16 July 2010

This house is a Candle in the Wind


This photograph of Marilyn Monroe was taken about a month before she died. Allen Grant took the photo for Life magazine and in it she's kicking back in her Brentwood home. On the surface she looks like she doesn't have a care in the world. I think that's what made her an actress.



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The home Marilyn Monroe lived in at the end of her life was on 5th Helena Drive in Brentwood. 12305 5th Helena Drive to be exact. How do I know? Someone sent me the listing for the house. Here's the link. It's on the market for three and a half million dollars and compared to the listing I wrote about earlier this week, that's a bargain. According to the listing agent, it's a four bedroom, three bath 1929 hacienda on one of the most desirable streets in Brentwood. I don't know enough about LA real estate to judge that so maybe somebody from LA will chime in.

The room where Marilyn's sitting in the photo above is in the photos that follow. Anybody want to guess which one?







It's a lovely home. Really. I like the scale of the rooms and how bright everything seems. It needs some work on the furnishings department but maybe not. I think the lack of really fine furnishings in it adds to the relaxed air it gives off.

It's a curious thing now that I think about it. Would you ever buy a home that once belonged to a now dead movie star? Would Candle in the Wind take on a whole new significance?

22 comments:

  1. I would absolutely buy a house of a dead celebrity that would possibly haunt the place! But depends on which celebrity... somehow Marilyn's ghost seems like it would be really high maintenance like crying all the time, needing constant ego-stroking, etc. I don't have that kind of time to devote to the undead. But I might do it for the above kitchen with all that gorgeous light!!

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  2. But imagine the secrets Marilyn's ghost would tell. It would be worth all of the crying jags to get to the bottom of her involvement with the Kennedy boys.

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  3. Hi Paul,
    Looks as though you have spuced your blog up! Looking good...very clean.
    I love, love, love this house. It's small and comfortable, not to mention it is bright. I will take it in a skinny minute. It has to come East though...SC.
    Enjoying your posts as I read them on the blogger thingie.
    Take care
    Laura.

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  4. Hey Laura, thanks! This is an interim step while I decide if it's worth it to take on full-blown self-hosting. My part of Florida and Souther California both enjoyed concurrent building booms in the 1920s and the housing styles from that era are nearly identical. A house like that would fit right into my neighborhood now.

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  5. Oh, that's LOVELY. I would move in there in a Some Like It Hot second.

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  6. And I'd never get the Seven Year Itch.

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  7. But is there a Bus Stop nearby? I would need to ride the bus if I lived in a 3+ million dollar home.

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  8. Hmmm. LA's very proud of its transit system despite how bad it is. Probably not.

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  9. Can you imagine a celebrity today who would live in such a modest home? This is lovely.

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  10. I've been thinking the same thing all week Erika. The place is human-scaled and the idea of that human scale seems to have been discarded.

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  11. Granted, I’m older, but if I suddenly came into the kind of money that enabled me to pay three-and-a-half million dollars for a home, something like this would be just the ticket for me because it’s a house that would actually feel like a home. Those huge places rich people find to live in are very off-putting. For me and my tastes. But this one is absolutely wonderful.

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  12. Joeseph: You and me both brother.

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  13. I saw this on Luxist and was thinking how much nicer it was than that $17 million misplaced Las Vegas one you just featured/ripped apart.

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  14. I wanted to end the week on a positive note.

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  15. Not the house you would have thought Marilyn Monroe to live in. It must be in a really great location because the house itself is pretty ordinary.

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  16. Keith: I think the house's ordinariness is what's so striking about it.

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  17. The house is quite lovely from the outside (curbside)! I've never been inside but used to lead bicycle tours in the areas and Marilyn's house was always a lovely stop.

    The area is very nice, close to the beach and the scale is "very real." It was a treat getting to see the inside. And, I certainly could reside in this lovely abode.

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  18. Bill! There you are. I thought you'd dropped off the face of the earth. It's good to hear from you. As a Los Angeleno and someone who's in that part of LA, reader Kathleen wanted to know how the bus service is in Brentwood. Care to venture a learned opinion?

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  19. I am ashamed to say, that I have never ridden a bus in LA in almost 20 years. The reports from those who do are generally very positive; but, things take a big longer. It is also a bit complex at first since cities overlap services and there are many different lines. Brentwood would be serviced by both LA bus lines (metro) and Santa Monica (Big Blue Bus). I'd start at http://www.metro.net and take a look at the maps.

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  20. The photo was taken in the living room - 4th pic down? Really like this hacienda and its original features, like the flooring and exposed beams. If I could ever afford a home of that price, I would definitely consider buying it. So who cares that a dead actress lived there...imagine all the fun conversations you can get out of this, with your friends ;)?

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  21. Flooring Gal, you the first person to guess and I am almost positive you're right. Thanks for the comment!

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  22. Thanks Paul :) I was between the living room and the bedroom, since both of those have the framed windows. Look forward to your future articles and all the best!

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