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The Beverly Hills House


Luvsbway

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As some of you know I got to get in the Beverly Hills house back in Sept of 1996.  I recently got around to taking some pics of the souvenirs.   I dug up my recap I wrote when I was 17 to remind me what exactly happened as it was a whirl wind and also it was so long ago.  I was also curious about when the facade changed and my crappy picture here shows it was after 96'.  What someone has been claiming on Facebook is it underwent many owners since the original sale.  Does anyone have any info on this?

 

I went in the side, and down this little hall in to the main hall in front of the staircase . I got to look around her living room and then her den. We ran in to the contractor who was finishing for the day and was more than happy to show us around. In her den there was one of her old movie projectors. He said there were two but the owners gave one away. He said they didn't change much of the structure of the house (i.e. knocking down any walls) except they added a little to the back in the upstairs and they replaced all the old plaster on the walls inside and out. I got a chance to look around the back yard and in her guest house (which he said they didn't change anything in it). In the garage they had some of her appliances. I'm not sure if they were the one's from the main house or the guest house. I got to look around in her pool house and saw her pool. I did manage to get a brick and the contractor gave me a porcelain thermostat off the wall of her cedar lined closet that was in her guest house. There were also a lot of plastic shoe boxes piled in there too.

 

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As some of you know I got to get in the Beverly Hills house back in Sept of 1996.  I recently got around to taking some pics of the souvenirs.   I dug up my recap I wrote when I was 17 to remind me what exactly happened as it was a whirl wind and also it was so long ago.  I was also curious about when the facade changed and my crappy picture here shows it was after 96'.  What someone has been claiming on Facebook is it underwent many owners since the original sale.  Does anyone have any info on this?

 

I went in the side, and down this little hall in to the main hall in front of the staircase . I got to look around her living room and then her den. We ran in to the contractor who was finishing for the day and was more than happy to show us around. In her den there was one of her old movie projectors. He said there were two but the owners gave one away. He said they didn't change much of the structure of the house (i.e. knocking down any walls) except they added a little to the back in the upstairs and they replaced all the old plaster on the walls inside and out. I got a chance to look around the back yard and in her guest house (which he said they didn't change anything in it). In the garage they had some of her appliances. I'm not sure if they were the one's from the main house or the guest house. I got to look around in her pool house and saw her pool. I did manage to get a brick and the contractor gave me a porcelain thermostat off the wall of her cedar lined closet that was in her guest house. There were also a lot of plastic shoe boxes piled in there too.

 

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AND YOU TOUCHED IT!

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So from the early 40s until her death, 45+ years later Lucy owned only 2 homes in the LA area.  Says a lot about Lucy that she preferred this comparatively small and simple house to what she could no doubt afford: one of the those big rambling gated estates like Bob Hope's.   Though the Roxbury house was where the kids grew up and she shared happy times with Gary in the 60s, I wonder if she regretted selling the Chatsworth ranch where she and Desi were their happiest.  Don't blame her not wanting to do that commute, though it had to be much easier in 1955. I don't know when the valley became no congested.   By the way, just to show how real estate has outpaced inflation, she purchased the Roxbury house for $486,000 in today's dollars.  ($55,000 in 1955).

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I thought I read it was $85,000 in 1955 money which would be $730,000 today. I don’t know about regret but both of them were very sad about selling the ranch. From an article May 31, 1953:

 

“Now we really have a problem. Desi thinks that perhaps we should sell the ranch in the valley and move closer to town. We would have more time with the children and the schools we want to send the children to are in town. But our roots are in the ranch Desi and I found 13 years ago in a cloudburst. The furniture is in the same place we put it then. The walls are hung with family pictures. The cupboards are filled with things we have bought. Outside, the trees we planted are now full grown. We have laughed and cried together in this house. I walk around wondering. I look up and ask God to give me an answer. I firmly believe he will.”

