Palisadian-Post Page 17 Thursday, May 25, 2017 PAST TIMES IN THE PALISADES REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REAL ESTATE SPECIAL Bird’s Eye: Soaring 30 stories above The Village. Photo courtesy of Chuck Larsen By JOHN HARLOW Editor-in-Chief W e are now a little more than one year from the opening of Rick Caruso’s Pal- isades Village, an event likely to be the big- gest seismic change to the landscape since the Methodist founders arrived nearly a century ago. The town is reshaping itself rapidly, which is why we commissioned television executive, drone pilot and eagle-eyed photographer Chuck Larson to take a snapshot 300 feet above the Caruso “Big Dig”—before it starts to be filled in with concrete to becomesomething, hope- fully, extraordinary over the next few months. Some residents still feel conflicted about the Village project, whether they want it to at- tract people from outside Pacific Palisades, or not, and at what hours. But the legitimate concerns, conspiracy theories and terrible noise that has surround- ed its conception and birth may be consigned to history if Caruso, who everyone agrees is a smart man, can pull off what he has promised: a rejuvenated Village center, a civic heart, beat- ing with aesthetic, recreational and yes, retail opportunities. And movies. To see a film in a theater for the first time in the Palisades since the twin-screen Bay Theater closed in September 1978—our former film re- viewer Arnie Wishnick recalled it was showing a non-Jamie Lee Curtis version of “Freaky Fri- day” and, to maintain the chronological theme, “Saturday Night Fever”—will be a wonderful treat. Caruso wants to open with “It’s a Won- derful Life”—but is that suitable for a summer night? The forthcoming summer blockbusters to be shown outdoors at Will Rogers State Park and, in August, at Palisades Recreation Center will be great fun, and the Palisades Branch Li- brary has quietly shown some amazing titles. But, for some, nothing beats a plush seat in the back row of an old-school theater. Since the Bay closed, the town has changed dramatically. It no longer votes totally Republican, although there is, as I am frequently told, a strong, if low-key, GOP contingency in the town. (But the last presidential vote was 80 percent Democratic.) The Palisades has recovered from its 1980s slump, when, shockingly, home prices staggered behind the rest of Los Angeles for a while. That was followed in the 1990s by the arrival of the first “McMansions.” The consequences of these super-large homes, at a time when family size and gadgets are shrinking, may only be understood by so- cial scientists in years to come. Most concur it’s a mixed blessing. At the same time, the Palisades has grown prettier and more civilized. Like elsewhere in LA, the air is cleaner. Serious crime is down. Those who remem- ber horror shows such as the brutal murder of Palisades High School graduate Teak Dyer in 1988 can put today’s criminality into perspec- tive. The plague of giant billboards that dated back to the 1950s have been stripped away, thanks to a community upheaval. There are—Ruthless Ryderz aside—fewer fatalities on Sunset Boulevard per driver than at any time since the road was known as Beverly. But there is still room for engineering improve- ments at the Chautauqua intersection. The schools are shining beacons of litera- cy and energy. If you want proof of the Flynn Effect, a sociological theory that every gener- ation can handle around 15 percent more data than the previous, one way of measuring IQ on standard tests, just talk to a PaliHi kid. Many green areas have been brought back to life by fiercely determined volunteers, such as Barbara Marinacci and Marge Gold. For the longest time, the heart of the Village was a grim patch leased by Standard Oil: Now it’s a cool haven known as the Village Green. The homes themselves? They have been transformed. Many, despite their size, are environmen- tally smarter, warmer or cooler when required, more pleasant places to live than the relatively humble homes where some Palisadians were born. It’s not just the wired gadgets and electric cars, even if they are creating a power shortage, or the fact that a lucky few can dedicate the space of a three-car garage to a gift-wrapping room. It’s the more practical concerns of inhab- iting a machine for living. It’s the lack of lead in the paint, more re- liable earthquake proofing, more trustworthy water supplies—LADWP water is drinkable, something the Methodists might have found as- tounding—the use of better building materials that wear better than adobe. Many new homes, like many but not all new cars, are “better” than their predecessors because of technological and social evolution. We expect more, and more is delivered. The Palisades Village, replacing a mori- bund array of defeated businesses, is almost here. The hole in our drone picture will soon be a deep parking lot. Life will be different for everyone. But this special issue is an excuse to briefly look back into the past of the Palisades and some of the striking homes and estates upon which today’s physical culture is founded. Just before we forget. It’s a rich mixture of private and civ- ic structures with many agendas: education, commerce, shelter and, in Will Rogers’ case, a fantasy dream home, far from the chaos of everyday life. That may have caught up with the Pali- sades at rush hour, but there was a time … CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY; CREATING OUR FUTURE CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY; CREATING OUR FUTURE
Transcript
Palisadian-Post Page 17Thursday, May 25, 2017
Past times in the PalisadesReal estate specialReal estate special
Bird’s Eye: Soaring 30 stories above The Village. Photo courtesy of Chuck Larsen
By JOHN HARLOW Editor-in-Chief
We are now a little more than one year from the opening of Rick Caruso’s Pal-
isades Village, an event likely to be the big-gest seismic change to the landscape since the Methodist founders arrived nearly a century ago.
