Via Google Maps
Do not disturb current occupants.
During the summer of 1967, Hendrix lived in the former mansion of silent film star Rudolph Valentino known as “Falcon’s Lair”.
Private Residence
1436 Bella Drive
Beverly Hills CA 90210
Jimi Hendrix Former Residence In Beverly Hills
Jimi drank from the jagged edge
Remember the song ‘Dolly Dagger’? I wonder if that was about Doris Atkinson (AKA Dana Stevens) I lived at Dana’s pad around 1983 in Santa Rosa Ca. on Clover Court. I had free rent in exchange for odd jobs she had me do. She is one of the daughters of the American Concrete contractor Lynn Atkinson. He was instrumental in building some famous damns early in the 20th century in the USA and as Dana told me, even poured alot of ‘crete’ in the Panama canal! I never knew what to believe she told me. But after a few months of looking at the stuff in her ‘pack-rat’ garage I found many photo’s that proved she was telling me true stories, along with a rather large bag of this chocolatey powder that kicked my butt. Then a brother of mine verified it WAS Mescaline AFTER he stole it from me. (That story was related to this same house on Bella Dr.) She told me she bought this place, along with a mirror image mansion across the street in the early 60’s and gave the house across the street to her sister. (Gotta love those Hollywood inheritences!) Anyways, Dana (Maybe still going by ‘Doris’ at the time) started a music production company about the same time she bought these mansions and wanted to create a broadway rock musical she called ‘Nut Rocker Suite’ and was doing then what she did when I met her. She told me she put an ad in an LA newspaper looking for musicians for this musical and James Hendrix was one of those who was hired for the job. (Along with a very sick Cher who I forget was either alone or already with Sonny. I just remember she told me she was very sick when she showed up.) But back to Jimi, she told me he was high all the time. Probably drunk, and always begging for musical equipment. She told me she told Jimi to do more work around the house, but instead he would slip out and hide out at the music studio. After a few unauthorized musical instrument reciepts she recieved from some music stores she told me she got rid of him. He showed up stoned out of his mind with some girl and she had his stuff at the door. (Same thing she did to me!!!) Interesting thing is that in the garage I found a cardboard box with guitar stuff in it, mostly junk, like rusty strings and stripped screws and such, but also there was an Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 booster and about three dirty bandana’s. I kept the LPB-1 because it had loose wires that needed to be soldered and that is what I like to do. I never put it back in the box though 😛 If this WAS Jimi’s it was one of the earliest examples as I believe the guy who started EH (Forget his name, dang it, Doug?) had the first LPB-1 made in an accident. He hired a guy from IBM to make him a guitar compressor/distortion box that was too week, and the dude made a simple signal booster that became the LPB-1. (The compressor was moth-balled!) Then he made that ‘Muff’ thing, and the rest is history. Interesting thing about this LPB-1 is that it is positive ground but still uses an NPN transistor. Anyways, I would like to hear from others that know for SURE who owned this mansion when Hendrix lived there as when I saw this story today in a google search, I just about pooped my pants! This sounds EXACTLY like the pad (as she called it) she told me about because the name of the street rang my brain and I remember she told me the ‘pad’ had a ‘dancer’ (lover baby?) past. (The Mescaline originally belonged to some dancer dude she was sleeping with and told him if she ever found him doing drugs, he’d be gone. Well, according to her story to me, she found his ‘stash’ in a bathroom cabinet and proceeded to RIP that cabinet OFF the wall!!!…….and guess what I found in her garage in Santa Rosa? 😉
Now I am very upset at myself that I didn’t keep that whole box that the LPB-1 was in. I’m confident those hankerchiefs and strings were rusted with Jimi’s sweat! Those headbands (hankerchiefs) were really crusty and I didn’t even want to touch them at the time. Being a Jimi admirer I feel sick to my stomach because I’m sure that box was thrown away when Dana died. Her pictures can be seen at the Berkely, Ca. Museium in person with appointment.
