This $32 Million Los Angeles Mansion Is a Throwback to Hollywood’s Golden Age

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The first time 1920s film star Madge Bellamy saw The Cedars, a mansion in Los Angeles, she was too awed to speak. The gardens reminded her of Versailles, the actress wrote in her autobiography, and each bedroom had its own marble fireplace. The primary bathroom had a red Venetian-glass window, which “lit the white marble like a brilliant flame” at sunset, she wrote. “I made one remark: ‘I’ll never be able to furnish it.’”

The Cedars, still with the red Venetian-glass window, is coming on the market about a century later for $32 million.

Named for the cedar trees that once surrounded it, the roughly 10,000-square-foot house in Los Feliz has 26 rooms, a grand ballroom and an opulent style that harks back to the Golden Age of Hollywood. The current owner, fashion designer Sue Wong, called the house “the ultimate, iconic goddess of Hollywood,” adding: “She has this mystique and allure about her.”

Included in the deal is a guesthouse and an adjacent lot with a house where Wong’s late mother lived. Altogether, the compound sits on about half an acre with 10 bedrooms and a pool, according to listing agent Christophe Choo of Coldwell Banker Realty.

The Cedars was originally built in the 1920s for French film director Maurice Tourneur, Wong said. Tourneur, who worked for MGM and had directed Bellamy in the film “Lorna Doone,” had planned to live there himself, but ended up returning to France before he could move in, the actress wrote in her book. A number of gold lion sculptures around the house are a nod to MGM, according to Wong.

Tourneur later sold the house to the Hellman banking family, who sold it to Bellamy. When she bought the house, Bellamy wrote, “I felt like a little dog that had just been handed a gold-plated bone.”

The property has had several owners since Bellamy, who died in 1990. Wong, who purchased the house for $5.3 million in 2004, said she loves the home’s connection to Old Hollywood. “When the Cedars was conceived, there was a different lifestyle,” said Wong, who is in her 70s and known for designing vintage-inspired gowns. “People got dressed for dinner. The men wore beautiful tuxedos.”

A mishmash of architectural styles, the house has gold-leaf detailing, gilded columns and hand-painted frescoes. The ballroom is 48 feet long with beamed ceilings, and one of the bedrooms has a Moroccan theme.

After purchasing the property, Wong said, she spent two years and millions of dollars restoring it, removing grime and dirt from the artwork and architectural flourishes,

“The house was in a semi state of disrepair,” she said, recalling that the golf leaf had turned black from oxidation.

To furnish the home, she traveled the world in search of antiques, furniture and upholstery to match the property’s style. For an additional $1 million, the furnishings can be purchased along with the house, Wong said.

Wong said she is selling the property because she wants to simplify her life; she owns other homes in L.A., Malibu and on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

The Los Feliz area has long been popular with celebrities, musicians and writers, thanks to its location close to the film studios in Hollywood and Burbank, Choo said.

“It’s a very eclectic area,” he said. “Not flashy like Beverly Hills, but it has a lot of great architecture.”

Homes built in the 1920s are common in the area, he said, though it is rare to find a home as opulent as The Cedars. While buyers in other L.A. areas often want sleek, modern homes, buyers tend to be drawn to neighborhoods like Los Feliz for more historic houses, he said.

But sellers of older homes don’t always get top dollar. A Tudor-style 1920s home in Los Feliz recently sold for $7.33 million, well shy of its original $26 million asking price, for instance.

L.A. luxury sales slowed significantly last year thanks to the introduction of a new tax on luxury home sales, but Choo said he sees the market starting to pick up.

Write to Katherine Clarke at [email protected]