Celebrity homes for Martin, Kennedy, Lear for sale
Dino Martin’s L.A. kPad Cooler Than Ever; Jackie Kennedy’s childhood home & the Norman Lear estate, up for sale, according to Top Ten Real Estate Deals
Dino’s LA Pad Cooler Than Ever!
All dressed up and ready to welcome a new Rat Pack, crooner Dean Martin’s former Beverly Hills Trousdale estate is now ready for the festive sounds of champagne bottles being uncorked.
Owned and enjoyed by Dean with his Hollywood buddies and a slew of other friends from 1988 until his death in 1995, it was his bachelor pad after three unsuccessful marriages. He purchased the house a year after his son Dean Paul had been killed in an airplane crash, and though he had been a teetotaler most of his life, in opposition to his drunken stage image, in depression over the loss of his son, turned to alcohol and heavy use of prescription drugs.
By now the original Rat Pack, consisting of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, had grown smaller and evolved into the Summit and by the late 1980s, the Clan. Sinatra and Davis were worried about Martin and decided to get him out of the house and functioning again by designing a tour that would include the three of them, called Together Again.
Scheduled for 29 dates, Martin only managed to perform through five of the sold-out shows claiming illness. Liza Minnelli was brought in to take his place. He returned to his Trousdale home, which at the time was the epitome of 1980’s glamour, where he lived the rest of his life.
In 2014, developer Patrik Mirahmadi purchased the estate. Unlike many developers, Mirahmadi was very sensitive to the property’s Dean Martin legacy and wanted his renovation to express its illustrious past, but in 21st-century style. Stripped of all its outdated materials and opened up to flow gracefully throughout, he created a grand contemporary entertainment space using the most elegant marbles, tiles and other surface materials that would stand out against the clean sharp lines of the interior that opened seamlessly to the outdoor living and entertaining area.
Sited on a knoll on almost an acre overlooking the canyon and Pacific sunsets, the modern mansion is accessed via a long gated drive creating both privacy and security.
At 10,047 square feet, it houses five bedrooms, twelve baths and an attached see-through, three-car garage. Moats have been used to accent the entrance walkway leading to the large walnut pivoting front door and again surrounding the elegant dining room on two sides which also has a temperature-controlled wine room enclosed inside a glass wall that displays up to 450 bottles.
The long gallery with its skylights is a perfect space for an art collection and motorized glass walls at the end of the open living space recede to open the entire house to the outside entertainment area with pool, dining and lounging area and a full outdoor kitchen.
With both indoor and outdoor bars large enough to seat over 100 guests, along with the expansive seating areas for living and dining, while the house is ideal for large scale entertaining, its warmth also invites intimacy. The listing agent is Jade Mills of Jade Mills Estates through Coldwell Banker.
Three years in the making, Dean Martin’s former home is priced at $27.95 million or rented for $125,000 per month.
Photographer: Adrian Anz
Jackie Kennedy’s Childhood Home!
Even though she was the First Lady for less than three years, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy is one of the most famous president’s wives in U.S. history. After spending her early years in the New York area where her father, John “Black Jack” Bouvier, was a stockbroker, Jackie’s mother, Janet, divorced John in 1940 and two years later married Standard Oil heir Hugh Auchincloss.
The marriage precipitated a move to his home in McLean, Virginia when Jackie was 13. The divorce had been hard on Jackie and it seemed to make her withdraw into herself. After moving to McLean, she found solace in the home’s location with its panoramic views over the Potomac River and the lushly landscaped seven acres she enjoyed exploring.
The Merrywood estate and the wholesome family environment were a far cry from the turmoil Jackie and her sister Lee experienced in her parents’ Manhattan and Long Island homes where his drinking and extramarital affairs kept the household in constant conflict.