 

If that wasn’t love for a place I don’t know what was. The Roxbury house really seemed like a home to her by the 70s since I think she was able to form those roots again with a stable, happy home life. I don’t think it was a matter of moving from the ranch further causing the marriage to fall apart, that was already on track to happen. I think it was another desperate attempt to save it. From that passage in 53’ to when they bought in 55’ the marriage took another trip south from the high point after the kids were born. The commute, kidnapping attempt and build up of the valley was all blamed. But in an interview with Bernie Weitzman he speculated that Desi had a house in the hills and used the excuse that he was working late and would just sleep in his office instead of take the long commute late. So it’s not like the house was holding them together by the time they sold.

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I thought I read it was $85,000 in 1955 money which would be $730,000 today. I don’t know about regret but both of them were very sad about selling the ranch. From an article May 31, 1953:

 

“Now we really have a problem. Desi thinks that perhaps we should sell the ranch in the valley and move closer to town. We would have more time with the children and the schools we want to send the children to are in town. But our roots are in the ranch Desi and I found 13 years ago in a cloudburst. The furniture is in the same place we put it then. The walls are hung with family pictures. The cupboards are filled with things we have bought. Outside, the trees we planted are now full grown. We have laughed and cried together in this house. I walk around wondering. I look up and ask God to give me an answer. I firmly believe he will.”

 

If that wasn’t love for a place I don’t know what was. The Roxbury house really seemed like a home to her by the 70s since I think she was able to form those roots again with a stable, happy home life. I don’t think it was a matter of moving from the ranch further causing the marriage to fall apart, that was already on track to happen. I think it was another desperate attempt to save it. From that passage in 53’ to when they bought in 55’ the marriage took another trip south from the high point after the kids were born. The commute, kidnapping attempt and build up of the valley was all blamed. But in an interview with Bernie Weitzman he speculated that Desi had a house in the hills and used the excuse that he was working late and would just sleep in his office instead of take the long commute late. So it’s not like the house was holding them together by the time they sold.

Yeah, and i always read the old man wanted 80 thousand when she offered 70.  Of course, if he knew Lucy Ball wanted his house and he and his wife wanted to get rid of it as their son had died in the armed forces so he hiked up the price for rich lady Lucy.  Which was still nothing compared to the 7 million asking price when she died.

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  • 5 months later...

I believe Lucy mentioned this in the Walters interview. She complained that when she was married to Desi that they never had a home since he would buy a house everywhere he went. I call bulllshit on this. Let’s look at the facts.

 

When they first got married they lived at Lucy’s apartment until they found the ranch around April of 41’. They had that as their only residence until around 54/55.

 

Around this time is when they built the Palm Springs house. Then shortly after they sold the ranch and bought the BH house. So up until 1959 they only maintained 2 residences.

 

In the late 50s they acquired the Indian Wells Hotel. This wasn’t a residence but a money making investment. Lucy would own this in the mid 60s. In late 1959 Desi bought the horse farm.

 

So at the time of the divorce they owned 4 things. Lucy got the BH house and the PS house, Desi got the farm and the hotel. The Del Mar beach place in the 50s was a rental and never owned by them.

 

Post divorce houses.

 

Lucy- BH house, PS house, late 60s and on-Snowmass Condos, mid80s and on- NYC apartment. So at one point in the 80s she maintained 4 residences.

 

Desi- I’m really bad with dates for him but this is what I’ve pieced together. Horse farm that I think he sold in the 70s, Del Mar house on the beach-kept until death, Palm Springs house which he eventually sold to Kaye Ballard, Mexico house-kids still own this. I’m not sure how many of these houses overlapped each other.

 

So they owned more residences each after they were divorced then when they were married, so this is why Lucy’s comment bugs me. They did have a home for 14 years with the ranch. It was only the BH house where things went bad and the PS house where I don’t think they were wonderful.

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I believe Lucy mentioned this in the Walters interview. She complained that when she was married to Desi that they never had a home since he would buy a house everywhere he went. I call bulllshit on this. Let’s look at the facts.

 

When they first got married they lived at Lucy’s apartment until they found the ranch around April of 41’. They had that as their only residence until around 54/55.

 

Around this time is when they built the Palm Springs house. Then shortly after they sold the ranch and bought the BH house. So up until 1959 they only maintained 2 residences.

