Number Is Up for B.H. House
EARVIN “MAGIC” JOHNSON and his wife, Cookie, have put their house overlooking Beverly Hills on the market at just under $8 million.
The Lakers legend turned talk show host and real estate developer plans to stay in the area but wants to sell his home before deciding exactly where he will live next.
His syndicated talk show “The Magic Hour” debuted last month. This week, it was announced that comedian Tommy Davidson (“In Living Color”) will become a regular.
Earlier this month, Magic Johnson Theatres announced that it will build a second multiplex cinema in the L.A. area. Its first multiplex opened in 1995. It also has theaters in Atlanta and Houston.
The actual asking price of Johnson’s home is $7.932 million. The number 32 is in the price, sources say, because it was his number when playing basketball for the Lakers.
Johnson, who turns 39 on Aug. 14, has owned his home, on a bit more than an acre, since late 1989, when he purchased it during construction.
He listed it at about $6 million in 1992, when he and his wife had one child. Later, as his family grew to include three children, he expanded the house from about 12,000 to 14,000 square feet, increasing the number of bedrooms from four plus a staff quarters to a total of nine.
The Mediterranean-style home also has a gym, media room, game room, tennis court and pool. The house is in the gated community of Beverly Park.
Barbara Robinson of DBL Realtors, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
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HENRY WINKLER, who co-stars with Adam Sandler in the upcoming comedy movie “The Water Boy,” and his wife, Stacey, have purchased a Brentwood home for about its $2.7-million asking price, sources say.
Winkler, who gained prominence as Fonzie on the sitcom “Happy Days,” has been a director for the TV series “Clueless” (1996-98) and was executive producer of the series “MacGyver” (1985-92).
Winkler, 52, played Principal Himbry in the ’96 movie “Scream.” “The Water Boy” is due to be released this fall.
The Winklers had been looking for a smaller home since selling their 9,000-square-foot Bel-Air home in January. That home, which they had remodeled, was built in 1934. They bought a 3,600-square-foot house built in 1916.
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RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON, who starred as MacGyver in the TV series and 1994 TV movies of the same name, has purchased a Malibu home for about $2 million, sources say.
Anderson currently stars in Showtime’s “Stargate SG-1,” a sci-fi / adventure series for which he is also executive producer.
The series had its second-season premiere in June and was recently renewed for two additional seasons. It is shot in Vancouver, B.C., where Anderson has been renting a 100-year-old house, sources say. “MacGyver” also was shot in Vancouver.
Anderson, 48, bought his Malibu home earlier this year but has not spent much time there because of his work, sources say. The series “Stargate SG-1” is a spinoff of the 1994 movie starring Kurt Russell and James Spader.
The Malibu house is 3,800 square feet and has a detached guest house, tennis court and beach rights.
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THE “WITCH’S HOUSE,” a storybook-style cottage in Beverly Hills, has been sold for about its $1.3-million asking price, sources say.
The house, with gabled roof and four bedrooms in 3,800 square feet, was moved to Beverly Hills in 1926 from Culver City, where it was built in 1920 for a movie studio. Since the move, the house has been a residence.
The buyer is Michael Libow, a 34-year-old real estate agent with Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills.
Libow plans to restore the house and its moat, and then he expects to open the home to the public for charitable events, probably starting in late fall.
“I kept showing it to clients who wanted to tear it down,” Libow said. “Then something clicked, and I thought, it’s so funky, and I love funky. Why not buy it myself?”
Listing agent Marty Geimer, of the same realty firm, said Libow’s purchase was a personal relief. “It wouldn’t have looked good for me if the house had been torn down.” Geimer is a past president of the Beverly Hills Historical Society.
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KITTY KALLEN, a big-band singer from the ‘40s and ‘50s rediscovered by baby boomers in the ‘90s, has sold her Bel-Air home for about $1.6 million, sources say. Kallen sang in the bands of Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James.
Kallen, who was married to the late Hollywood press agent Buddy Granoff, plans to spend more time at her estate in New Jersey, her apartment in New York and her house in Mexico.
The Bel-Air home, which she and Granoff shared for 20 years, was sold to a businessman. The 4,500-square-foot house has three bedrooms and maid’s quarters.
Joe Babajian of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
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A Studio City house owned by the late comedienne and director NANCY WALKER and her husband of 40 years, DAVID CRAIG, a well-known instructor and director in musical theater, has been listed at just under $1.6 million.
Walker, a Broadway actress and director, focused on film and TV after 1970, starring in “The Nancy Walker Show” and then “Blansky’s Beauties.” She was the memorable Mrs. Morgenstern, Rhoda’s mother, on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spinoff, “Rhoda.” She died at 69 in 1992.
Craig, author of three books on musical theater, co-directed Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” at the Ahmanson in 1991.
Built in 1951, the 5,600-square-foot home, which the couple bought in the early 1970s, has city views, a main house with two master suites and maid’s quarters, a two-story guest house, a gym and an office.
Rick Chimienti of DBL Realtors, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
