An Exclusive look at the Magical Cottage of Theadora Van Runkle in Legendary Laurel Canyon. Last week, it was quietly offered for sale. Theadora was the costume designer for ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, as well as ‘The Godfather II’ and ‘Bullitt’ and ‘New York New York’, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ (the original), and ‘Myra Breckinridge’ and many others. She was nominated several times for an Oscar—and is one of the most admired and influential Hollywood costume designers with a career spanning more than three decades. She was a longtime friend of mine, a writer of many letters, a witty companion, and a brilliant interior designer. Theadora, who died in 2011, worked closely with leading directors like Francis Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and with stars like Marcello Mastroianni, Faye Dunaway, Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Steve McQueen (a favorite), Don Johnson (a crush), along with petite Dolly Parton and dear Warren Beatty, her champion, close friend and mentor. ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ was Thea’s big break and her lasting legacy as a designer. And since 1962, Theadora lived in a hillside cottage, a thirties time-capsule that she turned into a sunny artist’s retreat, complete with an airy studio, terraces, and an ultra-private garden fragrant with lilies. The cottage—with walls and ceilings and floors painted white, the perfect canvas—still holds her lifetime’s collection of portraits, French porcelain, conchology, antique Turkish textiles, English ironstone, and pre-Raphaelite-inspired paintings. Today, those same Chinese rugs and ironstone pitchers, wicker chairs, and shells give each room its vitality. In her bedroom, bookcases are stacked with collections of Evelyn Waugh, with costume design references, and especially with inspirational books on painters she loved, such as Velasquez, Tintoretto, Lucian Freud, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Veronese (color), and Vermeer, Balthus, and Piero della Francesca (and, really, anyone in the Prado or the Uffizzi or Louvre). Theadora was a very close friend of mine for years. We met when she owned the legendary Old Milano hotel on California’s north coast. I’d spend weekends north of Gualala at her sunstruck Iris Cottage, whalewatching, gardening or painting. Or in LA. The hills of Laurel Canyon were filled with the music and laughter of Joni Mitchell in those days, and when I was in LA on assignment, Theadora and I spent weekends with a roving band of friends. Breakfast on the terrace beneath the stone pine, lunch in the garden with a troupe of artists, and later drinks with a visiting actor or musician and a quick trip to Wally's for more Champagne. Or a fast drive to Fred Segal or Neiman's or Indigo Seas or the Canyon Country Store. We seldom left Lone Mountain Drive. Where could be better? Some antique dealer was always dropping by to deliver a chair or a rug or cabinet or bundle of antique embroidered silks and linens Thea had acquired. They still grace these rooms. Saturdays were often spent lurking around the fusty antique shops and dusty old bookstores that used to be on every block of West Hollywood. Sundays, Thea’s Sketch Club members (a close-knit and vibrant group of film creative insiders) and an artist’s model or two (perhaps a nude, perhaps a costumed character) would arrive and we’d spent the afternoon painting, drawing, sketching, laughing and comparing notes. Hers was a house for life, laughter, art, and ideas. We’d play music like Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Mikado’ on Sunday mornings, to laugh and sing along. Chopin, ‘Libertango’ or ‘Oblivio’ by Astor Piazzolla, maybe Segovia, or the Rolling Stones enlivened the canyon summer air. Then friends would stop over, linger. Last week the house was discreetly offered for sale. Now for the first time you can see up-close images of each room and the garden, shot recently by the great Los Angeles photographer, Amy Neunsinger. The house is exactly as it was when Theodora painted there and lived, and precisely as she arranged it. There’s the sunny studio (a former water tank) where Theadora painted, the dining room where artists and costume assistants and arty pals lingered over splendid Moroccan cooking, and sumptuous cakes. Often Thea would cook an impromptu dinner of ‘Marcello’s favorite pasta’ that included lots of fresh tomatoes and verde olive oil. In her bedroom there’s the Victorian bed (said to have come from a version of ‘Wuthering Heights’) where she read and sketched and entertained close friends. And there are treasures found on 3rd Street or La Brea, on a sidewalk along Beverly, or at Indigo Seas or Hollyhock or Joel Chen or even afar in Santa Barbara or Ojai. Theadora’s paintings are on the walls. The garden (beautifully maintained by her son, Max Van Runkle, who nurtured every plant) frames the house. It’s a private paradise, rare and tranquil and embracing. Adieu, Theadora Theadora died in November 2011. Her life had been a bold adventure. He joy in art and literature and friends and music never dimmed. Now, after a period of contemplation, restoration and time passing, her son Max is selling her remarkable and highly theatrical cottage high above Lauren Canyon, Los Angeles. Theadora was a lifelong fan of the Bloomsbury set, and loved rooms that were full of paintings and books, adored expensive (Sevres or Meissen) with bargains (shells, ironstone) and pulled it together