This is the first house that the legendary Lucille Ball rented when she moved to Hollywood from her home state of New York.
1344 N. Ogden Drive in West Hollywood, California became Lucille’s rental home in 1933 at the tender age of 22 after she landed a contract with RKO and a role in the movie “Roman Scandals.”
Occupied first by her and her brother, Lucille would eventually bring the rest of her family out from New York to live here as well. They reportedly paid a mere $85 a month in rent!
The 1,874-square-foot house has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and sits on a 6,751 square foot lot. It was last for sale in 2016 with an asking price of $1.75 million. No doubt it could fetch even more today, but it’s still fun to look at the listing photos and dream of how it looked when the lovely Lucy lived here.
The home was built in 1919 in the Craftsman style that was so popular at the time
And look at this incredible relic below – Lucille Ball’s 1936 voter registration card which definitively ties her to this home:
Note two things: 1) It says New York because that is the state she came from before she moved to California. 2) Lucy was a registered Communist!
This got her into a bit of hot water in future years, because her grandfather – who also moved into her rental – hosted meetings of the Communist Party in the home!
It’s not clear how involved Ball was in these meetings, but in 1953 the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated the actress’ ties to the Communist party, which became quite the scandal for poor Lucy. She claimed she was young and naive at the time and didn’t even really know anything about politics in her early days.
Ball and her family resided in this home for many years until Ball got her own apartment, leaving her family to live there without her.
Here’s an early photo of Lucy in a kitchen – not sure if it is from this particular house though.
It’s been a few decades since any members of the Ball family have resided in the cozy bungalow. The home has been renovated and updated along the way to the point where much of the original charm has been lost.
However, it is still a lovely home and it may have a few original features from Lucy’s time here.
The plentiful multi-paned windows and French doors make for a light-filled living area.
There is a beautiful dining area right off the kitchen and the kitchen also has a breakfast nook area.
This home has a wonderful flow to it and the kitchen has been tastefully redone.
Nonetheless, it would be neat to see it in its original state when Lucy and family lived here!
Try as she might, House Crazy Sarah could not find ANY photos of the Ball family’s time here.
The one room that *MAY* be in near original condition is one of the 2 bathrooms.
It looks like it may have the original wall tiles and bathtub.
The current master bedroom is massive.
So much so that House Crazy Sarah suspects it may have actually been 2 separate bedrooms – maybe even 3 – at the time Lucy & family lived here.
Where else would they put all those people??
The backyard is lovely with a walk-out deck and hot tub.
There is an additional side deck off the driveway.
Let’s picture a young Lucille Ball sunning her fair self out here as her family bustled around inside.
In the end, it was determined that Lucy didn’t have much to do with her grandfather’s taboo political convictions.
Hence the famous line:
“The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that isn’t real!”
Sources:
https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/lucille-balls-hollywood-home-listed-175-million/story?id=41644328
http://tours.acmestudios.com/26631/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1344-N-Ogden-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90046/20795578_zpid/?
http://www.wehoville.com/2016/08/26/lucille-balls-old-weho-home-is-on-the-market/
https://la.curbed.com/2016/8/19/12549302/lucille-ball-first-home-hollywood-spaulding-square
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A very interesting history of a charming house!