Introduction
Although we have covered celebrity-lined streets of Old Hollywood including Roxbury Drive and Rodeo Drive in previous articles, there are many other streets in Beverly Hills and its surrounding areas that were also home to many stars over the years. In this new series, we will explore the streets that these Hollywood legends called home over the years. This particular installment features the homes of Bedford Drive, Hillcrest Road, and San Ysidro Drive.
Bedford Drive
441 S. Bedford Drive
441 S. Bedford Drive was once the home of Nancy Sinatra, who lived here in the 1960s. Built in 1929, the 1,800-square-foot house contains three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
512 N. Bedford Drive
Jazz Age It girl Clara Bow called 512 N. Bedford Drive home. The house is nearly 2,900 square feet and contains four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Built in 1925, Bow made it her own on October 27, 1926, for $15,000. Within the next few weeks, Bow began an affair with Gary Cooper, which took place inside the walls of this property. Bow lived here until 1931.
“Up one of the winding roads of Beverly Hills, tucked close to a yucca-covered hillside, sprawls a country home of Spanish type. You can see it a mile away, its tile roof of a red blotch, as daring as Clara’s own auburn curls. It is Clara’s place, you know. Exactly the place you would expect a flapper to live. The dazzle of it almost hurt my eyes.”
– Brighter Homes magazine (1928)
615 N. Bedford Drive
In 1935, after Barbara Stanwyck had divorced her husband vaudevillian Frank Fay, the actress moved to 615 N. Bedford Drive. This house was located down the street from her good friend and manager, Zeppo Marx, and his wife Marion.
Built on a third of an acre in 1927, this house contains six bedrooms and six bathrooms with a total square footage of 5,300.
616 N. Bedford Drive
Carmen Miranda lived in the original house that sat at 616 N. Bedford Drive. Sadly, the house was razed in 1989 and a new house was built on the lot a year later. Very little is known about the dimensions of the original house.
Miranda suffered a heart attack on August 5, 1955, and died immediately from the ailment. Earlier that day Miranda shot a television special with Jimmy Durante with the pair performing additionally for the studio audience after cameras stopped rolling. Afterward, she went home late in the evening.
“It was about 3 a.m. when the actress and her husband, Film Producer David Sebastian, climbed the stairs to bed. They occupied separate bedrooms.
Miss Miranda removed her clothing, placed her platform shoes in a corner, lit a cigarette and placed it in an ash tray and went into her bathroom to fix her face for the night.
She apparently came from the bathroom with a small, circular mirror in her hand and in the small hall that leads to her bedroom, she toppled to the floor and died.
She made no outcry. No one heard her fall. Her body was found at about 10:30 a.m. lying in the hallway.
“She was tired from the long hours of work the day before and the party,” her husband said. “I wanted her to sleep late. I went into her room to wake her — and found her lying there.”
– Los Angels Times, August 6, 1955