Historic Carefree home with Hollywood past up for grabs at $4.5 million price
Jun 15, 2023, 4:15 AM | Updated: Jun 16, 2023, 1:58 pm
PHOENIX — A $4.5 million Carefree home with a star-studded and underwear-flying past went up for sale earlier this month.
Built in 1970, the “Slingman Home” boasts a 3,400-square-foot space with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, along with a personal trail, pool, clifftop gazebo and subterranean stairway sculpted out of natural boulders.
The home’s moniker comes from the Slingman family, who commissioned Architect Gary Jones to craft the house amid 2.12 acres of Arizona canyons.
“His whole mantra was to fit a home within the environment,” according to Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty Agent Preston Westmoreland. “So he started building these unbelievable houses in the worst places and they were spectacular.”
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin school hired Jones to teach students extreme terrain architecture for 17 years. But even when he was away from students, he knew how to teach a lesson. He blew the whistle on Hollywood director Orson Welles, who ignored the “no filming” rule on his rental lease and whipped out the lights and cameras for his “Citizen Kane” sequel.
“He scheduled a 10-day film shoot with some of the top people in Hollywood,” Westmoreland said. Jones caught them in the act while he was in the area and the Slingmans served him an order of eviction.
“Welles had been in such a hurry to leave that he left his Size 68 boxers behind,” Westmoreland said. “The Slingman family used to hoist the boxers up the flagpole and probably have a wine toast to it on each anniversary of his eviction.”
Anyone who wants to buy the home at 7102 E. Stagecoach Pass Road can make an offer on the home’s listing here.