Jeff Linett

Back in 2005 I was hired to shoot a few veteran skateboarders just before the premier of Lords of Dogtown was released.  One of the guys knew of an amazing abandoned house right at the entrance to Beverly Hills. The backyard had a perfect vintage California style concrete pool. This was a perfect vertical ramp and became one of my favorite places to skate. Next to the pool was a house that seemed to have been forgotten.

An Image from "the forgotten home," photographed by Jeff Linett.

The Cutout "Guy" - Photo by Jeff Linett

The interior was extremely dated and had a 1960s/70s feel: lots of faded deep orange tones, large mirrors, amazing bathrooms with perfect window lighting, a pink and teal room, as well as two large areas intended for entertaining.

It had a feel of the Brady Bunch meets where Tony Montana would live.

I was able to shoot there several times. In 2006 I had a fashion editorial shot there, which ran in a publication that was owned by Stedman Graham. In late 2009 I found the house had finally been leveled.  I discovered the pool had been skated on for over ten years; it was a large part of action sports history. Over the years no one harmed the house and it stayed rather untouched like a mirror, showing what once was.

Of course, I don’t always go looking for abandoned houses and was a bit leery of walking in.   Over the years we did explore the entire house and shot in most of it. On my first visit I found the “cutout” guy used in my editorial, “gli uomini così non esistono.”  He was standing in the middle of the living room area.  He was so odd I just kept him. To this day I have no clue who he could be.  A good friend told me he might be a child star from the 50s. He is now a part of the family.

See “the forgotten home” fashion editorial, photographed by Jeff Linett.

See “gli uomini così non esistono – men like this don’t exist” fashion editorial, photographed by Jeff Linett.