Beverly Hills is probably the most famous city name other than Los Angeles in the world, and that was before the popular original version of the TV show Beverly Hills 90210 and it’s present follow up show. This is the playground of the rich and famous, as well as a top residential community. Some of the largest homes in the nation are here, including Aaron Spelling’s mega mansion, and is the most expensive housing market in the country.
Beverly Hills is actually named for a city in Massachusetts. In 1906, the Percy H. Clark Co., managers of the land, opened it up for public housing. Their intention was to allow purchasers of property to build whatever types of houses they wanted to, as long as they could afford the price of the land. One of the first residences, oddly enough, was the Beverly Hills Hotel, now a historic landmark of its own while still catering to thousands of visitors each year.
The first celebrities to invade the territory were Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, soon followed by Will Rogers. Harold Lloyd and John Barrymore quickly followed, establishing the celebrity presence for good.
Beverly Hills has some famous landmarks, including the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Gardens, the Electric Fountain, and its City Hall building has been used in many movies and TV shows. Rodeo Drive is one of the most famous streets in the world, with lots of restaurants and exclusive shops where the rich and famous love to be. There are also many art galleries and small theaters in the area, including the Paley Center for Media, and tour buses to take you all over the city.
Beverly Hills is landlocked, which means it’s not close to the beach like Malibu, but its residents aren’t that far from the beach and they like it just fine. It’s a safe city for the rich and famous to live in, as they pay well for the police department to protect them. Yet, in a lot of ways, it’s like most other communities. The rich sometimes have money problems themselves, so they have pawn shops; they just don’t call them that. There are no factories in town or billboards. There’s also no hospital or cemetery in town, which is strange, but they like it that way.
But there are celebrities galore. Some of those celebrities include: Don Adams; Julie Andrews; Dan Akyroyd; Bob Barker; Drew Barrymore; Warren Beatty & Annette Bening; Valerie Bertinelli; James Caan; Nicholas Cage; Jim Carrey; George Clooney; Bill Cosby; Tom Cruise; Clint Eastwood; Carrie Fisher; Harrison Ford; Kelsey Grammar; Andy Griffith; Gene Hackman; Arsenio Hall; Dustin Hoffman; Ron Howard; Madonna; Eddie Murphy; Sidney Poitier; Prince; Arnold Schwarzenegger (when he’s not in Sacramento); Jerry Seinfeld; William Shatner; Sylvester Stallone; Billy Dee Williams; and of course the Playboy Mansion.
We did mention that it’s expensive to live in Beverly Hills. A studio home in Beverly Hills will cost you around $600,000. The average for homes in this city is around $2.5 million. At the upper levels, the skies the limit, but that limit, at least, seems to stop around $200 million; that’s upper atmosphere that almost no one can reach.