A House Built by Chipmunks
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. didn't plan to build his career on furry cartoon creatures with high-pitched singing voices. But when his father died unexpectedly in 1972, the law-school graduate said he felt compelled to revive "Alvin and the Chipmunks," the franchise that had been his dad's life's work.
The decision was amply rewarded. After a hit television show, records and two commercially successful movies featuring Alvin, Simon and Theodore belting out squeaky covers of contemporary pop hits, the chipmunks are now a billion-dollar empire. Mr. Bagdasarian, 62, lives with his wife and collaborator, Janice Karman, in a 10,000-square-foot peachy pink stucco Mediterranean style house on a terraced green hill overlooking the ocean in Montecito, CA. "For us, building this house gave us the opportunity to do something really the way we wanted to see it," he said.
See Slideshow: 'Chipmunks' Estate
Brightly colored and carefully manicured, the home's exterior almost looks like a house in a Disney movie: painted orange stone corbels surrounding turquoise doors and windows and clay-red roof tiles. The swimming pool is surrounded by huge boulders with a waterfall flowing into it; the property is loaded with pink bougainvillea, purple jacarandas and lots of lemon, lime and orange trees.
Inside, the five-bedroom home is decorated with whitewashed and bleached barnyard floors, sisal rugs, antique English furniture and crystal chandeliers. A common theme is flowers: They're carved on the limestone fireplace mantles, sculpted in the wrought iron frame of the glass-topped coffee table and stitched on the fabric of the sofas, chairs and curtains. Ms. Karman said she started loving flowers when she discovered a sole morning glory outside the Culver City housing project where she grew up.
The other theme, naturally, is the Chipmunks, who are the stars of the property's two-story office and pool house. In one room, Mr. Bagdasarian has recreated his father's office, with his father's desk, chair and clock. The shelves are filled with Alvin and the Chipmunks paraphernalia, from lunch boxes to marionettes, inflatable swimming rings, Halloween masks and boots, spanning from the 1950s to the present.
He said the room is a tribute to his father's work; he himself works downstairs, in a room kept purposely dark behind closed blinds. He calls it "my zone." "I like to work in this atmosphere. I can concentrate better."
In 1958, Mr. Bagdasarian's father wrote his hit "The Chipmunk Song," speeding up his own voice to create the three characters. He won three Grammy awards, and the Chipmunks briefly starred in a television show in the early 1960s. But by the time Mr. Bagdasarian Sr. passed away, in 1972, he had retired the franchise.
The younger Mr. Bagdasarian, who met Ms. Karman in 1975 in a health-food restaurant, convinced her to help him revive the Chipmunks. In 1981, the couple produced a television show with the characters, which led to a weekly television show in 1983.
Working long hours, they decided they wanted a weekend place away from Los Angeles. In 1984 they bought eight acres in Montecito for about $1.4 million and Ms. Karman set to work sketching her ideas, modeling it loosely on the homes they'd seen in Provence. The house ultimately took five years and about $10 million to build. (A nine-bedroom home on four acres nearby is currently for sale for $29.5 million.)
The couple enjoyed their Montecito house so much they decided to live there full-time; they stay in hotel rooms in Los Angeles, 92 miles away, a couple of days a week. Their film "Alvin and the Chipmunks" was released in 2007; it grossed more than $360 million world-wide. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" grossed more than $450 million. The couple is currently working on the third film, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked," due out in December.
Now that their two real children have left home, Mr. Bagdasarian and Ms. Karman they say they may remodel the interior. But the eternal children of the house, the Chipmunks, aren't going anywhere. "We think of them as kids, not as cartoon characters," said Ms. Karman. Vanessa Bagdasarian, 25, their daughter, confirms this. "They were always the more successful siblings," she said.
