• April 04, 1988
• Vol. 29
• No. 13

Aaron Spelling's Latest Production Is No Hotel, Just the Biggest One-Family House in California

When Aaron Spelling was growing up in Dallas, he was a poor, shy, skinny kid who got pushed around by his classmates. But little Aaron, now 64, won his revenge. And how. "In Hollywood," as comic David Steinberg recently noted, "there's the rich. And then there's Aaron Spelling." The most successful television producer of the age—Charlie's Angels, Dynasty, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hotel, Starsky and Hutch and about 150 other series and made-for-TV features are his—he's worth a conservatively estimated $250 million. Now Spelling is carving an even bigger niche for himself in Hollywood. At a projected cost of $45 million, he's building what's said to be the largest single-family home in the state of California. Spelling, his wife, Candy, 40, and their two children, Tori, 13, and Randy, 9, will try to contain themselves within the walls of a 65,000-square-foot house, located in Holmby Hills, just down the block from Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion.

The Manor, as the Spelling dwelling is called, will include four bars, three kitchens, a theater, gym, Olympic-size swimming pool, a doll museum, separate servants' wing, a 6,000-square-foot guest house, eight double-car garages, tennis courts, a gazebo, a greenhouse, 12 fountains and six formal gardens. Ostentatious? Perhaps, but there are modest touches throughout. There's only one bowling alley, for instance, only one wine room and only one elevator. And only four bedrooms, although they tend to be kind of roomy. The master bedroom, for example, is about the size of a basketball court.

Constructed on a five-acre plot, site of Bing Crosby's old home (which was torn down), the Manor is not without critics who have questioned its tastefulness. But what does Aaron care? As long as he can afford the anticipated operating budget of $75,000 a month, he's a happy man. So live well, Mr. Spelling, and enjoy.