Philanthropist Barbara Davis Lists L.A. Condo at a Loss

SELLER: Barbara Davis
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,885,000
SIZE: 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Last week a little birdie whispered to Your Mama that Los Angeles doyenne Barbara Davis–octogenarian widow of oil and entertainment tycoon Marvin Davis–wants to move house. Sho enuf, puppies, her condo crib in a Wilshire Corridor high-rise near Century City in Los Angeles was just listed with an asking price of $1,885,000.

Helmet-haired charity types know the formidable but friendly Miz Davis as the she-rah behind the long-running bi-annual Carousel of Hope Ball, a lavish fundraiser for childhood diabetes that the L.A. Times once described as the "biggest, richest, puttin’-on-the-ritziest, arguably most successful and longest-running good-deed society event in town."

Tabloid and gossip glossy readers best know Miz Davis as the wealthy grand-muhmaw of a Tinseltown club hoppers and frequent trouble makers Jason and Brandon Davis. And, of course, the real estate fiends out there recognize Miz Davis as the gem-encrusted former chatelaine of The Knoll, a hulking Roland Coate-designed mansion perched on a gated 10-plus acre promontory above Beverly Hills, CA. The 25,437 square foot Georgian mansion was originally built for wildly wealthy widow Lucy Doheny Battson who moved from the legendary and even larger Greystone estate next door. The Knoll has had a succession of high-profile owners since the Doheny-Battsons including Oscar-winning producer Dino De Laurentis and country king Kenny Rogers who sold the high-maintenance estate in 1984 for $20,250,000 Mister and Missus Davis.

The Davis fortune was was once estimated to be as high as five or more billion bucks but the financial gossips have more recently pegged their shrinking fortune to somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion clams, still wildly rich by any standard except that of someone who used to be worth five billion big ones.

After Mister Davis went to meet The Great Speculator in the Sky in 2004, The Knoll was put up for sale with an elephantine asking price of $59,000,000. It was sold in early 2005, according to property records, for $39,352,500 to tool and die tycoon Eric Smidt. Mister and Missus Smidt, who own one of the largest multi-parcel spreads in the steroidal Beverly Park community, hired mega-mansion specialists Hablinski + Manion to transform the white-brick Georgian into a Regency-style residence of epic proportions. The children may find it interesting to note that the 2008 taxes on The Knoll–which may or may not still be called The Knoll–ran a staggering $436,505.71 according to public records.

Anyhoo, in perfect west coast style, after Miz Davis sold The Knoll in 2005 she reportedly moved into a bungalow at the casually elegant (and sort of campy) but always fashionable Beverly Hills Hotel, which her husband, dontcha know, once owned. Eventually Miz Davis tired of hotel living and moved to The Wilshire apartment tower along the Wilshire Corridor near Century City. Title records show Miz Davis purchased the pad in May 2006 for $2,295,000, a number that means that even with a full-price sale Miz Davis faces a significant $410,000 loss.

This is not the first time Miz Davis has donned her silver lamé cowboy boots and rode the mechanical bull at this particular honky tonky; She's had her condo at The Wilshire on and off the market since March 2010. Current listing information shows the mid-floor unit measures 2,257 square feet–probably smaller than her bedroom at The Knoll–and includes 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.

A private elevator landing furnished with a rococo console–or maybe it's baroque, what do we know?–matching mirror and a framed photograph of Mister and Missus Davis sets the stage for the black and white marble floored foyer and main living spaces that include a "formal" living room with floor to ceiling windows, white wall to wall carpeting, flat-screen tee-vee mounted above the fireplace, built-in bookshelves and glass doors to the balcony. The day-core, somewhat particular to agéd west coast society matrons , mixes "modern" things such as the white roll-armed sofas and glass and chrome coffee table with fussy and stuffy 18th- and 19th-century antiques (and antique reproductions).

