Tasteful friends- Buddy Hackett’s Beverly Hills home is up for sale

Looks like no one has taken care of the place in years, and at the property is squeezed onto the lot. I wouldn't want it.

That place looks tacky and depressing. It’s a definite fixer upper.

Is there an elephant still out front? Or has that been removed.

It's not terrible but looks like no one has done anything on the house in 40 years.

Teardown and a lot of money for an odd-shaped lot with no privacy

What's with the fencing on the roof?

I like the dining room and pool but not by much. At 18 million it seems way overpriced.

I loved hiking down that area of Sunset Blvd. when I lived in West Hollywood. The elephant remained for a while after he died. When I did the tour of the star's homes when I first moved there in the early 1980's, the bus driver would point it out. Fortunately, Lucy and Ethel weren't on the bus to insist on getting off so they could go try to pet it.

R6, I liked the pool, too. With the big cactus and the landscaping all around it. I don’t know why. Pictured sitting out there with a lemon seltzer and some tortilla chips, listening to some Eagles. It was a very appealing vibe.

I can’t believe no one scheduled a cleaning for that pool. $50 would have done it, probably. You can see the dark patches from the aerial view! Unless it’s some deeper issue that can’t be scraped away...

There’s something about it I like. Everything here in NYC is so vertical and this thing is just kind of sprawled and draped.

But for the price? Who came up with that? Are they just basing it on the zip code?

"The elephant remained for a while after he died."

Didn't the neighbors complain about the smell of a decomposing elephant? Must have been vile!

When I think of Buddy Hackett, somehow my mind doesn't conjure up visions of elegant architecture and refined good taste. And a good thing, too, because there's nothing of that sort here.

[quote]Call your builders, developers, and those searching for Trophy Location to build. Existing 7700+ square foot single level house built 1952.

Translation: Let's not even pretend for a moment that anyone wants this wretched dump.

I’m thinking $11.5. Lot value. It’s a great BH flats location, bulldozers, walls all around and a mock Mediterranean.

The pictures at OP's link aren't loading for me, sadly.

I thought it would be more "ha-ha" funny.

Try this. Wonder what all the netting on the roof is for?

Why do you suppose he had a tennis court? I really can't picture Buddy Hackett huffing and puffing his way around it.

The interiors are hilariously awful.

Who's been living there since Buddy died almost 20 years ago?

It'sh a poopie.

If I did'nt have the money for a rebuild. I would paint all the wood in the dining room white. Could look amazing.

There is a small framed picture of Buddy still sitting on a table in one of the rooms, I guess his family held on to the house all of this time.

Another unfunny "comedian." HBO aired one of his Vegas shows and every other word was fuck or shit/piss or cunt and the blue hairs and the pinky rings in the audience screamed with laughter.

This place screams Norma Desmond.

Looks like it was designed by Mike Brady.

I, honestly, can't remember anything he was in or had done.

Hollywood Squares

That's a classic Old Hollywood bar. One can imagine all the big stars of the 60's drinking there and dissing those not present.

Buddy was very fond of tennis btw. .

I remember when wooded skylights like the one above the pool table were en vogue. Hardly ever would I say "Tear it down" re: the home of a Hollywood star, but we're talking about Buddy Hackett and an ugly, neglected house here. And the only people who're going to want to build on that lot are some nouveau riche, "Look at us" types, most likely from a foreign country.

I saw the elephant in one of the photos, so it's still there.

There's a huge green space across the street - park or golf course? If a golf course, that could explain the netting on the roof. Plus the green space probably accounts for a lot of the property's value.

He was cute in “Arthur”. That’s the only thing I know him from.

It's being marketed as a teardown - from the link at OP

[quote] Magnificent Opportunity to build a grand showplace in the west end flats of Beverly Hills. Sprawling One+ Acre Corner lot on Whittier at the end of Lomitas, across from the Los Angeles Country Club. Call your builders, developers, and those searching for Trophy Location to build.

[quote]I, honestly, can't remember anything he was in or had done.

