12/17/2023 0 Comments Houdini mansion la![]() ![]() That house, which is owned by music producer Rick Rubin, sits a block north of the Walker property on Laurel Canyon Blvd. ![]() Just to complicate matters, in 1991 the band The Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded their album Blood Sugar Sex Magik in what they believed to be Houdini's home. There are currently foundation ruins on the hillside (also said to be haunted) which someone has tagged "2435", but Patrick assures me those ruins are for a different house. Even I trudged through the ruins with my sister and father in the mid 1970s, excited to carry away a brick from "the Houdini mansion." Of course, many claimed it was haunted by the ghost of Houdini (as well as the Green Virgin), and to this day it still gets written up in publications about "Haunted Hollywood".ĭoing my best "Houdini" at the Walker ruins circa 1976.īut what happened to the remains of the real Houdini house across the street? According to Patrick, whatever remained of 2435 was completely demolished in the 1960s when the hillside was graded back to widen Laurel Canyon Blvd at what had been a nasty hairpin turn. ![]() The property drew magic pilgrims from around the world. The overgrown ruins were visible from the heavily trafficked Laurel Canyon Blvd, and the legend of it being Houdini's house only grew, especially when it was identified as such in the 1972 guide book, This Is Hollywood, by Kenneth Schessler. (For a taste of this time, read Escape from Houdini Mountain by Pleasant Gehman.) All that remained was a smaller carriage house and the sprawling paths, stairways, and stone archways, which for the next few decades became home to hippies and homeless, including a man known as "Robin Hood" who believed Laurel Canyon was Sherwood Forrest and would shoot arrows at trespassers. A petition to preserve the remains of the burnt-out house as a historical landmark was denied and the house was finally demolished in 1970. The clip below is a news report on that famous fire.įollowing the fire, the Walker property was abandoned. Newspapers at the time reported that "the old Houdini mansion" was among the homes destroyed. Following Jeffers came an eccentric poetess, Lee Alden, who was known as "The Green Virgin." After Charles Wilson's death in 1954, Fania Pearson bought the property with the intention of turning it into a girls school.īut then in 1959, the Walker mansion and the guesthouse at 2435, which was then owned by a man named Al Sulprizio, both fell victim to the great Laurel Canyon fire. The property went through a series of renters, including evangelist Joe Jeffers, who turned the mansion into the Temple of Yahweh and required donations of up to $100,000 to live on the property. ![]() The "Houdini mansion."īess and Edward Saint left 2435 Laurel Canyon when Walker either died or sold the estate in 1935 to a real estate broker named Charles Wilson. One can understand how local magicians who attended these events came to assume that the house belonged to Bess and, by extension, Houdini. It has been said that the guesthouse even had an elevator that went down to a tunnel that ran below Laurel Canyon and came up in the big house grounds (the tunnel is sealed but still exists). When Bess would throw parties or hold seances, etc., she would do so at the Walker mansion across the street. This is probably when the legend of the "Houdini mansion" took root. That house is now long gone, but here the great Patrick Culliton, author of Houdini The Key and lifelong Laurel Canyon resident, shows us exactly where the Houdini house once stood. and when the magician came to California in 1919 to film his two features for Famous Players-Lasky, The Grim Game and Terror Island, he and Bess are said to have stayed at Walker's guesthouse at 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd. Walker and Houdini were friends - Houdini might have even invested in Walker's Laurel Canyon Land Co. He also built a four-bedroom guest house across the street at 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd, and this is where Houdini comes in. The house was three stories with 11 bedrooms, nine baths, a ballroom, a 15-foot stage for musicians, and a ballet room big enough for 10 dancers. Walker, who in 1915 built a Mediterranean-style villa at what was then 2398 Laurel Canyon Blvd (the address became 2400 later). The truth is the property at 2400 Laurel Canyon Blvd was never owned by Houdini. Some identify a larger house up the street as the real "Houdini mansion." So I thought I'd use this blog to clear up the mystery and history of the Houdini house.as much as I can. Some say "he never set foot" on the property. There is some confusion about this property and whether or not Houdini ever lived here. Last month Patrick Culliton and I had the great pleasure of touring the "Houdini Estate" in Laurel Canyon, CA, with the current owner, José Luis Nazar. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |