THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 49 FEBRUA RY 26, 2020
Jeff Bezos’ $165M purchase of the Jack Warner Estate from David Geffen shows
the enduring appeal of mansions built by Hollywood pioneers: ‘People appreciate
owning a piece of history’ BY PETER KIEFER
stretch of Pacific Coast Highway
just north of the Santa Monica
Pier that became known as the
Gold Coast. The Thalberg-Shearer
residence, still intact today,
neighbored a property owned
by 20th Century Fox’s Darryl F.
Zanuck and wasn’t far from the
Georgian Revival palace that
William Randolph Hearst built
for Marion Davies (the Zanuck
home was torn down, as was the
Davies mansion, which is where
the Annenberg Community Beach
House now sits).
In recent years, luminaries like
Taylor Swift, investor Nicolas
Berggruen, book publisher
Benedikt Taschen and producer
Jerry Bruckheimer have breathed
new life into some of these grand
properties. Swift bought the
estate of Samuel Goldw yn in
Beverly Hills for $25 million in
2014; Berggruen shed his image
as the homeless billionaire when
he purchased the Edie Goetz
Estate in 2017 for $41 million;
Bruckheimer bought the home
built by Columbia Pictures head
Harry Cohn in 2013; and Taschen
and his wife, Lauren, acquired
the estate of producer David O.
Selznick in 2017 for $20 million. “I
knew of Selznick as a producer of
Hollywood’s most iconic movies,
so I was curious,” says Taschen,left, and what this tells me is that
there’s a return to classicism
being the ultimate
aesthetic — not new-
ness or flash.”
That may well be,
but L.A. has a check-
ered track record
concerning the protection of
some of its most historic proper-
ties. Take the former Walt Disney
Estate in Holmby Hills. The four-
acre residence was razed in 1998
to make way for a 22,000-square-
foot home that sold in 2014 for
$74 million. Or the estate of MGM
co-founder Louis B. Mayer — a
10,000-square-foot, neo-Colonial
style home built in the 1930s on
St. Cloud Road. It was demolished
in the 1980s after falling into
disrepair, and in its place rose a
mammoth residence known as
La Belle Vie. The Benedict Canyon
mansion of Universal Pictures
founder Carl Laemmle met a
similar fate.
While Bel Air, Holmby Hills
and Beverly Hills laid claim to
most of the area’s fabled estates,
Santa Monica emerged as a
coastal alternative for the indus-
try’s mogul class. MGM head of
production Irving Thalberg and
actress Norma Shearer famously
hosted events at their house,
designed by John Byers on aBezosThe 12,500-square-foot home of David O. Selznick, bought for $20 million in 2017 by book
publisher Benedikt Taschen (who tells THR, “It was like love on the first sight for us”). Jack
Warner was so impressed with the design, he hired the same architect and interior designer.The
SELZNICK
Estatea historic property rather than
a tricked-out, amenity-rich spec
mansion highlights the endur-
ing mystique that Hollywood’s
golden-era tycoons — and their
former estates — still wield on
the city’s landscape and on the
psyche of the current stable of
stars and super-moguls.
“When you get to this level,
it’s not about the money or the
price. It’s about the emotions
and the statement you want to
make,” says Jeff Hyland of Hilton
& Hyland, who wrote about the
Warner Estate in his book The
Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills.
According to Hyland, the Warner
Estate, built in the 1930s and cre-
ated by architect Roland E. Coate,
interior designer William Haines
and landscape designer Florence
Yoch, is one of the last remaining
crown jewels. “There are only a
handful of these class-A estatesLOVE OLD ESTATES
241 In 1926, Warner
Bros. co-founder Jack
Warner purchased four
acres on Angelo Drive
and later acquired
several neighboring
parcels. This photo
shows the construc-
tion of the front
portico, which featured
six Doric columns.
2 Warner turned to
architect Roland E.
Coate, who at the
time was comfortable
working within a wide
range of styles but
landed on Georgian
Revival for the Jack
Warner Estate.
3 After traveling up
a winding driveway,
guests are deposited
at this roundabout,
complete with foun-
tain, at the entrance of
the main residence.
4 For the home’s
interior, Warner hired
William Haines, who
was the most sought-
after interior designer
of his era.