H’wood history: deal for one-time home of Lana Turner

21k sf property under contract, last asked $46.5 million.

Hollywood history deluxe: one-time home of Lana Turner finds buyer
1426 Summitridge Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 with Lana Turner and Artie Shaw (Zillow, Wikimedia Commons)

A Beverly Hills mansion built on the site of a former home of actress Lana Turner and big bandleader Artie Shaw has found a buyer.

The 21,046-square-foot property at 1426 Summitridge Drive had an asking price of $46.5 million before going into contract, according to Zillow. It was first listed in September of last year.

Shaw, a jazz clarinetist and bandleader, bought the property in 1939, according to a previous report from The Wall Street Journal. He and Turner briefly lived in the hilltop house in 1940 after eloping on their first date. They were married and divorced during that year.

Turner was a popular and Oscar-nominated actress whose daughter fatally stabbed hoodlum Johnny Stompanato dead in 1958. Stompanato was Turner’s paramour at the time, and the case remains one of the most sensational incidents in Hollywood history. The killing was determined to be a justifiable homicide based on Stompanato’s abuse of Turner–witnessed by her daughter–at the time of the stabbing.

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The property also has links to jazz history, courtesy of Shaw. It was where the song “Summit Ridge Drive” was written and rehearsed. Shaw wrote the song for the Gramercy Five, a small ensemble within his big band.

The home is currently owned by financier and movie producer Henry Winterstern. He bought the property for $2.9 million in 2012 and then demolished the house that Shaw and Turner lived in. He acquired an adjacent lot and spent seven years completing a six-bed, nine-bath home designed by Troy Adams. The property that now stands on the site includes a car museum, a two-story living room and a theater.

The identity of the buyer is unknown. If the purchase price was anywhere near asking, the deal would rank as one of the most expensive sales in the city this year. Some transactions that have a comparable price include Ellen DeGeneres’ $47 million deal for a Beverly Hills home, and hedge funder Jeffrey Feinberg’s $44 million purchase of a spec mansion in Brentwood. The top sale in Southern California this year is Marc Andreessen’s $177 million acquisition of a Malibu mansion from fashion entrepreneur Serge Azria.

Westside Estate Agency’s Kurt Rappaport, the listing agent for the Summitridge Drive home, did not respond to a request for comment.