Larry Flynt Sells His Bel-Air Mansion
Hustler Magazine Publisher Larry Flynt has sold the Bel-Air mansion he bought about seven years ago from Sonny and Cher Bono.
The entertainers bought the house in 1967 from actor Tony Curtis.
Flynt, who was hospitalized in August with an undisclosed illness, sold the property to a local businessman. When contacted, Jeff Hyland of Alvarez, Hyland & Young in Beverly Hills, acknowledged that he represented the buyer, but Hyland would not divulge the buyer’s name or the selling price. Flynt was asking $4.5 million.
The five-bedroom home was one of the great Italian-style estates built in the old section of Bel-Air in the 1920s. After Flynt bought it, he took out the tennis court and installed an elaborate Japanese pond with a waterfall.
A reporter viewed the home shortly after Flynt completed remodeling. Then, the two-story house had an elevator with red, button-tuck, velour upholstered walls and a mirrored ceiling; a gym/disco, card room, marble bathroom floors and gold-plated bath fixtures to match Flynt’s gold-plated wheelchair.
The home also had radiant-heated sidewalks around the blue-mosaic tiled swimming pool and a garage large enough for three stretch limos.
The lipstick-red, heart-shaped bathtub Sonny ordered for Cher was still there, but new security features had been added. Obsessed with security after being paralyzed by gunshot wounds inflicted by an unknown assailant in 1978, Flynt put in a bullet-proof electric door leading to his bedroom, where he also had bullet-proof walls and window glass.
He also had a Diesel generator that could operate his security systems for a week if other power failed. The home has a perimeter security system, as well as a residential one.
Most noticeable, though, were Flynt’s armed guards, who wore black suits, narrow black ties, dark glasses and bulging shoulder holsters.
Mary Lou Retton, Reggie Jackson, George Brett, Kurt Rambis, Tommy Lasorda, Marcus Allen and Magic Johnson are just some of the famous sports figures who have donated memorabilia to the silent auction Saturday at the grand opening of the Radisson Plaza Hotel and Golf Course in Manhattan Beach.
The auction and other proceeds (tickets are $60 a person) will benefit the Sandpipers, a local philanthropic group, and the Manhattan Beach Historical Society, thanks to Horst Osterkamp, the hotel’s charming owner.
The Manhattan Beach project is the first of 11 hotels to be operated in California by Radisson, which was centered mainly in the Midwest until 1983, when Juergen Bartels launched a massive drive to expand the company. (See hotels story on Pg. 1.)
TV Producer Danny Arnold (“Barney Miller,” “Bewitched,” “The Real McCoys”) has sold his post-production facility QPT Editorial near La Brea and Melrose avenues to David Marsh of Marsh International Films for $1.4 million, a spokeswoman for Arnold said.
The deal, represented by Marion O’Dare and Jeff Luster of Major Properties, includes equipment. The two-story, 5,800-square-foot production facility at 625 N. La Brea Ave. is now the home for QPT-Marsh International, whose first feature release will be called “Lords of Magic.”
There is a newly opened 900-square-foot property at Lake Tahoe that cost its owner more than $165,000 to build and decorate.
It’s the baccarat room in Harvey’s Resort Hotel’s $100-million casino and hotel addition.
The room has brass fixtures, plush seats and hanging plants, separated from the rest of the casino by rectangular panes of frosted and beveled glass.
The room can accommodate 14 baccarat players, and each is expected to wager at least $50 to $100 a hand. It’s no place for beginners or loiterers, says Pete Lusich, Harvey’s director of games.
When the $100-million project is fully completed later this year, Harvey’s will be, its promoters say, the “largest gaming resort in the Lake Tahoe area.”
