> I was just listening to a radio show that included a clip from a
> 1968 on-the-scene news report about the Sharon Tate murder. The
> newsman was describing the house where the murder took place; it
> was supposedly among the poshest villas in Bel Air, which was the
> poshest section of movie-star L.A.
Bel Air isn't just for movie stars. Ronald Reagan lived and died there. It's also where the Rolling Stones lived in a borrowed house when they were in Los Angeles working on Exile on Main Street. That's a funny little fact because Mick Jagger was quoted saying the album title came from Main Street Los Angeles, which he said was "real inner city" and a place where you can see "pimps, knives flashing." Maybe Jagger saw Main Street from a limo on his way to Bel Air.
And the Tate/Polanski house on Cielo Drive wasn't in Bel Air. It was in Benedict Canyon, which is where rock stars moved when they got money. Think Joni Mitchell's ladies of the canyon, only with a bankroll.