Falcon Lair

Falcon Lair is an estate above Benedict Canyon in Bel Air, Los Angeles. The estate was built in 1925 by Rudolph Valentino, who named it after his unproduced film, The Hooded Falcon. It is better known as a residence of heiress Doris Duke.

Valentino bought the 4 acre estate in 1925 for US$175,000. He filled the house with antiques and memorabilia from his travels. Shortly after the purchase, he and Natacha Rambova divorced. Valentino retained Falcon Lair, hosted parties, and kept horses in his stable. After his death in 1926, the estate was auctioned off to settle his debts.

Reputation as haunted
In an Associated Press interview in Beverly Hills, California on March 31, 1930, actor Harry Carey recounted his experience during a brief stay at Falcon Lair. The story was picked up by a local newspaper, The Evening Outlook, that served several communities in and around the Los Angeles Westside.

The ghosts have been routed from filmland’s most famous haunted house. No more will the spirit of Rudolph Valentino stalk through the spacious rooms of Falcon Lair, the palatial mansion he once occupied on a terrace overlooking Beverly Hills. No more will pale lights, weird moaning and sinister whispering flash and echo through the castle chambers where once the sheik held sway.

Harry Carey, screen actor, knew all about the spooks who were supposed to inhabit Falcon Lair, but upon his recent return from location in Africa, he had to find some place for Mrs. Carey and their two children, and the Valentino estate was made to order. Over the protest of friends, he moved his family into Falcon Lair and his horses into the roomy Valentino stables. "Africa was wild," Carey said, "but our first night in Falcon Lair was one to turn your hair gray. Next morning we fix the windows and the banging ceased. We traced the howling to the wind blowing through the metal weather boards. We cut back the overgrown trees and shrubbery near the house, and other noises stopped. But night after night the tapping on the walls continued.

"One day by chance, I discovered a hidden door that apparently led to a part of the basement. I opened the door and half a hundred bats rushed out; that ended the tapping. But the weird very colored lights that once flashed from the windows!"

Exploring the basement through the hidden door, Carey said he found a large box containing a mass of electrical wires and switches. He traced these wires and found a lead up a chimney to a built-in bookcase in the room above. From the bookcase hidden wires ran to other parts of the house. Investigating further, Carey said he learned that shortly after Valentino’s death, a caretaker was hired to watch the property. He was a spiritualist, who with his followers held seances in the rooms where electrical terminals were found. During the seances, Carey said he learned that the spirit of Valentino, garbed in sheik raiment, was made to appear. From various electrical connections, pale blue and green mysteriously flashed on and off through the house.

"We seem to have solved the mystery," Carey said, "but when our lease is up, we are going back to the wide open spaces of a ranch. Sometimes I wake up and hear new noises; maybe the place IS haunted."

Doris Duke
After several owners, Doris Duke acquired the estate in the early 1950s to be with her companion, jazz musician Joe Castro, and to mingle with the Hollywood crowd. Falcon Lair became a venue for jazz concerts. Duke befriended Sharon Tate, her Benedict Canyon neighbor. Eventually, she settled on a pattern where she would rotate her residence during the year, staying at Duke Farms in New Jersey and Rough Point in Newport, R.I. during the summer, flying to Falcon Lair on her birthday, November 22 and spending the winter months at Shangri La in Hawaii. In 1993, after hip surgery, knee surgery, and a stroke, Doris Duke was kept in isolation—reportedly in a virtual "prison"—at Falcon Lair until her death.

Later history
Falcon Lair was sold by the Duke estate in 1998. A renovation project started in 2003 but was not completed; the property was offered for sale in 2006. The historic main building of the estate was bulldozed that year. In April 2009, the property was on the market for $7.95 million. Remaining at the property were the former stable building and three-bay garage, converted by Duke into a three-bedroom guesthouse and pool pavilion. In 2019 this house on 1.3 acre was listed for sale at $4.95 million. The remainder of the original estate was approved for a 30000 sqft-plus house and listed for sale in 2018 at $29.5 million.

Recordings

 * 1956: Zoot Sims with The Joe Castro Trio Live at Falcon Lair (Pablo Records)
 * 1959: Teddy Edwards at Falcon's Lair with Joe Castro – split LP with Sonny Rollins' At Music Inn (MetroJazz Records)