Pasadena Prime Time: Brothers & Sisters

One of my favorite shows is  ABC's Brothers & Sisters, a drama about the trials and tribulations of the Walker family which can be seen on Sunday night prime time. While the all-star mega-cast and storyline are top notch, what I really covet is the house.


The exterior of the Walkers manse is actually a 1920's Mediterranean style house in Pasadena while the interiors are shot on the Disney Studio soundstage (and were built in just six weeks). The original design concept is the culmination of ideas from the producers, director and the creative team. The series production designer Denny Dugally explains, "We wanted the Walker family AND their home to be recognizable and inviting. We wanted it to be a home that you'd want to visit week after week, linger and have a glass of wine and talk."

Exterior of the Walker Family abode in Pasadena

The furnishings were chosen by the show's set decorator Bryan Venegas from a variety of low and high end sources in Los Angeles  that run the gamut from Barclay Butera and Baker Knapp & Tubbs to Target. The design duo wanted to make sure they did not create a showroom look with perfectly appointed rooms as they wanted to make sure it looked like a family lived there -- and with clutter.


Perhaps the most popular set is the Walker family kitchen where matriarch Nora Walker (played by Academy Award winning actress Sally Field) is holding court at the room's island. Dugally explains, "We also worked with some film and television promotional houses to secure product placement of some of the appliances including the Sub Zero refrigerator and the Wolf stove." All of the cabinetry is custom and the design scheme consists of cream colored tiles come (from Mortarless Tile in Glendale) and high gloss surfaces balanced with pale yellow grass cloth and dark ebony floors.

Walker Family kitchen

Walker living room above and below

Walker Foyer

Other sets of interest include the New York loft, Kitty's mid century house, kitchen at the Walker ranch house and some interesting bar designs. Looking forward to the next season of designs (and storylines) in September!

NYC Loft set

Kitchen at the Walker family ranch house

San Francisco Bar set

Set for hotel rooftop bar

If you are in the Washington, DC area, I will be moderating a panel with Denny Dugally of Brothers & Sisters and film production designer Kristi Zea whose credits include Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, The Departed and the upcoming Tower Heist with Ben Stiller. Both will share their behind the scenes tricks of the trade and I will show a few highlights from a century of Hollywood art direction. The event will be held on Thursday, April 14th, 10:00 am at the Washington Design Center's Capital Design Days. A book signing of Designs on Film will follow and it's open to the public. Hope to see you there! You can read more about the event here.

Photos: ABC

PS Many thanks for the Stylish blogger nod from The Fashion Historian. Check out her blog on fashion and film.

Tara and Twelve Oaks Revisited

I had the pleasure this past week of speaking at the Margaret Mitchell House on the the making of Gone With the Wind. I have to admit I faced some trepidation as this is a religion for most Atlantans (and all Southerners for that matter). I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and particularly loved meeting the "Windys" who know the book and  film frontwards and backwards. 


While I covered the film and the work of the production designer William Cameron Menzies in my book Designs on Film, my research for the lecture required delving further into the worlds of Tara and Twelve Oaks. And is often the case in most films, the backstory is as interesting as the finished product. 

The designs for Tara were a collaborative effort by production designer William Cameron Menzies and his talented team but the final say so came from producer David O. Selznick. While Margaret Mitchell's book described Tara as a somewhat ordinary "white-washed brick house" in Georgia's Clayton County, Selznick had grander ideas. Many say he was influenced by the Natchez antebellum looks from another popular book and film at the time, So Red the Rose in 1935. To accommodate the producer's vision, Menzies produced some 25 watercolor renderings that were all turned down and 26 was the magic number. (Below is one of the first 25). 

Tara was only a facade and built for $12.059. Trees were fabricated over telephone poles (if you look closely in the title picture, you can see a telephone pole sticking out of the tree!) and blossoms were made by the prop department for the dogwood trees. The structure consisted of three sides, a kitchen and a breezeway with a partial roof. Ah, the magic of Hollywood. 

Selznick Studios, Tara Style

Well appointed interior of Tara

Twelve Oaks was somewhat grander than Tara and Mitchell was none to happy with those designs either. She didn't know where to "laugh or throw up" over the double staircase and compared the plantation house to that of Grand Central Station and the Palace of Potsdam. 