 

In the late 50s they acquired the Indian Wells Hotel. This wasn’t a residence but a money making investment. Lucy would own this in the mid 60s. In late 1959 Desi bought the horse farm.

 

So at the time of the divorce they owned 4 things. Lucy got the BH house and the PS house, Desi got the farm and the hotel. The Del Mar beach place in the 50s was a rental and never owned by them.

 

Post divorce houses.

 

Lucy- BH house, PS house, late 60s and on-Snowmass Condos, mid80s and on- NYC apartment. So at one point in the 80s she maintained 4 residences.

 

Desi- I’m really bad with dates for him but this is what I’ve pieced together. Horse farm that I think he sold in the 70s, Del Mar house on the beach-kept until death, Palm Springs house which he eventually sold to Kaye Ballard, Mexico house-kids still own this. I’m not sure how many of these houses overlapped each other.

 

So they owned more residences each after they were divorced then when they were married, so this is why Lucy’s comment bugs me. They did have a home for 14 years with the ranch. It was only the BH house where things went bad and the PS house where I don’t think they were wonderful.

Didn't she just say that they had many HOUSES but never a HOME that HE lived in, which  means he spent much too much time screwing broads on his yatch and in a house he also had in the hills for trysts.   Must you give me another quote of hers from this show to splain every day till i die?  LOL!

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I was going to warn you about that quote. Didn't want to bring it up.

But ya did Blanche, ya sure did, Lucy said that everything Desi built up, he later had to tear down, he had to LOSE everything, so that made him a loser, not in the sense we know it NOW, know what i mean? :lucythrill:  :hlLOL:

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     I don't know why  you didn't want to bring that quote up... I guess it hits a sore spot with you...  I don't like to hear her piss all over Desi.  I guess she feels she has a right to.. but (especially in the Walters interview) by that point in her life and career it just makes her look like she has to feel better about herself by tearing him apart.  I guess we all do that to some extent when we feel unjustly treated on any level.

 

     I love the insight you gave us about what the place looked like when you visited it.. and I like how you had a chance to talk with the contractor.  Wish I could have been there with you!

 

      

 

 

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     I don't know why  you didn't want to bring that quote up... I guess it hits a sore spot with you...  I don't like to hear her piss all over Desi.  I guess she feels she has a right to.. but (especially in the Walters interview) by that point in her life and career it just makes her look like she has to feel better about herself by tearing him apart.  I guess we all do that to some extent when we feel unjustly treated on any level.

 

    

      

 

 

O M G this again?  Don't you understand that she kept complimenting him, every attribute stupid ass Barbara would assign to schmolly gary, Lucy would turn to compliment Desi, HE WAS OVERLY GENEROUS, ETC . . . SHE DID NOT PISS ALL OVER DESI, and if you recall, she also said DESI CLAIMS HE'S STILL THAT WAY today.  She only said that what Desi said about himself was true about him building up anything and then tearing it down.  My God, have you not read all the quotes where she gave him credit for everything they ever did together?  The O N L Y mistake she made in her first frank talk about her marriage and Desi was that she used the wrong term, by calling him a LOSER, people thought she meant the way we all mean that word nowadays but all she said was that WHATEVER HE BUILT UP, HE THEN HAD TO "L O S E" !!!!!!!!!!!

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See my dear that is why I was afraid to mention Walters. Go look at one of those beefcakes of Joey's to level your stress out.

Hon, just tell me what i'm doing wrong, what am not being clear about?  I mean, COULD IT BE more obvious, she did not tear down Desi, she SPLAINED what his main problem was, and I say it was because at 16, he lost everything due to the regime in Cuba and just never got over that.  That's when he went from playboy rich kid to working in a rat infested warehouse in Miami.

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Don't know if that's a good idea Luvs, it might raise more than just his blood pressure! :blink:

Oh my, yes, you have a point there.  Funny, lately i keep thinking of myself as very old and at death's door, however, when i see your bottom avatar, my first thought is I'D TAKE THEM ALL ON, ONE AFTER THE OTHER, so i guess i ain't dead yet! 

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