There’s something about filming at a real place instead of a set that lends authenticity to a production, especially a period piece. As Jon Favreau said on the subject, “I came up through independent film, where you’re usually shooting on location. I hate when it looks like you shot on a set instead of on location.” Director Ryan Murphy must ascribe to the same filmmaking style as he chose to lens much of Hollywood at real spots. Doing so gave the Netflix miniseries a richness that otherwise would have been lacking. From Golden Tip Gasoline to the Deco Building to Henry Willson’s (Jim Parsons) office, the show truly brought Old Hollywood to Technicolor life, despite being shot in 2020. Nowhere was this more apparent than at the stately mansion belonging to Ace Studios head Ace Amberg (Rob Reiner), his wife, Avis (Patti LuPone), and their daughter, Claire Wood (Samara Weaving).
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The handsome estate, which sits on a tree-lined street in Windsor Square, was designed in 1921 by architect Frank Meline, who also gave us the Ruskin Art Club, aka Chief Irving’s (Lance Reddick) residence from the Amazon series Bosch.
Though it looks considerable in size from the street, it is actually much larger than the sprawling exterior would have you believe.
The massive pad boasts 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, an incredible 7,310 square feet (!), a marble entry canopied by a 2-story skylight, multiple fireplaces, painted ceilings, stained glass pieces, a detached 2-car garage, a pool, a 0.41-acre lot, and what a 1991 real estate listing described as a “Sistine Chapel-like ballroom.” You can check out some early photographs of the interior here.
In 1923, original owner Jefferson L. Byrne sold the property to prominent developer/theatre magnate Joseph Toplitzky. He promptly hired Morgan, Walls & Clements (who were behind the aforementioned Deco Building, also featured in Hollywood) to do some renovations, including adding a bath and enclosing a porch. Toplitzky commissioned the firm once again in 1927, this time to add a bedroom, bathroom, and dressing room to the home.
The exterior of the mansion is actually only featured once on Hollywood and very briefly at that. In the episode titled “Meg,” Avis and Claire wake up to a burning cross in their front yard, put there in protest of the controversial movie Ace Studios is producing.
Outside of the opulently-framed front door, we don’t get a very good look at the place. So how did I find it, you ask? Thanks to a page on OnLocationVacations detailing a January 14th, 2020 shoot for Hollywood at 415 South Windsor Boulevard, which I came across while researching the show’s various locales. One look at the address on Google Street View told me it was the Amberg residence.
The exterior may have been neglected a bit onscreen, but the breathtaking interior appeared numerous times throughout the limited series’ 7-episode run. I was stunned at the intricacy of it all. Every inch of the place seemed prettier than the last. They just don’t make houses like that anymore!
Shooting inside the palatial estate must have transported LuPone and her costars straight back to the 1940s, the period in which Hollywood was set. Being on location, in general, inspired the actress, whose Avis character was loosely based upon Irene Selznick, daughter of MGM co-founder Louis B. Mayer. In a move highly unconventional for the time, Irene separated from her husband, Selznick International Pictures head David O. Selznick, in 1945 and relocated to New York, where she went on to become a successful theatre producer. She even gave Marlon Brando his big break in A Streetcar Named Desire! Irene, like Avis, was a definite trailblazer. As part of her research, LuPone read Selznick’s 1983 autobiography, A Private View, which served to further immerse her in the world of historic Tinseltown. As she told Entertainment Weekly, “I became obsessed with Old Hollywood having read that book. Every time we were someplace, I’m looking around for what is left. And we were shooting at Paramount one day and the driver took us from Paramount back to our studio and I passed the Hollywood Dream apartments and just the idea of people’s lives . . . Now when I look at the old movies and I see the girls that are, you know, sort of the t*ts and a** in the background, what was their life? Was their life what we’ve heard their life was? Or, you know, was it legitimate? I mean, I’m still blown away!” Oh yes, the magic of Hollywood can definitely do that to you!
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Amberg residence from Hollywood is located at 415 South Windsor Boulevard in Windsor Square. Judge Crawford’s (Bob Gunton) house from Fracture is two doors down at 435 South Windsor.
Also apparently used in the show Runaways, per OnLocations
I saw that, but I canned through the episodes shot around that time period and didn’t see it anywhere.