But then he thought about his son. “I love L.A.,” he said, “but I do want Jack to know how to put on a jacket, go to a restaurant, go to a museum, walk on the street, go to a play.”

Mr. Ford first visited his new house in the heyday of Studio 54, which is where, after years of dating women, he realized he was gay.

He was studying art history in his freshman dorm room one night, feeling disoriented about the move to New York. “I just said, ‘Oh my God, please, please, please let something happen to me.’ Knock, knock, knock. I went to the door and there was Ian Falconer, this guy from art history class, in a little blue blazer, and he said, ‘Do you want to go to Studio?’ And I said, ‘Are you kidding me, Studio 54?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m going with some friends.’”

One of the friends was Andy Warhol, who picked them up in a Cadillac limousine. “The stretch Cadillacs were fabulous. There were two jump seats in the back. And it was literally like a movie, everyone got pushed aside and we walked right in the door. ‘Oh my God, here I am, Studio 54 for the very first time’ and I drank a lot, did a lot of coke.”

Even back then, he always visualized the sort of cinematic life he has now, with several Warhols on the wall, including a triptych of vulvas and a “Big Electric Chair.” He sold a fright-wig self-portrait of the artist at Sotheby’s for $32.6 million to pay for his stores in China.

That night at Studio 54 was the first night he ended up with a man, and it “freaked” him out. “And I said to him, ‘This was great but this isn’t really what I do or who I am’ and I went back to my dorm room. And I tried to sort of deny that, and then I remember friends that were gay saying, ‘Why are you dating a girl? You’re really gay.’ I suppose I struggled with it for maybe six months. Maybe it was coming from my family background in Texas where, you know, guys are guys. I was nervous about telling my parents, but they’re liberal Democrats who met at the University of Texas and it was pre-AIDS and they were totally cool with it.” (His parents were real estate agents.)