Even before Hollywood developed its present-day obsession with haunted hotels, ghost tours, and paranormal television, one of America's most famous houses was already known for things that occurred at night. Pickfair, the country house in Beverly Hills belonging to Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, was intended to show off Hollywood at its most glamorous. Presidents, princes, writers, actors and members of royalty all passed through its rooms. Among the famous visitors who were entertained there were Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Amelia Earhart and members of European royal families. Pickfair was at one time said to be the second most well-known private residence in America after the White House.
By Allan R. Ellenberger
But once the servants had left, the guests returned home and the large house then became dark, at which time Mary Pickford thought that either someone or something must have stayed up there.
Pickfair was originally a hunting lodge situated in the hills above Beverly Hills. Douglas Fairbanks bought the property around 1919–1920 for about $35,000, and after he married Pickford in 1920, the two of them started to turn it into the residence which came to be associated with Hollywood royalty. The house was enlarged several times and afterwards architect Wallace Neff helped to give it the elegant Georgian-style mansion appearance that is remembered from its peak years.
By the early 1930s Mary had been living at Pickfair for over ten years, and it seemed that whatever she believed to be haunting the house had been there for almost just as long. The odd occurrences took place in the upper part of the house, especially in what Mary referred to as the Oriental Room, a room on the third floor which contained a number of objects and souvenirs gathered by her during her travels with Fairbanks. It was not the kind of dusty attic that is usually invented for a horror film. Pickfair was bright, luxurious, had a staff and was kept in a meticulous manner. In fact, this makes what Mary described all the more disturbing.
She heard some footsteps. They were not merely occasional creaks or the settling of old wood, but exactly what she called the clear sound of someone walking back and forth above her. At other times louder noises occurred, as if pieces of furniture or trunks were being dragged from one section of the attic to another, and the sounds could go on well into the night, at times being loud enough to keep her awake.
Mary at first did the thing that most sensible people would do. She attributed the noises to the wind under the eaves, to the old beams contracting, and she tried to account for the sounds as natural noises made louder by the unusual acoustics of a big house. Eventually, however, she stopped finding those explanations satisfactory. The thing that troubled her most was the fact that she was not the only one who heard them.
Above is the Oriental room in the attic of Pickfair, in which they heard “heavy footsteps”—when no one was up there.
A maid belonging to Pickford kept on complaining about the noises coming from above. She said that she could hear heavy footsteps as well as the sound of chairs, tables, or other items being moved across the floor. Mary replied that nobody was upstairs and proposed that perhaps another servant was shifting things. The response in each case was that no one was there.
A young female relative who was staying at Pickfair also said that she had heard them. Mary had apparently never mentioned the alleged haunting to her. Pickford considered this omission important since the girl could not have been affected by a story that she had never heard. However, she nonetheless gave an independent account of odd noises coming from the same part of the house.
Mary started to wonder if the disturbances were caused by someone who had lived on the property before Hollywood was established there. She had come across a story concerning a woman associated with the original hunting lodge who is said to have died in the house following a long illness. According to the story, the woman had a deep affection for the property and used to spend her evenings sitting near a window watching the sun set over the hills.
Once, while in New York, a woman asked Pickford where Pickfair was located. “Is it near the old (Lee) Phillipps house, the haunted house?” the woman asked?
“It is the old Phillipps house,” answered Pickford. Mary then thought it possible that death had not completely driven the previous resident to leave.
She also attempted to talk to the invisible inhabitants. When Mary was woken up at about two o'clock in the morning by the usual pacing and movement above, she sat up and spoke to whatever may have been up there. She made it clear that she had no objection to ghosts residing in the attic; they could move things, amuse themselves and stay in the house if they wanted to. The only condition was that they had to allow everyone below to sleep. The noises clearly went on.
At first, Douglas Fairbanks was not so ready to accept the supernatural explanation; he laughed at the idea and in search of practical causes. However, as Mary said, Doug eventually came across something that he could not dismiss.
One night while the couple were sleeping in the front bedroom Fairbanks suddenly awoke Mary and asked her to look at the curtain in the attic. Mary saw nothing at all. Douglas, however, was certain that he had seen a pair of eyes staring at him and he insisted that they were not ordinary eyes—rather, he said they were somehow wrong, like eyes which did not appear to be completely human.
