Ramon Novarro Home - Los Angeles

Ramon Novarro's home is on Valley Oak Drive in Los Angeles, California.  It was here the matinee idol lived from 1932 to 1937.  Novarro initially had the Lloyd Wright designed mansion built in 1928 for his personal assistant Louis Samuel.  In early 1930, after writing a check for a new car, Novarro was informed by his bank that the check bounced.  His account had been depleted.  It was then he discovered that Samuel had been embezzling him by transferring funds from Novarro's healthy account into an account crated for Samuel's brother.  Novarro decided not to press charges against his old friend, but instead took over the Valley Oak house.  He moved into the home in the summer of 1932 and began a renovation of the interior with the help of Lloyd Wright and MGM's art director CedricGibbosn.  He continued to live there, off and on, until 1938, when he traded the house for property in the San Fernando Valley.  In 1944, compser Leonard Bernstein, and lyricists Adolph Comden and Betty Green rented the Valley Oak property while they worked on the Broadway show On The Town. In 1988 actress Diane Keaton purchased the property.  The house is popularly referred to as the Samuel-Novarro House.

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