The Futterman Residence
Location: 23320 Canzonet Street, Woodland Hills, California, United States
Surnames/tags: futterman 23320_canzonet_street woodland_hills, los_angeles, california
23320 Canzonet Street is a single family home located in Woodland Hills, California. Built in 1964, its original owners were Edmund and Shirley Futterman, who lived there with their two children.
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Design and early history
The sprawling, 2,319 square foot, ranch-style house was designed by architect Frank Wallach in 1963. The property was purchased by the Futtermans before the house was built. They made some modifications to the original floorplan to suit their needs.
The family moved into the house on 31 August 1964. A swimming pool was installed in the backyard in 1966 (much to the displeasure of their teenage son, who enjoyed playing croquet on the lawn). The house withstood the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and the 1994 Northridge earthquake, though it sustained some minor damage in the latter. Aside from some work to repair the damage caused by the earthquake and a few other minor updates, the house remained mostly in its original condition for the duration of the time that the Futtermans owned the house.
The house was well-decorated with the antiques Ed collected (he was particularly interested in coin-operated slot machines), Shirley's many abstract paintings and collages, and the various trinkets they brought back from their travels.
Use as a filming location
In 1969, Ed and Shirley's son, Matt, an avid amateur radio enthusiast, was featured in an educational film entitled "The Ham's Wide World".[1] The film, narrated by Arthur Godfrey, featured Matt at his radio station in his bedroom, talking to a man in Mexico. This footage was later used in another film, entitled "This Is Ham Radio," which Matt narrated.[2][3][4]
In the mid 2000s, the Futterman house was one of several houses in the neighborhood that attracted the attention of various film production companies, who offered to pay the residents to allow them to film TV advertisements in their homes. Ed and Shirley put up with their house being in disarray on several occasions while the filming was taking place, making sure everything was put back in place once the shoot wrapped. Among the TV spots filmed in their house include a commercial for Dentyne Ice in 2006 and an commercial for H&R Block's "Toss Out Your Bills" instant win game in 2007.
Later history
Ed and Shirley continued to live in the house long after their two children grew up and moved out. They considered moving on several occasions as they struggled with age-related health problems. Ultimately however, they couldn't bear to leave their home. Their grandson, who lived in the Bay Area with his parents, immensely enjoyed visiting the house and spending time with them and has many fond memories.
The house was sold in 2013, after Ed and Shirley had both passed away. It had been in the Futterman family for nearly 50 years.
Sources
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bJPY96NaSs
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-ydrdTPhM
- ↑ Personal recollection of events witnessed by A. Futterman as remembered 30 Dec 2018.
- ↑ https://www.nccc.cc/jug/2019/02jug2019.pdf
Memories: 1
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When you walked into the house, it was almost like walking into a museum. The first thing you'd see was one of Grandma's beautiful abstract paintings, and on a table in front of it was an antique Edison Home Phonograph, one of the many antiques Grandpa collected, which he'd play for me on occasion. The living room had a blue-green color scheme which complimented the water from the pool in the backyard, visible through the window. It was very comfortable; lots of places to sit down like the big blue sofa in front of the window, or Grandpa's big green recliner near the fireplace. There were many shelves full of little trinkets, a piano, and another one of Grandpa's antiques; a National Cash Register. Next to the living room was the formal dining room, but as my grandparents were not very formal people, they had it set up as a den instead. And in that room was my favorite of all of Grandpa's antiques, a vintage Wurlitzer jukebox filled with old 78 RPM records which Grandpa loved playing for me; it was because of him that I developed a liking for Big Band-era jazz which none of the kids at school could appreciate.
The house had four bedrooms. The master bedroom, located at the back of the house facing the backyard, had a walk-in closet with a light. When I was little, Grandpa and I used to play a game where I'd stand inside the closet, clap my hands, and "magically" make the light turn on and off. It wasn't until I was older that I figured out that Grandpa was flipping the light-switch, which was located outside the closet, on and off when I clapped my hands (no wonder the trick only worked when Grandpa was standing outside the closet door). Across from the master bedroom (facing the front of the house) was the room that had been my dad's bedroom when he was living there. It had a built-in desk that went along the entire length of the back wall; they had it built so that Dad could have a place to set up his amateur radio station. After Dad moved out, Grandpa used this room as his office. Next door to this room was the room that had formerly been my aunt's bedroom. After she moved out it was set up as a an office for Grandma and was also used as a guest bedroom, with a sofa-bed for when guests would stay. Across the hall from this room (facing the backyard with a good view of the pool) was the fourth and smallest bedroom. This room was known as the "workroom"; it was mainly used by Grandma as an art studio where she made her colorful abstract paintings and collages. There were also a bunch of shelves where Grandpa kept a lot of the antiques he collected. He seemed to have a bit of an obsession with gumball machines and other coin-operated devices; there was at least one gumball machine in pretty much every room of the house, but this room housed the bulk of his collection. Lots of fascinating things in here. This was the room that I slept in when I stayed at their house.
One thing about the house that I don't think I have ever observed about any other house I've been in is that it was spotlessly clean and well-organized (with the possible exception of the workroom), yet still seemed like it was lived in. That's why, even though the house retained many of the features that it had when it originally was built, it never really looked "dated" to me. Everything was very well kept.
I could go on and on describing the house. I really wish we could have somehow kept it in the family even after my grandparents passed, but we all had established our lives in the Bay Area, and though I have a lot of family down there, SoCal is way too hot for me. Having seen recent photos of the house and the renovation work that was done after we sold it, it is almost unrecognizable to me now. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to see it again. For now though, the memories I have will suffice.