Talk:Chartwell Mansion

development
More development about this very significant topic is needed, especially given its recent actual or pending sale at highest price ever for a California house. User:DocWatson42, User:Cbl62, you are two editors i recall/noticed developed the comparable Spelling Mansion article in the past, could you possibly take a look at this one too? --Doncram (talk) 18:05, 12 December 2019 (UTC)


 * While I did some work on the article on The Manor, it was to my recollection more in the way of cleanup than development/expansion, which is not my specialty. :-/ —DocWatson42 (talk) 08:19, 13 December 2019 (UTC)

Name
Why is it called Chartwell? 2A00:23C7:E287:1900:5545:31E7:28C2:1E37 (talk) 00:12, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Source Information
If no one takes the handoff, I will assist in incorporating the following information into the article upon return from scheduled travel:

Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) Entry "Atkinson, Lynn S., Jr., and Bernice Stephens, House, Bel-Air, Los Angeles, CA"

http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/6262/ Excellent primary source information.

MeTV "'The Beverly Hillbillies' mansion featured a 150-foot waterfall and an underground elevator" https://www.metv.com/stories/the-beverly-hillbillies-mansion-featured-a-150-foot-waterfall-and-underground-elevator

Contains info: "Kirkeby rented out his home to The Beverly Hillbillies production for $500 per day. The house had previously been used in Jerry Lewis' Cinderfella. Years after the Clampetts went off the air, the rotund rappers the Fat Boys turned up in the mansion in their comedy Disorderlies. It can also be seen in Sylvester Stallone's arm wrestling epic, Over the Top."

LA Times "Fighting Child Abuse ‘Inside the Gates’ of Bel-Air Estate" https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-29-vw-19785-story.html

Includes primary source information: "... Said Carla Kirkeby, “My father and Mr. Atkinson were friends. My father made a loan to Mr. Atkinson to finance the house, and he couldn’t pay it back, so my father took back the house. Also, his wife was too ill to move in. He loved the house; it was his dream house, and it’s sort of a sad story.” She says Atkinson eventually “committed suicide by jumping off the top of Park La Brea Towers.” Now, she adds, “It’s time to sell. I will miss it. We loved this house.”

"The Kirkebys (he died in the La Guardia air crash in the 1960s; she died six months ago) are the only family ever to live in the house. Carla’s son, Bret Duffy, a senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will have his 21st birthday party there Saturday. About 200 of his friends will converge in the ballroom for a final blast. “He wants it black-tie,” said his mother."

Curbed Los Angeles "Beverly Hillbillies House Builder's Strange Smog Suicide" https://la.curbed.com/2011/11/2/10428394/the-strange-smog-suicide-of-the-beverly-hillbillies-house-builder

Includes information: "Lynn Atkinson was an engineer and public works contractor who retired in his thirties and built Bel Air's most expensive Depression-era house, at 750 Bel Air Rd. It had a ballroom with an orchestra stage, a pipe organ, six bedroom suites, a 150 foot manmade waterfall, a landing pad for autogyros, gold-plated doorknobs and hinges, and an elevator that ran seventy-five feet below the house to tunnels leading to the pool and landing pad. But he never moved in and his family only ever used the house for parties." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.33.126.24 (talk) 19:58, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

More info possible?
I've seen documentaries on the mansion that claim it was demolished, and the mansion now there isn't the original one. Was the interior of the mansion used in "The Beverly Hillbillies"? Also something about the man who built it died just before "The Beverly Hillbillies" used it, and his wife allowed the show to use it for the money the show paid to maintain the mansion. 98.164.81.209 (talk) 17:39, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

It was gutted, but the exterior kept, the picture at the beginning of the article shows the start of construction. The exterior was/is good quality reinforced concrete dressed with limestone, and JP liked the look of it, anyway. The previous owner did agree to let the tv people use the exterior for $500 a day, but died before the first episode was shot. Dunno if it was a contract or not, research and put in the article. I suspect it was, as the owners widow was plagued by hillbillies fans always coming to stare through the gates or even trying to get in. If she could have stopped filming, she probably would. But here again, research needed.

Interior shots of the tv show were done elsewhere. 2A00:23C7:E287:1900:C34:5306:23A9:639C (talk) 16:08, 2 October 2021 (UTC)

It would be useful to know if the movies shot there used the interior of the house (Cinderfella, Over the Top, Disorderlies). 205.220.129.229 (talk) 14:30, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Expansion
Perenchio bought four other lots and expanded the grounds of his house. Kept one house as a guest house, demolished the other two. So he turned it from a mansion into an estate. Some info on this needed. 2A00:23C7:E287:1900:2DD6:E0E4:1223:B420 (talk) 20:47, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

I find what happened was, the original c. 1935 estate had three parcels of land separated from it and sold by the time JP got it in 1986. The new owner of each lot then built a house on it. Over time, JP repurchased these three lots. Exactly who bought each lot and when, and exactly when JP bought the lot back and from whom, is a subject for research.

One lot had its house turned into a guest house for the main mansion. The other two lots had their houses bulldozed; the site of one became a grassy helipad, and the site of the other was used to make a long driveway up to the main mansion from the side. This last was done because the old entry gate was blocked from the road, for privacy. The gate itself still exists, and the new entry road runs along between the old wall and the new, then turns into the gate. See the whole thing on Google Earth. Which is the only way you are going to see anything, high walls and high shrubbery now hide the whole estate from view.

When Nancy Reagan died in 2016, her heirs squabbled over the estate. To make things easier, longtime Reagan friend JP bought the house shortly after her death, cash being easier to divvy up than real estate. This house and lot, 668 Saint Cloud Road, is contiguous to Chartwell, and was included in the recent 2019 sale to Murdoch. So the estate is bigger now than it was in 1935.

Two things about this additional lot. There is a rumor that the address was originally 666 Saint Cloud Road, but changed because of the Satanic imagery. I can not find any verification of this, however Google map lists both numbers. The other thing is, sometime after Nancy Reagan died, someone razed the house! I do not know when or why, so it could have been either JP or Murdoch. 2A00:23C7:E287:1900:C34:5306:23A9:639C (talk) 16:40, 2 October 2021 (UTC)

Here is an aerial view, when it was for sale at $195 mil. https://www.latimes.com/projects/most-expensive-homes-property-taxes/ This shows the Reagan property as part of the estate, and the house is clearly razed. Unless the executors of the will did that, it was JP. 5.148.149.200 (talk) 14:43, 5 October 2021 (UTC)