House Tour Reveals Lost Star Billie Dove

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

Who was Billie Dove?

To tycoon Howard Hughes, she was the star who dumped him after three years of courtship.

To silent movie fans of the 1920s, when she appeared in nearly 50 movies, she was known as The American Beauty—tough, rough and beautiful. And also very funny.

To Hollywood critics, she was their Greta Garbo—an acclaimed actress who, with the coming of sound and the call of family life, walked away at the height of her fame and never looked back.

And to her neighbors in 1930s Pacific Palisades, she was a wild card, as well as a pilot, poet and a cinematic luminary.

She was also a champion of the Spanish Revival architecture movement in Los Angeles, which reflected—in the safety of nostalgia—the role of the hacienda, tile and cool, dark spaces in Californian history.

In 1933, Dove (born Bertha Bohny to Swiss immigrants) helped design and build one of the last great houses in the first wave of Spanish Revival in the Palisades.

The house is the second of the fascinating great homes that will throw open their doors as part of the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club Home Tour 2016, which will take place on Sunday, Nov. 20.

It is an amazing home, then and now.

Dove sold up and moved to West Hollywood, forgotten by many but always adored by a few. She ran into money problems and ended up in the Actors Homes in Woodland Hills, where she passed in 1997.

Her home on Amalfi, south of Sunset was purchased in the 1960s by “Green Acres” star Eddie Albert and his actress wife, who went by the single name Margo.

When the dazzlingly white house appeared in the 1966 book “Hollywood Life,” it reeked of old Hollywood.

Albert, who became honorary mayor of the Palisades, lived there until his passing in 2005.

The lovingly restored house has not been opened to the public before, and its exact address will be kept secret until the tour itself. But pictures suggest treats await.

There are tiles on the stairway risers that feature scrolls for knowledge, peacocks for beauty, pomegranates for fertility and grapes for plenty. There is a light fixture in the stairwell that was formerly owned by Charlton Hesston.

The living room, decorated with finds from movie sets, has been opened to the yard, pool and canyon views.

There is a 1929 Steinway piano sitting under a sculpture called “Adam and Eve” that was commissioned by Rod Sterling for an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

The dining room is dominated by a dining table designed by the owner with myrtle wood that was a gift from Brad Pitt. The base is a pair of stylized ibex heads and horns.

The dining room also includes watercolors by Richard Neutra, better known for his architecture.

And to welcome visitors, there will be a 1940s Cadillac, once owned by the owner’s grandmother, sitting in the driveway.

The 31st annual tour has been organized to raise funds for the woman’s club, which disperses them as grants to arts and community organizations. The club is accepting grant applications now.

For more information, visit pacpalhometour.com.