Writing about celebrity homes a way to capture interest

Back in the 1980s, when I was real estate editor for the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., I had the privilege of writing about many of the celebrity homes when they went on the market.

Among them was the late Hollywood studio system kingpin Darryl Zanuck’s estate. The two-story, Spanish-styled home built on six lots encompassed about two acres in a neighborhood dubbed the Movie Colony. It included a large, rectangular pool and pool house.

Legend has it Zanuck won it in a poker game.

The listing agent brought the story idea to me, thinking it might make a good read. And a great marketing tool for her. She loaded me up with black and white photos, ghosts or the many celebrity cocktail parties held in that home and pool house. We ran it on the front page of the real estate section, featuring a party photo of Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand. That picture never made it out of the backshop. It disappeared. Probably in an employee’s back pocket.

One of Zanuck’s favorite pastimes — that became legend, according to the listing agent — were the croquet games that went into the wee hours of the morning on that well-lit, two-acre yard, surrounded by oleanders and grapefruit trees.

Treelined Path

I also wrote about an unusual brand-new home in Palm Desert with a waterfall pool and a treelined path to the bathroom — inside. Actor Tony Curtis saw the story, and according to the listing agent, bought the home.

High-end homes then started in the $300,000s. These days you can add another zero.

I wrote about Liberace’s home, the one with the kitchen bar that was really a piano and his artistic toilet embossed in gold baroque designs. That was after he moved to the home where he died that was once a church.

I wrote about the Bing Crosby home and its unusual step-down spa tub in the guest house. I wrote about the then-65-year-old home that once belonged to actors Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner with its huge bathroom with the tub reposing in the middle of the room.

I wrote about comedian Jack Benny’s not so glamorous house near the hospital where my daughter was born. I wanted to name our newborn Laurel Ann so she would be Laurel Ann Hardy, but my wife nixed that idea. (For you young folks, look up Laurel and Hardy.)

I interviewed Ginger Rogers about the remodel of her Rancho Mirage home. She enlarged it by some 3,000 square feet to accommodate all her costumes.

Writing About Pioneertown

Later, as a freelance writer, I wrote a piece about Pioneertown in the foothills near Yucca Valley when it went up for sale. Founded by a group of investors in 1946, including movie legends Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, many movies in the 40s and 50s were made there. Weather-worn movie posters adorned many of the walls of the main town. Movies today are still made there, and the town has become a destination.

The old school building served as storage space for furnishings of the period, really antiques. Some of the buildings in Pioneertown became homes simply by finishing the missing wall the movie makers left open.

Remember the character Judge Roy Bean? Rumor had it that the set became the home of Hopalong Cassidy’s widow, according to the agent. The interior smacked of a movie museum.

“I want to show you something,” the listing agent said. She proudly brought out a well-preserved 1941 movie poster of The Bad Man, starring Ronald Reagan and Laraine Day.

The agent was so proud of that mint-condition poster. Reagan was president at the time. But what was exciting for me was Laraine Day. My grandfather and her father were first cousins, which makes me a not-so-distant cousin.

I also wrote about the worst home in a Palm Springs neighborhood where actor Kirk Douglas lived. An interior designer bought and remodeled it into a fantastic million-dollar home. It was featured in the short-lived TV show, P.S. I. Luv U in the early 90s. It starred Connie Sellecca and Greg Evigan. I met Evigan on the set of B.J. and the Bear, first filmed in Oroville, Calif. when I was a news reporter there.

One home I didn’t get to write about was the copper-domed flying saucer-style home that glistened from the mountainside — comedian Bob Hope’s home. Probably because it never went on the market.

The one that got away

And while the bright sun bounced off that copper roof every day, rumor had it that once you stepped inside for a party or other event, photographs were verboten. Those were pre-cellphone days, so it was not easy to sneak a picture.

So, I got to thinking, now as a Realtor and a freelance writer, why not write about historic celebrity and public figure homes in Utah when these homes are listed or other newsworthy event occurs? Celebrities and public figures usually didn’t live in the homes when I wrote about them.

Still, they make compelling stories as part of a marketing program. People have great interest in real estate like that. Got a listing like that? Let’s talk.