Celebrity Homes – Page 3

October 11, 2013September 29, 2017

Peg Entwistle’s Former House

Another location that I learned about thanks to the fabulous Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites book, which was penned by fellow stalker E.J. of The Movieland Directory, was the one-time Beachwood Drive home of Peg Entwistle, the tragic blonde actress who only achieved fame after her 1932 suicide, in which she jumped to her death from the Hollywood Sign. And while I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the residence just a few days after reading about it, I figured it would be the perfect spot to feature in my Haunted Hollywood postings and held off on blogging about it until now.

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Peg was born Lillian Millicent Entwistle across the pond in London, England in 1908. After her mother passed away suddenly when Entwistle was about eight, she and her father, Robert, packed up and moved to New York in the hopes of starting a new life. While there, Robert remarried and had two sons. Tragically, he was killed about six years later by a hit-and-run driver while walking home from work. Peg’s brothers were then sent to California to live with their uncle, Harold Entwistle, while Peg stayed behind to try her turn at acting. She quickly secured a role in a Broadway production of Hamlet and garnered favorable reviews. It was not long before the petite beauty was acting steadily, earning parts in over ten different Broadway productions. Sadly, most were flops. In 1927, Peg met actor Robert Keith and the two were later married. The union was quickly dissolved, though, when Entwistle discovered that Keith had not only been married previously, but had a son (Family Affairs’ Brian Keith, who also later committed suicide, as did his daughter, Daisy).

In 1931, Peg heard Hollywood calling and moved to the West Coast, originally renting a room at the Hollywood Studio Club. She instantly won a role in the short-lived play The Mad Hopes, which also featured Humphrey Bogart and The Wizard of Oz’s Billie Burke. Stardom was almost within reach shortly thereafter when she landed a part in RKO’s Thirteen Women, but, sadly, when the movie premiered in 1932, it was lambasted by critics and the studio subsequently re-edited it, cutting Peg’s role almost entirely. RKO cancelled her contract just a few weeks later and the actress was forced to move into her uncle’s house at 2428 North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood. Peg then made plans to return to New York and the Great White Way, but, unfortunately, could not come up with the necessary train fare. Times were dire.

On the evening of Friday, September 16th, 1932, Peg informed Harold that she was heading to a local drugstore. Instead, she walked a mile and a half up Beachwood Drive to the Hollywood Sign (which then spelled out “Hollywoodland”), climbed up a maintenance ladder to the top of the 50-foot-tall letter H, and jumped to her death. She was 24. The following morning, her clothing and purse were discovered by a hiker. Inside the purse, was a letter that read, “I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.” (The image below is a screen capture taken from an E! Mysteries & Scandals episode about Entwistle. I am unsure if the letter pictured is Peg’s actual letter or a facsimile.) The hiker gathered the clothes and purse and dropped them on the steps of the Hollywood Police Station anonymously. The next day, detectives located Peg’s remains. Investigators were unable to identify her, so they published the suicide note in the Los Angeles Times in the hopes that someone would recognize the handwriting. Harold did, called the police and later identified the body. Peg was cremated and subsequently interred at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio.

Supposedly, a letter from the Beverly Hills Playhouse offering Peg the lead part in a play arrived at Harold’s house shortly following her death. The role? A beautiful woman who commits suicide. I am fairly certain that is just Hollywood lore, though – an anecdote dreamed up to make Peg’s story all the more tragic (especially being that, according to Wikipedia, the Beverly Hills Playhouse was not founded until 1954, over two full decades after Entwistle’s suicide).

Harold’s tiny bungalow, which was originally built in 1913, boasts three bedrooms, one bath, 1,650 square feet of living space, and a 0.16-acre plot of land. The property last sold for $35,000 in November 1974. Zillow estimates its worth today at $980,000. Not a bad return on an investment!

Pictured below is the view from the front of Peg’s former home. I cannot tell you how haunting it was to be standing in front of the residence with the Hollywood Sign looming over us.

You can watch the E! Mysteries & Scandals episode about Peg by clicking below.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Peg Entwistle’s former home is located at 2428 North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood.

October 10, 2013September 29, 2017

Ray Combs’ Former House

One Haunted Hollywood location that I learned about back in January thanks to the fabulous book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, which was written by fellow stalker E.J. of The Movieland Directory, was the Glendale-area home where former Family Feud host Ray Combs was taken into custody shortly before his 1996 suicide. I was an avid watcher of the Feud during my teenage years and remember being heartbroken upon learning of Ray’s death, so I was, of course, immediately intrigued. I ran right out to stalk the residence just a few days later and have been absolutely itching to blog about it ever since. So here goes.

