Condo at Tahoe property where 'Godfather's' Fredo died is Wall St. Journal's House of the Year
"You're nothing to me now," Michael Corleone tells big brother Fredo in "The Godfather: Part II." Not long afterward -- alert! 40-year-old spoiler ahead! -- Michael has the Judas unceremoniously dispatched in a bobbing rowboat on the sparkling waters of Lake Tahoe.
The Tahoe compound where Michael ran the Western part of his mafia business is a real-life property built in 1938. Hoover Dam tycoon Henry Kaiser scheduled its construction at a breakneck pace so that the 17-home estate could host his dam-completion gala, according to a local brokerage, Marmot Vacation Rentals. Its stone boathouses formed a "Godfather" backdrop.
Now the compound is a 22-condo private development called Fleur du Lac Estates. And one of its units -- "West Lake Tahoe's very finest condominium," as the listing would have it -- has just been named the Wall Street Journal's House of the Year, after nearly a million online votes from readers.
Owner Zari Mansouri, president and CEO of Laboratory Skin Care, has been trying to sell the 4,100-square-foot condo since May. She originally listed it at a hair under $7 million; now she's asking $6.5 million, which is (very) arguably a bargain considering that she bought it for $4.6 million in 2006 and then spent $3.5 million on a three-year gut renovation.
Perhaps the most showstopping feature she added is a rather scandalous all-glass shower in the master bedroom, which has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the lake. "It looked super X-rated," architect Rob Rogers jokingly told the Wall Street Journal, but the shower's real intent was to give Mansouri a "spa bedroom" where the lake views dominated, even from the reflection in the vanity mirror.
The four-bedroom, five-bath home also has "13 distinct sound zones and wiring for a professional DJ booth," the Journal reports. Oh -- and the homeowners association dues? $3,900 a month.
Here's the scene from "The Godfather: Part II" in which Michael disassociates himself from Fredo in Tahoe:
And here's Fredo's death (along with a couple of others' -- there's some blood, so don't press play if that bothers you):
Incidentally: Believe it or not, this isn't the only home with a "Godfather" pedigree on the market -- and it's nowhere near the most expensive. That honor goes to the legendary Beverly House, where the horse-head scene from the first "Godfather" was filmed.
See the $115 million Beverly House, setting of the infamous horse-head scene from "The Godfather": Click here for videos (including the movie clip), and click here for photos.