Falcon Lair is an estate above

Benedict Canyon Benedict Canyon is an area in the Los Angeles Westside, Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. To the north of the Benedict Canyon neighborhood is the neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, to the west is the neighbor ...

Bel Air, Los Angeles Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Founded in 1923, it is the home of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and the American Jewish Universit ...

. The estate was built in 1925 by

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

, who named it ''Falcon Lair'' after his unproduced film, ''The Hooded Falcon''. It is better known as a residence of heiress

Doris Duke Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, Horticulture, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealt ...

Valentino bought the four-acre estate in 1925 for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

175,000 () and named it "Falcon Lair". He filled the house with antiques and memorabilia from his travels. Shortly after the purchase, he and

Natacha Rambova Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy; January 19, 1897 – June 5, 1966) was an American film costume designer, set designer, and occasional actress who was active in Hollywood in the 1920s. In her later life, she abandoned design ...

divorced. Valentino retained ''Falcon Lair'', hosted parties, and kept horses in his stable. After his death in 1926, it was auctioned off to settle his debts. After several owners, Doris Duke acquired the estate in the early 1950s to be with her companion, jazz musician

Joe Castro Joseph Armand Castro (August 15, 1927 – December 13, 2009) was an American bebop jazz pianist, based primarily on the West Coast of the United States. Biography Castro was born in Miami, Arizona on August 15, 1927. Castro began playing professi ...

, and to mingle with the Hollywood crowd. ''Falcon Lair'' became a venue for jazz concerts. Duke befriended

Sharon Tate Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover ...

, her neighbor at Benedict Canyon. Eventually, she settled on a pattern where she would rotate her residence during the year, staying at

Duke Farms Duke Farms is an estate that was established by James Buchanan Duke, an American entrepreneur who founded Duke Power and the American Tobacco Company. Located in Hillsborough, New Jersey, the property is managed by the Doris Duke Foundation afte ...

and

Rough Point Rough Point is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a museum. It is an English Manorial style home designed by architectural firm Peabody & Stearns for Frederick William Vanderbilt. Construction o ...

during the summer, flying to ''Falcon Lair'' on her birthday, November 22 and spending the winter months at

Shangri La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gen ...

in Hawaii. In 1993, after hip surgery, knee surgery, and a stroke, Doris Duke was kept in isolation—in a virtual "prison"—at ''Falcon Lair'' until her death. Thereafter,

Bernard Lafferty Bernard Lafferty (14 April 1945 – 4 November 1996) was an Irish butler and heir to American tobacco heiress and philanthropist, Doris Duke. Duke hired Lafferty in 1987 and named him the executor of her $1.2 billion estate six months prior to h ...

, Duke's butler and initial executor of her will, renovated the bedroom for his own use. ''Falcon Lair'' was sold by the Duke estate in 1998. A renovation project started in 2003 but was not completed; the property was offered for sale in 2006. The historic main building of the estate was bulldozed in 2006. In April 2009, the property was on the market for $7.95 million. Remaining at the property are the former stable building and three-bay garage, converted by Duke into a three-bedroom guesthouse and pool pavilion. In 2019 this house on 1.3 acres was listed for sale at $4.95 million. The additional 4-acres of the original estate has been approved for a 30,000-square-foot-plus house and was listed for sale in 2018 at $29.5 million. Rudolph Valentino 10

Recordings

*1956: ''

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

with The

Trio Live at Falcon Lair'' (

Pablo Records Pablo Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Norman Granz in 1973, more than a decade after he had sold his earlier catalog (including Verve Records) to MGM Records. Pablo initially featured recordings by acts that Granz managed: ...

) *1959: ''

Teddy Edwards Theodore Marcus Edwards (April 26, 1924 – April 20, 2003) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Biography Edwards was born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. He learned to play at a very early age, first on alto saxophone and then ...

at Falcon's Lair with

'' – split LP with

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a ...

' ''At Music Inn'' (

MetroJazz Records MetroJazz was an American jazz record label founded in 1958 as a division of MGM Records. These records were produced by Leonard Feather and included Pepper Adams, Red Callender, Teddy Edwards, Thad Jones, Jimmy Knepper, Sonny Rollins, Randy Weston ...

)

References

Citations Bibliography * {{cite book , first=Pony , last=Duke , title=Too Rich. The Family Secrets of Doris Duke , publisher=HarperCollins , date=1996 , isbn=0-06-017218-5 , url-access=registration , url=https://archive.org/details/toorichfamilysec00duke

External links

Virtual Globetrotting
Duke family residences Culture of Hollywood, Los Angeles Houses completed in 1925 Houses in Beverly Hills, California Wallace Neff buildings Buildings and structures demolished in 2006