The Mansion from “The Beverly Hillbillies” Movie

Last week, I received an email from a fellow stalker named Chris who wanted to know if I had any information on the mansion where the Clampett family – Jed (Jim Varney), Jethro Bodine (Diedrich Bader), Elly May (Erika Eleniak), and Granny (Cloris Leachman) – lived in the 1993 movie The Beverly Hillbillies. Well, not only did I have information on the place, but I had actually written a post about the Pasadena-area residence way back in November of 2008. Because it was in the early days of my blog, though, and therefore a very brief write-up sans screen captures, I thought that the dwelling was most-definitely worthy of a re-stalk. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on back out there this past weekend.

The Beverly Hillbillies movie mansion has a history that reads like a Hollywood script. The property was originally built in 1913 for Henry House, a wealthy lumber company executive from Houston, Texas, and his wife, Carrie Bruce. At the time, the Italian-Renaissance-Revival-style residence, which was designed by the Hunt & Burns architecture team, measured 10,714 square feet and was numbered 1284 South Oakland Avenue. (For whatever reason, the address was changed to 1288 South Oakland Avenue in 1989.) Henry’s cousin, Colonel Edward House, just so happened to be the Chief of Staff to President Woodrow Wilson, and it is said that the President visited the estate on occasion, earning it the nickname “Wilson’s Western White House”.

In 1971, following the death of Henry and Carrie’s daughter, Minnie B.R. Davis, the property was purchased by one-time child actor/real estate investor Mario Milano, who quickly angered neighbors by repeatedly renting out the premises for filming. In 1979, the dwelling was sold yet again, this time to Dovie Beams de Villagran, a former B-movie actress and once-mistress of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Dovie and her husband, Sergio, continued on with the tradition of renting out the residence to filming companies (at a rate of $3,000 per day) and the place became a favorite of location scouts. Ten years after purchasing the mansion, though, the flamboyant couple, who at one time owned 215 properties and 16 automobiles, found themselves unable to pay their debts, which totaled $22 million, and were forced to file for bankruptcy.

Shortly thereafter, the house was purchased by a wealthy Japanese investor, who immediately set about restoring the once-grand mansion. Sadly though, on September 1, 1988, tragedy struck when a pipe-welding accident led to a massive fire which destroyed most of the dwelling. Not to be deterred, in 1990 the owners razed the charred remains and started construction on a new, 20,900-square-foot Neoclassical-style mansion on the same site. They hired Santa Monica architecture firm Warner & Gray to design the residence and it wound up looking much like the original. According to a history of the mansion that was put together by Tim Gregory, the Building Biographer, construction permits were again filed in 1998 – this time to remodel the home, demolish a portion of it and add on 9,701 square feet of space. So, a mere eight years after the place had been completely rebuilt from the ground up, the owners decided to rebuild it all over again. Makes no sense to me, but, then again, I am not a millionaire. The monstrous mansion pictured above, which looks nothing like the original, is the result of that 1998 redesign. In 2006, the residence, which oddly enough has never been lived in, was offered for sale for a cool $52 million, making it the most expensive house ever listed in the area at the time.

The now-31,415-square-foot, 15-bedroom, 19-bath residence features a 4.63-acre plot of land, a man-made lake complete with a waterfall, a topiary zoo, a guest house, a guard shack, European-style gardens, an outdoor Grecian-style pool, a koi pond, an elevator, a huge Porte-cochere, a media room, a wine cellar, a ballroom, a subterranean 8-car garage, a two-story detached garage, a stream room, and a massage room. And while the mansion itself does not really float my boat, the grounds are pretty darn spectacular, as you can see above! You can also check out some close-up photographs of the exterior of the property here.

In the 1972 movie The Eyes of Charles Sand, the original mansion that stood on the property was where Emily Parkhurst (Sharon Farrell) lived and saw visions of her dead brother.

The interior of the mansion, with its distinctive wallpaper, was also used in the production.

In the Season 2 episodes of Dallas titled “John Ewing: Part I” and “John Ewing: Part II”, the mansion stood in for the supposed Forth Worth, Texas-area rehab center where a pregnant Sue Ellen Ewing (Linda Gray) was sent to recover from alcohol abuse.

