• In 1924 when actor Lon Chaney was filming Phantom of the Opera, he was living on Normandie between Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd. Every morning he would do his own painful make-up at home then wear a special mask and drive up Franklin Ave and the Cahuenga Pass to Universal Studios Stage 28. Before he left Universal Studios to come under contract at MGM, he had planned to build a home on Beachwood Drive in Mack Sennet's Hollywoodland Development.
  • Douglas Fairbanks owned the home on 2210 Beachwood and Douglas Fairbanks JR. was born in that home. The current owners Buddy and Maurice Herman opened the Flamingo for Bugsy Seigel in Las Vegas as Band leader and singer. They took down the original home and built the apartment building that stands there now. Maurice still has the Fairbanks's chandelier in her diningroom.
  • The properties on either side of the Fairbanks home were owned by Pola Negri and Norma Talmadge. The parcel that is now 2222 Beachwood was once owned by a Russian land Barron and later by Charles Chaplin.
  • 2222 Beachwood sprawls over 40 acres including the buildings, parking areas and landscaped walkways.
  • Originally 2222 Beachwood was to have over 100 units. Area residents including Madonna and Sean Penn, then living across the street petitioned the Los Angeles Planning Commission against the construction. The compromise is the 47 units we currently have.
  • On a clear day from the roof of 2222 Beachwood with a good telescope you can see part of the Wrigley Mansion on Catalina Island.
  • The famous Hollywood Sign at the top of Beachwood was erected in 1923 as the sign of the Hollywoodland Development Company, owned partly by film tycoon, Mack Sennett. His plan was to create an exclusive film colony of properties in a gated community. The sign stood over 5 stories tall and was illuminated by over 4,000 20 watt light bulbs spaced 8 inches apart. A full-time maintenance man lived in the building on top of the sign until 1939 when the lights were dismantled. Though the Hollywoodland Development Company did not succeed, the sign stayed up in Beachwood Canyon and in 1949 the "land" was removed so the sign read "Hollywood".
  • The corner of Beachwood and Belden Drives was the location of the small town in the original 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers where Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter were hiding. In the film the two flee from aliens by running up the steps at 2744 Westshire Drive, just off Beachwood.
  • The Lake Hollywood reservoir next to us is a favorite walking and jogging spot for Beachwood Canyon residents and has been featured in films such as Chinatown, Out of Bounds and Earthquake.
  • The house used in Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyk is in Beachwood Canyon on 6301 Quebec Street.
  • Originally Beachwood Canyon and the mountain supporting the Hollywood sign, now referred to as Mount Hollywood, was called Mount Don Lee for the owner of KTLA channel 5, who placed television antennae on top. Now the antennae and building are used as a civil defense station.
  • In 1932 an unhappy and unsuccessful actress named Peg Entwistle who was renting a room on Beachwood Drive climbed to the top of Mount Hollywood and committed suicide by diving off the letter "H".
  • The Sunset Ranch Stables at the North end of Beachwood Drive stabled the horses used in westerns filmed by Columbia, RKO, Paramount and Desilu as well as horses owned by many celebrities. Today the stables still offers boarding and grooming for local horse owners and riding for the public including the Friday sunset ride over the Hollywood sign into Burbank for dinner and drinks and a ride back under the stars.
  • The hillside area of Los Angeles now called "Hollywood" was once populated by citrus farmers until in 1888 Harvey Henderson Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, renamed this area as part of a residential development. It is Daeida who selected the name after she met a lady on a train whose summer home was called Hollywood.
  • In 1911 Albert Beach paved the way to the Hollywood Hills and named "Beachwood Drive" after himself.
  • Bugsy Siegel opened a Speakeasy at the Castillo del Lago mansion on Hollywoodland's Durand Drive in 1938-39.
  • In 1961 a hillside brushfire above Beachwood Drive damaged 30 Hollywood Hills homes and destroyed 24 more including that of Aldous and Laura Huxley on Deronda Drive.
  • The very first silent movie theatre was built on 2560 Beachwood Drive and is still used for community theater and the Hollywood Theosophical Center. The projectionist's booth is still visible at the back.
|Home| Back|