Publicity still on the double staircase

One of the sketches for Twelve Oaks stairway that was not used

Sketch for library at Twelve Oaks....

and actual scene from the film

Tara remained on the studio lot for two more decades and was eventually sold to Desilu Productions. Desi Arnaz had toyed with the idea of refurbishing the facade and turning it into a tourist attraction but sadly it met its demise. The front door was eventually sent to the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta.

According to the rules of the Award, I should:

And now for another piece of business -- Christian of the ultra stylish, ultra Golden Age of Hollywood blog The Silver Screen Modiste (and kudos to one sophisticated blog name I might add) nominated me for Stylish Blogger Award and always appreciate his support and wonderful insights. Christian wrote the book on costume designer Adrian (that makes the second person in my world who did that, Adrian and I must have known each other in past lives) which was published by Monacelli Press. The book covers the incredible work of house of Adrian and the many stars he clothed from Garbo, Harlow and Crawford to Lamarr, Hepburn and Garland. That would be Greta, Jean, Hazel, Hedy, Katherine and Judy to the uninitiated.aYou can read more here. 

According to Christian and the rules of the Award, I should:

1) Thank and link back to the blogger who awarded you with the award.
2) Share 7 Things about yourself.
3) Award recently discovered great bloggers.
4) Contact the bloggers and inform them of the award

So here are seven things about myself:

1.) I LOVE LOVE LOVE movies. (Gee, does it show?) And as I get older, movies are more interesting to me from the thirties to the sixties. Perhaps its the acting, the costumes or the stories from a more simpler time. Moviemaking may not be as evolved as it is now but it's still narrative storytelling at its epic best.

2)  If money were no object (or time and space for that matter) I would move into a movie set. The penthouse of A Perfect Murder or The Fountainhead, the townhouse from Thomas Crown Affair and the beach house from Somethings Gotta Give (I know, its been covered to death) would do nicely. And if cable and air conditioning were available, I could move into the world of Marie Antoinette.

3.) Maybe its me but actors seem to look better in older films. Redford never looked better in The Way We Were, Bogart in Casablanca and Holden in Sabrina. Of course they were younger too.

4). I have over 200 soundtrack songs on my Ipod. My favorites are Chinatown, Out of Africa and Thomas Crown Affair One (Two is pretty good also). And yes, I even downloaded the Sound of Music.

5).  I would love to design a wardrobe of Doris Day inspired sixties costumes. Her frocks for Pillow Talk and The Thrill of It All were wonderful. 

6).  I enjoy a good backstory. The gossip behind the scenes for Casablanca, Cleopatra and Gone with the Wind is fascinating and as good as the movie. Whenever I lecture, those are the stories people want to hear. And who doesn't love some good gossip. I must have been Hedda Hopper in a former life.

7.) If I am flipping the channel and the following movies are on the screen, I stop whatever I am doing and watch - All the President's Men, Gone with the Wind and the Godfather One and Two. GF three just doesn't cut it.

And I am only supposed to list seven, but here is #8:

8). Isn't it interesting how we can remember all the seminal movies of our lives, where we saw them and who we were with? 

And here are four  blogs I nominate for Stylish Blogger Awards. They are fellow writers who I am also proud to call  friends:

One - Emily Evans Eerdmans. Long before we met, I had to have her book Regency Redux on my coffee table. She did one better with her bio/design tome of Madeleine Castaing. You can read Emily's blog here.

Two- The Renaissance designer Joe Ruggiero is literally a cat with nine lives and then some. He has been an editor, television personality, designer, spokesperson, blogger, magazine Editor in Chief,  author, product designer, you name it. Multi talented and writes a wonderful blog on his work and times here. I am a huge fan.

Three - There are many curated blogs out there but the one I go to for direction and the latest and greatest is Stylebeat. Written by former O at Home and House Beautiful editor Marisa Marcantonio (I was first introduced to her by my editor Candace Manroe at Traditional Home), she was a wonderful way of ferreting out just what I am interested in.