The town is reshaping itself rapidly, which is why we commissioned television executive, drone pilot and eagle-eyed photographer Chuck Larson to take a snapshot 300 feet above the Caruso “Big Dig”—before it starts to be filled in with concrete to becomesomething, hope-fully, extraordinary over the next few months.
Some residents still feel conflicted about the Village project, whether they want it to at-tract people from outside Pacific Palisades, or not, and at what hours.
But the legitimate concerns, conspiracy theories and terrible noise that has surround-ed its conception and birth may be consigned to history if Caruso, who everyone agrees is a smart man, can pull off what he has promised: a rejuvenated Village center, a civic heart, beat-ing with aesthetic, recreational and yes, retail opportunities.
And movies. To see a film in a theater for the first time in
the Palisades since the twin-screen Bay Theater closed in September 1978—our former film re-viewer Arnie Wishnick recalled it was showing
a non-Jamie Lee Curtis version of “Freaky Fri-day” and, to maintain the chronological theme, “Saturday Night Fever”—will be a wonderful treat.
Caruso wants to open with “It’s a Won-derful Life”—but is that suitable for a summer night?
The forthcoming summer blockbusters to be shown outdoors at Will Rogers State Park and, in August, at Palisades Recreation Center will be great fun, and the Palisades Branch Li-brary has quietly shown some amazing titles. But, for some, nothing beats a plush seat in the back row of an old-school theater.
Since the Bay closed, the town has changed dramatically.
It no longer votes totally Republican, although there is, as I am frequently told, a strong, if low-key, GOP contingency in the town. (But the last presidential vote was 80 percent Democratic.)
The Palisades has recovered from its 1980s slump, when, shockingly, home prices staggered behind the rest of Los Angeles for a while. That was followed in the 1990s by the arrival of the first “McMansions.”
The consequences of these super-large homes, at a time when family size and gadgets are shrinking, may only be understood by so-cial scientists in years to come. Most concur it’s a mixed blessing.
At the same time, the Palisades has grown prettier and more civilized. Like elsewhere in
LA, the air is cleaner. Serious crime is down. Those who remem-
ber horror shows such as the brutal murder of Palisades High School graduate Teak Dyer in 1988 can put today’s criminality into perspec-tive.
The plague of giant billboards that dated back to the 1950s have been stripped away, thanks to a community upheaval.
There are—Ruthless Ryderz aside—fewer fatalities on Sunset Boulevard per driver than at any time since the road was known as Beverly. But there is still room for engineering improve-ments at the Chautauqua intersection.
The schools are shining beacons of litera-cy and energy. If you want proof of the Flynn Effect, a sociological theory that every gener-ation can handle around 15 percent more data than the previous, one way of measuring IQ on standard tests, just talk to a PaliHi kid.
Many green areas have been brought back to life by fiercely determined volunteers, such as Barbara Marinacci and Marge Gold. For the longest time, the heart of the Village was a grim patch leased by Standard Oil: Now it’s a cool haven known as the Village Green.
The homes themselves? They have been transformed.
Many, despite their size, are environmen-tally smarter, warmer or cooler when required, more pleasant places to live than the relatively humble homes where some Palisadians were born.
It’s not just the wired gadgets and electric cars, even if they are creating a power shortage, or the fact that a lucky few can dedicate the space of a three-car garage to a gift-wrapping room. It’s the more practical concerns of inhab-iting a machine for living.