Seriously?

Are the Flats the poor part of Beverly Hills?

The dining room is very dramatic.

Eat my shippoopi.

I licked his balls.

$18 million, for that? it looks like a tear down.

$ 18 Million for something that looks like a hangar?

Looks like the Trump Presidential Library

What's that mess along the roof line that looks like poles for a chain link fence?

I just did a google map street view. That mess on the roof is some sort of netting that apparently is up there permanently. Talk about making a house look like a dump.

The huge green space nearby is the Los Angeles Country Club golf course.

NEVER buy a house near or on a golf course.

It's not "whether" a golf ball will damage your roof and/or siding, shatter a window, etc. It's when and how often.

The house is a tear down.

It's the dirt that s for sale.

Ouch.

I like the round front lawn. A comfy little ranch house.

Google Street View shows the elephant.

That lawn is in horrible shape. And there is a very cheap car parked in the driveway.

$18 million and no security wall and gate. Hell to the no.

I will say this — it looks like the real home of a real person, not something designed to impress or look good in a magazine.

Not to my taste at all, but the home of a well off person of my parents generation who liked what they liked and enjoyed all the clutter because it was their stuff. That’s what a home should be.

[quote]That’s what a home should be.

Ugly?

R32 reminded me. There are The Flats, and no they aren’t poor. But, there’s another area referred to as something like the small flats, poor flats, sad flats...? I heard it once and forgot it. I’ve tried to look it up before and gotten nowhere.

@r51, Per Wikipedia... "Most residents live in the "flats" of Beverly Hills, which is a relatively flat land that slants towards the hills, and includes all of Beverly Hills south of Sunset Blvd. The houses situated in the hillside north of Sunset Boulevard have a much higher value than the average housing price for the rest of the city. Santa Monica Boulevard divides the "flats" into two areas, locally known as "North or South of the tracks," referring to the train tracks that were once used by the old Pacific Electric streetcar line that traversed Beverly Hills along Santa Monica Blvd. Houses south of Wilshire Boulevard have more urban square and rectangular lots, in general smaller than those to the north. There are also more apartment buildings south of Wilshire Boulevard than anywhere else in Beverly Hills, and the average house value south of Wilshire is the lowest in Beverly Hills."

Whenever I see Buddy Hackett's name ( which is seldom ) I think of the plane scenes in a 'Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

if the cactus falls it could kill someone. Such things happen in Monte Carlo gardens.

It’s a tear down. Whenever they show just the outside mostly you know it’s in bad shape.

You lost me at the weird fucked up corner lot! FUCK NO!!!!!!!!!!! NO CORNER LOTS EVER!!!!!!!!!! I live on one right now and I will NEVER make that mistake again! EVER!

Its sorta a shame that it will be torn-down. Its a great example of mid-century modern, and could be remodeled on the inside to take advantage of that.

[quote] But, there’s another area referred to as something like the small flats, poor flats, sad flats...?

Tortilla Flats?

Why r56? If the streets are quiet . . .

Is that netting around the roof not to catch falling tiles?

Looks like Buddy did well for himself considering he really didn't have much of a career in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. He also owned a beach house in Malibu.

[Quote] Why [R56]? If the streets are quiet . . .

That's the thing corners are never "quiet." Your backyard is really a side yard. You don't have the house as a buffer to any noise. At least here in LA. Plus, corners are gathering places for people aka a place to dump your trash, dog shit bags and so on. I've lived on a corner for 20 years and I can't tell you how many Starbucks coffee cups I've picked up from my corner lot. I live 20 blocks from a Starbucks. It's not like it's a block away.

lt's the most opulent Pizza Hut I’ve ever seen.

[quote] Its sorta a shame that it will be torn-down.

it's not a given that it's going to be torn down. That's just one option the realtors are promoting. I can't imagine anyone who could afford to pay that kind of money and could tear down a house like that to build some new huge manse would want to live in the flats.

