Elvira’s Haunt Gets Fresh Paint
CASSANDRA PETERSON, who portrays Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and her husband-manager, former musician MARK PIERSON, are remodeling their French New Orleans-style home on an acre in Los Feliz at a cost of nearly $500,000. They bought the house two years ago for $800,000.
Peterson, in her mid-40s, has used her tongue-in-cheek style as a bosomy Valley Girl-as-vampire to pitch more than 500 products, ranging from beer to perfumes to pinball machines.
She gained prominence while hosting a KHJ-TV (now KCAL) B-movie horror series, which aired from 1981 to 1986 and was nationally syndicated from 1982 to 1992. She and Pierson built a small empire based in large part on licensing Elvira’s name and likeness for Halloween and other merchandise.
The couple’s L.A.-based Queen B Productions is said to make more than $1 million in annual revenue, also generated through the glamour ghoul’s personal appearances, books, publishing, records and movies.
“Thrill Ride,” a documentary featuring Elvira, is being distributed this summer to IMAX theaters worldwide.
The couple is also developing three TV movies based on her published books, “Transylvania 90210” and “Camp Vamp,” and the upcoming novel, “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf.”
The Los Feliz house has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters in 3,800 square feet, built in 1938. Along with being refurbished, the home will be expanded to include a pool, spa and playhouse. The couple plans to redecorate the house in French Country style.
They sold their Hollywood Hills house in 1994 to Brad Pitt for $1.7 million, sources say.
A five-acre Malibu property once owned for years by JULIE ANDREWS and BLAKE EDWARDS has been sold for about $7.3 million, sources say.
The property had been owned since 1992 by Florida investor Edward Sacks, who is said to have purchased it from Andrews and Edwards for about $8.5 million.
Sacks razed the main house and in its place built a 9,000-square-foot mansion, designed and furnished by Ron Wilson, who has designed a number of homes for Cher.
The home overlooks the ocean and has a beach, tennis court, pool and glass sculpture studio, which was there when Andrews and Edwards owned the property.
The home had been listed on and off since June 1996, when it went on the market at $12.5 million. The buyer has been described as a European businessman.
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QUINCY D. JONES III, son of one of pop music’s most respected and influential figures, has purchased a four-bedroom 4,000-square-foot house with a recording studio in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley for a bit more than $500,000, sources say.
The 27-year-old music producer, songwriter and TV and film composer, raised in Sweden by his mother, Ulla Anderson produced LL Cool J’s Gold album “14 Shots to the Dome,” and he wrote five songs for Yo Yo’s 1993 album and scored the music for the TV series “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” He also founded Jungle Records and heads QDIII Sound Lab Production Co.
His new home is in a gated community and has mountain and valley views. Dottie Zola, of the Woodland Hills office of Fred Sands Realtors, represented Jones in the purchase.
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MARQUES JOHNSON, the former Bruins All-American who went on to become a forward with the Milwaukee Bucks before he was traded to the Clippers and retired to become a TV commentator in 1987, has sold a Westside home that he had owned since 1985.
Johnson, 41, has been the analyst this year for the NBA Western Conference champion Seattle SuperSonics.
The gated, ranch-style house with four bedrooms, a pool and city views sold for its full asking price of $750,000, sources say.
The house had been listed by Jocelyn Johnson of Fred Sands’ Brentwood office. She is the former basketball star’s wife and mother of three of his sons. His oldest son by a previous marriage, Kris, plays basketball for UCLA.
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Veteran movie director GEORGE SIDNEY and his wife, actress-turned-writer CORINNE ENTRATTER SIDNEY, have listed a Beverly Hills house they own at $987,000. The Sidneys, who live nearby, have used the house as an investment property.
Built about 1930, the house was once owned by the late Gene Nelson, who played cowboy Will Parker in the 1955 film “Oklahoma!” He later became a director.
Sidney, 80, directed “Our Gang” comedies (1935), “Anchors Aweigh” (1945), “The Harvey Girls” (1946), “Show Boat” (1951) and “Bye Bye Birdie” (1962). In recent years, the Sidneys, married for seven years, co-hosted the L.A. cable show “Reel to Reel.”
The five-bedroom, 3,700-square-foot house also has a den, library, pool and spa. It is listed with Heidi Tabib of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills.
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VERA BROWN, a philanthropist and owner of Vera’s Retreat in the Glen, has sold her Beverly Hills house for close to its $1.5-million asking price, and she has moved to a Wilshire Boulevard condo with a view.
Brown, whose long-established business caters to celebrities and socialites seeking facials and other skin-care services, had lived in her house for 42 years.
Built in 1927, the gated Mediterranean-style home with four bedrooms and a circular drive, was sold to an industrialist from South Korea, a source said.
Brown was represented in her sale by Marilyn Watson of Celebrity Properties, Beverly Hills.
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SIMON BENSON, the late multimillionaire lumberman and philanthropist who built the historic Benson Hotel in Portland, Ore., built a house in Beverly Hills that is now on the market at just under $6 million. It was recently listed at $12 million.
The 8,000-square-foot main house and three-room guest house, on a 1.2-acre knoll above Sunset Boulevard, were also owned at one time by Lucille Ball, sources say.
Designed by Frank Bruner, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright who designed many European estates, the mansion was built in 1929. It has a pool, paddle tennis court, koi pond and waterfall.
The house, which also has a projection room and a library, has been featured in such books as “Sunset Boulevard, America’s Dream Street.”
Bob Hurwitz of Hurwitz-James Co. has the listing.
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CORRECTION: Melissa Schupp of John Aaroe & Associates, Brentwood, is co-listing the Guggenheim house (Hot Property, July 20). She was incorrectly identified.