The black and white marble floor in the foyer continues down the long thin corridor that leads to the bedrooms as well as into Miz Davis's dining room furnished with a blackamoor or two, florid giltwood mirror and gilt-accented dining room chairs. Glass doors open the room to a small planted terrace with panoramic views. The dining room connects to the perfectly serviceable and well-equipped if out-dated galley-style kitchen with adjoining service entrance and laundry room.

It appears to Your Mama that Miz Davis uses the second bedroom–with private en suite facility–as an office which would be a far better place for the gigantic treadmill she has sitting right up next to her bed in the the master suite. Listen, children, Miz Davis is an old woman and we applaud her for getting herself some goddam exercise instead of just sitting around letting her bones go brittle. However, we just don't know how a person–particularly one who fancies herself a refined lady of dignity and elevated social stature–can close their eyes and drift off to a peaceful slumber with that body torture device looming over them in the most menacing of manners. In addition to the treadmill–which we imagine Miz Davis will take with her–the master bedroom includes built in bookcases, two walk-in closets and a beige marble and mirrored bathroom with two sinks and separate shower and jetted tub.

The Wilshire building, 27 stories tall and built in 1990, offers its well-heeled residents the ease and convenience of condo living in a city where high-maintenance landscaping is de rigueur and white-glove services that include doormen, on-site parking with valet services, 24-hour concierge and fitness facilities that include a swimming pool. Former famous residents of the building include Farrah Fawcett and Charlie Sheen.

Miz Davis and her Real Estate face some stiff condo competition right in her own building where a 2,084 square foot unit with 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms carries a price tag of $1,999,000. Another unit with 2,776 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms is currently listed at $1,885,000.

We hear through the high-society gossip grapevine that Miz Davis is considering a move two blocks down the road to The Carlyle Residences where–we're told by a snitch we'll call Willie Wilshireboolayvard–showbiz widda Candy Spelling recently leased temporary digs. Miz Spelling, currently in the process of selling her white elephant in the Holmby Hills for somewhere around eighty million clams, needed a place to camp out while the interior fittings of her new 16,000-ish square foot penthouse at The Century are completed.

listing photos: Unlimited Style Real Estate for Sotheby's International Realty

Some Good Ol' Fashioned New York City Floor Plan Porn

SELLER: Estate of Victor Shafferman
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $49,000,000
SIZE: 17,150 square feet, 15 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We are, perhaps, more than fashionably late to this particular real estate party so we ask that all you New York Times and New York Social Diary readers bear with Your Mama while we exercise our own thoughts about an immaculate and opulent New York City townhouse dropped on the market last weekend to great fanfare and media attention with a hefty asking price of $49,000,000.

Just after the turn of the century–we mean when the 1800s became the 1900s–a banker and railroad baron named Henry Cook built himself a right-proper robber-baron style townhouse directly on Fifth Avenue with a dignified Stanford White-designed limestone façade and Central Park views. Of course, when the palatial pile was built, Fifth Avenue was a charming tree-lined idyll bustling with carriages and buggies. Today it's an impressive tree-lined urban-idyll with a near constant flow of honking yellow cabs and idling black town cars.

The New York Times labeled the house an Italian Renaissance Palazzo sort of thing, which is probably exactly what it is. The august-looking townhouse was completed in 1907 but, sadly, Mister Cook went to meet the big bidnessman in the sky in 1905 so never saw his real estate fantasy in its final and exquisite form. He lived, and died, in a house a few doors down that was eventually razed and replaced by a Horace Trumbauer-designed monument to the wealth and power of tobacco and power tycoon James B. Duke, daddy of the legendary heiress Doris.

The townhouse in question last changed hands, according to property records and previous reports, in 1977 when a man named Victor Shafferman acquired the exceptionally well-preserved mansion for just $600,000. That's right, kiddos, six hundred thousand dollars, less than the price of a good one bedroom apartment in today's New York City. You have to remember, pets, that in 1977 N.Y.C. was not the glittering temple of consumerist gentrification that it is today but rather a nitty-gritty city suffering desperately through a tight economic squeeze. Back then a person could pick up prime real estate in The Big Apple for what is now just pennies on the dollar. Sort of makes a person rue the day they nixed the purchase of a $100,000 classic-six co-op on Central Park West in 1978 that today would be worth more than enough to maintain a luxurious early retirement.