It’s the lack of lead in the paint, more re-liable earthquake proofing, more trustworthy water supplies—LADWP water is drinkable, something the Methodists might have found as-tounding—the use of better building materials that wear better than adobe.
Many new homes, like many but not all new cars, are “better” than their predecessors because of technological and social evolution. We expect more, and more is delivered.
The Palisades Village, replacing a mori-bund array of defeated businesses, is almost here. The hole in our drone picture will soon be a deep parking lot. Life will be different for everyone.
But this special issue is an excuse to briefly look back into the past of the Palisades and some of the striking homes and estates upon which today’s physical culture is founded.
Just before we forget.It’s a rich mixture of private and civ-
ic structures with many agendas: education, commerce, shelter and, in Will Rogers’ case, a fantasy dream home, far from the chaos of everyday life.
That may have caught up with the Pali-sades at rush hour, but there was a time …
In 2001 Randy and Betty Lou Young published “Pacific Pal-isades—Where The Mountains Meet The Sea.” Much of the his-toric information here is based on that book.
By definition, an “estate” is “mostly used to mean a mas-
sive and fabulous house on a big piece of land.” The concept began in countries that were developed centuries before the United States had even begun.
In Southern California, the largest equivalent “estate” originat-ed with Spanish land grants in the late 18th century, including such properties as the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, which was approx-imately 6,600 acres between what is now Topanga Canyon and just past Santa Monica Canyon, and all along the foothills above what is now Pacific Palisades.
During the period of 1890-1946, these huge ranchos gradual-ly became subdivided and under-went several periods of substantial growth of housing, leaving very few true estate-type properties by the 1950s.
In fact, only three percent of the Palisades properties are over one acre today, and most of those are either up or down sloping land. Seventy-five percent of Pal-isadian lots are under one-third of an acre—approximately 15,000 square feet.
The Palisades had approxi-mately 100 homes in 1925, in-creasing to 300 by 1930, and then experienced a significant growth of new housing after World War II
until the 1970s.Many of the original, larger
estate-type properties still remain, although often with less land around the home than was origi-nally owned. A few are still intact with large grounds, such as the Will Rogers Park area. Will Rog-ers bought the land from a devel-oper in the mid-1920s and added 60 acres in upper Rustic Canyon in 1934. The Getty Villa, originally
known as Parker Ranch, has also remained intact.
A lavish estate was created on eight acres of land with the high-est elevation of ocean views along 600 feet of what was then named Beverly Boulevard—today Sunset Boulevard—where the west end of Marquez now terminates.
The owner was a wealthy art collector named Adolph Bern-heimer. He created the Japanese
gardens showcase in 1926, which flourished as a tourist attraction into the 1940s. Between 1944-48, the property suffered a series of landslides, exacerbated by the state having widened the coastal highway below it.
Today, only bits of walls, hedges, shrubs and some surviving trees remain.
In the Bel-Air Bay tract, only one large-scale home was complet-
ed before the Depression struck. It stood as the only large house on the hill for many years after 1930 and has been owned by several wealthy and well-known people. The property includes an indoor swimming pool.
Between 1926-28, the Castel-lammare development was planned with Italian Renaissance-style homes. The first to be built was the Villa Leon, a “castle by the sea.”
This impressive landmark stands out today: Many people often mistake it for the Getty Vil-la, which is tucked away nearby.
The family lived there until 1935 and later sold it in 1952 when the estate was settled. During those years, it lost much of the land, due to erosion and slippage down to the highway.
The exclusive sections of the Palisades attracted wealthy peo-ple even during the Depression era. One notable estate from that period was the McCormick estate in the Huntington Palisades. It in-cluded 13 acres of land, combin-ing 14 separate lots at the time.
It overlooked the Pacific Ocean and Potrero Canyon at the section where Alma Real curves into Corona del Mar, and was said to be the highest price paid for one residential lot in the coun-try at $365,000 in 1928.
The property was owned by a member of the family that also
Estates in the Palisades: Yesterday and Today
(Continued on page 19)
Michael Edlen outside Villa Aurora Photos by Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
owned International Harvester Company. According to records, the completed “summer home” complex included 100 rooms in six or seven buildings and was maintained by a 30-member staff. Even though it had suffered from landslides by 1932, some of the main structures survived and were gradually sold off as a few separate properties.
