Fashionista Sue Wong lists Old Hollywood estate in Los Feliz for $32M

Fashion designer Sue Wong is selling a historic Old Hollywood estate lined with gold leaf and hand-painted frescoes in Los Feliz for $32 million — or $1 million more with furniture.

The vintage designer has listed the 11,700-square-foot estate once owned by 1920s movie star Madge Bellamy at 4320 Cedarhurst Circle, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Wong bought the 26-room mansion known as The Cedars in 2004 for $5.3 million. She then spent two years and millions of dollars restoring it to its original splendor.

She then scoured the world for antiques, furniture and upholstery to match its style. She now calls it “the ultimate, iconic goddess of Hollywood.”

The Cedars, named for the trees that once surrounded the eclectic mansion, was built in 1926 for French film director Maurice Tourneur, who directed Bellamy in the film “Lorna Doone,” Wong said. The director, who returned to France without moving in, sold it to the Hellman banking family, who sold it to Bellamy.

The gardens reminded her of Versailles, Bellamy wrote in her autobiography. Each bedroom had its own marble fireplace. The primary bathroom had a red Venetian-glass window.

“I felt like a little dog that had just been handed a gold-plated bone,” Bellamy, who died in 1990, wrote.

The 10-bedroom, 12-bathroom estate includes the main mansion, a guesthouse and an adjacent lot with a house where Wong’s late mother lived. The compound, on two lots, is close to three-quarters of an acre, according to the listing by Christophe Choo of Coldwell Banker Realty.

The opulent two-story mansion has gold-leaf detailing, gilded columns and hand-painted frescoes. A 48-foot ballroom has beamed ceilings. One bedroom has a Moroccan theme. Gold lions throughout the house are a tribute to the MGM film studio.

Outside, a swimming pool is surrounded by landscaped gardens.

Wong, who owns other homes in L.A., Malibu and on the Hawaiian island of Maui, said she’s selling the property because she wants to simplify her life.

Los Feliz, not far from film studios in Hollywood and Burbank, has long been popular with celebrities, musicians and writers.

“It’s a very eclectic area,” Choo told the WSJ. “Not flashy like Beverly Hills, but it has a lot of great architecture.”

While homes built in the 1920s are common, he said, it’s rare to find one as opulent as The Cedars. But sellers of historic homes don’t always get top dollar. 

A Tudor-style home built a century ago in Los Feliz recently sold for $7.33 million, nearly a quarter of its initial $26 million asking price.

A year ago, however, Brad Pitt bought a Mid-century showpiece in Los Feliz for $5.5 million from Getty Oil heiress Aileen Getty — after she paid $33 million for his historic Craftsman estate.

Luxury sales in Los Angeles have slowed significantly because of Measure ULA, a new tax on commercial and luxury home sales, but Choo said he sees the market picking up.

— Dana Bartholomew

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