Troubling New Photos Of Liza Minnelli's Abandoned Mansion

In order to comprehend the grandeur that is Liza Minnelli’s childhood home, you have to understand her father, Vincente Minnelli. The legendary director rose to fame in the 1940s, and before long, he was known as one of Hollywood's most gifted filmmakers.

He established himself as an auteur who could assemble sprawling sets and top-notch actors into unforgettable works of art. His status only rose when he married Judy Garland, whom he directed in Meet Me in St. Louis. With that Hollywood's most iconic — and tragic — couple was born.

Together, everything they touched seemed to turn to gold, including their daughter Liza. From a young age, it was clear that she had inherited both of her parents’ creative talents...but even so, gold can still become tarnished.

Judy Garland’s substance abuse is one of the most famous spirals in history, and by 1950, she had twice attempted to take her own life. By 1951, they were divorced — and Vincente had plans for a brand new life in a brand new home...

Vincente made his most fateful decision yet when he moved into his Beverly Hills home on Crescent Drive. It’s hard to believe a home without Judy Garland could still make draw so much attention, but it did. The size alone left visitors awe-struck. 

It spanned 5,900 square feet and was practically a different planet the second you walked through the doors. The mansion had 19 rooms, including 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. It was unlike anything the Minnelli's had experienced before...but not because of the size.

Unlike his first home, the Minnelli mansion echoed with activity. Vincente and his colleagues laughing into the night, actors seeking guidance, and Liza running to and fro from one end of the home to the other. Even so, Vincente had a secret intention for the mansion.

To make it Liza’s dream home. He commissioned stage and film artist Tony Duquette to design a huge playhouse for Liza on the estate’s 42,500 square feet of land. “I remember always asking to go to Liza’s to play dress-up,” actress Candice Bergen recalled. 

But as anyone in Hollywood could tell you, fame is fleeting. Liza’s childhood days spent playing dress-up could only last so long, and so could Vincente’s success as a director. By 1970, Liza's star was rising, but Vincente was in deep debt.

The house had been built on the basis of excess, but by the late '70s, Vincente’s friends referred to it as “threadbare.” Walking through each room and across the empty expanse of land, the estate looked like a ghost town...and in more ways than one.

Vincente died in the house at 83 years old. Shortly after his death, his will revealed Liza as the mansion's new owner. But a stipulation came with the estate, one Liza would have to adhere to whether she liked it or not.

Vincente made it clear that, though Liza was technically in charge of the $1.1 million estate, Vincente’s widow, Lee, could live in the mansion for as long as she wished. Decades later, the home still stands — but it’s almost unrecognizable.

It houses an eerie silence, the kind it was never meant to contain. Lee’s death in 2009 ended a decade-long legal battle with Liza over selling the house. Liza could finally do what she wanted with her childhood home.

But just because the house is now out of Liza’s hands doesn’t mean her childhood home has forgotten her. See, the new owners never moved into the home, so walking through those doors is like walking back in time.

A neighbor “noticed some torn drapes through an upstairs window” that hadn’t been ripped in the past, proof that the house definitely wasn’t as empty as originally believed. When the neighbor investigated the home for themselves, what they saw was heartbreaking.

The home, which had once been the envy of Hollywood, was now littered with trash. Paint peeled off the walls, water damage stained the ceiling, and the carpets were ripped and tattered. Staleness clung to the air from room to room. 

The property itself hasn’t been touched in years, leaving the gates ensnared by vines and weeds. Crumbling columns and debris littered the sprawling lawns, and the swimming pool was decorated with graffiti...proof of how the home fell into such a depressing state.

Squatters made the home almost unrecognizable. Where Vincente Minnelli’s lavish bed once sat was now a yellowed mattress. One of his floral chairs, once the height of fashion, lay in ruin. In some forgotten rooms, squatters found old records from when the home was filled with music.

Traces of the home’s former glory still shone in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors and bright pink bathtub, but its glamor has been overshadowed by years of neglect. Even the home’s new owners don’t seem to care about the former palace…

Though minor landscaping was done on the estate, it remained empty for almost a decade. Where Vincent and Liza Minnelli once lived were squatters and YouTubers hoping to catch a glimpse of its old glory.

Its vestiges of old-school glamor made it a go-to destination for explorers, especially since it provided a rare glimpse into how the Minnelli’s once lived. But now the home was cold and empty, a mere shell of what it once was.

The house that time forgot: one can’t help but imagine Liza running through the halls and Vincente working on his iconic movie musicals. It was once a backdrop for some of the most glamorous moments in Hollywood history...and it's now left in the dust. That mansion provided the family with a refuge as they attempted to bounce back from a devastating crisis involving a woman who was once America's biggest star.

