Between The Late Show with Stephen Colbert‘s cancellation and Jimmy Kimmel’s recent suspension, and reinstatement, late night television has been the center of major political and cultural conversations this year. It makes you think, what would the King of Late Night Television, Johnny Carson, be saying if he were here today?
The comedian created the late-night show format as we know it and hosted The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992, with Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Fallon following as his successors. The gig brought him fame and success, as well as wealth. And, this new listing in Malibu is concrete proof of that.
Carson purchased the Point Dume compound in the 1980s for $9.5 million, according to Robb Report, and owned it until he passed away in 2005. Most recently, records show that Riaz Valani, an early investor in Juul, and his wife, Augusta Tigrett, daughter of Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Isaac Tigrett, picked up the home for $40 million in 2019. Asking over 10 times what Carson paid for it roughly 40 years ago, the celebrity-pedigreed property is now on the market asking an astounding $110 million.
Spanning four acres across four parcels, the estate is perched atop bluffs looking straight out to the Pacific Ocean. It’s most defining feature is the modernist mansion designed architect Edward R. Niles and set steps from the cliff’s edge. It’s clad in glass on the exteriors and rich wood inside. Stepping into the 7,083-square-foot gem, it’s the arboretum pavilion with 30-foot-tall glass, a wood latticed ceiling, and a incredibly cool copper and glass sunken fireplace that steals the show. Simultaneously displaying tranquility and a “more is more” sensibility, it even holds full-sized indoor trees, sculptural light fixtures, and sunken built-in seating harkening to glamourous decades past.
Delivering the dream California lifestyle, you can stroll out to the expansive terraces for happy hours or quiet meditation near the a koi pond, jungle-like trees, and saltwater pool. The grounds also offer an oceanfront jacuzzi, sauna, and cold plunge while the interiors beg for entertaining with a wet bar, screening room, and wine cellar. Luxuriously, the primary suite occupies the entire second level, while there are four other bedrooms to discover as well.
What else makes this property, and it’s price, so striking? Chris Cortazzo of Compass, the listing agent, shares, “It’s situated closer to the bluff than you could ever build today, offering sweeping views of Little Dume Beach and the cove in one direction, and panoramic coastline views stretching down the coast in the other.”