with eccentricity and the classic elegance of the past. Over the years, the rooms became lighter, more chandeliers appeared, but she kept the Virginia Woolf-meets-Vita Sackville-West-meets-Luchino-Visconti look that is brilliantly timeworn and yet fresh as a summer Sunday morning. Thea spent a lot of time around movie sets, working with great production designers like Dean Tavoularis (‘The Godfather’ series) and she has the ability to weave in any English historical style-from Victorian to English Country, and to create interiors that are full of comfort and charm, totally atmospheric and magical, conjuring up an imagined past. It is a house that reflects Theadora’s romantic and highly informed design sensibility, and it’s about capturing the past with a sense of magic — and with a great sense of poetry. Airy and light, and transcending time and place, the interiors speak of Theadora’s love of Arts & Crafts, portraiture, antique textiles Rooms seem casual and relaxed, but each detail and dash of paint and inch of fabric was completely thought out. The effect is at once a portrait of Theadora…a self-portrait, really…and the stage set for an inspired life. Fortune and Change — and Great Style — Played a Part in Theadora’s Vivid Career A glance into her first commission, working with producer/ actor Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway on ‘Bonnie and Clyde’. Luck and fine judgement played a role. Theadora recalled: “Had I heeded the advice of Edith Head, then Hollywood’s ruling and powerful grande dame of design, I might have gone off in the wrong direction with my work on “Bonnie and Clyde”. Soon after I was signed up, I was at Western Costume and anxiously shopping for the film when I ran into Edith Head. It's a small world, the costume business. Edith, acclaimed, was the queen, the unquestionably top costumer to the stars and holder of zillions of Oscars. “Edith said, ‘What are you doing?’ ”, the kind of casual talk you might engage in about a major project. “I said, ‘It’s the ’30s and they’re on the lam, escaping from a bank robbery.’ ” “She said: ‘Oh darling, do everything in chiffon. You’ll have no problems.’ ” “I love the fragility and beauty of perishable worlds; the nostalgia that inhabits objects and places that have a past, and that linger on in the splendor of rooms, in the patina, the chips and the faded colors and half light. We must preserve the tiny details, scars, irregularities and layers of history that exist in old buildings and tell their stories.” — Roberto Peregalli, interior designer, Milan. From, ‘The Invention of the Past: Interior Design and Architecture of Studio Peregalli" Written by Laura Sartori Rimini and Roberto Peregalli, Foreword by Hamish Bowles. Published by Rizzoli. 2011. Theadora's Hillside Retreat Theadora’s house is in a very secluded, tranquil and private corner of Laurel Canyon. It’s high on a hill near Lone Mountain with quick access to Mulholland and over the hill to Studio City. Laurel Canyon in the sixties, when Theadora moved there, was famous as home to many of L.A.'s rock musicians, including Jim Morrison of The Doors. Joni Mitchell lived in a house in the Canyon that was immortalized in the song, "Our House", written with Graham Nash, and the blissful setting was her inspiration for her third album, Ladies of the Canyon. John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas took inspiration from their home in Laurel Canyon for the song, ‘Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon’. Today, screenwriters, musicians, directors, and entertainment lawyers and web designers find it a congenial, well-located, and leafy setting. Happy Days in Laurel Canyon: A Letter from Theadora EASTER SUNDAY 2009 “I am clearing the hillsides of thick grass. It’s thicker and greener than any winter grass I’ve seen, spangled with tender yellow Oxalis flowers and with orange poppies. Upon the highest slopes are exquisite patches of lupine. It is such a lovely spring. Looking forward to seeing you.” — Theadora, handwritten in beautiful calligraphy to Diane LOTS: There are a total of six lots included in the sale; total square footage for all 6 lots is 21,853 sq. ft. Breakdown of Lots & Structures: Four of the 6 total lots are vacant land (totaling 12,472 sq. ft) ; the other two lots have Single Family Residential structures on them as follows: 1. The main house is listed on title as having 999 interior sq. ft. on a lot size of 6258 sq. ft. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths (although assessor’s records list it as a 2 bedroom 1 bath house); 2. The “casita” (guest house) is listed on title as having 280 interior sq. ft. on a lot size of 3123 sq. ft. As it currently exists, the casita is a studio outfitted with a kitchen and cedar lined bathroom (although assessor’s records simply show it as a 0 bedroom & 0 bath residential structure). Both the main house and the casita likely tape-measure a bit larger than the interior square footage shown on title or assessor’s records, but exact measurements have not been determined. CREDITS: Photographer: Amy Neunsinger Amy’s photography has been featured in many books and magazines, including C Magazine, House Beautiful and many others. She is based in Los Angeles. www.amyneunsinger.com REALTORS: For further information and to view the canyon house: Margot Tempereau partner | broker-associate deasy/penner & partners bre#01367160 and Tori Horowitz senior partner deasy/penner & partners bre#0170335 Website for both realtors is: www.HomeAsArt.com