Jackie slowly started to blossom at Merrywood and attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where she majored in French Literature, graduating in 1951. After college, Jackie went to work for the Washington Times Herald as a roving reporter. In 1952, she met Congressman John F. Kennedy and they were married in 1953 after he had been elected as United States senator from Massachusetts.
Living at Merrywood was the catalyst that put Jackie Kennedy in the right place at the right time to eventually become the 35th First Lady of the United States.
Ideally located in Washington, D.C.’s most elite suburb, Merrywood was built in 1919 on 46 acres above the banks of the Potomac that extended to the water’s edge. Now on a more manageable seven acres, the estate has played host to Washington’s power brokers, entertainers, including Michael Jackson, and was visited so many times by President Kennedy and Jackie that the Secret Service gave it the official code name “Hamlet.”
When Auchincloss’ firm started running into financial trouble and Merrywood and his Newport, Rhode Island Hammersmith Farm became too much of a financial burden, he quietly put both on the market. The estate changed ownership four more times and is now being sold by current owner, America Online co-founder Steve Case.
The 23,000-square-foot, four-level, brick-and-limestone mansion with its nine bedrooms and 13 baths was built in the classic Georgian style and has been extensively renovated and updated with original architectural details carefully preserved, including its ornate plaster moldings. Entering through the impressive facade into the formal entrance hall, the grand main public rooms are accessed as well as the more intimate family rooms.
The second floor is the family quarters with a large master suite with his-and-her dressing rooms, a private study and exercise room. There are four additional ensuite bedrooms on the second floor.
The top floor contains four bedrooms and three baths. The lowest floor houses a climate-controlled wine room and an elevator to all four floors. Outside are terraces for dining and entertaining with full outdoor kitchen along with various long established vegetation-enclosed garden rooms along with a terrace overlooking the river.
Grounds include a tennis court, indoor swimming pool with separate gym and changing rooms, and an outdoor swimming pool. The property is co-listed by Juliana May, JLL and Mark Lowham, TTR Sotheby’s.
Historic Merrywood estate, home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis during her teen years, is now for sale asking $49.5 million – the highest priced residence in the Washington, D.C. area.
Photographer: Gordon Beall
The Norman Lear Estate!
Still active at 94 years old, super writer and TV producer Norman Lear has brought us some of the most memorable sitcoms in television history.
Who didn’t howl over All in the Family with Archie Bunker’s in-your-face and over-the-top style of bigotry that was so extreme, it became funny and helped us laugh at ourselves at the same time? Or what about Maude, or One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times or Sanford and Son?
His last sitcom ended in 1983 with Archie’s Place. His television shows won multiple Emmys and Golden Globe awards. Lear’s writing was somewhat controversial as he wrote about the day’s difficult political and social issues and how they impacted families.
When All in the Family first aired, a warning was posted on the screen saying that the content was not to be taken seriously, but with hilarity.
Norman and Lyn Lear have now put their 8.29-acre Brentwood, California estate on the market. Perched on a promontory, it takes in bird’s eye views of the Pacific Ocean, the city of Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Mountains and the Will Rogers State Park. Located just north of Sunset Boulevard, the grounds contain the 14,000-square-foot main house, a guesthouse, executive staff and security offices, a gym, 35-car show garage, tennis court with shaded viewing area, a keyhole-shaped swimming pool, lush mature gardens and terraces that open seamlessly from the interior of the house with a full outdoor kitchen. The interior of the main house is accessed from an impressive circular motor court with fountain and opens into a gallery foyer with curved staircase. Beyond are the formal rooms, gourmet kitchen with sunny breakfast area, glass-walled library and professional media room. There are seven bedrooms and twelve baths, including the master suite with his-and-her baths and a private study. Rooms are designed to take in the views with large windows, glass walls and doors. Co-listing agents are Jade Mills and Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell-Banker Global Luxury.
Legendary television writer Norman Lear and wife Lyn are selling their long time Brentwood estate, priced at $39.95 million.
Photographer: Jim Bartsch
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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