Hey Josh, Josh Flagg, care to comment? The Flats are your specialty. Give us some scoop on this property. You can be anon.

The purple chairs and blue carpet look extremely dated. They must be from the '60s or early '70s.

Looking at the lot map, the tennis court appears to belong to the property. It has lots of cracks. Could a future buyer tear it out? Is something like this grandfathered in if the owner wanted to install a tennis court in the future?

Check out Buddy's Malibu house. He must have invested very well.

I like the chairs and big lamps in this room.

I didn't know that Mrs. Buddy Hacket was a winning contestant of a 1972 showcase on "The Price Is Right" which included that lovely home and all of its furnishings.

@r58, "Tortilla Flats? "

Hey, those houses in Tortilla Flats are going for close to a million bucks these days

It takes some effort to make a house that big look cluttered. Fortunately most people will never see the inside, given how much it looks like a suburban Arizona funeral home from the outside.

What R61 said. If he built this in 1952 he must have been doing pretty well for himself.

R47 CA has been in a drought for years. It may be illegal to water the lawn.

Corner lots have really bad Feng Shui.

"HBO aired one of his Vegas shows and every other word was fuck or shit/piss or cunt and the blue hairs and the pinky rings in the audience screamed with laughter."

He sounded like he was right in tune with contemporary comedy. On some comedy special I heard Eddie Murphy utter the word "fuck" maybe a thousand times. Andrew Dice Clay was once the hottest comedian around with his obscene nursery rhymes: "Hickory dickory dock, some girl was sucking my cock." It was considered to be funny.

Hackett was less in tune with contemporary comedy and more one of the comics ready to do blue material for appropriate audiences in the manner popular from the 1950s on. Not that he wouldn't fit in. But his style was more old Brooklyn and Catskills, and one of his breakout bits was doing a chop-chop Engrish-butchering Chinese waiter while he wore a rubber band on his head to pull his eyes up.

The house is a perfect representation of the era, taste and sensibility of someone who made it.

And, of course, the specific location is hideous, as is the property itself for a contemporary person with $18 million to spend on a lot, prior to the expense of a teardown and new construction. I assume the area is limited to a single family.

Call me what you want - Eldergay, Mary!, but wasn't Charles Nelson Reilly always kidding Bret Somers about living in the poor part of Beverly Hills on Matchgame?

Where is this classy building?

I live in the poor side of my upscale city near DTLA. I bought my house in 2000 for 300.,000 and now it's worth 1.7 mil. Crazy.

"When I think of Buddy Hackett, somehow my mind doesn't conjure up visions of elegant architecture and refined good taste. "

Here's an example of Buddy Hackett's "taste." It's from Sheila MacRae's hilariously trashy memoir "Hollywood Mother of the Year." She was the wife of "God's Golden Singer" Gordon MacRae, who became a hopeless drunk. Their dear friend Buddy Hackett "giddily announced that he was going to throw a grand party for us at his splendid, spacious home in Fort Lee, New Jersey." She gushes on "The biggest names in show business were on the guest list, friends of ours, new and old, steadfast believers in the myth that Gordon and Sheila MacRae would go on forever (they were considered a true blue forever in love Hollywood couple).

She described the party: "The food was lavish. Cakes had been prepared with touching and funny decorations. One had the words of a song we did in our act: "Who do you love, I hope?" Another had a heart with a cupid's arrow and the words "Gordon and Sheila." There were many hearts and flowers and red Valentine motifs. A large tent had been set up in the yard. An orchestra was hired for a show Buddy had written just for us with jokes and skits and a medley of the songs from our act and the musicals we'd toured the country in."

But as it turned out "Gordon got drunk and refused to attend."

Well, if somebody had thrown ME such a tacky, icky party I would have gotten drunk and run away too. At any rate, Buddy went looking for Gordon but couldn't find him, so Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme ended up doing all the Gordon and Sheila skits and medleys. It all sounded like something out of a Christopher Guest movie about the absurdity of Hollywood.

