Big-Band Leader’s Legacy Is a Place of Harmonious Living

Beyond the palm trees, hibiscus plants and sun-bleached fake flamingos sits a 10-acre village on Magnolia Boulevard in Sherman Oaks where the young and the old sunbathe, golf, dance, play tennis and toast each other at dusk.

It is a village, the locals like to brag, that a band built.

Big-band leader Horace Heidt Sr. bought the property in 1940 when he settled in Los Angeles to work with Jimmy Stewart on a movie based on Heidt’s successful radio game show called “Pot of Gold.” Heidt also toured the world, hosting big-band variety shows and recruiting singers, dancers, musicians and comedians to perform with him.

His Sherman Oaks property, he reasoned, would house about 100 members of his troupe.

“My dad looked at his troupe as family,” said Horace Heidt Jr., 53, who has managed the property since his father died in 1986. “He felt an obligation to take care of them. Everyone had show business in common, so people easily became friends.”

Back then, the property, like much of the San Fernando Valley, was nothing more than a horse ranch with groves of orange and grapefruit trees.

But Heidt Sr. looked at the land and saw Palm Springs. He imported palm trees, built two-story bungalows that faced sparkling pools with lounge chairs nearby and, in 1955, invited his band members to live in his village.

He put in a tennis court, a golf course and a recreation room where he hosted parties and talent shows. He also added bungalows and pools in an area modeled after a Hawaiian village and decorated with waterfalls and tiki statues.

In a biographical pamphlet on Heidt, one visitor described the one-of-a-kind estate, dubbed the HH Ranch, as a “combined circus winter quarters, resort hotel and museum.”

Over the years, the ranch attracted a mix of residents beyond the band members, and Heidt added a series of two-story apartment buildings to accommodate more tenants. There are now 160 apartments and 20 other rental units in bungalows on the property.

Obscured by a wall and tall eucalyptus trees, the Horace Heidt Magnolia Estate Apartments offer seclusion. And although pine needles fill the dry waterfalls and the decor looks faded and dated, the village resembles an all-inclusive resort for travelers in need of rest and relaxation--not a place that about 300 people call home.

Coffee and pastries are served each morning in the recreation room. The bridge club plays on Friday. Others may meet for bingo or gin rummy.

There is a health club, tennis and golf tournaments, spring concerts, movies, dinners, dancing and an annual luau with ukulele music and Polynesian dancers.

Heidt Jr., a former musical director for the Los Angeles Raiders and the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, has also hosted big-band variety shows reminiscent of the kind that helped his father earn two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for a career that lasted from the 1920s to the 1960s.

“It takes me right back,” said Mimi Hatton, 80, a legal secretary and a longtime resident who used to sing operatic soprano with Heidt Sr. “The [estate] has so much to offer. There’s always something to do, with loads of parties. . . . It’s the kind of place where neighbors know and like each other.”

Which is exactly what Heidt wanted, said his son, who plans to write a book on his father. “My dad wanted a place with a strong sense of community,” said Heidt Jr., who lives nearby and is president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce. “I want to carry on that tradition.”

Although the village continues to attract those affiliated with the entertainment industry, residents are a diverse mix of retired couples, the working class, young professionals and struggling entertainers.

Throughout the years, the estate has attracted celebrities such as Ed Begley Sr. and Ed Begley Jr., Dick Van Patten, Barbara Hale, Robert Cummings and Wally George.

The apartment village--where Heidt Sr. lived before he moved his family to Santa Monica--honors the big-band era. In the back room of the administrative offices, shelves hold dusty relics that dignitaries gave Heidt when he performed in their cities.

There’s a piece of shrapnel from Los Alamos, N.M., a gum ball machine from St. Paul, Minn., a plaque declaring Heidt “The King of Mardi Gras” from New Orleans, and steins from Germany.

The room has old typewriters and music sheets, model ships, cowboy boots and a golden bowl of plastic grapes. Hanging on a wall is the old green-and-gold spinning wheel from Heidt’s radio game show, which gave away thousands of dollars during the late 1930s.

Apartments range from a 479-square-foot studio to a 1,650-square-foot, three-bedroom home. Rents vary from $725 to $2,100 a month, and there is a waiting list for residents, the apartment managers say.

Village dweller Judy Hatch, 43, called the apartments a bargain.

“It’s so lush and tropical, I feel like I’m living in a resort,” said Hatch, who moved into the village in April and often joins in an informal happy hour with other residents. “Everyone greets me warmly and is happy. Some evenings I sit outside and watch the birds with my neighbors.”

She sighed with contentment. “The apartment complex is like our world,” she said. “Every time I leave and return, I feel like I’m coming back to paradise.”