Another notable estate devel-oped in the 1930s was built by Anatol Josepho, who fled Russia during the Revolution and be-came wealthy through inventing and then selling a coin-operated instant photo portrait booth com-pany. He discovered an 85-acre parcel in upper Rustic Canyon and built his own road into the site from what is now the end of Casale at the top of The Riviera. His family and the Rogers family became close friends, along with Leo Carrillo, whose ranch home was in Santa Monica Canyon.
In 1933, a large and secluded site next to the Josepho’s proper-ty was bought for the purpose of laying the groundwork for a Nazi stronghold in an isolated spot. The owners apparently spent $4 million in developing much of the site for a large home and other buildings that were never built. It was known as the Murphy Ranch.
The Josephos sold their ranch in 1946. Two years later it became part of an artists’ colony, which opened in 1950 on the 140-acre property created by acquisition of Murphy Ranch. The colony was funded by Huntington Hartford, Jr., and he engaged Frank Lloyd Wright as the architect to design the property layout.
By 1965, the Huntington
Hartford Foundation could no longer support the property and it was sold to a developer for his personal family use. A few years later, he sold off part of it, and eventually, the Los Angeles City Department of Parks and Recre-ation owned the property. By the 1970s the property was neglect-ed, the tenants were evicted and in 1979-80, fire and floods de-stroyed most of the structures.
Other notable estates of the 1940s included the well-known
Villa Aurora, which was home for Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger in the 1940s and ’50s. The home they selected was built by one of the original developers of the Miramar Estates. Today, Paseo Miramar is still the main road into the area, and only nine large homes were built in the Miramar Estates before 1940.
In the 1930s, George Barrett parceled together 110 acres north of Sunset in Las Pulgas Canyon, which is now mostly homes along
Bienveneda and Akron. He es-tablished an avocado tree grove, modern stables and sweeping ex-panses of lawns.
Perhaps the best-known re-maining estate in the Palisades today is the site of the J. Paul Getty Villa Museum. It had been the 17-acre remaining piece of land that Mascual Marquez saved for his own family use over the years, as his vast ranch was sold off piece by piece.
It was finally sold to the Park-
er family, which developed the canyon and grounds with a beau-tiful home, theater, gardens, etc.
In 1947, J. Paul Getty pur-chased it for $250,000 and it be-came known as the Getty Ranch. Getty assembled a small zoo there, expanded the buildings and he said he planned to return af-ter he moved to Europe in 1951. However, he apparently only spent a few nights in the place.
Before his passing in 1976, Getty had collected many art ob-
jects beginning in the 1930s, and in 1953, he established the mu-seum in five rooms of the house. The present museum opened in 1974 on 55 acres, and cost about $16 million, while the main building and 10 acres of grounds were used for staff purposes.
Besides the remaining parts or whole estates as mentioned above, there are several more modern estates created by either combining parcels or building grand homes on relatively large lots. Some examples include Via Florence, a private street con-taining several sites originally intended for separate homes that were never able to be built. Now a large home with guesthouse and studio is set on expansive grounds.
Others are the beautiful, large home at the corner of Toyopa and Corona Del Mar, a well-known producer’s compound on north Amalfi, a famous actor’s mag-nificent architectural view home at the top of the Riviera, a new estate-size view home also at the top of the Riviera, a large and gat-ed property at the very top of the hill above the Riviera and other new homes on mostly about one-half acre sites.
Many others could be includ-ed, depending on one’s definition of what an “estate” consists of in the Palisades. It is likely that over the years to come, many other fairly large lots will become sites of expansive homes, to the extent that changing ordinances may allow.
Michael Edlen of Coldwell Banker has been a resident of the Palisades for 40 years, a lead-ing Realtor for 30 years, and has been active in many local commu-nity organizations and programs.
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ESTATEPalisadian-Post
Both founders of Los Angeles’ real estate brokerage Partners
Trust were named among Variety’s 2017 Real Estate Elite. Hugh Evans III and Richard Stearns discuss why they started Partners Trust and ap-prise the current Pacific Palisades real estate market.
Palisadian-Post: Tell us when and why you started Partners Trust.
