What Now, the ‘Laguna Files’?
Stephen J. Cannell, the Emmy-winning writer-producer whose novel “The Devil’s Workshop” was just released (William Morrow), and his wife, Marcia, have purchased a Laguna Beach home for $5.1 million.
The Cannells, married for 35 years, maintain their main residence in San Marino.
One of the most prolific contributors to TV programming, Cannell, 57, has created 38 action-adventure TV series, including “The Rockford Files,” “The A-Team,” “Baretta,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Commish.” He was the writer of more than 350 episodes and executive producer of at least 1,500.
In 1995, Cannell, also a director and actor, became a novelist with his political thriller “The Plan,” the first of four bestsellers. “The Devil’s Workshop,” an action-adventure story that imagines how a madman might use a genetically targeted bio-weapon to nefarious ends, is Cannell’s fifth novel.
Cannell, who wanted to become an author even when he was in high school but delayed making the effort because of dyslexia undiagnosed during his teen years, is an outspoken advocate on dyslexia issues. He appears in the educational video “Gifts of Greatness,” depicting famous dyslexics in history.
His new home, on a point overlooking the Laguna coastline, has four bedrooms in 5,500 square feet. Built in 1948, the house has been expanded and remodeled three times. Situated behind gates, the house has a dining room with bar; a sitting room with access to a veranda; a second kitchen and a walled garden.
The ocean-view master suite occupies the entire second floor, and it has a separate sitting room with a library, fireplace and sauna. Glass doors open onto a large deck.
Fred Albuquerque of Re/Max Real Estate Services in Monarch Beach had the listing and represented the Cannells in their purchase.
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Actor Paul Newman’s seventh camp for children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses is being developed in Southern California.
The site, 183 acres in the town of Lake Hughes just north of Valencia, has been purchased for $1 million, thanks to a group spearheaded by Page Hannah-Adler, sister of actress Daryl Hannah, and her husband, Grammy-winning music producer Lou Adler. (He produced such songs as “California Dreamin’ ” and “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” and also produced “The Rocky Horror Show” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Adler has been a co-owner of such Sunset Strip hot spots as the Roxy Theatre, the Whisky a Go Go and the Rainbow Bar and Grill.)
The Adlers and about nine other board members bought the land, which includes a 23-acre bass lake, and the camp is being designed. “Michael Palladino of Richard Meier & Partners is doing it pro bono,” Lou Adler said.
Known as the Painted Turtle Camp, the California project, the first camp west of Illinois to be associated with Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang, is expected to be in full operation starting in the summer of 2002.
It was a vision of Page Hannah-Adler’s.
“I was a volunteer at the first camp that Paul Newman built with his salad dressing proceeds [in Connecticut in 1988],” she said. “I thought it was such an amazing experience, we needed to have one in California.”
The plan is to hold camp for 1,000 children, ages 7 to 17, over a summer, with 120 children at each session; however, the facilities would be used year-round, with sibling and family camps and medical conferences on the weekends of off seasons.
“The camp will be built as an organic farm, with fruits and vegetables that the children can plant, pick, cook and eat,” Page Hannah-Adler said. The camp also will have a heated pool, horse trails, a medical center, 16 cabins, a dining hall, theater, gym, a music, arts and crafts center, group lodges for the families, meeting rooms and staff accommodations.
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B. Wayne Hughes, founder and president of Glendale-based Public Storage and a well-known owner of thoroughbred horses, has purchased a Bel-Air home through Bankruptcy Court for $10 million, records show.
The house is on four acres and behind gates, with eight bedrooms in about 12,000 square feet. Built in 1990, the house also has a tennis court, pool and city views.
Hughes, 65, has been living in Glendale and has a thoroughbred farm in Malibu. In July, he and Prince Ahmed Salman of Saudi Arabia became partners in buying a colt for $2.5 million at a premier horse auction in Lexington, Ky.
Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented Hughes in buying the Bel-Air house, and Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills, had the listing, other sources said.
Emmy-winning producer David Wolper and his wife, Gloria, have sold their home and personal golf course on 30 acres in the Napa Valley for about their asking price of $9 million. The buyers were Jeffrey Mallett, president of Yahoo, and his wife, Claire, sources said.
The Wolpers sold the property, known as Vineyard Knolls, because they have been spending more time in the Los Angeles area. The producer has said that it was “silly to have such a large property” in Napa when they weren’t there more than two months a year. The couple has grandchildren and children in the L.A. area.
The Napa property had been owned by the Wolpers since 1990. It has two lakes, a 7,500-square-foot main house, a pool pavilion, pool, tennis court and nine-hole golf course.
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Patte Barham, daughter of the late Dr. Frank F. Barham, longtime publisher of the Los Angeles Herald-Express (forerunner of the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner), has listed her 3,200-acre ranch north of Santa Barbara, in Los Alamos, at $10 million. Barham Boulevard in Los Angeles was named for Dr. Barham.
Patte Barham covered the Korean War as a personal representative of William Randolph Hearst, and she wrote or co-wrote several books, including “Pin Up Poems,” a collection of poems for servicemen in World War II; “Operation Nightmare,” questioning why the U.S. had gotten involved in Korea; and “Rasputin: The Man Behind the Myth,” which she wrote with Rasputin’s daughter, Maria. Barham also co-wrote “Marilyn: The Last Take,” which became a bestseller.
During the ‘30s, the Barham ranch, then owned by Dr. Barham, was the site of many Hollywood picnics, complete with campfires and movie cowboys as Tom Mix. For such the last 25 years, it has been leased to a cow-calf operation. There are also six active oil wells on the property.
Linda Zimmerman of Coldwell Banker, Studio City East office, has co-listed the ranch with Bill Harris of South Coast Properties in Shell Beach.
Did you miss Thursday’s Hot Property column in Southern California Living? Want to see previous columns on celebrity real estate transactions? Visit https://www.latimes.com/hotproperty on the Internet.
