1436 Bella Drive

About this home

"Falcon Lair," the legendary nearly four-acre property tucked away on a quiet cul-de-sac in Beverly Hills with panoramic views. Once the playfield of the silent-screen's ultimate heartthrob Rudolph Valentino, then the refuge of billionaire heiress, Doris Duke, with a penchant for art and scandal, this property is the rare historical layering that makes Los Angeles mythology tangible. Here, Valentino galloped his stallions into the golden hour of the 1920s; later Doris Duke summoned jazz greats and poured champagne in velvet-lined salons. The estate is not just another property, it's a stage on which America's fantasy of excess and aspiration unfolded. Valentino purchased the estate in 1925, naming it "Falcon Lair" after the never-made film The Hooded Falcon. Within its walls Valentino filled the home with imported antiques, exotic furnishings and a stable for his Arabian horses, living up to his "Latin Lover" screen persona in real life. In the 1950s, tobacco heiress and cultural icon, Doris Duke, acquired the property, transforming it into a playground for jazz, art, and private luxury while retaining the mystery and grandeur of its past. The property is currently occupied by a caretaker's cottage, two-car garage, much of the original landscaping, including Italian cypress trees and gardens, as well as the original crests, pillars and gates. It is being sold along with plans for a 17,000 square-foot-home designed by Appleton Partners LLP - Architects, with interior design by Mark D. Sikes.