Back in November of 2016, the John Lautner-designed Palm Springs ‘Mushroom House’ of Bob Hope changed hands for $13 million, bringing to an end a protracted marketing timespan which began three years before, when the house popped up for sale on the open market tagged at $50 million. Billionaire investor Ron Burkle was the buyer.

It turned out that the architecturally daring home was one of two Hope-associated West Coast residences Burkle would purchase over the next couple of years. The second property, which the comedian and actor kept in Toluca Lake and which is known formally as The Bob and Dolores Hope Estate, went to Burkle for $15 million in the spring of 2018. That home is back up for sale four years later, tagged at $29 million on the nose.

The comedian and his wife had the home custom built in 1940, hiring John Elgin Woolf to design it. When Burkle purchased the 5.16-acre property, he said he had plans to preserve it. Unfortunately, a bid to have the estate designated a Historical-Cultural Monument failed prior to his purchase. So Burkle acquired the ten-bedroom to restore it, keeping many of Hope’s original touches intact, including his oak-paneled library.

The sprawling 15,000 square-footer features the original ‘joke vault’ in which Hope protected his gold; the outstanding shared space is the great room, a cavernous gathering spot which now features natural-toned plank hardwood, its original stone fireplace and accents, and a wall of sliding glass that opens to the grounds — which still include the golf course where Hope honed his secondary craft.

Burkle’s other singular real estate purchases include Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson’s retreat in Los Olivos, California; he paid $22 million for the 2,700-acre property. Burkle also saved the Ennis House in Los Angeles, the so-called ‘Blade Runner House’ designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Mayan Revival style, which he picked up for $4.5 million, restored, and sold in the fall of 2019 for $18 million.

Burkle’s net worth is around $2.2 billion.