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Ray Combs was born Raymond Neil Combs Jr. in Hamilton, Ohio on April 3rd, 1956. He met his future high school sweetheart/wife, Debra, in the first grade. During his senior year at Garfield High, Ray was class president, a Boys State representative and the lead in the school play. Talk about most likely to succeed! After graduating in 1974, he received a nomination to West Point, but turned it down to instead embark on a two-year Mormon mission in Arizona. Upon his return, he married Debra and became a furniture salesman in Indianapolis. The job didn’t float his boat, though, and in 1982 he packed up his family and moved to Hollywood with stars in his eyes. He quickly gained success, winning an L.A. stand-up competition in 1984 and then an appearance on The Tonight Show in 1986, after which he received a standing ovation. Following that performance, he was offered a job hosting The Family Feud. Ray and Debra subsequently purchased a two-story, six-bedroom, two-bath, 1,987-square-foot home located at 1318 Sonora Avenue in Glendale in 1988. The dwelling, which sits on 0.26 acres, was originally built in 1925 and boasts a swimming pool and spa.

In early 1994, due to poor ratings, producers decided to let Ray go and bring back former Feud host Richard Dawson. Click below to watch Ray’s final appearance on Family Feud, in which a contestant fails to earn a single point during the Fast Money round, causing the comedian to say, “You know, I’ve done this show for six years and this could be the first time that I had a person that actually got no points and I think it’s a damn fine way to go out. Thought I was a loser till you walked up here and you made me feel like a man.” Then when the credits start to roll, Ray bolts from the stage, leaving the winning family cheering by themselves.

This clip is also amazing, by the way.

As is this one. But now I’m really getting off topic.

1994 was not kind to Combs. Besides losing his hosting gig and almost-$1-million-a-year paycheck, the comedian was in a car accident in July that rendered him temporarily paralyzed and left him with lingering spinal pain. Sadly, 1995 was no better. His family home of over 11 years in Ohio was foreclosed upon and he and his wife also separated and filed for divorce. Ray subsequently moved into an apartment in North Hollywood, while Debra and the couple’s six children remained at the Glendale residence.

According to the Find a Death website, on the night of May 31st, 1996, Ray telephoned Debra from his apartment and informed her that he had swallowed some pills. She called 911 and Ray was taken to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank (which I blogged about here). He contacted Debra again early the next morning informing her that he was being released and that he needed a ride home. During the drive, Ray became agitated that Debra wanted to take him to her place and wound up jumping out of the car – barefoot – and running onto the Ventura Freeway where a passerby picked him up. According to the Los Angeles Times, he was then taken to a friend’s residence and appeared to be “in a rage.” He told the friend that he was going to his family’s home “to hurt his wife and destroy the place.” His friend called the police and notified them of Ray’s plans. Detectives then made their way to Debra’s house, where they found Combs destroying furniture and bashing his head against walls. The comedian was again taken to a hospital, this time Glendale Adventist Medical Center, where he was placed on a 72-hour suicide watch. It did no good. In the early hours of June 2nd, Combs tied his bed sheets together and hung himself from a rod in the closet in his room. He was found by a hospital orderly at 4:10 a.m., dead at the age of 40.

At the time of his death, Ray had accumulated a debt of $500,000 (not including the $470,000 mortgage on the Glendale home), largely amassed from the failure of two shuttered comedy clubs he had owned in Ohio. According to an October 1996 People magazine article, the Glendale property was foreclosed upon shortly thereafter and Ray’s family subsequently moved into a two-bedroom rental. During that time, Johnny Carson, the man largely credited with giving Ray his big break, sent Debra a check for $25,000 along with a handwritten note that said, “I understand you are having some problems. I hope this will ease the burden.” Unfortunately, I could find no information on the Combs family whereabouts today.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Ray Combs’ former home is located at 1318 Sonora Avenue near the Kenneth Village area of Glendale.

October 2, 2013September 29, 2017

Vincente Minnelli’s Former Abandoned Mansion

Back in February 2012, a fellow stalker named Kayleigh emailed me to ask if I knew anything about the “creepy” mansion located on the southeast corner of West Sunset Boulevard and North Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills. Her email stated, “There’s very little information on it online other than the fact that Liza Minnelli battled her former step-mother over it. It stands out because all the houses in that area are gorgeous, but this home is unkempt, looks abandoned and is just plain scary.” I did not have any intel on the property – in fact, I had never even heard about it before – but hello! Unkempt, abandoned, scary, AND a celebrity tie-in? Count me in! Winking smile I contacted fellow stalker E.J., of the Movieland Directory website, who I figured would have the lowdown on the manse’s history and I was right – he had a boatload of information to share. Somehow though, I failed to stalk the place in time for last year’s Haunted Hollywood postings. So, believe you me, it was at the very top of this year’s list and I finally dragged the Grim Cheaper out there in early June.

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I do not know what it is about abandoned properties that makes this stalker’s heart go pitter-patter, but I could NOT have been more excited as we pulled up to the mansion.

