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Yikes! Caesar's Palace, anyone? That's just garish!

I live in Hancock Park and drive by this at least once a day. Tacky. From what I heard it has made it impossible for his neighbors to sell their home. He is one reason to have an HPOZ. (Historical Preservation Overlay Zone)

Puts me in mind of the Dr. Seuss story called TOO MANY DAVES!

I've driven by this house quite a few times and have always hated it. I didn't know that the owner did it as a retaliation to the snobbish neighbors. Now I don't hate it as much. I wouldn't want this house on my street but I love how he had the balls to tell them off in his own way!

I live nearby and drive by it daily as well. Did not know the story behind it. This house has a lot of history, as I read that Nat King Cole had a cross burned on his lawn in Hancock Park when he first moved there. (don't know if this is that house)

If you want asthetic restrictions on housing, there are plenty of gated communities in OC (Orange County). I understand the immediate neighbors' "lowering property values" concern...but I find it rather refreshing that someone so wealthy would be so tacky in "Beverly Hills West" where the houses go for $2-5 million!

The original "one David is too many" complainer has had many a sleepless night, I imagine! When you think about it, the original complaint may have come from prudery, or even anti-gay sentiment (in a roundabout way). So in that spirit, I say: Good for you!

Saw it on The Travel Chanel, actually the inside's even scarier than the outside. lol

Some of the comments above are disingenuous. I don't think you would be rooting for him if he lived next door to you.

Let's not forget how the house is decorated at Christmas time - little red santa hats for the David's, fake glittering snow on the lawn, and huge lit numbers for the year ending. It's breathtaking.

When I first moved to LA, a local friend took me to see the David house and I loved its over the top tackiness. As a transplant from the east coast, it will always be an iconic reminder for me of that loopy Angeleno energy I fell in love with. Thanks for putting a smile on my face, AT!

what do you propose, msbeachwood? a community meeting to determine how you can decorate the exterior of your property?

I absolutely understand his neighobor's concerns. But he is allowed to do what he wants (for now).

I get that he likes his statues. His neighbors do not. He needs to put up a wall and then everyone is assuaged.

People blaming him for not being able so sell their homes are just looking for a scapegoat. I'd love to have a kooky house like this as a neighbor: "I live across from the David House"

(Of course, almost anything I did to my place would look great in comparison!)

Hilarious!!

at least they're not all wearing thongs or leopard-print speedos or something..... ;P

Liberace has found a kindred spirit!

My parents live in a "historic" 1920's bungalow in Long Beach and they have a militant neighborhood association that enforces strict rules on what color you can paint you house and what kind of changes you can make to the exterior. If you don't comply there are neighborhood snitches that call the city to make complaints about your grass being too long, the leaves not having been raked, there being too many weeds in your yard, or your trash can being visible from the street (even if its behind a gate in a private yard). Basically they become as annoying as possible until you do what they want.

My parents almost painted their house turquoise and purple in retaliation, but decided to do white with green/yellow accents instead. I don't think its "authentic" but the NA has at least slowed their torture.

I have to admit, I love this house (so much that I actually watched it on High Maintenance 90210)!

Reminds me of garden gnomes. Its just as tasteless, only more blatant.
I wonder why someone would want to live next to a house like that in the first place. It looks even more fake than Disneyland.

Ooh! I drive by this place from time to time. It always cracks me up. It is fantastically gaudy.

For those of you not in LA, it's on the corner of a busy street, and he always seems to have a mimimum of 2 vehicles in a matching burnt-orange color parked in front of it in the circular driveway, just to add a little "summ'n-summ'n."

He's essentially throwing the bird at his neighbors every day. How is that the right thing to do?

This place is hilarious. It's a very well-kept property, so no, I don't think I'd be too upset to be his neighbor. I'd be bothered by people leaving garbage and dead cars in their yard, or by plastering over their craftsman style houses with stucco...there are many more egregious examples of tacky "style" in Los Angeles in my opinion. At least this one is funny.

Here's how it looks during the holiday season (with the orange SUV to boot!):

http://laist.com/2007/12/16/my_favorite_hou.php

After seeing the Holiday photos - I don't think this guy is loony any more...
...I think he's on crack.

