Shannen Doherty’s Former Mulholland Drive Rental

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (10 of 15)

Another locale that I found thanks to Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, the fabulous book written by my buddy E.J. of The Movieland Directory, was the house at 13459 Mulholland Drive that was once rented by my girl Shannen Doherty and that was also the location of her ill-fated 1993 nuptials to Ashley Hamilton, son of actor George Hamilton.  Well, believe you me, as soon as I read the words “Shannen Doherty”, I immediately added the address to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there a couple of weekends ago while visiting L.A.

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Sadly, not much of the abode, which was originally built in 1949 and boasts three bedrooms, four baths, 3,734 square feet, and a 0.50-acre plot of land, is visible from the street.

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (13 of 15)

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (11 of 15)

You can see a very small bit of the property, which, according to Zillow, last sold in August 1997 for $942,500, if you head a few hundred feet east on Mulholland Drive.

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (3 of 15)

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (1 of 15)

I was excited to see the home’s front gate, though, as a photograph of it had been featured in the October 11th, 1993 issue of People Magazine in an article about Shannen and Ashley’s “secret” wedding.

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (8 of 15)

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (9 of 15)

That photograph is pictured below.  In a disappointing twist, the gate has since been remodeled and now looks completely different than it did in 1993, so much so that I thought E.J. might have gotten Shannen’s former address wrong.  (I know, I know – blasphemy!  Winking smile)  As you can see, though, the number “13459” is clearly visible in the People Magazine image, and the article, which you can read here, goes on to state that the star’s home was located on Mulholland Drive.  Why, oh why, would the owners remodel the gate?  Ugh!  (On a fairly amazing side-note – People failed to recognize actress Meredith Salenger in the photograph below, calling her an “unidentified guest”.  Nice reporting and research skills, People. Winking smile  Meredith was a pretty big star at the time, so how the magazine failed to identify her is beyond me.)

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I’ve recognized her twice while out in public!  Maybe I should go work for People.  Winking smile

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (1 of 1)

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (1 of 1)

Shannen moved into the Mulholland home at some point after being evicted from her Doheny Drive rental (which I blogged about here) in March 1993.  And it was there that, on September 24th, the star married Ashley, who at the time was six days short of turning 19.  The wedding took place on a Friday evening and, according to People, Shannen reported to the set of Beverly Hills, 90210 that morning as if it was a normal day.  During a break, she asked someone from the art department to come over to her house that afternoon to help her decorate her backyard for her wedding.  When the crew member expressed shock at the spontaneousness of the nuptials, Shannen said, “Yeah, I just found out this morning.”  The bride wore a silk bathrobe and no shoes during the ceremony, which was decorated with sunflowers and tiki torches and was attended by only a few close friends.  Not surprisingly, the marriage did not last.  The couple was separated by February 1994 and in April Shannen filed for divorce.  The two had only known each other for two weeks at the time of their nuptials and Ashley had just been released from a drug rehabilitation program shortly beforehand.  Not the best of circumstances for the start of a successful marriage, but you live and you learn, right?  In a November 1994 TV Guide article, Shannen said, “It was me jumping into something very, very fast before I knew someone.  I think it was more of – I needed to feel love.  And I loved him, because I think his heart was very, very good.  However, there were things about him that I didn’t find out until we were married.  Things I couldn’t overlook.  And it was one of the most unhealthy relationships I’ve ever been in.”

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (12 of 15)

I am fairly certain that Shannen did not live in the Mulholland rental for more than a year.  In an August 1995 Sky Magazine article, in which she was dubbed a “compulsive house-mover”, she talks about her new Spanish-style abode in the Hollywood Hills (one that I have yet to track down!) and says, “I have a problem with staying in one place too long.”

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (15 of 15)

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, for finding this location!  Smile

Shannen Doherty's Former Home (14 of 15)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Shannen Doherty’s former rental is located at 13459 Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills.

