence.  So, the GC and I headed right on over there while killing time before grabbing dinner with his boss our first night in the Desert.  Things did not turn out quite as planned, though, as we arrived at our destination only to discover that it was located inside of the private and gated Indian Wells Country Club!  Yes, this particular stalk was a definite fail!

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As you can see in the above photographs, the only part of the neighborhood visible from the street is the guard shack.

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Sadly, not much can be see via aerial views, either.

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In the “Chocolate Louboutins” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kyle and Mauricio invite their friends Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd, as well as Kyle’s sister Kim and her four children to spend Easter Weekend at their family home in the Coachella Valley.  And while it is stated in the episode that Kyle’s house is located in Palm Desert, in actuality, the property is located just east of Palm Desert in the city of Indian Wells, directly behind the Indian Wells Resort Hotel, which, as it just so happens, was founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, but that is another story for another post.   Winking smile

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In the episode, Kyle says that the 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, which was built in 1985 and measures 1,503 square feet, originally belonged to her mother, but that it is now used as a family home.  There has been much speculation online, though, that it was possibly this residence that Kim was referring to in the Season 1 finale episode titled “Unforgivable” when she screamed at Kyle, “You stole my god-damn house!”  According to some of the gossip on several Real Housewives message boards (and please keep in mind that it is just that, gossip, and that I have no idea whatsoever if any of it is true), Kim at one time owned the Indian Wells house and that somehow Kyle got the rights to it after their mother passed away or possibly that Kim paid for property with her childhood earnings and then when the mother passed away, the home was divided up among all three Richards sisters.  Who knows what the actual story is, but let me tell you, I am absolutely DYING to know!  You can check out some of the message board gossip about the house here and here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Kyle Richard’s former vacation house, from the “Chocolate Louboutins” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, is located at 45389 Club Drive in Indian Wells.  The home is located inside of the Indian Wells Country Club, which is a private, gated community, so please do not trespass.

The “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Wrap Party

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Two weekends ago, Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, invited me and the Grim Cheaper to do a little stalking of the wrap party for the hit ABC television series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at a venue in Culver City.  The GC was not at all happy to receive Pinky’s invite, of course, but once I heard that former Bachelorette Jillian Harris was going to be in attendance, there was no way in heck I was missing the thing.  I absolutely loved Jillian both as a contestant on Season 13 of The Bachelor and then when she later starred on Season 5 of The Bachelorette, and I was absolutely dying to get a picture with her.  So, much to the GC’s chagrin, the two of us found ourselves heading out to Culver City at around 6 p.m. two Saturdays ago to get our Extreme Makeover stalk on.  One of the first celebs to arrive on the scene was Kathryn Joosten who plays Karen McCluskey on fave show Desperate Housewives.  Kathryn immediately spotted Pinky’s new dog, Sammy, while walking up to the venue and asked if she could hold him in the pictures she took with us.  Like I told Pinky last week, that dog was the best thing to ever happen to her stalking career, as he attracts attention, especially of the celebrity kind, wherever he goes.  I have yet to see a star turn down Pinky for a photograph request when she’s holding Sammy.  Note to self: get a cute dog, stat, or at least find one to borrow for celebrity events!  Winking smile

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Jillian Harris arrived at the party pretty early on and I have to say that the girl could NOT have been cooler or more down-to-earth.  As you can see, she also wanted to hold Sammy in our pictures.  She even asked me to take a picture of her posing with Sammy on her iPhone.  How cute is that?

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Jillian was absolutely HILARIOUS and stayed around to talk with me and Pinky for quite some time.  Chatting with her was like chatting with an old friend and after she left Pinky jokingly said, “Would it be weird if I slipped her my number?  I so want to be her bestie!”   Smile The thing is, Jillian was so cool that had Pinkie done that, I bet she would have called her up and asked her to hang out sometime.

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Also in attendance was Dijon Talton, who played New Directions member Matt Rutherford during the first season of Glee;

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Sterling Beaumon, who played Young Ben on Lost;

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and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition designers Tracy Hutson . . .

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. . . and Paige Hemmis, who is SO much taller in person than I expected her to be.

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All in all it was a great night and all of the celebrities in attendance were super nice.  I wanted to mention here, though, for those stalkers hoping to visit the LA area and get photographs with celebrities, that doing so requires countless hours of waiting around and a tremendous amount of patience.  I do not just show up to events and filmings, get my pics in five minutes and then leave.  Pinky, the GC, and I were at the Extreme Makeover wrap party for a good four hours.  And while it was a success, I can promise you that not every event I attend is all sunshine and roses.  I have had some TREMENDOUS fails.  One of them just the other day, in fact.  Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, and I had set out to do some stalking of the filming of True Blood at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles and at first things seemed extremely promising.  The main security guard on duty was SUPER nice and told us we could hang out and watch the shoot as long as we did not take any photographs of the set or of the actors while they were filming, which we respected.  She also told us exactly where to stand to catch the actors leaving the set and said that they were all usually very nice and more often than not posed for pictures with fans.  So we waited.  And waited.  Then, after about five hours, actress Fiona Shaw walked outside and we asked her for a photograph.  Well, not only did she turn us down flat, but she immediately walked over to the policeman on duty and told him to kick us off the property!  And that was the end of that!   I guess the show had had some problems earlier in the week with people posting spoiler photographs from the set, but still!  We had been respectful the whole time, stood quietly off to the side of the filming, told the security guards exactly why it was we were there, and followed all of their requests, so to get kicked off, by Fiona Shaw of all people!!!, was a serious shame.  But you win some, you lose some.  Which comes to my point.  The moral of the story is this – if you are coming to the LA area and are hoping to get photos with a star, be prepared to wait around for long periods of time, be prepared for your request to get turned down, and be prepared to go home with nothing.  Chances are, if you are respectful of the crew and the filming, you will be successful, but I just didn’t want my fellow stalkers to think that stalking was always a walk in the park.  Winking smile (Pictured above is the only photo from the True Blood set that I got that day.  Stephen Moyer is pictured below the pink arrow.)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition each Sunday night on ABC.  You can visit the show’s official website here.