Please--this house is tasteful compared to the Saudi prince in BH in the 70s.

What is isn't is Nat King Cole's house, where no cross was ever burned. Cole's house had Muirfield as a cross street.

And the owner of the house pictured is Norbert Young. Let's at least get his name right, okay?

I live near this house and I LOOOOOVE IT! During Christmas he puts a Santa Hat on each one of the David's. It's so abominably ugly, that I love it. I feel sorry that someone has to live like that, and his neighbors are faced with that on a daily basis, but it's so ugly...i love it.

Palmetto,
This IS on 3rd and Muirfield...

I love this house. The fact that we're all talking about it is, like, Mission Accomplished. He made a name for himself and all he had to do was put shit in his front yard and buy an ugly SUV. I mean, why didn't I think of that?

Oh, wait.

Ya gotta getch yerselfs some mahhhrble columns.

am i the only one who actually likes this house? It's so wierdo that it's great.

I heard (at least a rumour?) that the house resident's personal assistant was going to do a reality tv show...

A little bit of Vegas, huh?

I also live quite close to this house. Walk by it almost every day. Hilarious! Makes me smile every time. AKA Youngwood Court, AKA the FHP house (per the enormous sign on top of his roof at the holidays- F.eed H.is P.eople, or tongue in cheek, F.*** H.ancock P.ark).
I have no love for the HPOZ people. Please stop taking yourselves so seriously. At least clutch your pearls on your own property.
I was told a long time ago, probably a year back, that the residents or owner(s) of this house were on a reality show. VH1, I think. Never saw it, don't want to ruin the mythology. I have always imagined that the inside is exactly like the "Sister Christian" scene in Boogie Nights with Alfred Molina in that sunken living room...

i live in santa barbara and i've even driven by that house and done the double take a few times :) it's very funny! i think neighborhood interference is one thing if the yard is a scary jungle and the house is falling apart. this is more on the humorous/eccentric side of things.

What the....?

I'm of the mind that if you paid for a property, you should have the right to do whatever you want to decorate it. I can also, of course, understand the other side, how stuff like this can devalue neighbor's property. But honestly, it's really something that ties directly to the first amendment. Censoring the David's (and the like) might seem like a small thing, but it just might be the first in a long line of judgements that take away our freedoms.

(Sorry for the rant, I feel very passionately about stuff like this!)

As for the house, I can't say I'd love to wake up to it every morning, but it does have a sort of eccentric charm. And honestly, kudos to the man for not backing down on his decorating choices.

OK, the folks who bashed Brad Pitt's table purchase -- http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/look/brad-pitts-new-furniture-052645 -- should take a hard look at this vomitous display and then go back and look at the table. See the difference?

This is on Beverly - the Muirfield house is a little to the south..

http://www.seeing-stars.com/ImagePages/NatKingColeHousePhoto.shtml

Excerpt from LA Times (2007) re: cross-burning incident: "...[by 1948, when Nat King Cole purchased his Hancock Park home] the U.S. Supreme Court had barred racial discrimination in restrictive housing covenants, and jazz musician Nat King Cole was fighting to move in against neighborhood protest petitions and a cross-burning on his lawn."

There are a lot of references to the incident - but no hard and fast date.

I am all for having a little fun, but he could have just ignored his neighbors and left it at that. I bet it wasn't exactly cheap to retaliate. I would bet money, too that if and when he ever puts the house on the market a real estate agent would tell him to clean up the appearance and remove all the clutter in the front of the house meaning take down all the white wrought iron and yes, the David statues.

The i"theory" that his neighbors wanted him to take them down because they were homophobic is hilarious.

Cole's neighbors offered to buy him out, but he refused. The LAT's story is wrong, and pretty light on reference.

I always swing by with out-of-town friends to experience just one of the many things you will only find in Los Angeles. And yes, at Christmas time, it's amazing.

Norbert is my hero! Welcome to America, where a man's home is his castle and nobody should tell anyone (short of the health department) what anyone should or should not do with their home. Personally, I can't believe how opinionated others can be when it comes to someone else's taste, style and sense of humor. Anyone here remember the 60's folk song about houses all made of ticky-tacky? You Tube it and have a listen to the lyrics.