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Left: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit Walter and
Leonore Annenberg at Sunnylands, February 1983.
and an A-list of celebrities and sports heroes. first-time visitors tend to stare wide-eyed at
Frequent guests for dinner or golf included the 6,500 square foot living room with its
neighbors Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra, who pale pink marble floors and soft green sofas
was married to Barbara Marx (his last wife) …. and walls of cinder-brown lava rock, back-
in 1976 in the home’s huge atrium in front of drop for their collection of Impressionist and
the fireplace. post-Impressionist paintings. In the vault-
ed center of the room, light pours in from a
Annenberg biographer Christopher Ogden raised cupola on the dark green bronze of Ro-
described the house in its heyday: “The large din’s 'Eve.' Nearly six feet tall, the sculpture
double doors are open. Either Lee or Walter stands by a reflecting pool surrounded by
usually waits to greet guests near the large hundreds of bromeliad plants.”
pots of cymbidium orchids grown on the es-
tate and which line the entrance hall. Inside, Cast in 1881, the Rodin is still there in all
Wine Dine & Travel Winter 2015 43
