Sunday, September 6, 2020

What was the location of Roddy McDowall's Malibu beach house?

As always, we try to address the most pressing issues of our day: world hunger, global warming--and today, the location of Roddy McDowall's beach house.

To cut to the chase, 23560 Malibu Colony Road.

In 2011, several home movies shot by Roddy McDowall at his beach house in 1965 were uploaded to YouTube. They featured stars like Paul Newman, Natalie Wood, Rock Hudson, Judy Garland, and Julie Andrews.



But searching for the address of the beach house on Google always comes up empty.

So I viewed each of the videos to see if I could figure out where the house was.

First clue, of course, was Malibu. And it was directly on the sand.

Second clue was that several of the home movies included shots from the beach itself. Looking west, a continuation of houses along a curving sandy cove, eventually to a point of land jutting out to the south. No pier in sight, by the way. And no Point Dume in the background.


This narrowed the search to essentially two spots in Malibu where the land curves into a cove, and where there is no pier and no Point Dume.


Possibility #1 would've been on Malibu Road just east of Corral State Beach. However, (1) the video clearly shows houses stretching all the way around the cove, and there are few houses along Corral Beach; (2)  Roddy's house opens directly onto the beach at sand level, while the houses on Malibu Road tend to be up on stilts; (3) one of Roddy's videos shows the road in front of the house; it is flat on the land side, unlike the hillier Malibu Road.

Which leaves possibility #2: Malibu Colony, also known in the old days as Malibu Movie Star Colony. The houses in the distance extend all the way along the cove. The houses are close to the sand. And the land to the north is flat.


So Roddy's house was likely located somewhere along Malibu Colony Road. But where?

The big clue was from a video featuring Julie Andrews and her daughter.

 


Roddy followed them as they left his house--out onto the street. Looking into the distance, you can't see the end of the road--so it is a ways off.

Julie and her daughter get into their car, which is presumably facing east. She starts the car, then backs up, turns around, and heads west. 



That means the only exit was to the west. Which means they were to the east of the main road into the colony.

The best clue comes in the final seconds of the video--a car turning from the main road--the only intersection in the colony!

So Roddy's beach house was likely one of the first three houses east of that road--since replaced with larger houses.


Looking at the Google map, one can clearly see the brown house that Julie walked in front of on the north side of the street, the white picket fence next to it (which now appears to be brick), and the white garage and short driveway in which she turned around (which look exactly the same).

And now that we know we're close, note the two-story house with the dormer windows a couple houses to the east of the red circle. It looks like it has been there a long time.

Sure enough, now that we're looking for it, we can see it in the background of a few of the 1965 home movies.




In fact, it's the third house down from Roddy's. Which means Roddy's house was the one in the middle of the red circle--23560.

Here's a comparison of photos from Roddy's house in 1965 and from the Zillow listing for the current house:



Note that either rocks have been brought in to prevent beach erosion, or they were completely covered by sand in 1965. In any case, there's a lot less beach now, and a lot more steps to get to it. 




Case closed. Now, on to less important topics.

44 comments:

  1. So, when I saw your post I thought of Jane Fonda's blog. I follow her and she is pretty good at keeping it updated, as well as reading comments and answering. You should check it out and ask her if she remembers the location. Crazy Times, huh!!!
    https://www.janefonda.com/blog/

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  2. I spotted Ruth Gordon in there ("Harold & Maude")!

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  3. Roddy McDowall's 1965 home movies are fascinating. I also looked for the location of the house. Congratulations on your investigation!

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  4. What does "global warming" have to do with beach erosion over a nearly 60 year time frame?

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  5. I have been fascinated by watching those home movies at Mr. McDowall's beach house for some years now. You sleuthing was a fascinating read. Thanks!

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  6. Julie Andrews put on her seat belt in 1965! Daughter seems unrestrained in back seat but the norm.

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  7. Great job, I was trying to figure it out from the home movies, too. You're quite a sleuth!

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  8. What impressed me in the films is how laid back they all were. Lots of smiles and kids. Lots of hot dogs. Paul Newman caring for his kids, Mr. Selznick the great producer mulling over a crossword, the natural beauty of Lee Remick, Kirk Douglas holding court, Tony Perkins with his easy smile. I thought to myself: these people are, in reality, quite ordinary!