Mister Shafferman, who went to meet his maker in the fall of 2009, was a somewhat odd character about whom not a lot of details are known by many. According to the New York Social Diary, Mister Shafferman scooted about town in a chauffeur-driven burgundy and black Rolls Royce and frequently told people he was an heir to the CIBA-Geigy pharmaceutical fortune. He was not, apparently, an heir to that particular fortune. It was later revealed to those who run in that uptown crowd that Mister Shafferman was actually born in Palestine and educated at public school in Canada. It's not entirely known how he came to his financial station but he was, later in life, a real estate investor who owned a building or two and plainly had the dough-re-mi to bed down in a vast private house on one of the most desirable and expensive streets in the world. He was also, incidentally and according to a pal we'll call Patty Cake, a Friend of Dorothy with a long-time significant other 30 years or so his junior.

Together the refined and somewhat mysterious man-couple did up the day-core in a flamboyant splendor rare even for über-urbane New York City. It's not really possible for a rube like Your Mama to speak with any kind of education or knowledge about about the fine particulars of Mister Shafferman's sumptuous old-school day-core that's peppered with 18th-century marble-topped gilded consoles, hand-stenciled commodes of terrifying value, bèrgeres by the dozen, elegant hand-milled boiserie–no doubt some of it shipped over from some 17th-century French chateau, monumental plaster moldings and scads of antique chandeliers that we'd bet our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly each cost more than Your Mama earns in a year.
The townhouse, one of precious few remaining single family homes situated directly on Fifth Avenue, sits near the busy corner of East 79th Street sandwiched between the Ukranian Institute housed in the majestic Charles P.H. Gilbert-designed Fletcher-Sinclair mansion and the French Consulate, designed by Stanford White for American scion Payne Whitney.

Mister Shafferman's mansion stands six stories above ground and, according to earlier discussions, retains the original bifurcated layout defined by a baronial and mesmerizing floating elliptical staircase at the center of the house. The gracious haute-glam staircase, lined with leaded glass windows and carpeted in a plush, near lurid red winds with a taut sensuality from the ground floor all the way to the fifth floor. An elevator, able to lift and lower the infirm, lazy and/or glutially weak from the basement to the sixth floor, is discretely tucked into the hallway(s) off the stair landing(s) .

At about 25-feet wide and with seven full floors of living space plus a partial sub-basement with wine cellar, the mouth-watering mansion measures in at a titanic 13,775 square feet above ground with an additional 3,375 below street level. Wooden doors with lion head knockers open into a street level vestibule that in turn give way to into a hardcore impress-the-guests-style foyer that features the first of the mansion's many fireplaces; We counted nine fireplaces on the floor plan. Just beyond the foyer, the aforementioned high-drama stair hall, and beyond that a living room with fireplace. One flight up on the parlor level, a generous room-sized stair landing and barrel vaulted corridor separates the formal dining room at the rear of the house–with fireplace, natch–with an elegant if somewhat turgid mint-colored paneled drawing room with marble fireplace surround, gilded ceiling and moldings and towering windows that reach almost to floor and allow an over the tree tops view of Central Park

A small kitchen–blessed with a generous pantry uniquely located on a mezzanine level directly above–is wedged into a tight cranny behind the staircase, elevator and staff staircase. Yes, puppies, this house has a separate staircase for the staff so the filthy rich residents and their pampered guests won't have their eyes sullied by the paid help as they huff and puff up and down the architecturally righteous main staircase with armloads of a linens and terlit cleaning supplies. Floor plans show a second, larger kitchen in the basement, but it does not, unfortunately, show a dumb waiter that would connect the two kitchens and provide a direct link between the kitchen in the basement and the formal dining room two long flights up.

