In June 1971, actress Eve Arden and her husband, actor Brooks West, were living a life that placed them far from the image of Hollywood most people associated with them. In a United Press International column written by Hollywood correspondent Vernon Scott and published in the Perry Daily Journal on June 21, Scott noted that the couple owned farmland about an hour's drive from downtown Hollywood and lived on the ranch because they preferred it to inhaling Los Angeles smog. They were part of a wider group of film and television stars who owned ranches and farmland across California and the American West, sometimes as investments and sometimes as places to eventually retire. Scott's column highlighted celebrities including Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Stewart, Randolph Scott, Robert Stack, Jim Nabors, Buddy Ebsen, Jim Arness, Joel McCrea and Ronald Reagan, showing how land ownership had become a notable part of the financial and personal lives of Hollywood figures by the early 1970s. More than five decades later, this snapshot of celebrity land ownership still resonates, offering a reminder that even amid the glamour and uncertainty of Hollywood fame, many stars quietly sought the same grounding, stability and independence that owning land has always represented.
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