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But she never built the house because it is now the corner of a bustling Van Nuys business area at Van Nubs and Chandler boulevards. Some of the cowboy stars, uninterested in Bel-Air status symbols, invested in valley ranches and wound up with millions. Gene Autry, Roy ogers and Joel McCrea aye rime examples. “McCrea, in a way, tops them all. He grew up on Hol- lywood Boulevard but when he hit it big in the movies, bought a working cattle ranch in Moorepark in Venturs Coun- ty. He worked the 2,500 acres at a profit and then a major oil company discovered oil on the ranch. Joel was torn. “The. money was attractive but I hated to see all that beauty destroyed by oil wells. I finally gave in when they of- fered me $3 million to drill and promised that no wells ould be seen from the ran ouse.”” Not all stars have made fo wnes in real estate. Oldtimer Jack Mulhall once owned what is now the plush section of Sherman Oaks. “T used to think that if T could sell what I owned for $200 an acre, I’d be stealing the money. “Then came the crash in 1929 and my 500 acres went down the hill like a toboggan. I lost it all. Pola! Negri once had a chance to buy some real es- tate for $40,000. “I wanted to buy it but one fof my husbands talked me ou of it. He said it would neve be anything but an orang barove.”\ Today, it’s the four corners of Be™“rwood and Vine. Barbara Stanwyck whe’ married to Frank Fay lived i a beautiful estate in North ridge. Then they broke up an she married Robert Taylor but those two decided they would sooner move back over the hill. They sold the estate for a song ‘0 Jack Oakie who still lives there. “J was so sentimental abut + ” s buying the place, reca’ Oakie, “that I asked Barba whether I should call it San Barbara or Santa Fay. Oakie is surrounded now usinesses—an oasis among hopping centers. Usually | When he invites me over, he tells me: “Get over here quick be- it.” far he has resisted. ed me to keep the house @ put on trunks when T we! in the swimming pool.” The showplace home in th movie colony is still in the process of building and won't be ready until next spring. Eugene V. Klein, head of National General Corpora- tion, bought Beverly Hills’ first home — The Burton Green estate on six acres be- hind the Beverly Hills Hotel. Green was the founder of Beverly Hills and his Tudor estate was long a showplace. Klein bought it all 18 months, go and workmen have been ebuilding it since into a Re- ency home. Virtually only he foundation is left from the riginal home. cause 1 could be an Akron store by the time you make Oakie has heen offered a million for his acreage but so “Qne subdivider even want one acre at the same price bu “T turned him down. I'd have t __ Recently workmen up root- first ever built in Bever! Hills. And that’s history of w Olympic pool. ein isn’t saying how duch the new home will cost him eventually—but it’s go- ing to be a mighty expensive two-bedroom home. y Glen has two swimming pools—one for the master and one for the servants. The late Ernie Kovacs built a beautiful wine cellar in his Coldwater Canyon home. Then he stocked it with the choicest wines that only a gourmet like Ernie would drink—Cha- au Lafitte Rothschild and tHe rest. But something was missing. ie called a special effects man over at ABC who promptly coated the bottles] with artificial cob webs. Probably the biggest estate in Beverly Hills is Harold Lloyd’s. His place is 18 acres right by the Beverly Hills Ho- tel. He is the city’s biggest property taxpayer but won’t say how much. In the low-cost Depression days, i cost bim $25,000 a year. But when taxes get high, Harold practices such eco- nomics as shutting off the manmade waterfall—one that would do justice to Yosemite, emite. Final inflationary note. In he ‘30s, songwriter Ira Gersh- everly Hills street for $27,000. A few years ago, he remodeled the house on the in- side. Cost—$250,000 for the Te-do.