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The Mayan Revival home was designed by master architect Lloyd Wright for Hollywood manager Louis Samuel and his wife in 1928.
The four-level residence was integrated into the surrounding hillside and distinguished by its smooth concrete surfaces, oxidized copper accents, and horizontal bands of windows.
Samuel, business manager and personal assistant to silent film star and Ben Hier actor Ramon Novarro, first met Wright through the actor. In 1930, Novarro learned that Samuel had been embezzling money from him, much of which had been lost when the stock market crashed the previous year. Furthermore, Samuel had been using Novarro’s earnings to pay the mortgage on his Wright-designed home.
Not wanting to draw attention to his personal life (he identified as bi sexual), Novarro assumed ownership of the property as a result of a discreet settlement in 1931.
He then commissioned Wright to expand the garden and the interiors, including the addition of a music room, a bedroom suite, and outdoor pergola.Novarro also called on legendary art director Cedric Gibbons to design the Art Deco interiors.
Novarro lived in the home until the late 1930s and since then it has been the residence of numerous Hollywood heavyweights including Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins, who rented it together while working on On the Town, as well as, at various times, actors Diane Keaton and Christina Ricci.
The property is designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument.