Liza’s father, famed musical director Vincente Minnelli, moved into the six-bedroom, six-bath, 5,877-square-foot Hollywood Regency-style estate – which was originally built in 1925 and was later re-designed by architect John Elgin Woolf – at some point following his 1951 divorce from Liza’s mother, actress Judy Garland. Liza split her time evenly between both parents, spending six month of each year at Vincente’s house, which boasted a motor court, a pool and a 0.98-acre plot of land. According to Richard Alleman’s book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide, the director commissioned artist Tony Duquette – whose whimsical Dawnridge residence I blogged about in August – to build a large playhouse for Liza in the backyard. Alleman also states that the young girl’s closet was filled with tyke-sized reproductions of costumes from The King and I, Gone with the Wind and An American in Paris. In her 1984 autobiography Knock Wood, actress Candice Bergen said, “I remember always asking to go to Liza’s to play dress-up because in her closet hung little girls’ dreams.” The state of the house today, though, is the stuff nightmares are made of!

The estate’s first brush with darkness came in 1986. On July 25th of that year, Vincente, who was suffering from emphysema, took his usual after-dinner nap. Sensing something was wrong due to his pallor, Minnelli’s wife, Lee, whom the director had married in 1980, called 911. Paramedics rushed to the scene and Vincente was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. He was 83. And while the mansion was willed to Liza, it was stipulated that Lee would be permitted to reside there – or at a comparable place – at Liza’s expense for the rest of her life.

In 2000, Liza decided to put the property on the market – unbeknownst to Lee. It sold for $2.75 million two years later and Liza subsequently purchased a $450,000 condo for her step-mother to live in. Lee wasn’t going anywhere, though. A battle ensued in which Liza ended up firing the mansion staff and shutting off the estate’s electricity, at which point Lee sued her. The lawsuit, referring to Liza’s recent wedding to David Gest, stated, “While defendant is honeymooning all over the world, having fed 850 of her closest friends a 12-foot cake, plaintiff is alone in a cold, dark house, at age 94.” You can see some photos taken of Lee at the dwelling, which was starting to dilapidate, during that time period here. Liza eventually had the power restored and the sale finally went through in 2006 –after a four-year escrow. A mediator ruled that Lee would be allowed to stay on the premises until her death, with Liza paying rent to the new owners, who would not be permitted to move in until Lee passed away.

When Lee did pass away three years later, on November 11th, 2009 at the age of 100, the new owners apparently set about making arrangements to tear the mansion down and build a Mediterranean-style estate in its place. The project was scrapped, though, in 2010 due to difficulties with the Beverly Hills Planning Division. Supposedly a restoration of the property was then scheduled to begin, but, as you can see below, that never occurred, either.

And while it seems that some sort of work was done on the property in recent years, as evidenced by the dumpsters and utility truck visible on Bing aerial views, for whatever reason it was stopped and the residence has been left untouched ever since. (How eerily awesome is that pool, by the way? LOVE IT!)

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Kayleigh for telling me about this location and to fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, for informing me of its history! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Vincente Minnelli’s former abandoned mansion is located at 812 North Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 1, 2013September 29, 2017

Tom Neal’s Former House

Upon first moving to the Desert in January, I started seriously perusing the book Palm Springs Confidential, which the Grim Cheaper’s boss had purchased for me several years prior. One locale mentioned in the tome that immediately piqued my interest was the former Little Tuscany Estates residence of Tom Neal, where, on April 1st, 1965, the ex-actor/onetime prizefighter shot and killed his third wife, Gail Evatt. (Her name is also sometimes reported as being “Gail Bennett” and, unfortunately, I am unsure of which moniker is correct, but for this post I’ll stick with Evatt.) Figuring the place would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme, I dragged the GC out to stalk it in July and have been itching to blog about it ever since. So here goes!

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Tom Neal’s acting career began on Broadway in 1935. The Illinois native, who had boxed quite successfully while attending Northwestern University, enrolled in Harvard Law School shortly thereafter and, upon graduating in 1938, migrated to Hollywood to pursue his dream of being on the silver screen. He landed his first film role that same year as Aldrich Brown in Out West with the Hardys and went on to play bit parts (mostly tough-guy characters thanks to his boxing background) and later star in over 180 low-budget, B-rated productions. His success garnered him quite a bit of wealth, a two-acre estate in Bel-Air and a romance with actress Barbara Payton. It was that romance with Payton that triggered his downfall. In 1951, the starlet told Neal she was leaving him for a new paramour, actor Franchot Tone. Neal did not take the news well. He beat Tone severely, giving him a broken nose, a concussion and a ten-day hospital stay. Payton later married Tone (though that was short-lived) and Neal was blacklisted by Hollywood. He wound up moving to Palm Springs, where he worked first as a host at the Doll House restaurant and then as a landscaper.

In 1961, Neal married Gail, who worked as a receptionist at the Palm Springs Racquet Club. (I blogged about the Racquet Club here.) The two moved into the four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,624-square-foot rental pictured below in early 1965. The ranch-style home, which was originally built in 1947, sits on 0.29 acres.

On the afternoon of April 1st, Tom and Gail began to argue. The couple had been separated for about ten weeks and Gail had filed for divorce on March 11th, unbeknownst to Tom. In the midst of the argument, Gail apparently headed for the living room, where she attempted to nap on the couch. Neal followed, accused her of cheating on him and wound up shooting her in the head with a 0.45-caliber pistol. He later claimed that Gail had grabbed the gun, pointed it at him and it had accidentally fired, striking her, during the course of a struggle, although the evidence did not reflect his account. Whatever the true story may be, Neal did not call the police, but, according to Palm Springs Life magazine, instead headed out to Tirol restaurant in Idyllwild for dinner. While there he informed two friends that he had just killed Gail. Apparently, neither of them thought to call the police, either.

