Dios Dorados | Gone But Not Forgotten

Pioneering director, producer and studio head Thomas H. Ince was one of the first Hollywood tycoons. As a befitted his wealth and power, Ince was one of the first Hollywood luminaries to live on 34-acre Dios Dorados, less than a mile north of the Beverly Hills Hotel in Bennedict Canyon.

Southern California had never seen such an imposing -- indeed theatrical -- Spanish style mansion . . . or such lavish grounds with a tennis court, swimming pool, stables and riding ring, bowling green, small lake, and trout stream.

Ince's mysterious 1924 death -- after a cruise on publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst's yacht -- fueled rumors that he had been murdered. Was it fellow guest Charlie Chaplin who was supposed to be killed in a lovers' quarrel on board the boat? Or was it Ince who became the odd man out in the lovers' triangle?