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| Undated photo of movie mogul Jack L. Warner standing in front of his nine-acre Beverly Hills estate. |
This month, Jeff Bezos purchased the nee
Jack Warner Estate (Warner Bros.) from the estate’s second owner media mogul
David Geffen (Dreamworks SKG Pictures) for $165 million. Geffen purchased the nine-acre Warner mansion
and grounds for $47.5 million in 1990. Bezos purchase price for the
Warner/Geffen estate set a new record price for a residential property in
California.
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| Jack Warner's screening room inside his Beverly Hills estate. |
Warner’s home appeared in the April 1992
issue of Architectural Digest. Here
are the opening paragraph’s of Charles Lockwood’s article. Click here.
“...Only a handful of Beverly Hills houses have ever rivaled the
Warner estate. With its 13,600-square-foot Georgian-style mansion, expansive
terraces and gardens, two guesthouses, nursery and three hothouses, tennis
court, swimming pool, nine-hole golf course and motor court complete with its
own service garage and gas pumps, the nine-acre property was— and still is—the
archetypal studio mogul's estate.
“Few homes, moreover, compared with the Warner estate as a
social milieu in the thirties and forties. “I remember one New Year's Eve party
in 1939 or 1940,” Olivia de Havelland has recalled. “All the men were glorious
in white tie. Errol Flynn was behind the bar, Howard Hughes was my date, and
Jimmy Stewart was seated on a stool. Just the four of us having our first drink
of the evening. All those beautiful women dressed in wonderful elegance.
Dolores Del Rio in a white satin gown that contrasted her dark hair and dark
eyes. Ann Warner, herself a striking presence. Those beautiful women, looking
marvelous in this wonderful setting...”
***
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| Near Benedict Canyon Road in Beverly Hills, the original Warner Estate was remodeled from Spanish Revival to Georgian in the 1930s by Los Angeles area Architect Roland Coate |
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| Brownstone circular driveway is where Jack Warner was photographed, above |
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