The police were finally telephoned at 6:30 the following morning by Neal’s lawyer, James Cantillion, who informed them, according to Palm Springs Life, that a woman “had expired or was seriously injured” at 2481 Cardillo Avenue. Neal was indicted for murder two weeks later. After a twenty-day trial and a ten-hour jury deliberation, the former actor was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and ultimately served seven before being paroled on December 6th, 1971. Upon his release he moved to North Hollywood, where passed away from a heart attack eight months later. Neal was 58.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Tom Neal’s former house is located at 2481 North Cardillo Avenue in the Little Tuscany Estates neighborhood of Palm Springs.

August 20, 2013August 19, 2013

Lindsay Lohan’s Former Venice Home

I had originally planned on writing about a different location for today’s post, but last night, when the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch Oprah Winfrey interview Lindsay Lohan on Oprah’s Next Chapter, I was reminded of a LiLo locale that I had stalked last November – the Venice Beach house where the troubled star lived for about a year in 2011 following a 90-day stint at the Betty Ford Center. And I just have to say here that the Oprah interview (which was best summed up in this Entertainment Weekly article written by Lanford Beard) was not only thoroughly disappointing and disheartening, but seemed entirely contrived. As someone who is quite familiar with addiction (I helped a loved one through a years-long rehab process), it did not seem to me that Lindsay was being at all truthful in the interview. Maybe she just did not want to be truthful in front of the cameras to all of America – which is fine. I just hope that she is being truthful with herself behind the scenes and that she continues to get the help that she so obviously needs. I’m rooting for her.

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Lindsay moved into the ultra-modern, 3,100-square-foot abode, which was originally built in 2007, on January 3rd, 2011. While several sources claim that Lohan purchased the residence, being that Zillow states that the place was last sold in January 2008 (for a cool $2.25 million), a full three years before Lilo moved in, that information is obviously incorrect. Lindsay only ever leased the property, which you can check out some great interior photographs of here, at what was apparently a rate of around $7,100 a month! The pad, which is surprisingly close to the street and easily accessible to paparazzi, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a two-story main living space, an ironwood patio, a floating stairway, 20-foot-plus high ceilings, poured concrete floors, a forged steel fireplace, two living rooms (‘cause one just isn’t enough), a studio, a ginormous rooftop deck (that Lindsay enclosed with bamboo fencing to keep out prying eyes during her tenure), city and mountain views, mosaic tile work, Viking appliances, European fixtures, mahogany cabinetry, and a private two-car garage.

It also just so happens to be located right next door (we’re talking thisclose) to the mirror-image house where LiLo’s ex, DJ Samantha Ronson, lived at the time. (Sam has since vacated the premises.) Ronson was apparently not very happy about her new neighbor. On Lindsay’s move-in day, she was quoted as saying, “I didn’t plan it this way.” And when a photographer asked her if she had any New Years resolutions, she replied, “No. I’m too pissed off right now.” (You can see some photographs of the interior of Ronson’s house from the time that she lived there, here.)

Samantha wasn’t the only one unhappy about the home’s new occupant. According to a New York Post article, one neighbor was quoted as saying, “Seriously, every time we heard a siren we hoped and prayed it was the police carting her off again and we would be left in peace. It was a nightmare when she was here … [Samantha Ronson] has lived here for ages and she’s never been any drama, she’s very low key and just goes about her business, but Lohan was like a hurricane, or some other natural disaster tearing through the neighborhood.” Yipes!

On January 22nd, shortly after moving into the new house, Lindsay visited nearby jewelry store Kamofie at 1350 Abbot Kinney Boulevard to try on some baubles. She was later accused of stealing a necklace from the store and wound up being charged with violating her probation and was sentenced to 35 days of house arrest at her Venice pad as punishment.

The actress kept herself quite busy while on house arrest, though, and used the Venice pad as a frequent filming location during that time. It was there that Lindsay shot her infamous commercial for penny auction website Beezid.com.

You can watch that commercial by clicking below.

She also posed for the July 2011 issue of Italian Vanity Fair at the house.

And she sat down for an interview for Air New Zealand’s On the Skycouch with Rico at the dwelling.

After Lilo moved out in January 2012, the property was used in an episode of LX.TV Open House (yeah, I’d never heard of it, either Winking smile ).

And while The Huffington Post reports that the Venice residence was featured in an episode of Million Dollar Decorators, that information is actually incorrect. The home that appeared on MDD was actually Lindsay’s Beverly Glen rental (pictured below), which she moved into in 2012.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lindsay Lohan’s former Venice Beach home is located at 419 Venice Way in Venice. Samantha Ronson’s former home is located right next door at 417 Venice Way.