The interior of the home was also used as the interior of the rehab in those episodes.

In the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “One of Our Angels is Missing”, the mansion stood in for the supposed Bel-Air-area property where Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) and Tiffany Welles (Shelley Hack) set up a sting operation in order to entrap a parolee named Rick Devlin (Jonathan Goldsmith).

The real life interior of the property was also featured in the episode.

In the Season 3 episode of The Incredible Hulk titled “Falling Angels”, the mansion was where Mrs. Taylor (Arline Anderson) lived.

The gate that The Incredible Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) ran through in the episode is located on Woodland Road, around the corner from the mansion’s main entrance.

The interior of the property also appeared in the episode.

In the Season 4 episode of Hart to Hart titled “In the Hart of the Night”, the mansion was where King Raschid (George Innes) stayed while visiting Los Angeles.

Thanks to the Knight Rider Online forum, I learned that the mansion also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Knight Rider titled “The Topaz Connection”, as the home where Escape Magazine publisher Phillip Royce (John Ericson) lived.

The home’s real life interior was also featured in the episode.

Also thanks to the Knight Rider Online forum, I learned that in the Season 3 episode titled “Knight in Disgrace”, the mansion was where Boyd LaSalle (aka John Considine) lived.

In the Season 4 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled “Curse of the Daanau”, the mansion belonged to Richard Hazlitt (aka Richard Bradford).

The interior of the property also made an appearance in the episode.

The Beverly Hillbillies movie was filmed in 1993, a few years after the mansion had burned down and been rebuilt. As you can see above, the rebuilt residence bore a strong resemblance to its predecessor, albeit for a drastic change in paint color. Pepto-Bismol, anyone?

Only the exterior of the property was used in the filming of The Beverly Hillbillies. According to the Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, the interior of four different Beverly Hills mansions stood in for the interior of the Clampett residence in the film.

In The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, the grounds of the mansion were used as the grounds of the Genovian palace, where Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) lived. Fellow stalker JC posted a comment on my November 2008 post about the mansion which said, “For about 3 or 4 months at the end of 2003/beginning of 2004 I worked on a movie called The Princess Diaries 2 and we filmed for about 2 or 3 weeks at this house. The sheer enormity of it was breath-taking, but at that time the house was simply a giant shell, with a beautiful exterior and grounds, but basically nothing but sheetrock and concrete on the inside”. Oddly enough, I think that the property still remains in an unfinished state to this day, which explains why it has never been lived in.

The mansion’s garden area also appeared in Gwen Stefani’s 2004 “What You Waiting For” music video.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

While scanning through the Season 6 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Rashomama” while making screen captures for my post on Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant from Larry Crowne a couple of weeks back, I was shocked when I spotted the mansion pop up. In the episode, the property stood in for Cupid’s Kiss, the supposed Las-Vegas-area wedding venue where Diane Chase (Veronica Cartwright) was murdered.

And while several websites have stated that a 2006 episode of CSI: Miami was also filmed at the mansion, I believe that information is incorrect. Because the property'”‘”‘s now-defunct real estate listing had mentioned that there was an indoor, subterranean pool and spa with his-and-her locker rooms on the premises, I assumed that the Season 4 episode “Driven” – in which a group of women is robbed at gunpoint while at an upscale day spa – had been filmed there. A reader named Brandi posted a comment on this post, though, stating that the indoor spa from the episode was actually located inside of a house on Mapleton Drive in the Holmby Hills. I did a bit of research and quickly found pictures of the property Brandi mentioned and she was indeed correct. After scanning through countless 2006 episodes of CSI: Miami, I have to say that I do not believe the show ever actually filmed at the mansion. I think that when CSI filmed the “Rashomama” episode in early 2006, some websites reported incorrectly that it was CSI: Miami that was filming. If anyone knows any different, please let me know.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The mansion from the Beverly Hillbillies movie is located at 1288 South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena. The Governor’s mansion from the television series Benson is located across the street at 1365 South Oakland Avenue.

‘