[quote]Their dear friend Buddy Hackett "giddily announced that he was going to throw a grand party for us at his splendid, spacious home in Fort Lee, New Jersey."

And WHY was I not invited?

Because! R82. You make me sick!!!

Some of the wooden elements in the dining room are interesting, but this place is basically the "Yeah, whatever" version of MCM.

[quote] I, honestly, can't remember anything he was in or had done.

After you've seen this once, you'll never, ever, ever be able to say that ever again.

I like the Golden Corral buffet in the Buddy Hackett picture room.

Wow, "Hollywood Squares" must have paid him good!

How do you get to larger photos? The slideshow pictures are too small to really get a good look at the property.

You can still see the elephant on Google Street View but I'm not sure I saw it in any of the listing photos.

The elephant is right in the center of the 9th pic on Redfin. It's so much smaller than I expected it to be, it's difficult to see it.

This is the section 8 (HUD) building in Beverly Hills, located at 225 N. Crescent. They have their own Whole Foods on the ground floor. Too bad most of the residents of the building can't afford to shop there.

Thanks, R91!

He was in the Muscle Beach Party movie in the '60s.

R91 - can you score good drugs there?

I would not tear it down. I would remodel. Keep the house horizontal. Not some vertical monstrous building.

Thanks r81, I grabbed a copy of that book based on what you quoted, it sounds like a hoot.

[quote]s that netting around the roof not to catch falling tiles?

Wayward golf balls from course across the street

[quote]Looks like Buddy did well for himself considering he really didn't have much of a career in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. He also owned a beach house in Malibu.

Buddy Hackett was an A list highly paid comedian who was a staple in Vegas and theaters all over the world until very late in life.

It's owned by Sherry Hackett and Hackett Trust.

I always heard of Buddy Hackett but the only thing I remember for is "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." He was funny in that.

I would assume the netting around the edge of the roof is to prevent birds from nesting. This price needs to be reduced.

I'd knock it down, and against the lot line shared with the neighbor build a traditional house, with the architectural front of the house facing the yard, and a pool in said front yard. Like below. Fuck the tennis court, that's too much wasted space.

But why pay $18 million dollars for a chore? Buy a flat square and build something fabulous.

From the outside it looks like a large, grotesque turtle died and the Hacketts took residence.

For the sake of humanity, burn it down and bury the ashes deep in the Amazon Jungle where they will never be seen by human eyes again!

[quote]I will say this — it looks like the real home of a real person, not something designed to impress or look good in a magazine.

[quote]Not to my taste at all, but the home of a well off person of my parents generation who liked what they liked and enjoyed all the clutter because it was their stuff. That’s what a home should be.

It looks like the home of a rich but down-to-earth relative or family friend you might have visited as a kid in the late '60s or early '70s—someone who had questionable taste but who loved having you over and didn't worry that you'd jump on the furniture or break something.

I'll be interested to see what they get for this. Its such a shit lot. And the golf balls.

Thank you so much R103 -- you made my night! Who says DL is only a den of vipers.

It's not a Pizza Hut, it's a motel.

Pizza Hut is too classy for this joint. This is a former McDonalds. There's even a drive-thru.

[quote]I always heard of Buddy Hackett but the only thing I remember for is "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." He was funny in that.

You've always heard of Buddy Hackett but if you saw "The Little Mermaid" you actually heard Buddy Hackett. He was Scuttle the Sea Gull.

OT, but:

[quote]She described the party: "The food was lavish. Cakes had been prepared with touching and funny decorations. One had the words of a song we did in our act: "Who do you love, I hope?"

Ha. We were just discussing that song a couple of days ago in the theater thread. It was used in the original Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun but wasn't used in the film and is usually cut in revivals. It's such an obscure little song, how odd to see it mentioned here in two different threads within days of each other.

I chuckled pretty hard at R19.

And he and his wife were married a long time

I've run by that house a million times over the years. Man is that interior horrific.

Wutta DUMP!

No gates?

Gates? To protect what?

Who's trying to get in?

In??!!