The Chartwell estate, featured in the opening credits of the TV sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” is the most expensive listing in the country.
The story of Jed Clampett is, by now, a legend. A poor mountaineer, he could barely feed his family of four, but one day, while he was out hunting for food, he fired his rifle into the swamp behind his shack — and struck oil.
The sale of the resource-rich land would eventually net him between $25 million and $100 million, and he did what anyone with sudden riches would do: He packed up his truck and moved his clan to Beverly Hills, where its adventures would be the subject of nine seasons of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
Now the Bel Air estate featured in some of the TV sitcom’s opening credits is up for sale — and as befits a wealthy, cultured oilman like Jed Clampett, it’s the most expensive listing in the country, at $350 million.
The Chartwell estate — 10.3 acres of land centering on a 25,000-square-foot mansion inspired by French Neoclassical design — went on the market this week, besting its closest competitor, a Beverly Hills spec house, by $100 million.
For that awesome sum — approximately the 2016 GDP of an African nation, São Tomé & Principe — you get more than just a house and lawn.
According to Hilton & Hyland, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, which are jointly listing the property, Chartwell has a ballroom, a formal salon and a big and temperature-controlled “world-class” wine cellar. You may want to consider stocking it with bottles from Rupert Murdoch’s winery, a nearby neighbor.
On the grounds, you’ve got gardens (currently “expertly manicured” — you’ll want to keep them that way), a tennis court, a 75-foot pool (with pool house), and covered parking for 40 cars, presumably including a Clampett-style jalopy.
Are there views? There are. You can indeed see the Pacific Ocean and downtown Los Angeles.
Sadly, if you’re planning to drop $350 million just so you can re-create iconic “Beverly Hillbillies” moments in the Clampetts’ own home, you’re out of luck: The mansion appeared only in the opening credits, and the show was shot elsewhere.
The estate, originally built in 1933, was previously owned by A. Jerrold Perenchio, who bought it in 1986.
Over the next three decades, he expanded it by purchasing adjacent properties, including a Wallace Neff guesthouse and a home owned by Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
Perenchio, a billionaire who helped produce such sitcoms as “Sanford and Son” and “The Facts of Life” and who was at one time the chairman and chief executive officer of Univision, died in May 2017.