“The Bodyguard” Mansion – aka The Beverly House Compound

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After the sad passing of singer Whitney Houston last month, I mentioned to fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, that we should try to track down the mansion where one of Whitney’s most legendary characters, pop star Rachel Marron, lived in 1992’s The Bodyguard. For some very odd reason, I thought that the place had yet to be found, but Mike told me that way back in 2007 he had come across an article on fave website The Real Estalker about “The Beverly House Compound”, the most expensive home then for sale in the United States.  In the comments section of the post, someone had reported that the very same mansion had been used as Rachel’s residence in The Bodyguard.  How I had not previously come across that information in all my years of stalking is absolutely beyond me, especially considering that the location is one that I have long been itching to stalk.  Well, believe you me, once Mike gave me the address, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to Beverly Hills to see the place for myself.

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The Beverly House Compound has a vast and storied Hollywood history.  It was originally designed by Gordon B. Kaufmann, the very same architect who also designed the Hoover Dam, the Los Angeles Times Building, Scripps College, and the Athenaeum at the California Institute of Technology, a very popular filming location that I have yet to blog about.  The Compound was commissioned by banker Milton Gerz in 1927 and cost over $1 million to construct – and we’re talking 1920’s money!  In 1947, William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies purchased the lavish three-story, 27-room estate, which sat on over 7 acres of land, for $120,000.  Hearst died at the residence in 1951, as did Davies in 1961.  Legend has it that John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier spent part of their 1953 honeymoon at the property and supposedly the mansion was also used as the West Coast headquarters for the Kennedy Presidential Campaign in 1960.

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In 2007, financier Leonard Ross, who purchased The Compound in 1976, put it up for sale for a whopping $165 million, making it the most expensive home on the market in the entire country at the time.  In 2010, the estate, minus three acres of land, was re-listed at the reduced price of $95 million.  According to several articles, the lavish property, which has been expanded over the years, currently boasts four separate houses, a cottage, an apartment, 72,000 square feet of living space, 29 bedrooms, a two-story library, two movie projection rooms, a living room with a 22-foot arched ceiling, two tennis courts, a tennis pavilion, staff accommodations, a 50-foot entry hall, an 82-foot cascading waterfall, a disco, and three separate pools.  You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the mansion on the This and That and More of the Same blog here.

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In The Bodyguard, the exterior of The Beverly House Compound stood in for the exterior of the palatial home where Rachel Marron lived.

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All of the interiors of Rachel’s estate were filmed at the nearby Greystone Mansion, though.  You can see photographs of the room that was used as Rachel’s fake bedroom here and here.

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And you can see a photograph of the Greystone Mansion kitchen here

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And for the gate to Rachel’s home a third location was used!  The gate actually belongs to the mansion located at 10231 Charing Cross Road in Beverly Hills, which just so happens to be the very same residence where Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston) lived in The Big Lebowski.

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A current Google Street View image of that gate is pictured above.  And while it looks considerably different today than it did in The Bodyguard, you can see that the basic positioning remains the same.

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I tracked down the location of Rachel’s gate thanks to an address number of “10224” that was visible in the background of the scene in which Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) first arrived at Rachel’s mansion.

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That gate also looks considerably different today, but, as you can see above, much like was the case with Rachel’s gate, the basic positioning remains the same.

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The Beverly House Compound has been the site of constant filming over the years.  In The Godfather, it was used as the mansion where movie producer Jack Woltz (John Marley) lived.  Yes, that mansion.

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According to The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations website, only the exterior of The Compound was used in the filming, though.  All of the interior scenes – including the infamous horse head scene – were shot at an estate located at 95 Middleneck Road on Long Island.

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In the Season 1 episode of The Colbys titled “The Turning Point”, the residence stood in for the supposed Rome mansion where Francesca “Frankie”Colby (Katharine Ross) vacationed with Lord Roger Langdon (David Hedison).

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Ironically enough, though, in the following episode, which was titled “Thursday’s Child”, Greystone Mansion stood in for that same Rome mansion.

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In the 1979 movie The Jerk, the grounds of The Compound were used as the backyard of the home where Navin (Steve Martin) lived after he became rich.

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As you can see above, though, the front of Navin’s home was a different location entirely.

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In 1985’s Fletch, The Compound was where Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) lived.

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The real life interior of the property was also used in the filming.

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In 1985’s Into the Night, the mansion was where Jack Caper (Richard Farnsworth) lived.

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The real life interior of The Compound was used in the filming of that movie, as well.

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Way back in 1966, The Compound was used as the home of Mrs. Sampson (Lauren Bacall) in the thriller Harper.

