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Inside Robin Williams's 1980s Pad, As Featured In <em>Apartment Life</em> Magazine
By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 22, 2014
Modified Sep 3, 2014
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 22, 2014
Modified Sep 3, 2014
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A couple of years ago we purchased some old Apartment Life magazines on eBay, to revisit the way urban dwellers lived in the 1970s and 1980s. The magazine later became Metropolitan Home, part of Hachette Filipacchi Media, and folded in 2010... but it really shined in its former incarnation (which spanned 1974 through 1981). In the March 1980 issue, the magazine featured a long spread on cover boy Robin Williams—their design team helped decorate his apartment, where they even built "an amazing magic closet" to house the clothes of all of his characters.
One of his favorite things in the place: a chromium deco ashtray table with an electric penguin lighter. He told them, "This is my absolute favorite, but don't tell the sheep." (Williams also had a large decorative sheep grazing in the living room.) You can click through to view the entire spread... but where was this apartment, exactly?
Apparently back then, publications were more discreet about celebrity addresses, and the magazine didn't mention what neighborhood, or even what state, this apartment was located in. Here's what they did write: "Robin seems to be everywhere at once: in LA on the Mork and Mindy set; in Malta, filming Robert Altman's musical Popeye; in New York, gigging and giggling with musician friends; at his house in the mountains; back in LA at the Comedy Store as an upstanding stand-up comic. No wonder Robin and his wife, dancer Valerie Velardi, need somewhere to retreat—not a palace, but a place."
There is one mention of LA, but only in reference to a bar that's in the apartment, which they say is "older than the (Hollywood) hills." Another clue: the magazine notes that the apartment is housed inside of a once residential hotel ("for the likes of Cary Grant and Claudette Colbert"). Grant did live in the Warwick Hotel in Manhattan for 12 years, so perhaps it was there?
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apartment
apartment life
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real estate
robin williams
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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