Liza and Vincent certainly knew every side of Judy Garland, but there was one frequent collaborator who also saw a different side of her. She and Mickey Rooney became a beloved silver screen duo, but while the legendary actors made movie magic together, were their smiles just plastered on for the cameras? Not everyone gets along with their co-workers, after all. Here's just what Rooney thought about Garland – and whether their on-screen chemistry translated into a real-life friendship.

And Garland could have used a friend in Hollywood – especially one who knew what it was like to have been in the biz from a young age. It’s incredible to think of now, but she was signed to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio at the age of only 13. Garland was already a seasoned pro by that point, mind you. Her first performance in front of a paying audience had come when she had been just two years old.

Want another fact that’ll blow your mind? Garland landed arguably her most iconic role when she was all of 17. As Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she sang and danced her way to superstardom and landed an Academy Juvenile Award in the process. But behind the scenes, the shoot had been a troubling experience for Garland. And it would have a real effect on her in later life.

At least the icon had Rooney to lean on – for a while, anyway. The pair had first starred together in 1937’s Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry but had already met a few years earlier as wide-eyed showbiz teens. And in 2020 Rooney’s biographer Richard A. Lertzman told Closer magazine, “Judy sang, and Mickey couldn’t believe her voice.” It appeared the admiration was mutual. Lertzman continued, “[Judy] loved his talent and energy.”

And luckily for both Rooney and Garland, child stars were big business in Hollywood at the time. In 1935 Louis B. Mayer had even created a schoolhouse on the MGM studio lot. This was overseen by Mary MacDonald, a teacher who had originally been hired to teach French to a young actress named Jean Parker. As it happens, all the youthful talent hired by the studio would go through MacDonald’s training.

So, when Rooney and Garland were signed by MGM, they too began learning their trade with MacDonald. And from the jump, it was clear that the two had a lot in common. Both had been performing in vaudeville family acts from the moment they could talk. Both their fathers had also left their respective families.

This meant that, from an extremely young age, Rooney and Garland were breadwinners for their single mothers. And this may have made the pair depend on Hollywood more than their peers did. For most of the adult stars signed to MGM, the studio was where they worked. For Rooney and Garland, though? MGM became their home, and Mayer was almost a surrogate dad.

Mayer may have been pleased, too, when Rooney sprang to fame in 1937’s A Family Affair – the first film in which he played Andy Hardy. And the teenage judge’s son ultimately became so beloved that MGM made 14 Hardy movies over the next decade. You may remember, too, that Rooney’s co-star in three of the films was none other than his old classmate Garland.

In the series, Garland plays Betsy Booth – the girl next door who pines for Rooney’s character. She was never the one Hardy wanted, though, and she would inevitably end being a shoulder to cry on as he pined over other women. Interestingly, life would imitate art when Garland developed a love for Rooney that went unreciprocated.

Rooney and Garland did make ten movies together, so perhaps that close working relationship gave birth to Garland’s crush. Or maybe it was because Rooney helped his co-star find her way as an actress? On the set of the first Hardy movie, the performer reportedly gave Garland an important piece of advice right before they shot a scene together.

“Honey, you gotta believe this now,” Rooney said while holding Garland’s hands. “Make like you’re singing it.” This apparently unlocked something in Garland’s mind, helping her understand how to carry the emotion in her singing into her spoken film dialogue. It was a sage piece of wisdom from Rooney – a teenager who had already amassed a huge amount of showbusiness experience.

Rooney and Garland’s time at MGM wasn’t always fun, though – especially with Mayer trying to control their lives. When Rooney, who was a known Hollywood womanizer, told his boss he was going to marry Ava Gardner, the studio head stepped in. He reportedly put his foot down, saying, “I simply forbid it.”

Rooney allegedly countered, “You’ve got no right to do that. This is my life.” Mayer then asserted his authority by stating, “It’s not your life. Not as long as you’re working for me. MGM has made your life.” Ouch. And even though Rooney wound up being permitted to marry Gardner, it didn’t last. The whole episode also left the actor under no illusion about Mayer’s manipulation.

And Rooney caused even more trouble for the studio with his behavior. So, to make sure that nothing bad ever reached the media, Mayer hired a publicist named Les Peterson to work with the young star. On top of arranging interviews and replying to fan mail, Peterson acted as Rooney’s personal assistant, babysitter and fixer.

