No. 32 Asking $6.32 Million

EARVIN (MAGIC) JOHNSON has put his house overlooking Beverly Hills on the market at about $6 million and plans to buy or build a larger home for his wife, Cookie, and their 6-month-old son, Earvin III, whom they call “E.J.” or “Tres.”

The Lakers star retired for a second time from basketball last month. He tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, about a year ago, but his health was not a factor in his decision to retire again, his physician has said.

He listed his home at $6.32 million. “We put his basketball number (32) in the price, because the number has been so good for him,” said listing broker Barbara Robinson. “That was my daughter’s idea.” Michelle Robinson works with her mother at Rodeo Realty, Beverly Hills.

Johnson has owned the home for about 2 1/2 years, having bought it during construction. The Mediterranean-style house has four bedrooms plus staff quarters, a gym and game room in slightly more than 12,000 square feet.

There is also a tennis court and a pool on the nearly two-acre site in the gated community of Beverly Park. “He’s going to try to move to the new side of Beverly Park,” Michelle Robinson said. “He could buy a lot and build there or he might just buy a house that’s already completed.

“He wants something bigger, because they turned one of their bedrooms into a sitting room. That didn’t leave much room for guests, with their baby occupying another of the bedrooms.”

Added Barbara Robinson: “He just needs a little more space bedroomwise plus he would like more land, with bigger acreage.”

PETER MELNICK--who scored the upcoming movie “Only You,” starring Andrew McCarthy and Helen Hunt, and created music for the just aired, four-part PBS mini-series “Dinosaurs”--and his wife, Laini, have purchased a weekend hideaway on an acre of land in Montecito.

Melnick’s grandfather is the late composer Richard Rodgers, who was inspired by the Montecito Inn to write the song, “There’s a Small Hotel ( . . . with a wishing well)”.

The Melnicks bought a 2,500-square-foot cottage with an adjoining studio, where Melnick can work, for $500,000. The couple will maintain their primary residence in Glendale, where they live with their young son, Daniel.

Actress/producer MEREDITH MACRAE, daughter of entertainers Gordon and Sheila MacRae, has listed her Encino home of 18 years at $1,095,000.

MacRae played the voice of Fancine in this year’s “Batman” animated series, but she is probably better known for various TV and film roles dating back to the 1960s sitcoms “My Three Sons” and “Petticoat Junction.” She was also executive producer of the TV shows “Scandals” (1989) and “Born Famous” (1988).

Her home, an old Spanish-style hacienda, has two master suites, guest and maid’s quarters in nearly 5,000 square feet. The house was built in 1948, and a wing was added in 1977.

MacRae is selling her home because her daughter, Allison, is away at college and the actress is “no longer in need of a sprawling, five-bedroom home,” she said through Dave Yobs, who shares the listing with John Kenworth and Florrie Shaen, all of Douglas Properties.

A Brentwood house that was used for decades as a prestigious private school founded by the late Cathryn and John Dye is being restored as a residence by its new owners, writer Dallas Whitney and his wife, Joan, who recently bought the property for about $2 million.

The elementary school was a forerunner to the John Thomas Dye School in Bel-Air, which the Dyes opened in 1949 as the Bel-Air Town and Country School. They later renamed it for their son, who was killed in World War II.

The Brentwood house, which was built in 1924, was used by the Dyes as their Brentwood Town and Country School from 1929 until they opened the school in Bel-Air.

A foreign investor who bought the one-story, nearly 5,000-sq.-ft. Brentwood house from Cathryn Dye’s estate, after she died in 1989, sold it to the Whitneys, according to listing agent Wayne Pridgen of Douglas Properties. Cathryn Dye’s husband died in 1969.

A Beverly Hills home built in the late 1920s by movie pioneer D. W. GRIFFITH is on the market at $3.9 million. It was listed two years ago in the $6-million range.

The five-bedroom, nearly 10,000-square-foot home is owned by Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Kurt Wagner and his wife, Kathy, who added a wing to it, with an indoor swimming pool, since they bought it in the late 1980s. Arleen Ruby of Rodeo Realty has the listing.

BRENTWOOD COUNTRY ESTATES, the Hilton family’s new-home development that opened in August in Mandeville Canyon will be the site of a fund-raiser from 1 to 4 p.m. today to raise funds for the purchase of a grizzly bear habitat in Montana.

Celebs Chevy Chase and Jeff Bridges will participate in a Western-style show and barbecue at the 230-acre development, where the 14 home sites have been priced from $2.5 million with Prudential/Rodeo Realty and Hilton Realty. Tickets are $100 for adults, $50 for children.