Four - Mrs. Blandings. I immediately was drawn to the title of course and she writes a very personal, poignant and  intriguing blog unlike any other. Watching her translate her life in Kansas City to an enjoyable and lovely blog is quite wonderful. She is a cut above and I hope to see her published the the print form one day. I hope a publisher is listening. She also selflessly helped me set up my first blog and we had never even met. 

Photo credits: Selznick International Pictures

The Stylish Films of Liz Taylor

While much has been written about the late Liz Taylor this past week in terms of her life, films, jewelry, trials and tribulations (and yes, her many husbands),  I thought this would be a good time to
look at some of the design-rich films she appeared in during her career.

From a design standpoint, one of my favorite films was director George Stevens saga A Place in the Sun (1951) which many critics consider one of Taylor's best performances. Co-starring her close friend Montgomery Clift, the film was shot on location in Lake Tahoe and set decorator Emile Kuri designed some very chic fifties interiors for the story of an ambitious up and comer who falls for a beautiful debutante.

Taylor and Clift above and below

A Place in the Sun above and below



Also directed by George Stevens, the film Giant spanned the life of the Benedicts, a Texas ranching family portrayed by Rock Hudson and Taylor. Shot on location in Marfa, Texas, the epic western and melodrama all rolled into one prominently featured the Benedict house, a stately Victorian mansion that represented the family's wealth and emotional distance. Designed by Boris Leven, only the front porch and sides of the mansion were erected while the rest was shot in the Warner Brothers soundstage. The film was nominated for best picture and best art direction in l956.

Taylor and Hudson as the Benedicts in early years....

and in later years.

The Marfa, Texas house

Tennessee Williams acclaimed drama of life, marital problems and family living under the same roof is tackled in the Pulitzer Prize winning play turned film Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Taylor starred as the sexually frustrated wife Maggie (the cat) with Paul Newman as ex-football player/alcoholic/husband Brick. Her performance is incredible considering husband Michael Todd died in a plane crash just three weeks into filming. Contrary to popular belief, the film was not shot in the middle of the South but on the Coleman Estate on Long Island's Oyster Bay and the MGM soundstage.

Taylor with Newman

Taylor as Maggie the Cat above and below

Other noteworthy films for both their style and costumes were Butterfield 8 (1960), Elephant Walk (1954), X, Y and Zee (1972) and The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954). Perhaps one of my favorite period interiors is  from one of Taylor's earliest films Julia Misbehaves (1948). The story of a showgirl who returns to her rich and stuffy husband when her daughter gets engaged, many of the furnishings hold up today. I love the chintz slipper chair! If you would like to read more about one of her biggest films Cleopatra, this was covered in an earlier post on Cinema Style. See the Tale of Four Cleos.

Farewell La Liz. Thankfully your work lives on.

Taylor as a lady of the evening in Butterfield 8

Butterfield 8

Sixties period bathroom in Butterfield 8

Co-starring with Dana Andrews in Elephant Walk

The Last Time I Saw Paris with Van Johnson

Lots of great sixties interiors in  X, Y and Zee

Set still for Julia Misbehaves

If you are in Atlanta or Memphis, I will be speaking this week at the Margaret Mitchell House on Tuesday, March 27th at 7:00 pm on the designs of Gone With the Wind to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the film. You can read more here. I will also lecture on Designs on Film at the Memphis Brooks Museum on  Saturday, April 2nd at 2:00 pm. Hope to see you there!

Photo Credits: MGM, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures.

Hollywood Glam

Nothing says cinema style to me like the glamour and elegance of J. Robert Scott. Founded in l972 by Hall of Fame designer Sally Sirkin Lewis, the luxury manufacturer was born out of the need to provide her clients with well made, stylish and uncompromising contemporary furnishings. Since this time the company has become a major design force with showrooms and representatives all over the world.

One of my favorite distinctions of a J. Robert Scott piece is the couture quality, the dressmaker details and fine artisanship. The upholstery techniques, exotic veneers and hand woven fabrics are similar to those of a haute couture house. In an industry often filled with mass produced, quantity over quality items, it's nice to know American workmanship still exists. Made in their factory in local Inglewood, California, it's not uncommon to find a loyal craftsman of twenty years applying a finishing touch with a squirrel brush. Their credo is "each piece must be flawless" and it shows.