August 8, 2013August 13, 2013

Copley’s on Palm Canyon – Cary Grant’s Former Guesthouse

One location that I had been chomping at the bit to stalk for what seemed like ages was Copley’s on Palm Canyon – a restaurant created out of what is said to be Cary Grant’s former Palm Springs guest house. Because the eatery does not open until 6 p.m. each night, though (I am nothing if not an early bird), and because it is closed during the scorchingly hot summer months of July and August, I had never had the chance. Until this past May, that is, when the Grim Cheaper and I happened to find ourselves just down the street from Copley’s on a Sunday afternoon at around 5:45 p.m. Thankfully, it only took a little arm twisting to convince him to venture inside for a quick happy hour cocktail. And I am so glad that we did, because the place is simply fabulous!

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Copley’s, which is named after its England-born executive chef, Andrew Manion Copley, first opened its doors in December 2004. Andrew, accompanied by his wife, Juliana, landed in Palm Springs earlier that same year after culinary stints at numerous five-star sites including the Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu (where Forgetting Sarah Marshall was filmed), The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, The Park Lane Hotel and The Savoy in London, and The Lodge at Koele at the Four Seasons Resort Lana’i. Upon migrating to Palm Springs, the couple, along with business partner Greg Butterfield, purchased a recently-shuttered Persian restaurant named La Shank House located at what was once supposedly the guest house of Hollywood legend Cary Grant.

As the story goes (and I have, unfortunately, not been able to verify it), Cary purchased the property sometime during the 1940s and proceeded to use it as off-site guest quarters for visiting family and friends, many of whom were Hollywood royalty, through the 1950s. I am not quite sure where in Palm Springs Cary lived during that time period, but I do not believe it was at the so-called “Cary Grant Estate” that I blogged about in July 2011. (He owned that particular home from 1954 to 1972 and it had its own on-site guest quarters.) I did find an article on the CaryGrant.net website that stated that in 1949 Cary and his third wife, Betsy Drake, “spent some time at a tiny place in Palm Springs which Cary used to refer to as ‘The Dump.’” Because the abode was described as “tiny” and therefore most likely did not have room for guests, I am guessing that might be where he lived when he purchased the Copley’s site. Unfortunately though, the website makes no mention of “The Dump’s” exact location. So you know what that means! I’ve got another locale to track down! Is my work here never done?

After purchasing the site, Andrew and Juliana immediately began renovating and restoring the 3,500-square-foot property, which was originally built sometime during the 1920s. During the renovation, which took 64 days to complete, the couple refurbished the estate’s original hardwood flooring, replanted every bit of foliage on the 0.50-acre grounds and transformed the former garden into an outdoor dining area. The result is nothing short of spectacular!

Because we showed up 15 minutes before Copley’s actually opened and they were nice enough to allow us in, we had the place entirely to ourselves. And the super-nice bartender even went so far as to take me on a little tour to explain how the structure was set up when Grant owned it. As you can see below, the indoor dining area is divided by cut-out arched walls. During the Cary Grant days, those walls were filled in, sectioning off the building into several neighboring suites (I think there were a total of five separate suites), all of which opened out to the garden/patio. So the property was essentially like a private mini-hotel. How great would it be to have a place like that to stash visiting family and friends? Love it!

One of the former suite areas is pictured below.

Copley’s definitely does not have the typical restaurant feel to it. Being there is like hanging out at a good friend’s house – well, a rich good friend’s house. And whether or not Cary Grant ever actually owned the place, it was still insanely fun to sit on the patio and sip champagne while imaging that the iconic actor had once done the exact same thing in the exact same spot.

And, bonus! The Grim Cheaper was especially excited to learn that Copley’s offers $5 champagne on its happy hour menu – something that is not at all typical. You can check out the full happy hour menu here.

And while we did not partake of any food while we were there, the dinner menu does look pretty darn uh-ma-zing (the Sesame Seared Tofu has my name written all over it!) and we are looking forward to going back there for a special occasion meal.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Copley’s on Palm Canyon is located at 621 North Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. The eatery only serves dinner and is open each night starting at 6 p.m. The property is closed on Mondays during the month of June and is closed completely from July through August each year.

July 2, 2013July 2, 2013

Kirk Douglas’ Former Palm Springs House

The Grim Cheaper and I are finally home from a blissful two weeks in Switzerland. It was so hard to leave my best friend and his amazing family (pictured above) and the beauty of their country – especially being that when we returned to Palm Springs, temperatures were around 122 degrees! I will be sharing some pictures from our trip (and I took plenty – by ten days in, I had filled up an 8GB memory card!), as well as a few Swiss stalking locales that I visited while there, in the near future. But for today, I thought I would once again blog about a Behind the Candelabra-related location that I stalked prior to leaving for the Land of the Alps.

