He’s Pulling Up Roots in Napa

Oscar- and Emmy-winning producer David Wolper and his wife, Gloria, have listed their home and personal golf course on 30 acres in the Napa Valley at about $9 million.

The Wolpers have decided to reestablish their main residence in the L.A. area. “My wife wants to be closer to our children and grandchildren,” he said. “We’re only spending two months instead of six months out of the year in Napa, so it’s silly of us to have such a large property there.”

The couple had planned to spend most of their time in Napa after selling their Bel-Air home in 1993 to lyricist-composer Jerry Herman, from whom the Wolpers acquired a pied-a-terre near the Sunset Strip.

The Wolpers are now buying a larger house in Beverly Hills, and they plan to buy a condo in Napa, which he describes as “one of the great areas of the world.”

“I stayed active [in TV production] going back and forth, using a fax and a telephone,” the producer, 71, said. He and his son, Mark, head his Warner Bros.-based Wolper Organization, which just established WolperDox as a subsidiary to create documentaries.

“My roots are documentaries,” the elder Wolper said with a chuckle. Marking a half-century in show business, he set the standard for TV documentaries in the ‘60s, and he later produced the ABC miniseries “Roots” and “The Thorn Birds.”

“We just finished two shows,” he said. One is the 10-hour “Celebrate the Century” on CNN, and the other is “Legends, Icons and Superstars of the 20th Century” on Discovery. He’s planning a TNT miniseries based on the bestseller “The Mists of Avalon.”

He loves to work, and he loves to golf. He belongs to three country clubs in the L.A. area, but that won’t be quite the same as owning his own golf course. “There are only five or six personal golf courses in the country,” he noted.

His Vineyard Knolls was a public course in foreclosure when he bought it in 1990. “We planted 200 trees and redid the golf course and the clubhouse, which was built 25 years ago,” he said.

“Only my friends and I play on it, except when we use it for charity events.” His celebrity golf tournaments have raised almost $1 million for the Boys and Girls Club of Napa.

Wolper also put in a lake with a waterfall. “So now we have two lakes, one for fishing,” he said. And he built a 7,500-square-foot main house with a master suite, a guest wing with three bedroom suites, a media room, art studio or office and 1,200-square-foot kitchen. A guest house, pool pavilion, pool and tennis court are also on the grounds.

Jocelyne Monello of Re/Max Napa Valley has the listing.

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Gull’s Way, a 12-acre oceanfront property in Malibu, is on the market at $15 million.

The site, used in hundreds of movies and TV productions, has a 6,600-square-foot main house, a basement, an 1,800-square-foot guest house, a beach house and caretaker’s quarters.

The property had been given to Pepperdine University by Luella “Billie” Ulrich, who died a couple of years ago at 99.

She and her late husband bought the property in the 1940s, then lived there for a while in a mobile home. Her husband had been in the mobile home business. During the late ‘40s, they built the existing home there themselves.

That home has been described as “needing TLC,” being “a little outdated” and even “funky, with hidden rooms.” The home has a fountain and several murals made with Malibu tiles. It also has a pet cemetery. “She was fond of Dobermans,” a source said.

The Ulriches gave the property to Pepperdine with hopes that a conference center could be built there, but the university was not able to get city approval, a source said. A gift provision enables the school to sell the property.

The property includes three parcels, but only one home probably will be allowed to occupy the site, which has ocean views on three sides. The estate only recently came on the market, and home shoppers who have seriously considered buying it include Michael Ovitz and James Cameron, Malibu Realtors say.

Gull’s Way is represented by Dennis Torres and Rex Levy, both with the Real Estate Operations department of Pepperdine University.

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“The Marijuana Mansion,” the Bel-Air house in which its tenant, Todd McCormick, was arrested in 1997 after authorities discovered 4,000 marijuana plants growing there, has been sold for just under $1.5 million to Lior and Erica Zohar, owners of American Groove, a designer and manufacturer of upscale women’s and children’s sportswear.

Lior Zohar, who just turned 30, is from New York, and his wife, 27, is from Miami. He was an entertainment litigator before joining his wife four years ago in establishing the clothing company.

“When we first saw the house, we were told the story, but there was no trace except for a marijuana leaf painted on the inside of the electronic gate,” he said.

The buyers plan to do some renovation work to the five-story house, which has five bedrooms in about 5,700 square feet, built in 1980. “It’s narrow and tall,” he said. The house, on 1.5 acres, also has an elevator, a wine cellar, a pond and a waterfall.

McCormick, who claims he had a right to grow and smoke marijuana under the California medical marijuana law, is scheduled to go on trial in September.

Enedina Sanchez and Jacqueline Baladi of Fred Sands Estates, Cheviot Hills, represented both the buyers and the sellers of the house.