The more intimate and casual–if still a wee bit fussy–third floor library has paneled walls, wood-beamed ceiling and carved stone fireplace surround with what appears to be a hulking faux-stone chimney breast. Two over-sized windows offer park views and built-in bookcases filled with actual books, the sort of books that look like someone might actually have read them. Call Your Mama old fashioned–and goodness knows we've been called things far more vulgar–but we far prefer the warmth of books displayed this way, in their "natural" state, as opposed all covered the same colored paper jacket as done by so many of today's most popular decorators, i.e. Mary McDonald of Million Dollar Decorator. Far be it from Your Mama to knock a decorative trend promoted by many top designers but we think covering books in the same color paper jacket is little more than a cheap trick that sucks the soul from the books and downgrades them to decorative props.

A quick pass over the floor plan included with the property's marketing materials shows the monumental mansion contains a total of 15 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms. There are four principal bedrooms divvied up nicely for privacy on the third through the fifth floors. Each of the four main bedrooms has its own dressing room and private facility. The two largest bedroom suites–one on the third floor and another on the fourth–are connected via a secret spiral stair. When this house was built it was not uncommon for the Mister and Missus of the house to maintain separate boo-dwars. This clandestine spiral staircase, let's just call it a "nookie stair," made it possible for the homeowners to make booty calls without the live-in staff–who see everything and we mean every-damn-thing that goes on in a house–catching wind of their activities.

A children's suite at the back of the fifth floor contains three smaller bedrooms that share a single bathroom. The rabbit warren-like sixth floor–the staff quarters–encompasses 8 small bedrooms that share just two bathrooms. There's also a kitchenette and several walk-in closets for storing out of season uniforms. There is not, however, a communal lounge where the staff can all get together and gripe and gossip about their wealthy employers. Any of you people with live-in staff who thick they don't whisper about you behind your back are just being foolish. Of course they do.

Anyhoo, no doubt there's a short parade of high-toned, well-shod and financially-qualified buyers–some of them, no doubt, just filthy rich looky-loos–who are lined up to tour the Cook-Shafferman house. At the rate things have been going in the increasingly brisk extreme high-end of the real estate market, Your Mama would not be the least bit surprised if the listing agent called in all offers next week due to the significant and intense interest. We shall see, butter beans, we shall see.

listing photos and floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens

Grey Gardens - An Update

 

 

Little Edie Beale, 1972, the year Life Magazine discovered Jackie Kennedy’s aunt and cousin living in absolute squalor.

When the HBO movie Grey Gardens starring Drew Barrymore came out a few years ago, I think almost every other design blog, including Cote de Texas, wrote about the Hampton’s beach house.  Just in case you missed the movie, Jacqueline Kennedy’s cousin and aunt – Little and Big Edie Bouvier Beale - lived in squalor inside their once beautiful house along with hundreds of cats and all their…droppings.  Mother and daughter had once been the toast of town, beautiful, rich, glamorous, and chic.  The story 0f the two Edies’ inexplicable downfall proved irresistible.  In 1971, the press discovered the two recluses, with the very famous relatives, thus shaming  Jackie and her sister Lee to pay for a total clean up of Grey Gardens.  The house stayed tidy for about a day, and quickly slid right back into its dismal state, becoming even more filthy after its infamous clean up.   In 1975, the filmmakers, the Maysles Brothers, came calling – they stayed for several months filming the two eccentrics and their documentary, Grey Gardens, became a cult hit.  A number of books were written about the two, and there was even a hit Broadway play about the Edies.  Eventually Big Edie died in 1977 and Little Edie moved out in 1979, selling everything to Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee.  Little Edie traveled around, finally landing in Florida where she lived in a clean and tidy apartment and swam in the Atlantic every day.   She lived for 23 years after moving out of Grey Gardens, dying at the age of 84.

 

Grey Gardens, 1915.  The house before the solarium was built and the famous upstairs balcony was not enclosed.  Also, the landscaping hadn’t been installed yet.  The original carriage house can be seen behind the house.  The carriage house was sold, enlarged, and still stands today.