Evans: We started Partners Trust in 2009—during the country’s worst financial crisis in our lifetime—with the idea that agents can find greater success working together rather than competing against each other
Stearns: We wanted to create a culture and work environment where associates empower one another to thrive and develop enduring, reliable bonds with their clients.
Post: Tell us about a notable sale over the past year that you were in-volved with.
Evans: I brokered the price-per-square-foot record of a home in The Riviera neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.
Stearns: I represented the buyer of the Ronald Reagan estate in The Riviera that was priced at $22 mil-lion.
Post: What’s the current state of the Pacific Palisades real estate market?
Evans: It is still a competitive market with very limited inventory, however, unlike the past few years, buyers are now more thoughtful in the process.
Stearns: Pacific Palisades is one of the strongest markets in LA. What makes it interesting is the broad price range that is offered, including
homes just over a million to over $30 million. And, anything near the new Caruso Village is going nuts.
Post: Tell us about your newest Pacific Palisades property on the market.
Evans: Richard and I just co-listed 15515 Via De Las Olas, a 16,693-square-foot, double lot, perched upon a Pacific Palisades clifftop, offered at $9.5 million.
Stearns: We’re also co-listing an ocean-view, south-of-France-style chateau, sited on over half an acre of land in the gated Shadow Mountain enclave, offered at $11 million.
Contact Hugh Evans III by email at [email protected] or call 310-500-1331;
Contact Richard Stearns by email at [email protected] or call 310-850-9284.
Hugh Evans III and Richard Stearns
Must bring coupon to redeem. Offer expires 10/01/2017.
Richard Stearns (left) and Hugh Evans III Photos courtesy of Partners Trust
Positioned on the iconic corner of Sunset Boulevard and Pacif-
ic Coast Highway at the intersec-tion of Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica, Sunset/PCH is a three-building center, totaling 103,000 square feet, owned by prominent New York-based real estate firm Brickman Associates. Upon purchasing 17383 Sunset Blvd. in 2015, Brickman com-pletely reimagined the project to be the intersection of “office meets beach.”
The renovations to Sunset/PCH include new lobbies, new elevators, new common corridors and beau-tiful ADA bathrooms with premi-
um lighting and high-end finishes throughout.
To accentuate the property’s lo-cation, ocean views and indoor/out-door areas, the ownership added an abundance of glass and reimagined the outdoor common areas, adding fire pits and beautiful furniture for tenants to take in the panoramic views.
Sunset/PCH features on-site amenities, such as the prestigious fitness center Bay Club Pacific Pal-isades, which includes the popular Pure Energy Cafe, an upgraded parking facility with new direction-al signage and valet parking.
In addition, ownership has
completed a sweeping spec suite campaign, turning all vacancies into move-in-ready, top-of-the-line suites, featuring exposed ceilings, extensive glass and fully furnished kitchens.
With breathtaking views and first class, move-in ready suites, Sunset/PCH redefines the ocean-front experience. People are taking notice, as seen by the numerous me-dia, entertainment, real estate and tech tenants who have signed leases at the property within the past year.
To learn more about LA’s only true oceanfront experience, please visit sunsetpch.com.
Sunset/PCH—The Westside’s Premier Oceanfront Experience
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Page 23Palisadian-PostMay 25, 2017
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The Getty Villa’s Ranch House was originally part of a 19th century Span-ish land grant known as “Perfecto Marquez” and then, after the 1920s, the Park-er Ranch. The refurbished ranch house was the original Getty family art gallery until the Villa at 17985 Pacific Coast Highway opened in 1976.
Photo courtesy of Getty Villa
When Los Angeles Athletics Club pioneer Frank Garbutt stood on a mesa overlooking Santa Monica Canyon, according to writer Geoff Shackelford, he declared: “This is it!” Five years later he opened one of the most famous golf courses in the world: The Riviera Country Club.
Photo courtesy of The Riviera Country Club
The highly-discrete Riviera home of German Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann was close to demolition in November 2016 when Angela Merkel’s government purchased it for $13.25 million. There are plans to turn the 1941 house at 1550 San Remo Dr. into a writers retreat. Photos courtesy of Curbed LA
When silent movie star and humorist Will Rogers, also known as “Oklahoma’s Favorite Son,” needed to escape from his Hollywood bud-dies in the 1920s, he moved west and built the 31-room mansion on 187 acres that remains one of the most beloved state parks.