Back to the Hendrix song ‘Dolly Dagger’. Dana always called the guys working for her ‘Lover Baby’ and other bizzare names. She liked to be called ‘Dragon Lady’ or ‘Dragon Woman’. Sounds wierd but I got used to it. Anyways, when I hear that song I can’t help but believe that song was about her. If anyone has a better scoop about that song please chime in. But I tell you, Dana Stevens/Doris Atkinson is Dolly Dagger from the Falcons Lair on Bella Drive!
Its for sure about “Devon Wilson” its a famous story…”Mick Jagger”… cut his finger at Jimi’s Birthday Party..and Devon went right over to him n grabbed his wrist and stsrted sucking on his finger…hence..”She Drinks the Blood from a “JAGGERED EDGE”… Thats the official story….plus he also says in the song.. “Come on Devon…give me a little bit of that Heaven” cool story about Jimi and the house.!!! ✌
Still tryin’ to figure it out!
Well, here it is 08/06/2013 and still no answer… But something really interesting is that this house was owned by Doris Duke till her death on 10/28/1993. I found this in Wikipedia: “Duke’s other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island. Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named “Shangri La” in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at “Falcon’s Lair” in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino”
And Mrs.Dukes’ photo sure looks like the Dana Stevens I knew. (Only younger and healthier!) But Mrs. Duke died at 80 yrs old in ’93 and I remember Dana telling me she, herself was over 80 back in 1983, so I can’t figure this one out.
I’m hoping someone who knows about this place and/or Doris Duke and the possible Atkinson relationship will chime in and make all the pieces fit. I do remember Dana telling me stories about an affair she had with Valentino who just so happened to have hooked her up with this other dancer named Rauel.(Spelling?) She fell in love with him and moved him into the mansion but booted him out when she found serious powder drugs he was taking in his bathroom after he said he quit the habit! (whoaaa, it was mescaline!! yeeoowserrrr. I thought I was gonna die that first time!) Dana was a major packrat and also had bookshelfs full of pix she took of all the major stars at her parties at her ‘pad’ so I never doubted her veracity. She also had a short lived production company which produced an ill-fated musical called “Nutrocker Suit” in which she was trying to use to coax all those hippies out of those terrible drugs, rock n roll and lifestyles. But I find nothing on that either in my searches.
Anyways, ‘still curious if Dana Stevens, Doris Atkinson and Doris Duke are all the same person! (HELP)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Lair
Doris Duke lived at Falcon Lair estate from 1950. until her death in 1993. Hendrix never lived at Falcon Lair.
This is not Falcon lair. Falcon Lair is on Cielo. This is very close to it though.
This is the garage at Bella Drive which is still standing. Falcon Lair which is now torn down was right across from the garage.
The Valentino stables which is now a home is on Cielo Drive.
Goran, you are 100% correct. I now remember the story Dana told me and I will relay it in a nutshell. When Mrs. Duke gave birth to what the Duke’s assumed was a boy and had his room al decorated, they were shocked to see twin girls! Mr. Duke had talked a friend and fellow contractor, Lynn Atkinson to raise the small skinny one. That was Dana and it seemed to me she was calling and crying out for sympathy. She felt robbed of her inheritance by a selfish person and her answer to that was “at least I was raised by very loving parents, and besides, they weren’t so poor either”!
The sister, both named Doris, were introduced when they were 9 years old and both were quite shocked. Dana (formerly Doris) set out on a lifetime pursuit to prove she was the better of the two. She wasn’t successful at her endeavors to prove Mr. Duke he was wrong in not selecting her with her modeling and acting career and production company. She had one major production she worked on called “The Nut Rocker’s Suit” that also flopped. At one point she had Sonny and Cher there to audition amongst others. She said Cher was sick as could be and she really didn’t care for their singing but wanted to see her get healthy. Jimi Hendrix answered her add in the paper too but only lasted for a few weeks before he was fired for being drunk all the time. Also for racking up bills for musical stuff she never authorized. This was just prior to Jimi starting his ‘Blue Flames’ band with Randy, the guitarist from California (AKA Randy California via group ‘Spirit’) as opposed to Randy, the bass player from New York! (Man, just wish I had hung onto that box of junk……..)