Time Was ‘Right’ to Make History
Bob Barker, now in his 28th year as host of the CBS game show “The Price Is Right,” has succeeded in having his Hollywood home designated a historic-cultural monument by the city of Los Angeles.
Barker, 76, has won a dozen daytime Emmys plus one for lifetime achievement as a quiz-show host. He has been on TV for more than 40 years, including an 18-year run as host of the show “Truth or Consequences.”
He has lived in his home for more than 30 years.
“We knew that the house was truly special from the moment my wife, Dorothy Jo, and I moved in,” Barker said. “As a result, we never did anything to alter its exterior or interior architecture.” Barker’s wife died in 1981.
Built in 1929, the 5,000-square-foot house, with four bedrooms and maid’s quarters, has been described as “an excellent, unaltered example” of the Spanish Colonial Revival style.
Among the features are “stucco surfaces that predominate over the openings, low-pitched tile roofs and interiors closely related to the outdoors through the use of French doors.”
Barker applied for the historic designation in March and was notified that it was approved in December.
Homeowners seeking the status must apply to the city’s five-member Cultural Heritage Commission. After a review of the property and an interview with the applicant, the commission sends its recommendation to the city’s Department of Building and Safety and the City Council.
If approved, the designation is processed by the county recorder’s office, and the Cultural Heritage Commission alerts the homeowner, who can then buy a plaque confirming monument status.
Barker’s house is in the foothills just off Outpost Drive in the neighborhood of Outpost Estates, developed by the late Charles Toberman. He was known as “Mr. Hollywood” because he oversaw the development of such landmarks as the Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian theaters and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Toberman began development of Outpost Estates in 1926, stopped after the crash of 1929, then resumed construction there years later. He died in his own Outpost Estates home at 101 in 1981.
The city’s designation means that Barker may now qualify for a tax break given to owners of historic-cultural monuments and that his house now gets some protection from being torn down even after Barker ceases to own it.
“I believe it’s important for the city’s soul that we protect and preserve as many of these historic and architectural treasures as possible,” said Barker, who is also an animal rights advocate.
A 32-acre Rancho Santa Fe estate that closed escrow on Jan. 5 at $22 million in cash was purchased by the owners of Bing Crosby’s former estate in the same Northern San Diego County community.
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Thomas H. Friedkin, son of one of the founders of the airline carrier PSA and founder of Gulf States Toyota in Houston, and his wife, Susan, bought the $22-million home from Ronald Judy, co-founder of Nintendo and founder of NES International, and his wife, Judith.
The property has a seven-bedroom 13,000-square-foot main house, a guest house, ranch house, tropical rain forest, Japanese garden, pool and tennis court.
The Friedkins already owned Crosby’s Osuna Ranch. They bought the 22.2-acre ranch in 1998 for about $6 million, which was a high sale for the area at the time.
Brian Guiltinan of Dyson & Dyson in Solana Beach had the listing on the $22-million sale of the estate, and Georgiana Strate of Strate’s Estates in Rancho Santa Fe represented the buyers.
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The former Richard and Pat Nixon estate in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills has come on the market at just under $3 million. The late president and his wife lived there in the early ‘60s when he ran for governor of California.
The one-story traditional-style house is on a 1.5-acre promontory with city views. There are four bedrooms in the 5,700-square-foot house and a guest cottage. There is also a wood-paneled library that Richard Nixon used as an office. It has a hand-carved fireplace and overlooks the city.
Built in the late ‘50s, the house has been owned since the ‘70s as a part-time home for a retiree who lives primarily in Mexico.
Joyce Rey and Margie Oswald of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills South, have the listing.
The longtime Little Holmby home of Andrew L. Stone, one of the last silent-film directors when he died in June at 97, has been sold for $1.6 million.
Stone, also a writer and producer, went from directing such films as the two-reeler smash “The Elegy” (1927) to such later movies as “The Secret of My Success” (1965), “Song of Norway” (1970) and “The Great Waltz” (1972).
He built his home in 1939 and lived there until he died. His widow, Audrey, moved to Century City.
A financial planner purchased the four-bedroom 3,200-square-foot house, which also has a library, editing room and projection room, with wood paneling from the Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion in New York.
Stone once bought several boxcars of decorative items from the Vanderbilt mansion, and he used them on his movie sets and throughout his house.
The half-acre property also has a tennis court, pool and gardens.
Julie Chandler of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood Court, had the listing, and Joyce Essex of the company’s Beverly Hills North office represented the buyer.
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A nearly five-acre parcel within a 133-acre park, owned by the city of Los Angeles and situated in the Santa Monica Mountains, has come on the market at $4.72 million.
Owned by coal baron Carmen Runyon in 1919, the then-160-acre property in Runyon Canyon passed through several owners, including singer John McCormack, before A&P; supermarkets heir Huntington Hartford bought it in 1942.
After that, Hartford allowed some parcels to be used by his friends and advisors, and one commissioned architect Lloyd Wright to collaborate with his father, Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1948 in building a 2,000-square-foot guest house, which is still on the site that is on the market.
The site, with views from downtown L.A. to Catalina, became the home, for more than 30 years, of Emmy-winning director Alan Handley, who remodeled the guest house in 1966.
In 1984, the city bought the rest of the Huntington Hartford Estate for about $5 million and created Runyon Canyon Park.
The five-acre parcel, now owned by an L.A. businessman, is the only privately owned site in the park. It is accessible by a private easement road connecting with Mulholland Drive through the park’s north entrance. The site is in the center of the park, which is bordered on the south by Franklin Avenue.
The horse-zoned parcel includes plans and permits for an 8,500-square-foot house with a 1,500-square-foot master suite, three other bedroom suites, a glass-walled living room with a 24-foot ceiling; a 16-by-40-foot lap pool, and a studio with a vaulted ceiling. The house was designed by Stafford & Glynn Architects.
Dorothy Carter, of the Sunset Strip office of Coldwell Banker Previews, and Mary Beth Woods, of the company’s Brentwood office, have the listing.