Photos courtesy of Will Rogers State Park
Page 24 Palisadian-Post May 25, 2017
Page 25Palisadian-PostMay 25, 2017
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By MICHAEL OLDHAMSpecial to the Palisadian-Post
In 1956, actor Robert Taylor ap-peared on the popular TV game
show “What’s My Line?” Taylor was one of the episode’s “mys-tery guests.”
Taylor was asked: “Are you in the world of entertainment or amusement?”
The Nebraska-born star an-swered, “Yes.”
“Are you more [of] a flick-er-type fellow … cinema actor?”
Taylor answered, “Yes.”And if one of the panelists
had asked Taylor whether he was currently living in the Upper Riv-iera neighborhood of Pacific Pal-isades, California, he would have also answered in the affirmative.
For by 1956, Taylor had al-ready spent at least a full year residing high up in the Palisades on San Remo Drive, at the point where it circles around to connect with Casale Road.
He had been considering sell-ing it: A letter to a friend said he had been asking $137,000 but accept-ed $125,000, plus some furniture. “All in all I think we were damn lucky. We won’t make any money on the deal but we’ll sure as hell break even and will have lived here very comfortably for four years.”
In case you were wondering, that address on four acres was last valued at $6.7 million.
In 1954 it was a sprawling Contemporary-style home Taylor built for him and his second wife, Ursula Thiess.
Taylor had married the younger, Germany-born actress that same year.
And it would be Thiess who would supervise the construction of what would be the first joint home for the newlyweds.
She would watch as wood, red brick and rock walls were pieced together to create their sprawling home. Topping the house was a homey, shingled roof
that had more than one chimney sprouting out of its many angled slices.
By the time Taylor and his wife moved into their new house in 1954, he was in his mid-40s and had many well-known films behind him such as “Magnificent Obsession.”
The 1935 film was Taylor’s first as a leading-man, complete with his signature combed back
hair, one where he played oppo-site Irene Dunne.
The nearly six-foot-tall Tay-lor went on to star opposite oth-er leading ladies of the day, in-cluding Barbara Stanwyck in the 1936 film, “His Brother’s Wife.”
Off-screen, Taylor would marry Stanwyck in 1939.
Taylor once referred to Stan-wyck as “one of the finest ac-tresses in show business.”
But a few years before Taylor became a Palisadian, the famous Hollywood couple would suffer
a case of trouble in paradise and split, officially divorcing in 1951.
But the move into the Pal-isades created a fresh start for blue-eyed Taylor on a number of fronts. By 1955, the year after his move in, the longtime MGM star not only had a new house and a new wife, but a new son.
Terrance was the first of two children that the always clean-cut Taylor and his glamorous bru-nette wife, Thiess, would have to-gether. The San Remo house and property would make a half-acre-
plus playpen for the new family.Today, the four-bedroom
house features a pool that sits be-side a lush green backyard with plenty of foliage keeping its pri-vacy. This would suit Taylor’s personality, who as a kid “pre-ferred being alone on the prairie or in the woods to playing foot-ball with the gang.”
But Taylor, known as “the man with the perfect face,” could simply going upstairs to peek out of a dormer window to see the city.
And while Taylor once ad-mitted that he “was not—I still am not—gregarious,” he and his wife didn’t avoid their fellow Palisadians.
The couple became close to one of their famous neighbors.
“Ronald and Nancy Davis Reagan lived almost next door, in Pacific Palisades and we be-came best friends,” Thiess once recalled.
For Taylor, living among the rich and famous crowd must have seemed like a far-fetched dream come true for the one-time strug-gling actor who once recalled an “awful night” early in his acting days of the 1930s when he re-alized he “had one thin dime in the world” to support his mother, grandmother and himself.
But even after hitting it big in Hollywood, Taylor would confess that others “seem to think I’m a millionaire, but I’m not.” He add-ed, “I’ve saved a little money but every time a chance came along to strike it rich outside the movie business, like the real estate deals of some stars, I was always a dol-lar short or a day late.”
