Jeff Bezos' $ 165-million home and why new moguls love old Hollywood estates

Amazon chief bought Jack Warner property from David Geffen, which shows the enduring appeal of mansions built by entertainment pioneers: "People appreciate having a piece of history."

When it comes to finding his new home in Los Angeles, Jeff Bezos of Amazon – famous for his thoroughness and high standards – has left little luck. In the past two years, the world's richest man has visited more than 40 properties in the Los Angeles area, after launching tires on lists as low as $ 25 million, several sources said. The hunt ended dramatically in February after 56-year-old Bezos bought the Jack Warner estate from David Geffen for $ 165 million, a record sale for a private home in LA County. Rich in symbolism: the three owners of the nine-acre Benedict Canyon estate on Angelo Drive – Warner, Geffen and now Bezos – can claim to be one of the most powerful men in Hollywood at the height of their respective eras.

The fact that Bezos ultimately opted for a historic property rather than a specification-rich mansion reveals the enduring mysticism that Hollywood's golden era tycoons – and their former estates – still wield over city ​​landscape and on the psyche of the current stable. of stars and super bumps.

"When you reach that level, it's not a question of money or price. It's about the emotions and the statement you want to make," says Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland. , who wrote about the Warner Estate in his book. The legendary estates of Beverly Hills. According to Hyland, the Warner Estate, built in the 1930s and created by architect Roland E. Coate, interior designer William Haines and landscape designer Florence Yoch, is one of last crown jewels. "There are only a handful of these Class A domains left, and what that tells me is that there is a return to classicism being the ultimate aesthetic – not the novelty or flash. "

That may be the case, but L.A. has a checkered history regarding the protection of some of its most historic properties. Take the old Walt Disney Estate to Holmby Hills. The four-acre home was razed in 1998 to make way for a 22,000-square-foot house sold in 2014 for $ 74 million. Or the estate of MGM co-founder Louis B. Mayer – a 10,000 square foot neo-colonial style house built in the 1930s on St. Cloud Road. It was demolished in the 1980s after falling into disrepair, and in its place stood a gigantic residence known as La Belle Vie. The Benedict Canyon mansion of Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle suffered a similar fate.

While Bel Air, Holmby Hills and Beverly Hills claimed most of the region's legendary estates, Santa Monica emerged as a coastal alternative for the mogul class of the industry. Irving Thalberg, production manager at MGM, and actress Norma Shearer organized events in their home, designed by John Byers on a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, just north of the Santa Monica pier, which became known as the Gold Coast. The Thalberg-Shearer residence, still intact today, was adjacent to property belonging to Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century Fox and was not far from the Neo-Georgian palace as William Randolph Hearst built for Marion Davies (Zanuck House has been demolished, as has Davies Mansion, where the community beach house in Annenberg is currently located).

In recent years, luminaries like Taylor Swift, investor Nicolas Berggruen, book publisher Benedikt Taschen and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have breathed new life into some of these great properties. Swift purchased Samuel Goldwyn's estate in Beverly Hills for $ 25 million in 2014; Berggruen lost his image as a homeless billionaire when he bought the Edie Goetz estate in 2017 for $ 41 million; Bruckheimer bought the house built by Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn in 2013; and Taschen and his wife Lauren acquired the estate from producer David O. Selznick in 2017 for $ 20 million. "I knew Selznick as the producer of the most iconic Hollywood movies, so I was curious," says Taschen, "we bought it there for the asking price and hope to be done with it. restoration this fall. We've seen a number of mogul residences, and very, very few have the beautiful proportions, scale, light and warmth and location of the Selznick Estate. "

Bezos' new home, however, is in a separate league. After purchasing the property in 1990, Geffen did a complete renovation. The grounds include a swimming pool, a golf course and a guest house, and it was one of the few large parcels of land in the area that escaped the subdivision. It would be impossible for any developer to acquire and build a house on nine acres of usable land in the area today.

No broker was involved in the Bezos-Geffen deal (speculation has been that negotiations may have started on Geffen's yacht when Bezos was invited last summer), but according to Joyce Rey, of Coldwell Banker, who has scoured the property several times, the price seems fair. "I hate to be flippant about it, but I think it was excellent value because of the land and the estate and the history. With all of that combined, I think Jeff made a very good deal, "said Rey.

During his career, Rey sold Harold Lloyd's estate to producer Ted Field and Owlwood – the former home of Sonny and Cher and, before that, 20th Century Fox president Joseph Schenck – to the family Mishkin in 1976. (Owlwood is on the market today for $ 115 million.)

Rey has registration on another Warner estate, it would have belonged to Jack's brother, Harry Warner, and would be located on Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills. The French country style house has 13,000 square feet of living space between the main residence and the guest house (where Marilyn Monroe is said to have stayed). It is listed for $ 32.5 million.

Even after decades of experience selling these types of homes, Rey cannot predict who the buyers will be, but she offers this: "It is the entertainment capital of the world. People here enjoy own a piece of this story. "

This story first appeared in the February 26 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.