Beverly Hills has been a staple of Hollywood glamour since its inception. From the Beverly Hills Hotel to streets such as Roxbury Drive and the subject of this article – Rodeo Drive, which has its fair share of movie star homes in its own right. This article will explore the homes and the stars that lived there.
602 N. Rodeo Drive
602 N. Rodeo was the home of actor Jean Hersholt (Heidi). The house, which was built in 1925 measures 5,300 square feet and was built in the style of an English Country home.
The home contains six bedrooms and four bathrooms with all of the typical features you would expect in a home of this caliber including a pool and Maid’s quarters. However, the house does contain one unusual standout feature – a secret billiard room speakeasy (as the house was built during the height of Prohibition).
712 & 714 N. Rodeo Drive
714 N. Rodeo Drive was built in 1926 and was the home of Carl Reiner. Between the main residence and the guest house, the property has seven bedrooms and five bathrooms on 5,500 square feet.
Reiner also owned the house next door at 712 N. Rodeo but did not live in it. This house is 3,300 square feet and contains five bedrooms and three bathrooms.
725 N. Rodeo Drive
725 N. Rodeo Drive was the home of Gene Kelly from 1946 until his death 50 years later. The 4,400 square feet house contains six bedrooms and six bathrooms. The original house was built in the mid-1920s however it burned down at Christmas in 1983 due to a fire caused by lights on the Christmas tree. Kelly loved the house so much he had it rebuilt exactly to the original specifications from the blueprints in 1984.
This farmhouse-style property was dedicated to having fun and being a place where friends and family could let their proverbial hair down. Some of the frequent guests at the homestead included Judy Garland, Hume Cronyn, Lena Horne, Phil Silvers, Noel Coward, Leonard Bernstein, Van Johnson, Stanley Donen, Maurice Chevalier, Frank Sinatra, and Rita Hayworth.
Every Saturday night Kelly would throw a get-together that would contain the following activities: ping-pong, drinks, dinner, charades, singing, dancing, and playing the piano. Both ping-pong and charades were highly competitive games at these parties where Kelly always played to win. Gene’s first wife Betsy Blair stated in a 1954 interview that:
“It (ping-pong) was deadly serious. If we played doubles, Gene and I won more often than not.”
Ping-pong was typically followed by some food and a few cocktails. Once everyone had had their fill it was time for charades (aka “The Game”) to begin.
“Our version was a racing version of charades. Two opposing captains—usually Gene and me, because the others claimed that if we were on the same team, we were unbearable—chose up sides. Someone made a list of 20 quotations, sayings, titles of films or books, lyrics, puns, headlines, anything at all. The listmaker sat in the hall; the teams were in separate rooms. The captains got the first clue together, and raced to act it out for their own team. Whoever guessed it would race back for the next clue. We ran and screamed and shouted, tempers were lost, we occasionally collapsed on the floor laughing.”
– Betsy Blair
Hume Cronyn agreed with Betsy’s sentiment that the Kellys needed to be split up otherwise it would be unfair. He stated in a 1992 interview with Architectural Digest that:
“It was nearly impossible to beat the Kellys, who shared a ‘radar-like communication.”
After charades were over it would time for music and dancing.
“Sometimes Gene would dance; if Judy (Garland) were there, she might sing.”
– Betsy Blair
On Sunday afternoons friends would come over to play yet another game with Gene and his family – volleyball.
“The volleyball games were a fixture on Sunday at noon. They were serious, as were all the games we played.”
– Betsy Blair
In addition to having fun at the house, Kelly used it as a gathering place for work-related activities. The musical-comedy duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green would often come over to Kelly’s home to try out material for movies such as On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain, and It’s Always Fair Weather.
“A lot of Comden and Green stuff was tried out here for fun; we didn’t do it purposely.”
– Gene Kelly
Songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane would also come by to try out new material here as well.
“We would hear the songs here before they would do them at the studio.”
– Gene Kelly
730 N. Rodeo Drive
730 N. Rodeo was the home of Gary Cooper and Lupe Velez during their relationship in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The house was built in 1923 and is 4,000 square feet with four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
732 N. Rodeo Drive
After her relationship with Gary Cooper ended Lupe Velez moved into the house next door with now-husband Johnny Weissmuller at 732 N. Rodeo Drive. Velez would live in this house for the rest of her life which she tragically ended inside the home via a drug overdose in 1944.
As for the house it was built in 1929 and contains six bedrooms and four bathrooms with a total square footage of 6,000 square feet.
801 N. Rodeo Drive
Father of President John F. Kennedy, Joe Kennedy lived at 801 N. Rodeo Drive during his Hollywood mogul phase. Kennedy lived in this house from 1926 until 1931. This was the house where Kennedy carried out his three-year affair with Gloria Swanson. many years later screenwriter Edwin Blum (Stalag 17) owned this house.
The house was built in 1913 and has a total square footage of 4,400 with four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
804 N. Rodeo Drive
804 N. Rodeo was the home of Our Gang comedy legend Jackie Cooper. Very little is known about the specifications of the house when Cooper lived here as it was demolished with a new house taking its place in 1983.
The house that currently sits on the land is 7,600 square feet with five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
806 N. Rodeo Drive
806 N. Rodeo has arguably the most star-studded pedigree as 3 legends – Fred Astaire, Maurice Chevalier, and Tarzan novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs all called this address home between the 1920s and 1930s. In the mid-1930s when Astaire lived at this house he was just a short walk half a mile walk from his frequent co-star Ginger Rogers who lived at 906 N. Roxbury Drive as well as the composers who wrote music for their films, George and Ira Gershwin who lived at 1019 and 1021 N. Roxbury, respectively.
From 1939 until 1977 the house was owned by Martin Broones, the first musical director of MGM, and his wife actress Charlotte Greenwood (Oklahoma!). At this house, they raised Bill Luce, who was like a son to him. Bill met Martin and Charlotte in the 1950s when he was in his 20s; he wrote lyrics for songs composed by Martin for Doris Day. Luce would go on to write for Broadway and television including the one-woman play The Belle of Amherst.
The house was torn down and replaced in 1981. The current house has eleven bedrooms and twelve bathrooms and contains 15,000 total square footage. Former President Donald Trump lived in and owned this house in 2008 but sold it in 2009.
807 N. Rodeo Drive
Barbara Stanwyck lived at 807 N. Rodeo with her then-husband Robert Taylor during the 1940s. This house was built in 1936 and has a square footage of 2,200 with five bedrooms and five bathrooms.
After Stanwyck and Taylor moved on from the home Screen Actors Guild president George Murphy lived here.