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At that time, the backyard and pool area of the property looked considerably different than they do today.

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In the Season 3 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Rosemary, for Remembrance”, the mansion was where Jake Garfield (Ramon Bieri) lived.

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The real life interior of the mansion was also used in the filming of that episode.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Beverly House Compound, aka Rachel Marron’s mansion from The Bodyguard, is located at 1011 North Beverly Drive in Beverly HillsGreystone Mansion, which was used as the interior of Rachel’s home, is located at 905 Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills.  The gate to Rachel’s mansion, which looks considerably different today, is located at 10231 Charing Cross Road in Beverly Hills.

La Villa Consolata – The Day Spa from the “Driven” Episode of “CSI: Miami”

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Back in January, a fellow stalker named Brandi left a comment on my post about the mansion from The Beverly Hillbillies movie informing me that the property’s indoor spa had not actually been used in the Season 4 episode of CSI: Miami titled “Driven”, as I had originally presumed, but that that spa could actually be found at a different ostentatious estate, this one on Mapleton Drive in Beverly Hills.  One quick online search and I discovered that Brandi was, indeed, correct and I immediately added the residence to my “To-Stalk” list.  As fate would have it, just a few days later, the Grim Cheaper and I happened to be watching the 2001 romantic comedy Good Advice (for about the hundredth time, mind you – it is one of our favorite movies EVER!) and I just about fell off the couch when I spotted the very same spa from CSI: Miami!  So I decided that I just HAD to stalk the estate as soon as possible and dragged the GC right on out there this past Saturday afternoon.

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As you can see above, in real life, the “Driven” mansion is absolutely GINORMOUS and actually looks more like a palace than a private residence.  In fact, according to the Wikinfo website, the property is one of the largest single family homes in all of the United States!  Ironically enough, while we were stalking the dwelling, a Hollywood tour van happened to pull up and the guide announced that the estate had once been leased by Donatella Versace, to which the GC yelled out, “It was also featured in an episode of CSI: Miami!”  Thanks for having my back, honey!  Smile And while I cannot find any information online to back up the Donatella Versace claim, it does look like exactly the sort of place that I would imagine her living.  There are also a few internet reports floating around that the home was lived in (at different times, of course) by both Janet Jackson and Tommy Hilfiger, but I believe that information is incorrect.  According to CurbedLA, the residence was originally built in 1993 by Pacific-Brokerage-Services-founder Steven Wallace and was awarded to his ex-wife, Jo-Anne, in their divorce shortly thereafter.  Current property records show that Jo-Anne still owns the mansion to this day, although it is possible she rented it out to various celebrities over the years.

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As you can see in the above photographs from the home’s MLS listing, the 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 27,816-square-foot abode, which sits on 1.15 well-manicured acres of land, is nothing short of unbelievable!  The property, dubbed “La Villa Consolata”, features a whopping eight fireplaces!, a domed entryway, a gourmet kitchen, formal gardens, a gym, an indoor and an outdoor pool, a massage room, a game room, a two-level library (which I would give anything to have in my own home!), a master bedroom wing, three elevators!, staff quarters, three family rooms, a detached theater, a guard house, a wine cellar, and a three-level underground disco named “Atlantis”!  Who knew that those kinds of amenities were even available in homes?!?!  And while the residence has been on and off the market for a couple of years now, it seems to currently be back on again at the bargain price of $27.5 million.  You can check out the dwelling’s real estate website and see more photographs of it in all of its ornate grandeur here.

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In the “Driven” episode of CSI: Miami, La Villa Consolata stood in for a supposed Dade-County-area day spa where a group of wealthy women are robbed at gunpoint.

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The mansion’s indoor lap pool was used extensively in the episode.

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That pool area is pictured above and I have to say that it is pretty darn magnificent!

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The interior of La Villa Consolata also masqueraded as a second location in “Driven”.  Towards the end of the episode, the mansion stood in for the residence belonging to Cynthia Gilmore (Jacqueline Pinol), where a home-invasion robbery took place.

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In Good Advice, La Villa Consolata’s indoor pool is where Cathy Sherman (Rosanna Arquette) attends a yoga class and gets interrupted by a phone call from her husband, Barry Sherman (Jon Lovitz).  I SO love that Cathy has a coffee with her while practicing yoga, by the way!  SO something I would do!  Smile

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In the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “The Wedding from Hell”, La Villa Consolata’s front exterior;

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interior;

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and backyard stood in for the mansion where Mrs. Grace Spencer (Barbara Stock) lived.

