Production teams are notorious for employing various methods to “cheat” locations when creating their fictional onscreen worlds. The most common trickery involves meshing together several different places to portray a single locale. Such was the case with the mansion where screen legend Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) lived and terrorized her adopted daughter Christina (played by both Mara Hobel and Diana Scarwid) in the 1981 camp classic “Mommie Dearest,” which was based upon Christina’s infamous 1978 memoir of the same name. And now one of those properties has hit the market!
Located at 417 Amapola Ln. in tony Lower Bel Air, the pad is being offered by Richard Klug of Sotheby’s International Realty for $19,800,000. That’s $3,258 per square foot, a good $2,200 above the median price per square foot for the area, per Realtor.com! But the estate is nothing if not one-of-a-kind!
Though the listing states that this marks the first time the five-bedroom, seven-bath home has been on the market since it was originally constructed in 1942, Realtor.com shows it was sold in August 1981 for $2.6 million. Either way, it’s a historic offering!
The legendary 6,077-square-foot property was designed by Paul Revere Williams, one of Southern California’s most prolific and sought-after architects, who earned the nickname “Architect to the Stars” thanks to the many celebrities who commissioned homes from him. Built in Williams’ typical Colonial Revival style, the exterior, with its protracted circular driveway, columned façade and manicured lawn, is picturesque, if not somewhat traditional. But the interior is anything but!
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty The towering double front doors lead to a two-story entry loaded with marble statuaries, foo dogs and a curved staircase lined with National-Portrait-Gallery-like paintings. While grand and ornate, the space is actually one of the home’s more understated rooms.
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty The rest of the residence is bustling with eclectic décor, patterned furnishings and large-scale artwork. There’s even a bit of taxidermy thrown into the mix.
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty The dizzying aesthetic is interesting, to say the least.
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty Fortunately, the property is more than spacious enough to house the overabundance of eccentric accoutrements. The grand entry opens to several sprawling living areas including a formal dining room, two dens (each with its own fireplace) and a family room with a floor-to-ceiling bar.
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty The cavernous kitchen, which the listing describes as “updated,” features a central island, a bar countertop, plenty of cabinet space and, in an unexpected twist, a multitude of office chairs.
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty Rounding out the lower level is a canopied solarium with plush white furnishings and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass overlooking the bucolic yard.
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty Peculiarly, MLS photos of the second story are virtually nil, but what is shown appears to be just as busy as the rest of the house. With no imagery of the bedrooms or closets provided, though, whether or not wire hangers are utilized on the premises remains, sadly, unclear.
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty Pictures of the home’s massive-by-L.A.-standards 1.48-acre lot are sparse, as well. But according to the listing, the property boasts a tennis court, a pool, a spa, a six-car garage and a detached guest house. The dwelling also comes with quite a filming history!
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty Three different locations were used to portray Joan Crawford’s opulent manse in “Mommie Dearest.” 417 Amapola is the most recognizable of the bunch as it appeared in front exterior shots of the actress’ luxe digs. All backyard and pool scenes, though, were lensed about a mile away at a different Colonial formerly located at 355 S. Mapleton Dr. in Westwood, which has since been razed.
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures Interior filming took place on a massive $480,000 set created by production designer Bill Malley and set decorator Richard C. Goddard on a soundstage at Paramount Studios. The set did not resemble the inside of 417 Amapola or Crawford’s actual former estate in the slightest. Instead producer Frank Yablans decided to take a more fantastical approach. As he told Roger Ebert, “What I’m after is a Photoplay image. I want to give the audience what they perceive to be the scale of Joan’s life. That’s more important than the reality. Audiences imagine that stars live in rooms the size of movie sets, of movie ballrooms. Nobody lives like that anymore. But that was the Crawford image, in a cross between Art Moderne and Art Deco, with everything compulsively perfect.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures Yablans succeeded in his goal. Of the grand spaces, Ebert said, “They’re the most opulent, fantastically lavish sets Crawford could ever have dreamed of inhabiting in real life or in the movies.”
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Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty “Mommie Dearest” is hardly the residence’s only onscreen role, though it long had an erroneous credit listed on its vast resume. For years, Hollywood tour companies and Los Angeles guide books misidentified 417 Amapola as being the Banks mansion from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” (That locale can actually be found at 251 N. Bristol Ave. in Brentwood.) So rampant was the misinformation that the property is far more famous amongst location aficionados for not being the Banks residence than it is for anything it has actually appeared in, despite having many claims to fame.
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Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The estate’s film history dates back to 1958 when its longtime owners Rulon and Lela Free leased it out (with all revenue generated donated to charity) to director Andrew L. Stone for the filming of “Cry Terror!” The interior of the pad was used extensively in the thriller as the home where Jim Molner (James Mason) and his family were held captive by a group of criminals.
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Image Credit: NBCUniversal Television The mansion has appeared twice on “The Rockford Files.” It first popped up in season one’s “Profit and Loss, Part 2: Loss” as the residence of corrupt businessman Leon Fielder (Ned Beatty).
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Image Credit: NBCUniversal Television The following season, it played the estate of murderous fashion tycoon Bob Coleman (Robert Webber) in the episode titled “The Deep Blue Sleep.”
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Image Credit: Embassy Pictures Walter Whitney (George Segal) and his wife, Vivian (Susan Saint James), lived there in the 1981 comedy “Carbon Copy.”
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Image Credit: NBC 417 Amapola played the home of Justin (Gary Hershberger) in the 1986 made-for-television movie “Beverly Hills Madam” (which also, coincidentally, starred Faye Dunaway).
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Image Credit: Genesis Entertainment Mercurial actress Linda Blackwell (Anne-Marie Martin) lived there in the season two episode of “Highway to Heaven” titled “Change of Life.”
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Image Credit: CBS Media Ventures Los Angeles newbies Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) attend a “Back to School Jam” at the mansion in the pilot episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
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Image Credit: CBS Media Ventures The popular series also re-used the estate several years later in establishing shots of the Gulf Court Hotel, the supposed New Orleans lodging where Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and David Silver (Brian Austin Green) spent the night in season seven’s “All that Jazz.”
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Joan Crawford’s mansion from “Mommie Dearest” is located at 417 Amapola Ln. in Bel Air. Disclaimer: Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.