‘Sweethearts of Carlsbad’

This isn’t a hot property in the traditional sense, but it’s very hot, meaning fantastic in the vernacular of people in their teens.

It was just after their early teens that Norman and Marjorie Hall were married, but it was 30 years ago Dec. 30 that the retired World War I pilot, now 93, and his wife, 92, moved into a cottage where they still live, at Carlsbad by the Sea.

The San Diego couple moved into the cottage a year after the property where it was located was converted from a hotel to a retirement community by California Lutheran Homes.

She was a pianist with the USO when they met at the Grant Hotel in San Diego. They were married at the end of the war (WW I).

Known as “The Sweethearts of Carlsbad by the Sea,” they’ve been married 67 years.

With it being New Year’s Day today (and, for many, the “morning after”), you may not want to hear this, but here’s an item for lovers of Singapore slings--you know, thecocktail concocted at the Long Bar of Singapore’s Raffles Hotel.

The bar, where the cocktail was invented in 1915, will stay open, but early this year the 127 guest rooms of the century-old hotel will be closed for renovations, which will be under way for almost two years.

A new hotel to complement the oriental charm of Raffles, one of the last links with Singapore’s colonial past, will be built--at the same time--on an adjoining site, according to DBS Land, majority owner of the hotel and its property.

Rona Barrett has listed her pied-a-terre with Thelma Orloff, who just became vice president of Fred Sands’ Estates Division.

(Orloff was with Stan Herman’s Beverly Hills office for 28 years! “I was getting in a rut and needed a change,” Orloff said.)

The glamorous newspaper columnist-turned-TV entertainment correspondent is asking $3.2 million for her Beverly Hills house, furnished.

Waldo Fernandez, the celebrated interior designer, submitted an overbid in probate court of $1.82 million for a Beverly Hills house listed at $1.75 million.

The deal, which closes in March, was handled by Marilyn Nelson and Rose Borne in Stan Herman’s office (they represented the sellers) and Richard Klug at Jon Douglas Co. (he represented Fernandez).

Among the colorful closings of ’88 was a $1.3-million Brentwood house for L.A. City Hall’s “odd couple,” Douglas Ring and Cindy Miscikowski, who were married earlier in the year.

What makes them an odd couple is that Ring, an attorney, is a development advocate, while Miscikowski, City Councilman Marvin Braude’s chief deputy, was a prime mover behind Proposition U, the Braude/Yaroslavsky initiative that down zoned much of the city.

Remember hearing that B.C., the L.A. version of New York City’s MK (nightspot), will open by the end of January?

Susan Foster, an agent at Larry Alan Associates, handled the listing and sale of the building, at 7550 Sunset Blvd., to Brett Witke, Chris Daggett (Brett is the B, and Chris is the C in B.C.), Eric Goode and Serge Becker. Irene and Michael Markarian were the sellers.

Mischa’s, a Russian restaurant, formerly occupied the location, which sold for just under $1 million with options on the land, said Larry Geller of the realty firm, which is across the street and diagonally across from the new L.A. Butterfield & Butterfield (auction house) gallery.

“This whole area is going through a change,” Geller said.

Now it seems Mike Silverman’s Beverly Hills firm has the listing on the highest-priced home for lease in town.

It was listed for awhile with another broker, but the rent--$75,000 a month--is the same.

The mansion, a Tudor owned by what was described as “a young real estate/garment industry mogul,” comes with a guest house, pool, tennis court and gardens. He bought it 10 years ago from an heiress, Silverman said.

Silverman also claims that the guest house was a small studio that was used during the ‘30s and ‘40s for broadcasting the Amos ‘n Andy radio show. Natalie Janger is handling the lease.