Thursday, September 6, 2007

The $165,000,000 Mega-Estate of Leonard Ross (Part 4)

No rest for the weary kids. Your Mama is running out the door, but before we head out we wanted to get the hungry children a few more morsels of the Beverly Hills estate that financier Leonard Ross has on the market with the ear piercing asking price of $165,000,000. We have previously discussed the property here, here, and here.

At the top left we see the baronial sized library, with a soaring ceiling and a hand carved gallery circling the room that is lined with books. Presumably these books are first editions that are meant only to be viewed while on the shelf and certainly are not to be cracked open and actually read. The big desk with the red leather top leads us to believe this is the room Mister Ross wheels, deals, receives business cronies, and counts his money.

The billiard room, top right, is the parquet floored billiard room with the elaborate pool table and the elaborately high carved wood ceiling. While Your Mama is quite certain that most of the items in this room cost as much as a Mercedes, it still manages to like the rec room of a frat house.

At the bottom we have the in-house disco, which looks almost exactly like a nightclub Your Mama used to frequent in East Germany in the early 1980s. Your Mama finds it puzzling and perplexing that people with excessively large homes and bottomless bank accounts feel the need to install full scale discotheques in their homes, let alone one with a vaguely art deco theme, cheap black leather sectional sofas and a tacky mirrored ceiling. The only thing that is missing from this photo is a row of uniformed staff with trays full of white powder and $100 bills that have been rolled into a straws. We're not saying anything nefarious and illegal happens here with a white powdered substance, only that it looks like it should.

Enjoy!

35 comments:

. said...

I'm going to risk catcalls here, but I could live in that library. I think it's so fine. At first glance I thought the disco room was the boiler room. That library should not be in the same building as the disco.

Anonymous said...

The library and billiard room are certainly not my taste, but very elegant and old school, and what I'd expect to see in such a mansion.

I also thought the "disco room" was some kind of utility room at first.

BLECH!!!!! What a horror. I can't believe anyone anywhere would have such a monstrosity in their home!! The mirrored ceilings!!! ACK!!

so_chic_darling said...

I said in other comments on previous postings about this unfortunate and expensive mess that it's best use would be to blow it up for a scene in a Charlie's Angeles movie.Well now we have the perfect scene,just before the explosion all the Angels would be dancing in the disco with the evil owner of the house.As the house blows up the Angels burst through the windows and escape onto the lawn,pan to a long shot of the whole pile going up.dramatic music,.THE END.

so_chic_darling said...

As the credits roll Lucy Lui gets up and brushes the grass from her Versace cat suit,High fives the other gurls and they sashay across the lawn,with the mansion burning in the background,and get into Charlie's waiting limo.Nice work girls,he says.

Anonymous said...

So Chic:

YESSSSSSSSS!! I agree that the disco room pretty much clinches your "Charlie's Angel" scenario! Perfect.

. said...

And then the camera pans back and lo, the library survives. ;)

Miss Scarlett said...

There's hope for this house in the Library and even in the billard room. But Jesus Christ Almighty, WTF is that hideous room known as the disco?

Ross should PAY someone $65 million to redecorate this house and restore it to the glory of what it could be. ANd he should be thrown in jail for crimes against humanity. . . .and decorating.

Anonymous said...

Could I play the part of the person who plants the explosives,in a black Versace cat suit?Please.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you about the library aunt mary. Fill with some readable books, grab some wine from the wine room and it would be a great way to spend a Sunday.

Note to so chic: Please do NOT demolish until Monday.

Anonymous said...

caveman said:
i'd have my gay decorater hustle that pool table into the library & get some use out of that dusty old room. plus the girls would be impressed with all the books i've read & would be extra forthcoming i'm sure.

. said...

Caveman, there's nothing that will turn a girl's head like a dusty book. I like your idea of moving the billiard table into the library. There's plenty room. However, you will not be allowed to bring your wide screen tv in here.

Anonymous said...

I could live in that library as well--replace the fancy books with books that appear to have been read, eliminate the leather.

The billiard room is dreary. I would love to paint it a special shade of yellow, or light orange, which would be nice with the floor and ceiling. Change the upholstery.

The disco should be stripped.

Anonymous said...

That house is going to require so much work. The disco room is unbelievable, so much ugliness.

Anonymous said...

More money, less taste.

The library has a 'My Fair Lady' vibe going for it, except bigger and bolder and with books that look less used than the ones on a movie set.

Anonymous said...

Who had the bright idea to hang a projector in a room with a facetted mirrored ceiling? The visual and auditory reflections must be seizure-inducing. I wonder if this room was originally a bowling alley-- the proportions seem right.

