Tweet Buy Colleen Moore's House!

The Wall Street Journal today has an article on Moore's 1929 house in Bel Air, California. It was last sold in 1978 for around $1 million. It's now yours for $13 million. The original projection room is still intact (any nitrates behind the walls?) , along with restored design features of the house, including a massive master bath. What's not to like?

What's not to like?:D

The price, Ugarte, the price!

I was thinking of being a squatter, myself.

Well, I'd consider if Miss Moore's self-built doll houses and fairy castles were also included.



Pretty amazing house, to be sure. It would be a shame to rip it apart just in the vain hope of finding a complete print of Flaming Youth under the floorboards.

I'll take two.

[silentfilm]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577494753839183004.html

By SARAH TILTON
345 St. Pierre Rd.
Bel Air, Calif.

STATS: A home of about 13,000 square feet, with seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, asking $13.8 million, or $1,061.54 per square foot. Property taxes in 2012 are $33,147.21.
Photos

The property includes the original projection room, a guest house now used as an art studio and a swimming pool.

DETAILS: Built in 1929 by silent-film star Colleen Moore, this home is "filled with old Hollywood memories," according to the owner. The owner has restored and preserved original details like the arched doorways while updating the kitchen and bathrooms. The property includes the original projection room, a guesthouse now used as an art studio and a swimming pool. The owner has photos of the house going back to its early days that he will pass along to the new buyers.

SELLER: Steven J. Fogel. Mr. Fogel is the co-founder of real-estate development company Westwood Financial. He is also the author of 'My Mind Is Not Always My Friend: A Guide for How to Not Get in Your Own Way' and 'The Yes-I-Can Guide to Mastering Real Estate.'

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: It's less than 20 minutes to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where the "…Is James Bond" exhibit about the art in the opening credits of the James Bond films is on until Sept. 9.

WHAT I PAID: Mr. Fogel paid $1.3 million for the house in 1978. He says he bought it the day he saw it.

WHY I'M SELLING: When he bought the house, Mr. Fogel says, it made him feel that he'd "arrived." "Now, I don't need a house to say I've arrived," says Mr. Fogel, who has moved to a modern home nearby that requires less maintenance.

WHAT I'LL MISS: "Bringing up my kids in it," says Mr. Fogel.

WHAT I WON'T: The upkeep. When you have a house of this size, he says, you need a staff of a certain size to take care of it and "you can end up with a lot of commotion in your life."

COMP: On the same street, a home of about 17,000 square feet with seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and two half-bathrooms is asking $21.5 million.

OTHERS SAY: Brendan Fitzpatrick of the Agency says the house is well priced considering the history, the flow between the indoors and outdoors, the location and architectural features like the step-down living room. Mauricio Umansky of the Agency has the listing.

Write to Sarah Tilton at sarah.tilton(at)wsj.com

A version of this article appeared June 29, 2012, on page D7A in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: An Old Hollywood Classic.

Her Actual Home

Her Doll Home
"Apart from its cost, the house is made notable by those who contributed to its construction
and decoration. Artists who painted miniatures, ceiling frescoes, and
designed minute tapestries included James Montgomery Flagg, Willy Pogany, Alice
O'Neill, Leon Gordon, Elizabeth Barrett. Fired by the enthusiasm of the artists,
famed writers asked permission to write "first and only" miniature editions for the
library of the house. These volumes, about an inch tall, are written by hand in microscopic
script and include items from Conan Doyle, Hendrik van Loon, Edna Ferber,
Joseph Hergesheimer, Louis Bromfield, Irvin S. Cobb, Sinclair Lewis, Gene Fowler,
Kathleen Norris, Jim Tully, Elinor Glyn, Rupert Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thyra
Samter Winslow, Warner Fabian, Fannie Hurst, Booth Tarkington, and others.
The castle, nine by nine feet and fourteen feet high, was nine years in the making. It
began as a small doll-house for Miss Moore's own pleasure."


http://64.62.200.67/PERIODICAL/PDF/LiteraryDigest-1935apr20/31/

Would have loved to have seen what the original bathroom looked like. Bet it was epic!

Would have loved to have seen what the original bathroom looked like. Bet it was epic!

