Facebook
X
Pinterest
Copy Link
As the story goes, Jean Harlow was working as a $15-per-day film extra when the eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes cast her as the lead in the sound update of his silent WWI epic Hell’s Angels, where she uttered the memorable phrase, “Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?” That exposure, and a talented press agent who labeled her the “Platinum Blonde,” began a seven-year career that earned her as much as $4,000 a week. Other roles soon followed, including turns in The Public Enemy, Red Dust, Iron Man, The Secret Six, Hold Your Man, Bombshell, and Dinner at Eight.
Unfortunately, she met an untimely death in 1937. Before that, however, the legendary actress—and, arguably, one of the greatest sex symbols of all time—spent her final days at a stately red-brick manor in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. There, she whiled away her final days amid lavish interiors sporting a hidden Prohibition-era bar, a mink-enhanced bed, and ermine-covered toilet seats; it’s even been reported that she took a dip in the property’s pool every morning.
Designed and built for the star by architect C.B. Clyne in 1932, the estate was last sold in the late 1970s for around $1.1 million to Herman and Marsha Jacobs, who undertook several additions while preserving many of Harlow’s custom touches. Per The Wall Street Journal, the three adult children of the couple, who have since passed away, have now decided to sell the Colonial Revival home, putting it on the market for $16.8 million. David Kramer and Dan Babic of Compass share the listing.
Set beyond gates on a magnolia tree-laced parcel spanning 1.3 acres, the celeb-pedigreed residence offers four bedrooms and seven bathrooms in roughly 7,300 square feet across two levels adorned with boiserie paneling, detailed crown moldings, and marble fireplaces. Standing out is a library with an arched bookcase that opens to reveal a wooden Prohibition-era bar on which visitors have etched their names over the years.
