Engelbert to Sell His ‘Pink Palace’

The King of Romance is selling his “Pink Palace.�

Singer ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK has listed the Holmby Hills home, once owned by the late movie star JAYNE MANSFIELD, at $8 million.

The eight-bedroom, nine-bath mansion on 1.25 acres became known as the “Pink Palace� after the platinum-blond actress painted it her trademark color in the ‘60s. Humperdinck recently repainted it a bright pink.

The singer has owned the three-story, Spanish-style estate, with an elevator and seven fireplaces, since 1976. He bought it from a spinster who lived mainly in a back room of the nearly 10,000-square-foot home, sources said.

“Engelbert doesn’t use the giant house so much anymore and plans to purchase a smaller property . . . that is closer to the beach,� said Richard Schwartz, who shares the listing with Linda Linn at the Prudential California Realty’s Sherman Oaks office.

Humperdinck, his wife and their four children have divided their time between their homes in England, their main residence; Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Hawaii and Holmby Hills.

The Holmby house was built in the 1930s for a Texas oilman, Schwartz said, and it was later owned by singer Rudy Vallee. It was best known, however, for being Mansfield’s home until she was killed in a car accident in 1967.

While she lived there with her husband, Hollywood muscleman Mickey Hargitay, Mansfield not only painted the house but also built meandering walkways, ponds, fountains, statues and a heart-shaped swimming pool. Hargitay wrote “I love you Jaynie� on the bottom of the pool, according to the 1988 book “Sexbomb: The Life and Death of Jayne Mansfield.�

The inscription is gone, Schwartz said. “It was painted over, but something like ‘Jaynie, my love will flame for you always. Love, Mickey’ remains on the bronze hood over the firepit in the pool house.� Mansfield’s initials also remain in the wrought-iron gates facing Sunset Boulevard.

“There’s also supposed to be a hidden wall in the house with Jayne’s magazine covers, which had been framed,� Schwartz said. “We believe that wall is behind a newer wall covered with Engelbert’s Platinum and Gold records.�

“Dallas� oilman Bobby Ewing has been house hunting on the CBS-TV show, but the house he actually finds is about 1,200 miles, as the crow flies, from Texas.

The house that was used for the set is a new home in Calabasas Park Estates. Built by Coastal Development, the home has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters, a swimming pool, spa and views of the community golf course and tennis courts.

“I don’t know what he is supposed to be paying for it in ‘Dallas,’ � said Michele Kantor of Fred Sands Realtors, “but the reality is that it is priced at $1,195,000.� It’s listed with Barbara Lipkin and Wendy Gale, both with Sands’ office in Woodland Hills.

Bobby Ewing, played by PATRICK DUFFY, also gets romantically involved with a real estate woman in the segment, due to air, according to CBS, Feb. 2.

PIA ZADORA is at it again, but this time she’s selling, not buying.

This column reported in early November that the entertainer and her wealthy husband, Meshulam Riklis, were about to move into their new, $6.7-million house in Beverly Park Estates.

Their new house is near Pickfair, which they also own and where they were starting a two-year renovation/expansion.

They were also building a house in Malibu Colony, near an older home that they also own, and they were redecorating their apartment in Manhattan.

That’s the background, now to the news:

The couple is selling the Beverly Hills house where they lived before moving into Beverly Park Estates. This house was previously owned by jockey Bill Shoemaker. Before the Shoe, it was owned by Jeannie Martin, singer Dean Martin’s former wife.

Listed at $5.5 million with Beverly Hills realtor Mike Silverman, the one-story contemporary has a skylight entry and larger-than-usual glass doors looking out at treetop and city views; a gym, breakfast room, swimming pool, spa and sunken, lighted tennis court. There is also a two-story staff or guest house with four separate suites.

A. J. CAROTHERS--who co-wrote the 1987 movie “The Secret of My Success,� starring Michael J. Fox, and is working on a sequel--and his wife, Caryl, are buying a 4,320-square-foot home in the Haseko-Wilson project known as Crown Villas at MountainGate in Brentwood.

The couple is moving from another Brentwood residence into the new $1,085,000 home as soon as interiors are completed.

The Carotherses also talked their good friends, Bill and Joyce Asher, into buying at Crown Villas. All of their homes are due to close escrow the first week of February.

BILL ASHER, who produced the TV series “Betwitched� and directed most of the “I Love Lucy� episodes, and his wife, Joyce, are moving into their new $1,225,000 home from a Malibu home valued in the $2.5-million to $3-million range.

“So they’re moving down,� said developer Ken Wilson with a chuckle, “but they like the views from Crown Villas overlooking Benedict Canyon, and the project is right next to the tennis courts.�

Security aspects of the 870-acre MountainGate, a planned community, also appealed to the Ashers, who have been doing considerable traveling. She was just in Madrid on a fund-raising tour as executive vice president for a national dyslexia research organization, while he has been flying back and forth to New York, working on a pilot for a series.

A West Hollywood triplex that singer FRANK SINATRA owned in the ‘50s and MARILYN MONROE called home from 1952 to 1954 has been sold to actor JAMES COBURN’s ex-wife, Beverly Coburn, who plans to live there.

Interior designer Kalef Alaton, who died last May, was the most recent owner. He turned the triplex into a 7,000-square-foot townhouse, which Coburn bought for about $1.7 million. She sold her Moorish-style, 40-room villa in Beverly Hills to the SULTAN of BRUNEI in April, 1988, for $5 million.

Steve Levine at Asher Dann & Associates represented Coburn, and Linda May of Caverhill & May represented Alaton’s estate.