 

Grey Gardens Today

Once Sally and Ben Bradlee took over the house, they completely  fixed it up – cleaning it from top to bottom and returning the house to its former gracious beauty.  The Bradlee’s have spent every August at the house,  renting it out during the rest of the year to one tenant.   But two years ago their arrangement changed when their longtime tenant left and Grey Gardens was leased for five years to NYC designer Celerie Kemble and her husband.  The Bradlees shortened their usual August stay and have been renting the house out for short durations during that month.   The house is now currently up for rent again,  August 20 through September 5, for a cool $135,000.  Wow.  Takers anyone?   At least it includes Labor Day. 

The particulars for the rental say the house, built in 1900 has 8 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.  It is 6,000 sq.ft.

'A very special 2 week rental. Fully renovated historic "Grey Gardens" on 2 acres of lush landscaping with pool, pool house, and tennis court. Very close to Georgica Beach. Living room opens to old- fashioned sunporch, formal dining room, eat-in kitchen with staff bedroom. Second floor with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, plus 2 office/studies. Third floor with 3 bedrooms, 1 bath. '

 

Today:  the back yard showing the pool.  The solarium is on the left.

I was so excited to see the rental listing because it showed new pictures of the house that I had never seen before.  Included in the rental pictures is one of the kitchen – the elusive room that I couldn’t find a picture of when I was writing my own blog story.  There are also new images of the living room with its beautiful, old-fashioned chintz fabric.  When I wrote the article on Grey Gardens, I researched it for days, studying every picture of each room I could find, looking at you-tube videos, watching the original Maysles Brothers movie – trying to put all the images together so that I could get a true feel for the layout of the house and its gardens.  I think that story is the longest and most in-depth article I have ever put on the blog.  I can’t explain why the house interests me so much.   Perhaps the appeal is its early romantic history, the historic Kennedy/Bouvier connection, and the way that Sally has designed Grey Gardens, inside and outside.  All combine to make an alluring story. Today, the beautifully landscaped “Grey” gardens are magnificent and I can only imagine how gorgeous the yard will look on Labor Day for the lucky few who get the rental. 

To read my original story, go HERE.

The Bradlees bought Grey Gardens in 1979 and in 1985 Architectural Digest came to photograph it.  The entry hall has always been a favorite of mine with its crisp, beachy Cowtan and Tout wallpaper.  The table (along with most furnishings) was original to the house and refurbished by Sally.

 

TODAY:  the entry hall remain the same, including the rush rugs. The chair was recovered in Bowood, the famous Colefax and Fowler fabric.   Original photographs from the early days sit on the console table.

 

THEN:  The living room with Little Edie showing it all off.   Rather than be ashamed, the mother and daughter felt there was nothing odd about how they lived and they appeared to quite happy in the documentary made by the Maysles Brother.  They contended the house needed just a little paint and dusting to fix it up. 

 

1985:  Architectural Digest showed the house as it was furnished by Sally with the wicker and chaises she found up in the attic.

 

Today:  the romantic chintz filled living room as seen in the rental brochure.  It looks the same as when the Bradlees first decorated it, but at these prices, I would hope the fabric has been updated!  The solarium is through the French doors which the Bradlees installed.  Part of the appeal of the house is rather than remake it into a fancy, Hamptons mega-mansion, Sally has kept it all cozy and welcoming. 

 

An early photograph of the Bradlee dining room.

 

Today:  the dining room appears exactly the same with more chintz and more matting. 

 

THEN:  The kitchen stove in front of the brick wall.

 

1985.  The same fireplace showing the sitting room which overlooks the backyard.

 

TODAY:  Finally – a view of the kitchen!  I never realized the kitchen was right off to the left of this sitting room.  Here it looks like the sofa and chairs have been newly slipped in blue fabric with white trim.  Beyond the fireplace is the breakfast room – the former servant’s dining room.

 

TODAY:  Another view from the listing.   The beadboard ceiling and walls are original to the house.  I believe this was once a warren of smaller rooms which the Bradlees opened up.  There was at once time a large butler’s pantry between the dining room and the kitchen.  Today the pantry is open to this room.  In the servant’s dining room – you can see the stairs which lead upstairs to their sleeping quarters.