Rooney was a gambler, and it was Peterson who would facilitate his bets at the track. The pint-sized lothario also enjoyed partying with the young women of Hollywood, and it was Peterson’s job to keep events at these parties on the down-low. He did just this after one particular shindig at Errol Flynn’s home, as apparently there were several prostitutes on the guestlist.

To Rooney’s credit, he was well aware of Peterson’s function in his life. He would call the other man “the vice president in charge of Mickey Rooney” and laugh about it. Garland, on the other hand, didn’t have the same grasp of the situation as Rooney, as she considered her minder Betty Asher a close friend.

Asher did the same job as Peterson, effectively operating as a paid studio spy. But although her and Garland’s bond became so strong that rumors claimed they were lovers, this was never truly the case. Asher was actually sleeping with MGM executive Eddie Mannix and relating to him every intimate snippet of information about Garland’s private life. Garland claimed that she wept for days on end when she discovered the truth.

As for the Rooney-Garland screen partnership? That would eventually run its course with 1943’s Girl Crazy and 1948’s Words and Music. Those two movies were separated by Rooney’s work entertaining U.S. troops during WWII. Even before then, the writing had been on the wall, as the production of Girl Crazy had been troubled.

By that point, Garland had begun drinking heavily. This was on top of the pill addiction brought on by the drugs the studio had given her to keep her pepped up while working. All this led to a difficult shooting process, with many delays and a lot of tension between Garland and MGM.

It didn’t help that Rooney got his draft notice in the middle of this on-set turmoil. Though Mayer tried to prevent his star player from leaving, his requests to get the A-lister exempted from military service were picked up by the press. In order to avoid any controversy, then, MGM backed down. But when Rooney returned in ’46 and shot another Andy Hardy movie, it simply wasn’t the same. The culture had moved on from the series’ cookie-cutter view of America.

Words and Music, the last film in which Rooney and Garland appeared together, also wasn’t quite the same as their previous efforts. Garland simply made a guest appearance in the movie as herself, while Rooney played the real-life songwriter Lorenz Hart. At a crossroads in his career, Rooney then renegotiated his deal with MGM – and took a large pay cut.

Now, Rooney had become too old to play teenagers. At only 5’2” tall, he didn’t have the physical attributes to play leading man roles, either. That meant he was forced to reinvent himself as a character actor, and to his credit this new direction had some success. In 1957 Rooney was nominated for an Academy Award for The Bold and the Brave.

By contrast, Garland was riding high while the war raged. She starred in two pictures considered to be among her best: Meet Me in St. Louis and The Clock. Both movies were directed by Vincente Minnelli, who would go on to marry Garland. The couple had a daughter, too, in Liza.

But while shooting 1947’s The Pirate, addiction caught up to Garland. Tragically, she had a nervous breakdown. And although she was eventually able to finish the film and even shoot box-office hit Easter Parade, the damage had been done. In 1950 MGM severed its ties with the star it had created and almost destroyed.

How did MGM destroy her? Well, Garland would open up to her biographer Paul Donnelly. She claimed that the studio had started her on the path to substance abuse by giving her and Rooney pep pills to keep them singing and dancing for as long as possible. The star added, “Then they’d take us to the studio hospital and knock us out with sleeping pills – Mickey sprawled out on one bed and me on another.”

Garland continued, “Then after four hours, they’d wake us up and give us the pep pills again so we could work 72 hours in a row. Half of the time we were hanging from the ceiling, but it was a way of life for us.” Addiction would plague Garland for the rest of her life until she passed away in 1969 from an accidental overdose. She was only 47 years old.

Rooney outlived Garland, of course, although he, too, would experience plenty of ups and downs in the decades that followed. He landed another Academy Award nomination for The Black Stallion as well as a Golden Globe for 1981’s Bill. He also starred on Broadway in Sugar Babies – a loving tribute to the vaudeville years of old. And in more modern times, he appeared in the TV hospital drama series ER and the Night at the Museum movie franchise.

Rooney’s love life was just as eventful, as altogether he had eight wives. That led him to once joke, “Always get married in the morning. That way, if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t wasted the whole day.” Good advice! But he also struggled with money at certain points. Despite his decades-long career, he declared bankruptcy in 1996, having blown vast fortunes in his lifetime. Rooney died in 2014 at the age of 93.

Rooney’s passing marked the end of an era. Now, both he and Garland were gone. But at least we can remember the pair through their close off-screen relationship. Yes, Rooney and Garland were good buds in real life. That’s what the actor said, anyway, when he was interviewed for the 1992 documentary series MGM: When the Lion Roars. Rooney explained, “Judy and I were so close we could’ve come from the same womb. We weren’t like brothers or sisters, but there was no love affair there. There was more than a love affair.”