The House That Jack Built




John Gilbert

  Estate was Home to Hollywood Notables for 55 Years

In the mid-1920s, when he was a top star at MGM, leading man John Gilbert built a house at 1400 Tower Grove Road in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills. A two-story Spanish-colonial with tennis court and swimming pool, the estate was on a narrow road that curled up a hill behind the Beverly Hills Hotel.


Gilbert’s daughter, Leatrice, then a young girl, remembered her father greeting her from the top of a long, red-tiled stairway when she arrived for her first visit to his home in the early 1930s. She recalled soft light filtering through high, leaded windowpanes as she climbed the steps.

During one of her visits, he showed her a secret panel in an alcove adjacent to the living room and a button hidden under one of the bookshelves. The button opened a door to a stairway that led to the basement. He told her there had been a bar in the basement before Prohibition was repealed.

1400 Tower Grove Rd., early '30s (click picture for larger view)

She recalled that one evening at sunset, while they walked up the hillside in back, her father warned her to keep an eye out for rattlesnakes... and Leatrice remembered that from the top of the hill you could see "all Los Angeles out to the ocean" and Santa Catalina Island on the horizon.  Leatrice later wrote that it was clear to her even as a child that her father loved the place.

When it was built, the first floor of the main house featured an entry area and a large space for entertaining. Blessed with stunning panoramic views, the second floor held the living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom and bath. Most rooms were furnished in 17th-Century Spanish reproductions, a style popular in Hollywood at the time.

Harold Grieve, a silent-era art and set decorator (Ben-Hur, The Thief of Bagdad, The Sea Wolf) who was a founder of AMPAS and later became an interior designer, worked on the home several times over several years.

Miriam Hopkins

Gilbert's wives and girlfriends were many, and his master bath and bedroom were redecorated as women came and went, according to Grieve. For example, when Greta Garbo came into the picture, Grieve installed walls and a sunken tub of black marble in the master bath. John Gilbert died in January 1936 and, soon after, actress Miriam Hopkins purchased the home and hired Grieve to redecorate it once more. The house was redone in the emerging Art Moderne style. The newly contemporary walls of Miss Hopkins’ living room provided a showcase for works from her art collection, paintings by artists such as Picasso, Renoir and Matisse. 

David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones

The Tower Grove Road property's legend was enhanced with the arrival of its next resident, producer David O. Selznick, in 1945.

Selznick rented the house when he separated from his wife Irene (L. B. Mayer’s daughter) after he'd become involved with actress Jennifer Jones. Selznick purchased the property from Hopkins just before marrying Jones in 1949.

With this sale, the home was substantially remodeled.

Selznick/Jones grounds

 Plate-glass windows were installed to dramatize the views and bring indoors the lush beauty of the foliage surrounding the house. Another notable change, the addition of a first floor bedroom/dressing room for Jennifer Jones, featured a striking waterfall just outside her window that could be turned on and off with a switch.



Selznick/Jones home

The Selznicks hosted dinner parties, screened movies and lived a grand life on Tower Grove Road for twenty years, until David O. Selznick’s death in 1965.  Selznick's obituary in the New York Times reported that he had "lived in an elegantly rustic home on an estate atop a hill overlooking Beverly Hills." Jennifer Jones and their daughter remained there until 1969. The house was then sold to Ted Ashley, Chairman of the Board of Warner Bros., the man credited with overseeing one of the studio's most successful eras, 1969 - 1980. It was during Ashley’s residence that Leatrice Gilbert Fountain was invited into the home her father built, a place she had not visited since childhood. 

Ted Ashley, Jack Warner & Jack Valenti in 1969

 
Eight years later, in 1977, hit-maker Elton John bought the house. John’s style was more flamboyant and his taste included Art Deco and Art Moderne (echoes of Miriam Hopkins!). His master bedroom featured a wall covered in mirrors and another covered in ultrasuede. Not too unexpected for a rock star of the '70s, especially one famous for appearing on stage in outrageously over-the-top costumes.



Elton John in the 1970s

 In 1981 the house was sold to its first non-entertainment industry resident. The businessman who purchased it had apparently planned only to remodel, but structural problems were uncovered and the building was demolished to make way for an enormous mansion.

When John Gilbert lived on Tower Grove Road, other major stars like Harold Lloyd and Jean Harlow lived not far away. Today Jay Leno, Halle Berry and other 21st Century A-listers reside in the area.



Selznick/Jones study