George Cukor Home
George Cukor Home
9166 Cordell Drive
Los Angeles, CA
cademy Award-winning film director George Cukor (1899-1983) resided at this elegant address in the Brentwood section of L.A. for the last fifty years of his life. Among his many credits are such screen classics as Dinner at Eight (1933), Camille (1936), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Adam's Rib (1949), A Star Is Born (1954), and My Fair Lady (1964), plus the delightfully gender-bending Sylvia Scarlett (1935).
Arriving from Broadway in 1930, Cukor spent his first two years in Hollywood living in hotels. He then purchased this six-acre estate for $10,000, remodeling it as an Italian villa a few years later. William Haines, a silent film star and himself a gay man, did the interior decoration, which Cukor changed very little over the years. Besides the main house, there were three cottages on the grounds, one of which was home to Cukor's dear friend and frequent star, Katharine Hepburn, when she was working in Hollywood. During the 1940s, Spencer Tracy occupied one of the other cottages, conveniently close to Kate.
For years, Cukor and composer Cole Porter held competing soirees at their mansions on Sunday afternoons, earning them the nickname "the rival queens of Hollywood." Cukor's invitation list included movie stars, stage celebrities, famous writers, and royalty. Though not all the guests were gay, Cukor's home was definitely one of the premier places to mingle with the queer elite of Hollywood at a time when homosexuality in the industry was "an open secret."
Paula Martinac is the author of six books and numerous articles on LGBT topics. Her blog, The Queerest Places, chronicles LGBT historic sites. She holds an M.A. in history and works for a community development organization in Pittsburgh, PA.
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Submitted by et Jardin at: January 7, 2010
The total landscape and distinct gardens were designed by Florence Yoch and Louise Council in 1936. They did 'fine tuning' over the subsequent decades. The two women lived and worked together as partners from 1925 to Ms. Council's death in 1964. George Cukor remembered Ms. Yoch as "a distinguished American artist." (for more see James Yoch's book "Landscaping the American Dream")
Submitted by Ed Miller at: December 27, 2009
You're both wrong, to a certain extent. The neighborhood is OFFICIALLY the Doheny Estates.
Submitted by Jon Ponder at: July 6, 2009
Right, Los Angeleno. Cordell Place is nowhere near Brentwood, which Google Map puts eight miles to the west. The specific area is the Birdland neighborhood a few blocks north of the Sunset Strip, and a block or so east of the Trousdale Estates section of Beverly HIlls.
Submitted by Los Angeleno at: June 27, 2009
The style of George Cukor's residence would be better described as as Regency or more specifically Hollywood Regency. Also, the neighborhood is called the Sunset Strip or Sunset Plaza section of Los Angeles. The Brentwood neighborhood is approx. 5 miles west of George Cukor's home, on the other side of the San Diego Freeway.