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Oddly enough, though, the mansion grounds shown in the beginning of the episode are unmistakably those of The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, which I blogged about way back in October of 2008.  I have no idea why two different locations would be used to stand in for the same backyard, but I am guessing that it was some sort of a timing issue in which La Villa Consolata was not available for the entire stretch of time that was needed to film “The Wedding from Hell”, so producers found a similar-looking spot to double for it in certain scenes.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Brandi for finding this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: La Villa Consolata, aka the mansion from Good Advice, the “Driven” episode of CSI: Miami and “The Wedding from Hell” episode of Charmed, is located at 330 South Mapleton Drive in the Holmby Hills section of Los AngelesThe home used for all of the backyard scenes in Mommie Dearest is located across the street at 355 South Mapleton Drive.

Carrie Fisher’s House

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I would like to start off by wishing all of my fellow stalkers a very happy New Year!  I hope that 2012 brings each of you joy, laughter, fulfillment, and much good stalking.  And now, on with the post!  When my good friend, fellow stalker Lavonna, visited Los Angeles back in mid-November, she, along with her daughter Melissa and friends Beth, Kim, and Sandy, attended a taping of The Talk (during which she got a hug from none other than Henry Winkler himself, aka The Fonz!).  The guest on that particular day was Carrie Fisher and all audience members were given a copy of the Star Wars actress’ latest book, Shockaholic.  Because Lavonna knows how much this stalker absolutely loves herself some celebrity biographies, she kindly passed her copy along to me and I read the 162-page tome in just a few days.  And while I did not find it particularly enthralling (it is a very odd, sometimes incoherent, rambling collection of stories), one portion that did pique my interest was when Carrie discussed her current home and its famous former owners, one of whom was the legendary Academy-Award-winning costume designer Edith Head (on whom the character of Edna in the 2004 movie The Incredibles was based).  Of the property, and the fact that it is supposedly haunted, Carrie said, “ . . . if Edith did happen to roam her once-beloved home, she never floated past me.  Nor did I spot any visions of Bette Davis, who sold the property to Edith, or Robert Armstrong, King Kong’s captor in the original film, who built the house and sold it to Bette.”  Well, believe you me, once I read those words and learned of how much the property was steeped in Hollywood history, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with stalking the place.  Thankfully, a simple input of the terms “Carrie’s Fisher’s house” on Google yielded a link to a page on fave website Virtual Globetrotting which featured the home’s location.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it the very next weekend.

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Carrie’s 4-bedroom, 4-bath, 4,210-square-foot home, which sits on over 2.5 acres of land, was originally built in 1933 for actor Robert Armstrong, as I mentioned above.  According to Zillow, Carrie purchased the property in May of 1993 for a cool $13,745,454.  Sadly though, as you can see above, aside from the gate, no part of the house is visible from the street.  There are some rather quirky signs posted on the gate, though, which made me LOL.  The signs read, “Dear Crossing”, “Beware of Crabs”, and “Public Telephone Within”.  I was a bit tempted to ring the buzzer to ask if I could use said public telephone, but the GC ixnayed that idea real fast.  Winking smile

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As you can see in the above aerial views, Carrie Fisher’s hacienda-style home is nothing if not private.  The residence sits far back at the end of a long driveway and is surrounded by huge trees and tall hedges.  According to fave book Movie  Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten, the property was even more secluded in its early days when it encompassed 5 acres of land, but Edith Head had the lot subdivided sometime during the 1950s.  Thankfully, Carrie showed off the dwelling in the November 2004 issue of Architectural Digest, allowing us stalkers an insider’s peek.  Aside from Edith Head, Bette Davis, Robert Armstrong, and Carrie Fisher, singer James Blunt also lived on the premises, in Carrie’s guest house, for a time.  He even recorded a song in one of the property’s bathrooms – yes, in a bathroom.  Apparently, Carrie has a stand-up piano on display in one of her lavatories because, as she says, “We had no place else to put it and the room has good acoustics.”

