A love of Liz Taylor’s

PALM SPRINGS was Hollywood’s backyard in the 1930s when this home was built, but it wasn’t until the late ‘50s that a screen star was connected with the estate.

Elizabeth Taylor came onto the desert scene then and rented the home for several months from the widow of Leo Spitz, its original owner and co-founder of Universal International Studios.

At the end of Taylor’s stay, in 1957, she said “yes” to Mike Todd, producer of the movie “Around the World in 80 Days,” and they wed in Acapulco.

Although she rented, the house was referred to as Taylor’s for years. Her spokesman, Dick Guttman, says that even today Taylor “regards the home with great pleasure.”

Scarcely a year after the wedding, Todd -- Taylor’s third husband -- died in a private-plane crash.

Taylor might have been killed as well except for a bad cold, which kept her off the plane and in bed.

No doubt there are other Hollywood stories connected with the Old Las Palmas estate, but architectural plans and historical papers about the home were lost in a fire in the 1980s.

About this house: The estate was restored in 2007 as developers Rick Erdenberg, Ron Shipka Jr., John Shipka and Tim Otten re-created rooms that made it seem as if Hollywood’s Golden Age had returned to the desert.

Asking price: $9.2 million

Size: There are seven bedrooms and 9 1/2 bathrooms. The 10,226-square-foot Spanish-style compound is on 1.5 acres with the original tiled pool, more than 50 mature palms and an open-air pavilion with a commercial kitchen.

Features: Intricate, iron front gates open to a formal entrance and a fountain. Stained-glass windows flank the front door. The west wing, which is the heart of the house, has a living room reminiscent of the grand salons of the ‘30s.

The east wing has an entertainment parlor with a spiral staircase leading to the observation room and sun deck. The 2,000-square-foot master suite has a bathroom with a chandelier, a private living room and an office. There are two guest suites in the main house and three guest casitas on the grounds.

Other features are a morning room, a formal dining room and a kitchen with a wine cellar and a 1,000-bottle racking system.

Where: The Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs.

Listing agent: Scott Lyle, Scott Lyle Realtors, Palm Springs, (888) 417-3782, www .417westhermosaplace.com.

ruth.ryon@latimes.com

To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, send high-resolution color photos with caption and credit information on a CD and a detailed description of the house to Ruth Ryon, Real Estate Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012. Questions may be sent to homeoftheweek@ latimes.com.