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A few weeks ago, while doing some Behind the Candelabra research, I came across a The Guardian article in which Michael Douglas, who played the flamboyant pianist in the HBO biopic, talked about once meeting Liberace while visiting the desert home of his father, Kirk Douglas. Of the encounter, Michael said, “I met him once in passing. My father had a weekend house in Palm Springs and I remember driving out and we came to this cross-section and this Rolls-Royce convertible pulled up alongside. It was a sunny day and, my God, the reflections were bouncing off his gold jewelry and diamond rings and his hair was perfectly coiffed. Of course, we now know that he was wearing a wig.” Well, I, of course, immediately started itching to track down the house Michael was referring to in the article.

As it turns out, I had actually stalked the home (at least what I think is the correct home) – and blogged about it – once before, way back in March 2008. My research on this location is not exactly definitive. In a The Irish Times article, Michael said that his encounter with Liberace took place around 1956. As Murphy’s Law would have it, though, Kirk Douglas moved from his first Palm Springs residence to his second right around that same time. Michael also mentioned in a Daily Mail article that his father’s house and Liberace’s house were in the same vicinity. But as Murphy’s Law would further have it, both of Kirk’s former desert dwellings are situated about two miles from Liberace’s earliest Coachella Valley abode, which is located at 1516 South Manzanita Avenue. Because the book Explorer’s Guide Palm Springs & Desert Resorts states that the pianist did not move into that home until 1957, though, I am 99.9% certain that the house where Michael’s Liberace encounter took place is the one pictured below.

Kirk’s original (and extremely nondescript) Palm Springs house, which he lived in for two years – from 1955 to 1957 – is located at 1069 East Marshall Way in the legendary Movie Colony neighborhood.

That property, which was recently remodeled and just sold about two weeks ago for $639,900, boasts three bedrooms, two baths, 2,095 square feet of living space, a one-bedroom, one-bath casita, travertine flooring, a pool, a 0.26-acre plot of land, and mountain views. You can check out some interior photographs of the dwelling here.

Kirk’s second desert house, which he owned for over four decades, is located at 515 Via Lola in the Old Las Palmas area of Palm Springs. The five-bedroom, five-bath, 3,790-square-foot abode, which sits on a 0.75-acre plot of land, was designed in 1954 by architects Richard Harrison and Donald Wexler. The modern post-and-beam residence, which originally featured four bedrooms, low ceilings, an asphalt and gravel roof, flagstone walls, and glass adornments, was commissioned by Robert Howard, the one-time owner of the Colony Palms Hotel, which I blogged about back in May. Howard put the property on the market two years after it was completed and it was subsequently purchased by Kirk and his second wife, Anne Buydens, in 1957. Upon buying the residence, the couple added a new façade, interior atriums, a three-car motor court, and quite a bit of square footage. They also transformed the garage into guest quarters. Kirk later bought an adjacent parcel of land on which he installed a tennis court, a gymnasium and a spa.

According to the fabulous book Palm Springs Confidential, the couple entertained quite a bit during their tenure at the home. Just a few of the famous guests who visited over the years include Natalie Wood, Gregory Peck, Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, Yul Brynner, Warren Beatty, Burt Lancaster, Robert Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Lady Bird Johnson, and Lynda Bird Johnson. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn even leased the house from Kirk and Anne for a summer getaway on two different occasions and Vincente Minnelli held the wedding reception for his marriage to Lee Anderson (his fourth wife) there.

Kirk and Anne sold the home in October 1999 – for a cool $1.3 million – in order to move to Montecito to be closer to Michael.

To me, the residence exemplifies the Rat Pack-style of architecture that Palm Springs has become so synonymous with. I absolutely LOVE the two palm trees that are the focal point of the front yard.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kirk Douglas’ longtime former Palm Springs home is located at 515 Via Lola in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs. His first desert home can be found just about a mile away at 1069 East Marshall Way in the Movie Colony.

May 31, 2013May 31, 2013

Liberace’s Third Palm Springs House

Shortly after moving to the desert back in January, I took my dad to a doctor appointment and, while in the waiting room, happened to pick up the November 2012 issue of Palm Springs Life magazine. It turned out to be a fortuitous choice because in it was an article titled “Living With Liberace” about a recently-remodeled Old Las Palmas-area residence that had once been owned by the legendary pianist. The article, of course, piqued my interest, but, let me tell you, I just about fell out of my chair when I read that the property’s new owners, accountant Garth Gilpin and his wife, doctor Elizabeth Smalley, originally hailed from Pasadena, the city that I had just migrated from! I decided I had to stalk the home as soon as possible – especially considering all of the hoopla that was then (and is still now) surrounding the recently filmed HBO biopic Behind the Candelabra (which finally aired this past Sunday) – and I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to do just that a few days later.

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Liberace, who was born Wladziu Valentino Liberace and who was at one time the world’s highest-paid pianist, purchased the one-story desert dwelling on North Kaweah Road in 1968. It was his third Palm Springs home. Lee, as he was known to his friends, actually owned six Coachella Valley-area properties throughout his lifetime (including one that he purchased for his mother and another that he purchased for his brother). Of his penchant for buying residences, he said, “Some people collect stamps, I like to collect real estate. I am a firm believer in the good earth.”