It's nice that the owner has restored much of the house and that he has a collection of photos.

[i][b][color=#404040]
http://64.62.200.67/PERIODICAL/PDF/LiteraryDigest-1935apr20/31/

I have this book

You can start honoring Colleen and building your own castle with this:

BUILD YOUR OWN FAIRY CASTLE LIKE COLLEEN MOORE CUT-OUT PLANS FOR REAL CASTLE

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... RK:MESE:IT

Cut-outs for building your own castle, Instruction insert in English. Has a razor cut on the front cover and a small part of the first page of cut outs. It does cut four cut-out pieces (one is a tiny bolt like piece which can be replicated), but is not major, and structurally there are about 30 times the amount of cut outs. These cuts are small and can be taped. Otherwise, is in near like new condition for age, better than very good grade. Book is undated.

This book may be a good book for the famous silent film star Colleen Moore, who built
a huge indoor fairy castle that is now in a museum. These plans could be copied to any scale
one wanted.

Published in Germany: Schreiber-Bogen. First Edition. Paperback.

You can start honoring Colleen and building your own castle with this:

BUILD YOUR OWN FAIRY CASTLE LIKE COLLEEN MOORE CUT-OUT PLANS FOR REAL CASTLE

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... RK:MESE:IT" target="_blank" target="_blank

Wow. It's a strange day when a cut-out castle -- a fine one, I'm sure -- is attached to Colleen Moore's name in an eBay listing to try to help sell it! Are more people interested in Colleen Moore than in castles? But it did get some attention, I see...

Steve Vaught has provided a detailed, fascinating history of the house with period photographs on his excellent blog, Paradise Leased.
http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/201 ... erre-road/

Steve Vaught has provided a detailed, fascinating history of the house with period photographs on his excellent blog, Paradise Leased.
http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/201 ... erre-road/" target="_blank

Thanks for the wonderful link. I have now had a glimpse of the onyx bathroom. I must remember to visit this blog, excellently researched.

Steve Vaught has provided a detailed, fascinating history of the house with period photographs on his excellent blog, Paradise Leased.
http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/201 ... erre-road/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thanks for the wonderful link. I have now had a glimpse of the onyx bathroom. I must remember to visit this blog, excellently researched.

Paradise Leased is a great blog (you should see his research staff); it's detailed, informative, and entertainingly written, bookmark it immediately. My, that was some bathroom, wasn't it? Although, to be blunt, maybe Colleen Moore wanted to be surrounded by mirrors in her bathroom, but I don't. Please, allow me my fantasies.

A few notes on Colleen's life in the Bel Air house (and a shameless plug for my book "Colleen Moore: A Biography of the Silent Film Star"):

“..No June bride could be more excited over her new house. She had the walls moved here and there so often, to alter the shape of the rooms, that the contractor had to put them on rollers… then begged her to stay away till he could get them set immovably.” (“Lee Side o’ L.A.,” by Lee Shippey, Los Angeles Times, June 23rd, 1929, page B4.)

Colleen’s suite had been painted yellow turquoise with silk-pile turquoise rugs. Her restroom was yellow and onyx and mirrored. John had insisted his suite be painted dark blue, perhaps a reflection of inner turmoil, at the helplessness he felt against the spells of drinking. His restroom had a steam room attached. John said it would keep him from getting fat; Colleen had other ideas for potential uses, such as sobering him up.
Though it had started off as their dream house, they did not have much fun there: “At a party last Christmas eve… McCormick drove his automobile across the lawn of her (Colleen and John’s) home.” ( “Ugly Moods of Hubby Get Colleen Moore Divorce,” San Mateo Times, May 5th, 1920, page 3.)
As it happened, they spent little time together in the house. Living separately and keeping up the appearance of married life. When Colleen went to tell John she wanted a divorce there, he tried to kill her by choking her... her chauffer saving her life. Later, when she told John what he had done, he did not contestt he divorce. I believe there was a story on the house and interior in Architectural Digest, though I don't have the information at hand. Colleen kept a lot of the furnishings.

This info is from a draft of the book's manuscriot, though I seem to recall all this info made it into the book, so buy early and buy often! And someone review my book! What do people think?

jeff