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As I mentioned earlier, I did not particularly enjoy Shockaholic, but there was one section that I did absolutely love and would be remiss by not referencing here.  In the beautifully-written chapter titled “The Princess and The King”, Carrie discusses her friendship with Michael Jackson and, as you can imagine, I was absolutely drooling while reading it.  One particularly poignant paragraph really hit home for me and I found myself wishing I had written it myself.  The paragraph reads, “The thing is, though, I never thought Michael’s whole thing with kids was sexual.  Never.  Granted, it was miles from appropriate, but just because it wasn’t normal doesn’t mean that it had to be perverse.  Those aren’t the only two choices for what can happen between an adult and an unrelated child spending time together.  Even if that adult has had too much plastic surgery and what would appear to be tattooed makeup on his face.  And yes, he had an amusement park, a zoo, a movie theater, popcorn, candy, and an elephant.  But to draw a line under all that and add it up to the assumption that he fiendishly rubbed his hands together as he assembled this giant super spiderweb to lure and trap kids into it is just bad math.”  I couldn’t agree more, Carrie, I couldn’t agree more!  (The photograph pictured above, from Shockaholic, is of MJ reading Carrie’s 2008 book Wishful Drinking.  The caption reads, “President Harry Truman playing golf on island of Kailua, Hawaii.  June 1911.”  Um, OK.  See what I mean about the book being very odd, sometimes incoherent, and rambling? Winking smile)

A big THANK YOU to my good friend, fellow stalker Lavonna for gifting me with her copy of ShockaholicSmile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Carrie Fisher’s house is located at 1700 Coldwater Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills.  Please keep in mind that the home is private property and do not trespass.

Lana Turner’s Former House -The Johnny Stompanato Murder Site

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My grandma, who loves reading Hollywood biographies just as much as I do, recently gifted me with a book about the life of legendary film idol Lana Turner, authored by the star’s only daughter, Cheryl Crane.  The ginormous tome, which must weigh at least twenty pounds (not kidding!), is named LANA: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies and, prior to reading it, I knew virtually nothing about the 1950s screen siren.  Well, aside, of course, from the fact that she had been embroiled in one of the largest scandals ever to rock Tinseltown – the murder of smalltime gangster Johnny Stompanato, which took place inside of Lana’s rented Beverly Hills manse.  So after finishing the book several weeks ago, I decided that the timing could not have been more perfect for me to do some stalking of Lana’s former residence and blog about it during my Haunted Hollywood month.

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Lana rented the large Colonial-style house pictured above in the Spring of 1958, shortly after returning to Los Angeles from England where she had been filming Another Time, Another Place with actor Sean Connery.  The 6-bedroom, 6-bath, 6,769-square-foot home had originally been built in 1930 for Gone with the Wind actress Laura Hope Crews.  At the time she moved in, Lana had been embroiled in a year-long turbulent romance with Johnny Stompanato, a womanizer who was best known for being mobster Mickey Cohen’s bodyguard.  Lana had reportedly been trying to break up with Stompanato for several weeks, all to no avail.  On the night of April 4th, 1958, only three days after she had moved into the residence, Lana had once again thrown in the towel on the relationship.  After hearing the news, Johnny threatened to cut up Lana’s face and harm both her mother, “Gran”, and 14-year-old Cheryl, who had just returned home from boarding school.  In the book, Cheryl describes what happened next as follows: “After John arrived, I sat in my bedroom writing a term paper while I heard his vicious threats carry through the house.  In a panic I ran downstairs and into the kitchen, where on the sink counter lay one of the knives Mother had bought earlier in the day.  The thought of scaring him away flashed into my mind.  I went back up the stairs to Mother’s bedroom and stood outside of her door for a few moments as Stompanato continued threatening to disfigure her.  Suddenly Mother threw open the door.  John came up from behind, his arm raised as if to strike.  I took a step forward and he ran on the knife in my hands.  Stompanato looked at me and said, ‘My God, Cheryl, what have you done?’ before falling to the floor.  He was dead within moments.”