During Liberace’s years there, the four-bedroom, five-bath, 3,101-square-foot abode, which was originally constructed in 1952 and sits on a 0.33-acre plot of land, was decorated in a French Provincial style and boasted a Louis XIV room and a large fountain. According to the Palm Springs Life article, Mr. Showmanship would play his piano nightly, much to the joy of his neighbors, and each Halloween, would pass out silver dollars, much to the joy of local trick-or-treaters. Garth told the magazine that the man who formerly lived next door (he has since passed away), would share anecdotes of Lee’s time on North Kaweah, saying “He told us how Liberace would come over in the mornings, in his bathrobe, and go into his icebox and chow down on his fried chicken leftovers. Then at night he’d hear him playing the piano. It’s such a great Palm Springs story, isn’t it? ‘I lived next door and got to hear Liberace playing the piano for free.’”

Liberace purchased his final desert residence, which was named The Cloisters (you can read my blog post on it here), in 1967. It was in disarray at the time and the pianist immediately began a long restoration process, to the tune of $136,000, while still living on North Kaweah Road. He finally moved into The Cloisters in 1972, at which point he offloaded the Kaweah property.

When the Kaweah house was put on the market in 2009, it boasted a price tag of $995,000 and was in quite a state, as you can see below. There are quite simply no words for the monstrosity that the interior had become. Wait, I take that back. There are words. Two of them, in fact. Hot mess!

Shockingly, the extravagant décor was not a leftover from Liberace’s days, but was the brainchild of the home’s then owner who was apparently a huge fan of both Mr. Showmanship and Elvis. You can check out additional photographs of the residence’s unique interior on its real estate listing here.

Garth and Elizabeth wound up buying the property in May 2010 for $625,000. Of their first tour of the dwelling – a viewing which rendered the couple “speechless” – Elizabeth says, “There were painted cherubs on the ceiling, a room that was Dalmatian and cow print, fake flowers, red velvet, gold, with Elvis and Liberace everywhere. It was the most dysfunctional house we’ve ever seen. Nonetheless, we thought, how can we not do this?” Shortly after purchasing the residence, they hired designer Christopher Kennedy to help them “honor and respect Liberace’s original vision without, you know, recreating it” and “to make it feel Liberace without looking Liberace.” You can see the result – which is fabulous – on the Palm Springs Life website here. Hard to believe it’s the same house as the one shown in the photos above!

Thankfully, subtle reminders of the pad’s famous former owner were left on the exterior of the property, as well, including music notes on the front gates.

And a piano-shaped mailbox, which I fell in love with!

The house is even named “Piazza di Liberace” and bears a sign informing visitors of that fact. Love it!

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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Liberace’s third desert home is located at 1441 North Kaweah Road in the Old Las Palmas section of Palm Springs.

April 19, 2013April 18, 2013

Dick Clark’s Former Malibu Home

Last June, my Grandma sent me an article about legendary television personality Dick Clark’s former Flintstones-style Malibu home, calling it “unbelievable” and asking if I could track it down and stalk it. One look at the photographs of the cave-like structure, which had recently been put on the market, and I was in! And while I did manage to track it down right away, it was not until a couple of weeks ago that I finally got around to stalking it. And I just have to say here that my Grandma, who is 88, never ceases to amaze me! I called her one evening back in January while on my way home from a SAG screening and she asked which stars, if any, I had gotten a photograph with. When I told her Robert De Niro and “an actor you probably haven’t heard of named Bradley Cooper”, she replied, “Of course I know who Bradley Cooper is! He was People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive last year.” I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Or grand-tree in this case.

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Dick Clark’s former home is located at the far northern end of Malibu, past the Ventura County Line, at the top of a very windy and steep road. It is situated so far up the road, in fact, that in driving there I wound up above the fog line, as you can see below! It was uncanny to witness! As my photographs of Neptune’s Net show, the weather was extremely overcast along the Pacific Coast Highway that particular morning, but up by Dick’s house, skies were clear and blue.

I was disheartened to learn, as I arrived at the property, that very little of it was visible from the street.

It wasn’t until I started back down the hill towards the PCH that I spotted a faraway glimpse of the structure.

The small, one-bedroom, two-bath residence was custom-built for Dick and his wife, Kari, although, for the life of me, I cannot figure out when. I searched through historic aerial views, but was only able to ascertain that the property was built sometime between 1980 and 2005. Anyway, at some point, “the oldest teenager” purchased a 23-acre plot of land adjacent to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Center and set about building a house there. The National Park Service objected to the plans, though, so architect Phillip Jon Brown came up with a design for a dwelling that looked like a rock formation in order to appease the group. His idea worked and the Clarks were given the go-ahead. The incredibly unique result is pictured below. According to a March 2012 CNN.com article, Brown created the home’s exterior out of stucco and loose rock. Of the process, he said, “When it was still wet, we scrubbed in to expose some of the stones. That made it look like decomposed granite.”

The house boasts very few straight lines, which would make it hard to hang any artwork. With views like those pictured below, though, who needs artwork?

According to the CNN.com article, the curved walls were constructed out of wood and steel beams and then covered over with concrete.