Whenever I visit their showroom, I feel as if I have stepped back into the Golden Age of Hollywood. Jean Harlow would have been at home with a box of bonbons and her feet propped on the Bijou Pouf and I suspect Garbo would have "vanted to be alone" on the Garbo Settee.

J. Robert Scott will be hosting a reception for my book  Designs on Film this Wednesday, March 23rd. If you are in the area, please drop by the showroom and see what I am talking about firsthand. Pure luxury! And who knows, if my feet hurt you might find me reclining on a chaise as well. With bonbons.

J. Robert Scott

8737 Melrose Avenue

Los Angeles

11:00 AM - 2 PM

Timothy Demi Lune

Garbo Settee

Georges II Console

La Camellia Fabric

Bijou Pouff

Art Deco Bench

Jean Harlow

Greta Garbo on the ultimate art deco set for The Kiss (1929)

On another note, for those of you who follow CBS's The Good Wife, check out set decorator Beth Kushnick's picks for Christie's Auction House series Arbiters of Style. Congrats Beth!

Photo Credits: J. Robert Scott, MGM

Gatsby Times Five

I reported on the HBO adaptation of the classic Mildred Pierce a couple of weeks ago and here we go again as plans for a remake (this will make the fifth) of the F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Great Gatsby have been in the works for sometime now. Director Baz Lurhmann of Australia, Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge! fame will direct and apparently has chosen Carey Mulligan as his Daisy to star opposite Leo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. Tobey MacGuire will play the role of best friend/narrator Nick Carraway.

Rumors have been swirling for months (first I heard musical and then 3-D) and as of yesterday, the project appears to be stalled in preproduction while Lurhmann mulls its direction. Fox Studios in Australia will double as the gilded gold coast of Long Island. I traveled to Sydney to cover Australia  several years ago and it will be interesting to see how they translate this to film. My guess is the director's talented wife, Academy Award winning designer Catherine Martin will no doubt be the costume and production designer.

Leo DiCaprio

Carey Mulligan

Perhaps the best known of the Gatsby's was the Redford-Farrow Paramount vehicle in l974. While the film did well at the box office, critics were not as kind. Redford appeared to be very ill at ease and out of his element but fit the mystique and style of Jay Gatsby perfectly. Many actresses were up for the role of Daisy (Candice Bergen, Lois Chiles, Katherine Ross, Natalie Wood and Faye Dunaway) and Mia Farrow brought an ethereal quality to the role. Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Steve McQueen were considered for the part of Gatsby. Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay after Truman Capote was replaced as screenwriter.

And an interesting backstory --Ali MacGraw was promised the role by her husband at the time (Robert Evans) who purchased the film rights. She first filmed The Getaway with Steve McQueen, fell in love with her co-star and the rest was history -- along with her part as Daisy.

Mia Farrow

The film won the late Theoni Aldredge an Oscar for her costumes along with a BAFTA for Best Art Direction (John Box who did Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia was the production designer).

The star crossed lovers

Robert Redford

Alan Ladd  and Betty Field played the ill fated lovers in the l949 version (fans of Days of Our Lives will no doubt recognize MacDonald Carey in the role of Nick Carraway). The film was originally slated to star Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney.

Alan Ladd and Betty Field

Great Gatsby 1949

Warner Baxter and Lois Wilson starred in the the original 1926 version. There was also a Broadway play that ran that year and directed by George Cukor.

Lois Wilson and Warner Baxter

Perhaps one of the more visual remakes was the A&E television version starring Mira Sorvino, Toby Stephens and Paul Rudd as Nick Carraway. (Stephens is a British actor who appeared in Jane Eyre).

Mira Sorvino

Toby Stephens

And in a timely twist of fate, the stately mansion Lands End that was supposedly the inspiration for the l974 film, is set for demolition. The 1902 property is located on 13 acres in Sands Point, Long Island and costs are estimated at $4500 a day for upkeep. Valued at 30 million dollars, plans are to build five homes on the property. Sadly there are no takers in this economy -- perhaps Lurhmann might purchase?  Stay tuned.

Lands End

As always, you can't beat the original. Read the book!

Photo credits: Paramount Pictures, New York Post