What Happened to the Beverly Hillbillies' Mansion?

By Billy Ingram

It happened at a most inopportune time. Just as The Beverly Hillbillies' producers were set to film the Clampett Mansion in color, in anticipation os the sitcom's first color season in 1965, the house they'd used for 3 seasons of exteriors was no longer an option.

The owners of the Kirkeby Mansion at 750 Bel Air Road, the actual exterior of the Clampett home, had been inundated for years by fans showing up at the door in Bel Air looking for Granny and Ellie Mae. Now a widow, Mrs. Kireby was sick of the intrusions, refusing to allow her home to be available for the production any longer. So there were no color shots of the iconic Clampett mansion that weren't recreations in a studio.

This clip from Season 3, episode 4 offers a rare helicopter tour of the house, giving you an idea of just how enormous it really was.

Paul Henning explained, "We asked that no one reveal the real location of the mansion. Everyone went along with us then I think it was, I hope I'm not saying the wrong thing, but I think it was TV Guide that said the actual Beverly Hillbillies Manson is located at... and gave the address. From that day on these wonderful people who had given us permission to film there were besieged by people just driving up to the house and saying, 'Where are the Beverly Hillbillies?' "

"Mrs. Kirkeby, her husband had just been killed in an airplane crash, she said, 'I hate to do this but we can no longer have this location known because people are driving us crazy." For Henning it was a great blow, "Because we were just ready to go to color and we were preparing to go up to the mansion and reshoot all of our stock shots with color. But we certainly couldn't blame Mrs. Kirkeby because she was kind to let us film there in the first place. So we faked it."

Completed in 1935, here's what the Kirkeby's home, now known as The Chartwell Mansion, looks like today - the front entrances are now located around the corner, no part of the property is visible from the road. It was the most expensive home in the United States in 2018 after it was placed on the market for $350 million. In 2019, it finally sold for around $150 million, still the highest sale price for any house in California history at that time.

CNBC: "Buried underneath the main residence is a subterranean level that dates to 1935. This lower level is accessible by elevator. It opens into two tunnels that lead to different areas of the estate."

What Happened to the Beverly Hillbillies' Mansion?

The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top 20 most-watched programs on television for eight of its nine seasons and accumulated seven Emmy nominations during its run.

The Clampetts' truck was a 1921 Oldsmobile Model 37 modified by George Barris (designer of the 1966 Batmobile) that now hangs from the ceiling at Planet Hollywood in Disney Springs.