I absolutely love the openness of the residence and all of its indirect lighting.

I could do without the kitchen . . .

. . . and the bathroom, though. And while I don’t know that I’d ever want to live there, I’d give pretty much anything to see the place in person.

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 my Grandma for asking me to stalk this one!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dick Clark’s former home is located at 10124 Pacific View Road in Malibu.

April 3, 2013April 2, 2013

Brandi Glanville’s Former House

After watching the latest season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I can say that Brandi Glanville is, without a doubt, my favorite cast member. I absolutely ADORE her. (I also love Lisa Vanderpump and Yolanda Foster. As for the rest of the Housewives? Well, to borrow one of my grandma’s catch-phrases, they can go take a long walk off a short pier for all I care. ) So I was practically chomping at the bit to get my hands on a copy of her new autobiography, Drinking & Tweeting: and Other Brandi Blunders, which I finally did two weeks ago. I then promptly devoured the thing in two sittings. My favorite part of the book was the chapter dealing with the pitfalls of social media, in which Brandi says, “Just ask yourself how many times you have interrupted a wonderful night with friends and family to post on Facebook or Twitter that you’re having a wonderful night. How many times have you stopped midsentence to ask a waiter to take a photo and then spent the next five minutes f*cking with filters to post it on Instagram?” #sotrue Besides being a good read, Drinking & Tweeting also, of course, provided a few stalking locations, which I was over the moon about. And while the residence that Brandi referred to most often throughout the tome is, unfortunately, unstalkable due to the fact that it located inside of the gated Mountain View Estates community in Calabasas, I did manage to track down (via fellow stalker E.J. of The Movieland Directory website) and stalk the Encino residence where the reality star lived with her philandering husband, Eddie Cibrian, just prior to that.

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Eddie and Brandi purchased the 8,560-square-foot abode pictured below in May 2002, a year after their wedding, for $2,020,000. The dwelling, which was originally built in 1992 and was renovated at some point during the couple’s tenure there, boasts a 0.48-acre plot of land, six en-suite bedrooms, including two master suites (one with two walk-in closets and dual showers), eight bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen, a banquet-sized formal dining room, a professional theatre with bi-level seating for 15 people, a rooftop sundeck, four fireplaces, a pool, a library, travertine and hardwood flooring throughout, a porte-cochere, and a three-car garage.

The then happy couple put the property, which was dubbed “Rancho Estate”, on the market in 2007 for a whopping $4,395,000. You can check out the real estate listing from that time here.

Your Mama, from the Real Estalker website, ripped the home apart in a November 2007 post, saying, “Oh dear. Somebody please get Your Mama a silver spike that we can drive through the heart of the decorating demon who is responsible for this Encino mess that luscious looking actor Eddie Cibrian and his model wifey Brandi (with an “i,” of course) call home. Dear Jeezis in heaven, Your Mama just prefers not to know that there are people in the world who actually want to live in houses with porte-cocheres meant to make the house look elegant and grandiose but really just make it look like a damn Ramada Inn.” And while Your Mama is absolutely right about the porte-cochere, I have to say that I rather like the interior of the residence, especially the open entryway, the curving staircase, and the wood-beamed ceilings.

Brandi and Eddie wound up selling the home to comedian Carlos Mencia in January 2008 for $4.3 million – well over two times what they had paid for it just five and a half years prior.

That same month they purchased their Mountain View Estates residence for $2.5 million. That home, which was originally built in 1994, features six bedrooms, seven baths (including his-and-her baths in the master bedroom), 6,610 square feet of living space, a 0.83-acre plot of land, custom-built closets (yes, please!), covered patios, and a pool with a slide and multiple waterfalls. Two years later, in early 2010, Brandi and Eddie put the home on the market for $2,349,000 as part of their divorce proceedings and eventually sold it in June for $2.2 million. The photographs below are from the real estate listing during that time.

And yes, that is a stripper pole in the master bedroom (classy!), of which the Real Estalker’s Your Mama said in a February 2010 post, “Listen babies, we’re all for folks getting down, dirty and fuh-reeky in the bedroom, but let Your Mama offer all you married ladeez a word to the wise: Iffin your man wants to install a stripper pole in your marital bedroom, you can be pretty damn sure he’s going to want to see scantily clad beehawtchas who are not you working that thing. Don’t believe Your Mama? Install a damn stripper pole and let us know what happens.” True dat! Notice that the pole was removed (either digitally or physically) for some of the real estate photos.

It was as Brandi was driving up to the “ostentatious neighborhood gates” of the Mountain View Estates community that she learned, via a text message from a friend, of her husband’s affair with LeAnn Rimes. So while I knew that I could not stalk her actual former home there, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Calabasas to do a little drive-by of those gates. I was so hoping to see an “open house” sign displayed out front, but, alas, that was not to be.

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 my buddy E.J., from The Movieland Directory, for finding these locations.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Brandi Glanville’s former home is located at 4743 White Oak Avenue in Encino. Her other former house is located at 5497 Amber Circle, inside of the gated Mountain View Estates community, in Calabasas.