1330 Angelo Drive
Beverly Hills, CA, USA

Misty Mountain

Misty Mountain at 1330 Angelo Drive (also known as the Stein House) is a large detached house in Beverly Glen, Los Angeles (not to be confused with the nearby city of Beverly Hills) standing in 6.5 acres of grounds with landscaped gardens and a swimming pool and tennis court. It was designed by Wallace Neff and built in 1926 for the film director Fred Niblo and his wife, the actress Enid Bennett. The house has been assessed for taxation purposes at 8,651 square feet with 11 bedrooms and nine bathrooms. It has been described as "crab shaped", with the design of the house curling around a motor court at its center.

Neff's original floor plan for the house was described by Variety magazine as featuring an "elliptical entrance hall flanked by formal living and dining rooms, a library and a private guest bedroom with en suite bathroom and private entrance". A service wing contained "a kitchen-sized butler's pantry, a slightly larger kitchen with walk-in pantry, an adjoining breakfast room and a pair of staff bedrooms that share a hall bathroom". Staff or guest quarters had a living room with kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. Neff calculated the turning circle of Niblo's car when designing the driveway. Following a decline in Niblo's fortunes with the advent of sound in motion pictures, Niblo rented the house to Katharine Hepburn.

The house was later owned by Jules Stein, the founder of the MCA Inc. talent agency and media company. Stein bought the house in 1940 after a bidding war against Cary Grant. Stein died in 1981; the house was listed for sale for $10 million. It was bought by the Australian-born American media proprietor Rupert Murdoch in September 1986 for $5.8 million, with Murdoch's purchase papers signed by Barry Diller. In his 2001 book Virtual Murdoch, Neil Chenoweth attributes the commanding position of the house as having contributed to Murdoch's success in deals and negotiations. The estate was quietly put up for sale in 2014 for a price believed to be $35 million. The house was bought by Murdoch's youngest son, James.

The Stein house inspired Ken Ungar's design for his own house on Country Valley Road in Westlake Village.

Jean Stein recounted her childhood in the house and her parents' parties there in her 2016 memoir West of Eden. Stein recalled her mother telling her that Orson Welles had visited the house with Dolores del Río and told her that it reminded him of the German resort of Berchtesgaden, the mountain retreat of Adolf Hitler. Stein was also told that Katharine Hepburn encountered snakes in the living room of the house when she lived there in the 1930s. In Stein's memoir Fiona Shaw recalled that when at the house "Up there you couldn't believe you were in Los Angeles...But of course as soon as you came out on the patio behind the house and looked down at the city, you thought you were in heaven, looking down on earth". At parties films were shown by Stein's parents in an underground screening room at the house.

Misty Mountain Estate

With gorgeous views and untouched acreage, Angelo Drive became the perfect spot for Old Hollywood stars and starlets to show off their wealth and prestige. In the early 1900s, one of the first Angelo Drive estates was built for Frances Marion and Fred Thompson, a screenwriter and cowboy star, who named their piece of paradise The Enchanted Hill. The home was designed and built by Wallace Neff, the most accredited architect of his time. Constructing the opulent Enchanted Hills Estate established Neff as an extremely talented and creative designer who could give his clients an impressive home that mesmerized visitors and spectators but was also a comfortable escape for the family.

In 1924, Neff was hired to, once again, design and build a residence on Angelo Drive. Film director, Fred Niblo and his wife had purchased land just below The Enchanted Hills estate and wanted Neff to work his magic on their property. Niblo had once been a Broadway actor, where he met his first wife Josephine Cohan. The pair began traveling and performing on stages around the world. In 1916, while living in Australia, Josephine passed away leaving behind Niblo and their only son. Niblo decided it was time to stop traveling and turned his attention to filmmaking. He starred in two films while in Australia and fell in love with his co-star Enid Bennett.

Niblo and Bennett married and moved back to Southern California. They bought their 7-acres on Angelo Drive where Neff would build their Spanish Colonial Revival home. During the design phase, Neff chose to create the home in a semi-circle to take advantage of the 360 degree views of the Pacific Ocean, downtown Los Angeles and two of the most prestigious communities in the area, Holmby Hills and Beverly Hills. The home itself was extravagant, containing twenty-two rooms that included six bedrooms and bathrooms, a large oval entranceway, a library, living area and dining room. The favorite room in the house for Neff was in his basement “man-cave.” The 54-foot long basement was decorated with memorabilia from his recent movies and was split into separate rooms which contained a billiards table, a wet bar, a projection room and a curio room where Bennett could display souvenirs from their travels.

The landscape surrounding the home was just as lavish with tennis courts, a swimming pool, a croquet lawn and a large playground for the children. The front of the home was decorated with beautiful gardens, and to the south was an expanse of immaculate lawn. The driveway was constructed in a circular pattern so guests could be driven to the front entryway, dropped off and the driver could pull away in one graceful motion. Neff and Bennett loved their home and kept it for many years. When they sold it, the new owners were just as fond of the home and chose to keep much of it the same. Even now, the owners of the Misty Mountain Estate appreciate the classic beauty, and it is one of the few homes from the Old Hollywood Era that is still much the same as it was when it was first built.