 

TODAY:  a new picture never seen before of the upstairs landing.  The master bedroom is behind the French door.  A poster from the Maysles movie hangs here.  There are  no pictures of the third floor which has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. 

 

THEN:  The large guest room where the two Edies lived.  Big Edie stayed in bed and didn’t go downstairs for years at a time.

 

TODAY:  On the rental brochure – the bedroom is now clean and sunny and bright.

 

1985  Architectural Digest showed the master bedroom with its frilly curtains.

 

TODAY:  The rental master bedroom has a new rug, new curtains, and a new quilt.

 

THEN:  The solarium as Little Edie left it for the Bradlees.

 

TODAY:  The solarium as pictured in the rental brochure.  Looks like it could use some freshening up.

 

At a charity function Celerie held last year – you can see she has added pillows to the furniture to cozy up this room.  I wonder what other decorative touches she has added?  It must be hard for her to rent a house for five years and not be able to furnish it as she would like to.

 

 

TODAY:  Looking from the walled garden to the solarium.

 

THEN:  the original walled Grey Gardens.  You can clearly see the pergola to the right.   These walls were completely overtaken by vines and were not visible when the Bradlees took over the property.  It took Sally years and years to get the landscaping looking like it does today.

 

TODAY:   From the real estate brochure, inside the walled garden with the thatched pool house nearby.  Behind the chair the pergola is barely visible under the vines. 

 

A very rare shot inside the pergola.  Look at the original stone benches.

 

TODAY:  the swimming pool.  Gorgeous!

 

Looking from upstairs down at the swimming pool.

 

To die for!  The Atlantic is very close.  Here you can see into the walled garden and the little thatched house. Tennis courts are right behind the pool, hidden by bushes.

 

The landscaping around Grey Gardens is full of hydrangeas.  Hydrangeas have been on the property since Big Edie’s days.

 

Last summer gorgeous potted hydrangeas surrounded the pool.  The Bradlees had replaced the shingles a few years ago and now, they have finally reached the gray stage.  The turquoise trim offsets the gray perfectly.   I just love the backyard. 

 

Gorgeous Grey Gardens hydrangeas.

 

The Grey Gardens Collections is an online store – the brainchild of Big Edie’s granddaughter-in-law, Eva Marie Beale who is married to Bouvier Beale, Jr. 

 

Recently the Grey Gardens Collections came out with this Belgian cotton/linen fabric in a hydrangea print in honor of Grey Gardens’ garden. 

 

Also available are pillows with the hydrangea print in different color ways!  For information on ordering the hydrangea fabric, see the web site. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything for sale is either from the two Edie’s era, or was inspired by their style.  I love these velvet cuffs and actually own one!   All these cuffs are now on sale.

 

Looking around the collection today, this vintage compact caught my eye.  It looks like tortoiseshell.

 

There are all kinds of different items for the home, including a great collection of ironstone.

 

And there is a beautiful collection of antique and vintage china.

 

 

Also available is this rare book by Eva Marie Beale.  A new exclusive edition is soon to be released, but copies of this book are available only at Grey Gardens Collections.  Many of the photographs in my original blog story came from this book.

Ms. Beale writes of the book:   Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures, the latest installment in a series that includes photo-biographies of John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, and others, presents the most in-depth look at the life of Little Edie since the Maysles’ film vaulted her into the public consciousness. Conceived by members of the Beale family, the book traces a line from Edie’s childhood through her heady days as a young socialite and her later years at Grey Gardens, the decrepit East Hampton estate where she and her mother lived in near-total isolation for decades. Featuring over 150 newly uncovered photographs and letters, Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens offers unprecedented access to the personal history of this twentieth-century woman of mystery.

To visit the Grey Gardens Collections, go HERE. 

To rent Grey Gardens in August, go HERE.

Thank you for taking a second look at Grey Gardens.  If you didn’t read my original story and you are interested in the house, I urge you to take a look at it.   It’s much more comprehensive with many pictures, floor plans, and interesting comments left by people who added important information to the story.    HERE.