<<<PAGE 58<<< CELEBRITY HOME PAGE INDEX HOME PAGE >>>PAGE 60>>>
UPDATED MAY 12, 2009
1143 SUMMIT DR, BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210
PICKFAIR ESTATE
$60,000,000
Active
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS SR. / MARY PICKFORD BUDDY ROGERS PIA ZADORA
An opportunity to own an important piece of real estate history in Beverly Hills, and the most famous home in America of the 1920s. This Legendary Estate, known worldwide as “PICKFAIR”, was once the home of Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. This Villa design now awaits your updating to a 21st Century Masterpiece. Shown to pre-screened Buyers only. Sellers will negotiate art, sculptures and would consider exchange for commercial property, business or other.
Rooms:
17 Beds 30 Baths Bar, Basement, Bonus, Breakfast, Cabana, Center Hall, Den, Dining, Family, Gym, Lanai, Library/Study, Living, Media, Office, Pantry, Patio Open, Powder, Projection, Sauna, Service Entrance, Wine Cellar, Other
Equipment:
Barbeque, Built-Ins, Cable, Dishwasher, Dryer, Elevator,
Freezer, Garbage Disposal, Intercom, Phone System, Range/Oven,
Refrigerator, Washer
When
Meshulam Riklis and Pia Zadora bought Pickfair, the legendary home of silent
film stars Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford, and started refurbishing the
house, an avalanche of criticism became their part. According to many, they
lacked the respect for this historic house, demolished it and built “a palazzo
big enough to fit their ego’s”. And, just like the Golden Globe thing a few
years before, similar stories appeared in the press : Meshulam Riklis bought
Pia’s way into Hollywood, by ‘buying’ her a Golden Globe, or Pickfair.
Whatever the Rikis’ did in those days, controversy was never to elude them. They
couldn’t even buy a house without people kicking up a fuss.
The first famous couple from the era of silent film, Pickford and Fairbanks,
bought this house in 1919. At that time, it was just a large hunting lodge in
the San Isidro Canyon, at 1143 Summit Drive. At Mary’s and Doug’s request and
according to the plans of architect Wallace Neff, the lodge was transformed into
a twenty-two room mansion, with fresco’s on the ceiling, hexagonal tiles on the
floor and a traditional garden. They called it Pickfair, after their own names.
Pickfair was the first celebrity house in Beverly Hills and soon after Mary and
Douglas, other celebrities like Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and Will Rogers
moved into the city as well. Pickfair was said to have featured Southern
California’s first private residential swimming pool, and the it became the
Hollywood party center. Pickford and Fairbanks became Hollywood royalty, the
unofficial king and queen of Tinseltown. And in those days, an invitation to
Pickfair was universally acknowledged as the only legitimate invitation that one
had attained recognition in Hollywood. Could this be what people had against the
fact that Pia actually bóught this house?
Anyway, in 1933, the couple separated and Pickford continued to live their until
her death in 1979. It was then sold to Jerry Bush, owner of the Lakers and
remained uninhabited until Riklis and Zadora bought it in 1988.
And the above mentionned allegations started. Pia and Riklis defended their case
by stating that the house was full of termites, or that they only demolished one
room. But the truth is, they really didn’t have to defend their actions. When
they bought Pickfair, it was a big, old house, the candles had flickered and
dimmed, the party was already over for a long time. All it had was the name. All
the lustre and splendour of Pickfair was in its glamorous past, the first
decades of the twentieth century. If the building itself was that important, it
would have been classified for a long time. But it wasn’t. It stood there empty
for years and nobody cared about it. But when Pia and her husband bought it, all
of a sudden, everybody had to spread his/hers opinion about how they wanted to
stay it the way it was, that it was atrocious what Pia and Riklis did and blah
blah blah…The fact is that they bought this -non-classified!- house and they’re
absolutely free to do with it as they please. They decided to live in Pickfair
and put it on the map again. And what could be wrong with that?
Pia and the kids moved out of Pickfair after the Riklis' divorced in 1993. But
when Pia and her second husband Jonathan Kaufer separated, she moved back in.
Pickfair, the legendary honeymoon
home of actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, has come on the market at
$39.5 million. Current owners businessman Meshulam Riklis
and actress Pia Zadora rebuilt most of the Beverly
Hills estate after they bought it in 1988 for just under $7 million from L.A.
Laker owner Jerry Buss. It is on 2 1/4 acres.
Pickford had subdivided the original 15-acre estate over the years, and her last
husband, the late actor Buddy Rogers, further reduced the size of the property
when he sold the house to Buss for $5.4 million after the actress died in 1979.
Riklis oversaw a major refurbishing and expansion, keeping as much as he could
from the Pickford-Fairbanks days during Hollywood's golden era. After architect
Wallace Neff redesigned a hunting lodge to become Pickfair in 1932, the famous
couple entertained royally and royalty, creating a suite — still there — for the
Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Riklis also preserved a pub room and its original bar, where Fairbanks hoisted a
few.
The 26,000-square-foot home has a ballroom-sized living room, a disco, a film
theater, a master suite plus four family bedroom suites, a small theater with a
stage, a three-bedroom apartment, a staff wing with offices, a guesthouse, a
pool, four two-car garages and subterranean parking for 10 cars.
PROPERTY INCLUDES LARGE SPA W/ DOME GLASS
CEILING, GYM, ORIGINAL POOL, THEATER & DISCOTHEQUE. MAIN HOUSE HAS 4 BEDROOMS +
3 BEDROOM GUEST APARTMENT + 2 BEDROOM GUEST HOUSE + STAFF QUARTERS.
ROOMS: Bar, Bonus, Breakfast, Cabana, Center Hall, Den,Dining, Family, Gym, Lanai, Library/Study,Living,Media,Office,Pantry,Patio Open, Powder, Projection, Sauna, Service Entrance, Wine Cellar
PICKFAIR IN 1920
MLS Number
08-311111
<<<PAGE 58<<< CELEBRITY HOME PAGE INDEX HOME PAGE >>>PAGE 60>>>