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  9. Looks to be erosion related. The top of the wall and patio area is at the same elevation it was in the 60's, but there is now a longer drop to the beach surface, which is also why the longer steps are needed and the rocks are visible. Unless they renourish/replenish the sand there, there won't be much of a beach left and I can't see how people will want to have an expensive beach front home with no beach. Cheaper to bring sand in like they do at a lot of beach resort areas do after years of erosion or storms damage them. Shame the obviously wealthy residents there don't do something about it. I guess it's easier to just move to where the beach is, instead of pay to keep the beaches they have.

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  10. Stumbled across the videos on YouTube and started poking around with Google. Enjoy your detective work.

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  11. fantastic story sir, stumbled on the roddy videos on youtube,it was a great look back, would have been nice for a day to have been in that time and that place and met Natalie, now all those people have passed years ago seems all thats left from that house in 1965 are grains of sand a warm summer breeze and fond memories when life was simpler. linda ronstadts old house was about 6 houses south of this one.

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  12. This was amazing, thanks so much for finding his house. I found your blog looking for it myself, lol.

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  13. Great job on locating where he lived! I always thought it would've been great to see these areas when Hollywood was just starting in the 10s-30s, but it's just as much of a culture shock seeing the changes from just the 60s to now! I spotted Sally Kellerman early in the Julie Andrews video. She had a part in "The Third Day" that year, a film where McDowall co-starred.

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  14. Also in videos: Dominick Dunne and wife "Lenny", David O. Selznick (month before passing) and wife Jennifer Jones, Polly Bergen, Gladys Cooper (around when "My Fair Lady" was releasing), Suzanne Pleshette, Tom Tryon, Ben Gazzara and wife Janice Rule, Tammy Grimes, Adolph Green and wife Phyllis Newman, Simone Signoret, and Samantha Eggar.

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  15. Awesome job finding that out I was curious also there is a home video he did at Hope Lang's house on Easter Sunday do you know where that house is that house was gorgeous also

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  16. Thank you for investigating! Don’t know why I cared so much to find the spot... but I do. You nailed it.

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  17. Really well done. These movies have so much sixties vibe it is quite remarkable. Now to build a time travel machine.

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    Replies
    1. The days when a crossword puzzle kept one occupied instead of a cellphone. Heaven!

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  18. A fine collection of photos.. From 1961 to 1966, I lived on Broadbeach Road, just the other side of Point Dume, beyond Zuma public Beach. There was no Malibu High School at the time so I took the school bus into Santa Monica every morning. I tried to placed these pictures and I guessed, lower Broadbeach before the point where Geffin's house is. Back in those days, it was a very broad beach but from the photos I have seen, Not no more. The house I lived in cost $60,000 in 1961 and all of Malibu was pretty rustic. A house on the beach with no excess land might be $100,000 or $200,000. Movie Stars hadn't quite discovered it at the time. When I lived there composers like Gordon Jenkins and Carmine Dragon lived there. Cameramen like Lucian Ballard. Many directors like Billy Wilder, Frank Pierson, Henry Hathaway and Sam Peckenpaw lived there in very modest digs.
    Roddy McDowell was not overly wealthy and the arial photos of houses were the monsters of the 80's and 90's. I always loved the ocean but I would not be comfortable in the Malibu of today...

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  19. Malibu residents don't own one grain of that beach sand. Yet, they could fund a program to replenish the beach, so it looks as it did 60 years ago. It's going on in Waikiki right now.

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  20. Are the videos still around? I seem to only be able to find one on youtube.

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    1. Good question! I was looking for them too!

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    2. They were taken down by the copyright holder. People were reposting them under their own accounts on YouTube, without his permission. Luckily I got to see them on the legal copyrighted account before he took them down. The striking part of all the videos, all with major actors and actresses of that time, was that they were drinking canned beer, and eating hotdogs and burgers off paper plates. The side dishes were in Tupperware. They were all laid back. They were smoking, drinking, and just relaxing. Different times.

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