Taylor and Thiess would re-main friends with the Reagans after they had parted with San Remo Drive in the late 1950s for a ranch in nearby Mandeville Canyon. Their daughter, Tessa, was born in 1959 and then-Pal-isadian Nancy would be named her godmother.
Taylor remained married to Thiess the remainder of his life. In 1969, Taylor passed away in Santa Monica.
Michael Oldham is co-author of “Movie Star Homes: The Fa-mous to the Forgotten.”
How Robert Taylor Built His Dream HouseCELEBRITY HOmES In PaCIfIC PaLISadES
Matinee idol Photos courtesy of IMDB At home
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The Glorious, Crazy Bernheimer GardensOver the next few weeks, we will learn the shape of new luxury
homes to be built at the Bernheimer Gardens site at 16980 Sunset Blvd., near Marquez Place. But when it opened in 1925, the $3 million Japanese garden, designed by retired cotton mag-nate Charles and Adolph Bernheimer, was an exotic wonder. It abruptly fell out of fashion and into decay during World War II.
Not real elephants Photos courtesy of LAPL Photo Friends
The lush estate
Atwill Photo courtesy of IMDB
Pay 10 cents to enter
San Remo Drive today is very civilized, despite its glitzy
residents, but in 1941, the Los Angeles Times, in one of its pe-riodic flirtations with tabloid val-ues, called a home in the 1500 block the “Orgy House of Sin”—doubling down on the sensation-alism.
It was the home of British ac-tor Lionel Atwill, who appeared, usually as a mad scientist, in 25 horror movies between 1932 and 1946. His career unraveled after
an underage woman told a Los Angeles courtroom she had been impregnated by an unknown man during a regular weekend orgy held by “Europeans” at the haci-enda.
Atwill was indicted for per-jury after denying he showed risqué movies at the parties. He completed one more significant film, “House of Dracula,” which benefited from the headlines, and died from pneumonia in 1946.
—JOHN HARLOW
The ‘Orgy House’ of The Riviera
Page 28 Palisadian-Post May 25, 2017
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Don’t miss out on this advertising opportunity! Over 30,000 spectators flock to Pacific Palisades every year for the annual parade, the 5k/10k run, fireworks, contests, picnics and bbq’s!
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By JOHN HARLOWEditor-in-Chief
When they find time to re-lax, Palisadians love to
eat, drink and be merry—which is why the town has been home to some famed restauranteurs: from pioneers Ah Wing and Kay Young, of the House of Lee (which became Pearl Dragon), to Alain Giraud, whose Maison Gi-raud may return to the Palisades Village project next year.
And then there was Mort’s, still missed for its ambiance, if not always its menu.
But one of the characters who epitomizes an era of glamour and gastronomic glitz is Madame Syl-via Wu who, at 102 and enjoying a busy retirement in the Riviera, put her own star on the map of Hollywood.
Madame Wu and her less-pub-
lic husband King Yan Wu, encap-sulated the American Dream.
Hailing from Kuikiang on the Yangtze River in northeast-ern China, in 1959, she opened a storefront restaurant with a hand-ful of seats.
And within a few years, she created an experience known as Madame Wu’s Garden, where more than 300 diners could be served at one time. And the star count was astronomical.
According to her own ac-counts in the autobiographical memory book “Madame Wu’s Garden,” she struck lucky early when Cary Grant strolled into the tiny restaurant in Santa Monica and asked for a chicken salad.
She invented her own version of the dish on the spot and made a friend for life.
The book is dedicated to the Hollywood star who opened the
doors for all his friends. But the humble chicken salad remained a favorite among them all.
When Madame Wu decided to retire in February 1998, she received a letter from then-Gov-ernor Pete Wilson, praising her community service as well as her unmatched culinary skills. But the key point, according to a Palisadian who recalled dining at Madame Wu’s restaurant on its last crazy closing night, where the guest list ranged from Hitch-cockian blonde Eva Marie Saint to architect Frank Gehry, was that people just warmed to Madame Wu.
She both charmed people and fed them.
“She may have driven around town in a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, but Madame Wu has al-ways been open, friendly and ready to help—a true Palisadian.”
The Perfect Taste of Madame Wu
With Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
With Cary and Jennifer Grant Photos courtesy of Madame Wu With Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley
With Bob Hope
With President Ronald Reagan With Sir Anthony Hopkins, former mayor of the Palisades
