Pop Culture | Retro | TV | Movies
You Can Live In The Beverly Hillbillies Mansion But You'll Need To Strike Oil First
The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the most successful and popular shows of their time. It was on the air between 1962-1971, but in syndication it made its way into all of our childhoods.
The Clampetts were a unique family who were faced with an interesting situation. After striking oil in the swamp where they lived, the family was suddenly rich beyond their wildest dreams and so off they went to Beverly Hills.
They moved into an impressive and enormous mansion that many of us remember seeing and dreaming we could one day own something similar. Turns out, that house is worth WAY more than we thought it would be.
The show took off fairly quickly, with people relating the characters and the story. Could you imagine how out of place your family would feel if you suddenly jumped up to a brand new socioeconomic status?
The family was composed of Jed, Granny Moses, Elly May, and Jethro. They moved up to Beverly Hills and tried to find their way through this brand new world that they were never really ready for. Their neighbor and banker, Milburn Drysdale was always trying to keep the family in town so their money will be in his bank, but these "city folk" kept on doing things that upset the family (usually Granny) over and over.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in that house? Well, now you might just get that chance.
Jed Clampett would probably wish that he found the swamp full of oil in 2017, because the $25 million he received in 1962 would equal about $200 million today. But even that wouldn't cut it for the house he once purchased!
The house is now up for sale and it's so pricey that even those who discovered oil in their backyards probably wouldn't be able to make their mortgage payments on it. It's currently listed at $350 Million!
That's a lot of money! The Bel Air estate was used in the credits of the show, but they filmed the interior shots in a studio. The mansion is currently the most expensive home for sale in America.
The house was used in the opening credits, so it is only the exterior that will match the show. They actually filmed inside a studio but you could always pretend that this manor is where those lovable "hillbillies" lived.
What can you expect to get with your $350 million investment? Quite a bit! It is a 25,000-square-foot mansion that was built in 1933. It is on a 10.3 acre lot that features well manicured gardens, tennis courts, and parking for over 40 cars. It also has a 75 ft swimming pool with its own separate pool house.
The house was built for $2 million during the great depression, which translates to about $37 million. Even the wife of the man who built it thought it was too much and refused to live there which is how Arnold Kirkeby came to own the building.
He rented out the house to The Beverly Hillbillies at a rate of $500 per day to shoot the exterior shots they needed. It was used in other movies as well including Jerry Lewis' Cinderella and Sylvester Stallone's Over the Top.
Who knows who is going to buy this iconic and memorable building, but it is kind of fun to image what it would be like to live there! Although I would imagine vacuuming would take a month.