At least the library has reading lamps, a feature that the decorator of Fleur de Lis omitted. Look, there's our friend the giant urn in the doorway.

so_chic_darling said...

Ah yes the urn,pity it had to be destroyed in the explosion!

Anonymous said...

Aside from some nice woodwork here and there, that disco -- with a hilarious WTF factor usually achieved only by Saudi princes -- is the sole point of interest in this house so far.

Unknown said...

A 165 mill home that should really should be lsted as a "fixer" :-)

Seems the new owner needs to take into account spending another 25+ mill to renovate the place.

Renovating with a bulldozer most likely

Anonymous said...

INTERIOR DAY: The Beverly Hills mansion of aristocrat L.Ross & Show girl non plus Mame Dennis. We see a tired room straight out of The Big Valley. PATRICK DENNIS is standing in front of the book cases, his shirt uncharacteristically untucked, reading an old issue of DUDE MAGAZINE that was previously tucked inside a signed edition of East of Eden. GLORIA UPSON enters, twirls around as only she would, and exclaims
GLORIA
Why Patrick, ya big meanie... you didn't tell me you could read! You know, books can be awfully decorative. Patrick! (staring at his now obvious bulge).

CUT TO: MAME'S DISCO ROOM.
We see MAME joined by NORA MULDOON, seated at what appears to be a chrome bar in a totally mirrored room. THE GOOCH is pouring yet another triple olive Martini.

THE GOOCH

How do you suppose they got this room to spin like this?

PATRICK (entering)
Its all smoke and mirrors. Speaking of mirrors, what sort of decorator would use this much glitz and glamour in your home Auntie Mame?

MAME

That would be a Mr. Yule Ullew. A vertible master of centrifugal tour de force.

so_chic_darling said...

hippie Canyon........I love you!

so_chic_darling said...

with Aunt Mary as Mame!

Author said...

This house is gaudy and embarassing. It's just a symbol of people with too much $ trying to find a way to impress other rich people. Sometimes less is a whole lot more.

. said...

If Hippie Canyon would consider me for the part, I have just the chemise and platinum finger wave wig. And I do want to be back lit by one of those charming reading lamps. And of course I insist on the Doris Day Vaseline coated lens.

Anonymous said...

What a very, very sad house. It is complete lifeless, dessicated. Nothing but $$$. Gross.

Anonymous said...

that disco reminds me of a Marriott in Baltimore i stayed in before i met the wife!

bellboys a plenty!!

Anonymous said...

John @ 11:44

Bulldoze the house? Not necessary, this house has significance unlike many high dollar Persian Palaces in BH. But this house needs to be reduced by about half of it's price. It is an incredible estate and opportunity, but suffers from FUGLY interior design syndrome, which it shouldn't and has the ability to not do so.

For the record, after seeing these interior photos, I'd rather have the Warner/Geffen house that Mama mentioned a few days back!

But really, I'd rather just buy a Lautner like the one for sale on Hedges Place and save myself about $158 million! Or cough up enough money to talk Kelly Lynch and Mitch Glazer out of their Lautner (who knows how much that thing would cost?!?) Now that's a house!

Anonymous said...

La bêtise a deux manières d'être: elle se tait ou elle parle. La bêtise muette est supportable.

. said...

Using Babel Fish translation this is what I get:

"The silly thing has two manners of being: it is keep silent or it speaks. The dumb silly thing is bearable."

I think nuances were lost in translation.

Anonymous said...

Babel Fish! You get what you pay for..

I think it's an old quotation but can't recall just how it goes or who said it.

. said...

How about this: "If one must suffer fools, a silent fool is more tolerable." I'll just shut up now. ;)

Anonymous said...

I think subtlety was lost in translation. WTF

so_chic_darling said...

The French know a thing or two about style,even if we don't quite get the quote.I'm sure in France it's witty and important.Anyway my point is that you just can't purchase alot of French furniture and put it in a pile like fleur de lys or any of the big messes.Same goes for Tuscany too,even if you spent millions,it will never look right.Just over the top and trying too hard.

Dr. Correcto said...

I'm sure I'll get slammed for this but the house really doesn't bother me.

It reminds me of the Playboy Mansion. Both are relics of another era... of discos, white powder, free love, young aspiring starlets, and the powerful gentlemen able to afford them.

My guess is Ross will find a buyer for the main house at a much lower price, the other houses will be returned to being separate properties or leased (at least one is currently being marketed as a rental).

Anonymous said...

Mr Ross may be cheap but he knows how to have a good time!

Anonymous said...

I'd like to set fire to this dump