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Cheryl was taken to juvenile hall shortly after the killing and a coroner’s inquest was opened just a few days later, during which Lana testified.  The coroner’s jury, who deliberated for a scant 20 minutes, ending up ruling Johnny’s death a justifiable homicide, acquitting Cheryl of all charges.  And while theories abound that Lana was actually the one who did the stabbing and used her daughter as a scapegoat in order to avoid jail time and career ruin, legendary author James Ellroy thinks otherwise.  In a February 2011 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, he said, “People love to think something is inherently more dramatic, more secret, crazier, uglier, more vicious and vile.  People love the inside scoop and will deny all the facts even when they are hit directly over the head with them.  It’s a very, very, very common phenomenon to ascribe more intrigue to a prosaic event than the prosaic event truly demands."  The world will perhaps never know the exact truth about what happened at 730 North Roxbury Drive on the evening of April 4th, 1958, but I find it absolutely amazing that people are still enthralled with the murder more than five decades later.

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According to Cheryl, Lana’s bedroom, where the murder took place, was located on the second floor of the home on the far left-hand side.  Lana moved out of the house immediately following the events of April 4th, 1958, only living on the premises a grand total of a few days.  According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, actress Virginia Bruce also once lived in the home, as did host Merv Griffin.

Cheryl Crane on the Johnny Stompanato Murder
You can watch an interview with Cheryl, in which she talks about the murder, by clicking above.
 
Big THANK YOU to my grandma for giving me LANA: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies, without which I would not have had most of the information with which to write this post.  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Lana Turner’s former house, where Johnny Stompanato’s murder took place, is located at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills.

The “Troop Beverly Hills” House

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A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, mentioned that he had recently stalked the residence belonging to the Nefler family – Phyllis (aka Shelley Long), Freddy (aka Craig T. Nelson), and their daughter, Hannah (aka Jenny Lewis) – in the 1989 comedy Troop Beverly Hills.  Well, let me tell you, after hearing that I literally just about had a heart attack!  TROOP BEVERLY HILLS? TROOP BEVERLY HILLS!  How in the heck had I forgotten about that movie??  I absolutely loved it as a teenager and remember renting it countless times from the video store around the corner from my house.  Due to some sort of brain lapse, though, I had not thought about or seen the flick in years.  So when Mikey mentioned it, I immediately ran to my local Blockbuster to rent it.  Shockingly though, the sales clerk informed me that the store did not carry the title!  And neither did any of the other Blockbusters within a ten mile radius of my apartment!  (Perhaps this is why the chain has been floundering in recent years!  I mean, hello!  How does a video store not carry a major 80s classic like Troop Beverly Hills????)  I was further shocked to discover that my local Borders Books did not have the movie, either.  (Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010, Borders in 2011 – a coincidence?  I think not!  Winking smile)  Thankfully, Troop Beverly Hills was available for purchase on iTunes (oddly enough, they do not offer the flick for rent), so I immediately purchased it and, because iTunes does not allow one to burn a purchased movie onto a DVD, was forced to watch the entire hour and forty minutes on my tiny computer screen.  But I have to say that it was completely and totally worth it!  What a fabulous, FABULOUS flick!  And, immediately after watching it, I, of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the Nefler mansion.

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The 6 bedroom, 6 bath, 7,694-square-foot, Spanish-style abode, which was originally built in 1916, was featured numerous times throughout Troop Beverly Hills.

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And, amazingly enough, the residence still looks almost EXACTLY the same today as it did when the movie was filmed over twenty-two years ago!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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The only difference is that there is now a large, three-car garage located on the northern side of the property.

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For some reason, while watching the movie, the inside of the Nefler house just did not look real to me.  So, while I could not find any interior photographs of the home online, I am fairly certain that all of the interior scenes were filmed on a set inside of a studio soundstage somewhere in Hollywood and not at the actual residence.

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I believe the backyard that was shown in the movie was also a set, as it does not match up to the home’s real-life backyard.

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As you can see in the above aerial view,  the mansion’s real-life pool is not the same shape as the one that appeared in the movie and its position in relation to the house also does not match up with what was shown onscreen.  And while it is possible that the backyard was completely remodeled in the two-plus decades since filming took place, I do not find that scenario to be very likely.

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According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, the house has also had several celebrity inhabitants over the years, including movie star Betty Compson, producer Samuel Goldwyn, silent film star Charles Ray, and actor Charles Smith.

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Troop Beverly Hills house is located at 901 North Camden Drive in Beverly Hills.

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.