Mary did not get to see it as it vanished. Later, however, Douglas stated that he had seen it once more on a different occasion. Following his second experience, Fairbanks was reportedly much less amused at the idea that Pickfair had other inhabitants.
Mary's attitude with regard to the supposed spirits was remarkably calm. She did not call them evil and nor did she show any desire to get rid of them. She thought that there were realities which lie beyond ordinary perception and talked frankly about feeling the presence of another world. For her, the haunting was more annoying than terrifying. If the dead persisted in staying at Pickfair, she appeared to be willing to share the house with them—on the condition that they behaved themselves.
The odd tolerance this exhibits makes the story more interesting. Instead of telling of one dramatic sight seen on a stormy night, Mary Pickford gave an account of something more subtle and continuous: years of footsteps heard above her, objects seeming to move in empty rooms, servants talking in whispers about noises which they could not explain, and a husband who doubted until he had seen something with his own eyes.
Even after Fairbanks had left following their divorce in 1936, Pickfair kept on collecting ghost stories. Pickford stayed in the house with her third husband, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, until her death in 1979. The property was subsequently acquired by Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, who carried out its restoration and looked after it before selling it in 1988 to actress and singer Pia Zadora and her husband, Meshulam Riklis.
An aerial view captures the demolition of Pickfair, the legendary Beverly Hills estate once owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Most of the historic mansion was torn down in 1990 after the property had been purchased by Pia Zadora and Meshulam Riklis, bringing a controversial end to one of old Hollywood’s most famous private homes.
It was only later that the conclusion arose which still offends those who have an interest in Hollywood history. In 1990 the majority of the original Pickfair was pulled down, the reasons given at the time being its deterioration and the severe termite damage.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. made a public statement in which he expressed his regret at the demolition of the house where his father and Mary Pickford had entertained some of the most famous people of the twentieth century. Only part of the original estate remained.
Later on, Pia Zadora included a disturbing afternote. She stated that the termites were not the entire explanation; according to her, both she and some members of her family had witnessed strange supernatural occurrences at Pickfair, one of which she thought was an apparition of a woman connected with the house. Eventually she said that although the plumbing and the termites could be repaired, she had no idea how to deal with the supernatural.
Pickfair as it appeared in 1988, the year the legendary Beverly Hills estate was purchased by Pia Zadora and her husband, Meshulam Riklis.
It cannot be proven whether Pickfair was actually haunted. Old houses tend to make noises. Memories tend to enhance things. Stories pass from one generation to another and eventually folklore starts to look like evidence.
Above is the new Pickfair, the sprawling mansion built after Pia Zadora demolished most of the historic estate—a replacement that many preservationists and old-Hollywood admirers have regarded as a regrettable substitute for the original.
Yet there is no doubt what is haunting about Pickfair now for a completely different reason. It cannot be proven whether Pickfair was actually haunted. Old houses tend to make noises. Memories tend to enhance things. Stories pass from one generation to another and eventually folklore starts to look like evidence. Yet there is no doubt what is haunting about Pickfair now for a completely different reason.
The house is now entirely absent—the rooms in which Mary Pickford is said to have heard footsteps have disappeared. The attic in which it seemed that unseen things were moving has vanished as well. The bedroom where Douglas Fairbanks allegedly saw those strange eyes no longer exists. Maybe that is Pickfair's last ghost story. Although Hollywood's most well-known haunted house did not survive, the footsteps did persist. They can still be heard, at least in memory, as they pace somewhere above the dazzling remnants of old Hollywood.
Check in tomorrow for a special Halloween Eve post on the brutal 1968 murder of silent-film star Ramon Novarro. The story follows the crime at his Laurel Canyon home, the two brothers who killed him, and the sensational trial that followed—while remembering that Novarro’s life and career deserve to be seen as far more than the circumstances of his death.
If you enjoyed my look at the haunting of Pickfair, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment, rate the article, and share it with anyone interested in old Hollywood, haunted places, and the strange stories that still cling to its most famous homes. Your comments, ratings, and shares help The Hollywoodland Revue reach more readers and keep these eerie pieces of Hollywood history alive.
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