by SY

The atmosphere just seemed right for a silver screen study. The talented, the mythical, or the opulent could take me on a journey of reading and research. The reason I’m sharing this bit of inane info is because I love the luxury of research. For quite a long while I could turn all this writer’s schmooze into lectures that people wanted to hear and that’s exactly what I did. From all my lectures, this is my favorite topic presented on cruise ships, universities and invitations to speak. I hope you like Part Two of Hooray For Hollywood.

P.S. There are even more parts coming via cyberspace, but not AI———no way——!!!

It is important to me to share my own tale.

MORE HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD! …PART TWO

There’s still a lot more that occurred in those early movie days so please stick around. I promise not to tarry.    The early movie doers and shakers generated a madcap rush to action. They would not be stopped. No way!
Remember, this all happened in that small po-dunk town called Hollywood where stars twinkled in their nightly firmament. And, we all know what happened in Hollywood when those nightly kazillion of stars sparkled and shimmered and descended onto that semi-arid landscape…

Every night, every day, every hour, Hollywood’s Celestial radar shone from afar;

we just had to pay our dime…or eventually turn a knob, push a button to see a…gulp…

MOVIE……..STAR!!!

They each created their own orbit and were spurred forward by inspiration and innovation. Epitomizing soulful and expressive starring roles was a stage actress who would help propel silent movies to the next level.

LILLIAN  GISH

While visiting the little village of Hollywood in 1912, Lillian and her sister Dorothy Gish met their friend Gladys Smith whom they knew from previous stage engagements. Gladys shared that the (soon-to-be) great and extraordinary director D. W. Griffith was looking for two girls to play sisters. He was elated after observing their talents that came from their stage background and then…he made Lillian a star!

(Incidentally, Gladys Smith’s name was changed to Mary Pickford who was an equally celebrated and prominent movie star.)

Fifteen years later, Lillian Gish was titled “First Lady of the Screen” by Vanity Fair magazine.  Her film career would last 75 years and she was accredited with pioneering fundamental performance techniques by using her own complex range of emotions. She helped lead the way into transforming movies into art. Gish considered D.W. Griffith the greatest director who ever lived. He taught her how to edit films, select the best takes, and operate a camera. She went on to  direct her one and only one film with her sister Dorothy as the lead…Remodeling Her Husband 1920

1919 Silent Movie—”BrokenBlossoms,”   Lillian  was age 26 in the above scene.

At age five, Lillian Gish was earning $10.00 a week with a traveling stage company. Fast forward to age 77 when Miss Gish received a special Academy Award for her “superlative artistry and for distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures.” She died in 1993 at the age of 99.

Another group of sprinkling night stars descending onto that Hollywood hamlet were the Art Directors.  They could transform the every day into the extraordinary, the imaginary into the realistic, or the realistic into the imaginary by their artful settings. Art Directors could influence decorators/designers to give our homes, offices and stores a new look, evoke feelings or metamorphose the uncanny. Wilfred Buckland’s use of over-scaled, richly textured drapery and expensively detailed furnishings instructed a generation of designers to follow and learn. This new industry would be guided by the audacious, the experimental, and the unconventional.

In the vanguard was the above mentioned Wilfred Buckland who became Hollywood’s first Art Director. Straight from dominating Broadway productions with his stagecraft in 1914, his career lasted through the late 1920’s.

One of the largest sets ever constructed for silent movies was Robin Hood, 1922.

The Director was Allen Dwan and his Art Director Wilfred Buckland constructed Robin Hood’s towering medieval Nottingham Castle. It was the largest set Hollywood had ever seen during the silent era and the stone spiral staircase became a film icon. The Los Angeles Times review gasped: “Greatest of all the settings is, of course, the castle which for months has been a sort of landmark of cinema enterprise on Santa Monica Boulevard.” Buckland cleverly concealed slides and trampolines around the set, so  that Robin Hood could bound onto balconies and glide down the curtains.

Nottingham Castle 1922——Wilfred Buckland, Art Director

In 1924, he was named one of the ten individuals who had contributed the most to the advancement of the motion picture industry since the time of its inception.  A 1980 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London advanced the argument that “everything we know as ‘Hollywood’ traces to Wilfred Buckland”.  Wilfred Buckland was among the first inductees in the  Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame.

And whom to fill the shoes of Robin Hood——the exuberant Douglas Fairbanks, one of the biggest movie stars at the time.

Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks loved swashbuckling films and why not——he was the American actor best known for being the first star to play the masked Zorro. His athleticism had him swinging from ropes, performing twirling and whirling handsprings over terrain and leaping from rooftops. His huge fan base loved his acrobatics that were done with a broad smile and were instant hits. Fairbanks was popularly known as “The King of Hollywood” and was not only a talented actor, but excelled at film making and business. Hollywood history would dub him “one of the greats”. Extras (actors) being directed by Allen Dwan using a mega Megaphone.

                                  Robin Hood, 1922.

One of the heads of Paramount pictures was concerned that the sets were too dark and so someone came up with the title “Rembrandt Lighting” and furthermore  “Rembrandt Lighting” would be sold under the heading known as Art Films. Hollywood knew how to be resourceful.

Also, above the hugely constructed tower, a new endgame appeared segueing into early marketing——high above the sky a billboard was placed  advertising “Robin Hood.” It was the first motion picture to have a Hollywood premiere.  Robin Hood was one of the most expensive films of the 1920’s and a time when American cinema would dominate the International Film Market.

Of his many swashbuckling films, The Thief of Bagdad, 1924 was said to be Douglas’ favorite because he was able to display “catlike, seemingly effortless movements that was as much dance as gymnastics”.  A magic rope, a flying carpet, leaping from rooftop to rooftop  the enchanting flying horse Pegasus and frightening monsters are featured among the gigantic sets that depict scenes from Tales of the Arabian Nights. The legendary Art and Production Designer William Cameron Menzies used advanced trick photography such as a wonderfully gnarled tree that steadily and purposefully turned into an old man,

and an under the ocean scene filled with kelp where attached wires make a swaying motion. Amazingly the ocean scene actually had not one drop of water.

Flying over the city of Bagdad on the Magic Carpet, 1924.

Behind the scenes, that is the “romance scenes,” Douglas had a real-life romantic partner——the equally famous and popular star Mary Pickford. The discreet, hush-hush affair posed a weighty problem——they each had a spouse.  Also, Fairbanks had a son from his first marriage who would become an equally famous actor in his own right——Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

It helped that the romantic duo were together in 1917 touring the country along with their close friend Charlie Chaplin. They were selling World War I Liberty Bonds creating a wonderful excuse for the secret lovers to be together, but they were very worried that a divorce would ruin their careers and tried to hide their feelings and romance from the public.

In 1919 through an effort to control their independence from the controlling movie studios, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chapman and D. W. Griffiths formed United Artists film studio giving them control over artistic sway and finance. It permanently altered the film business.

Finally, in 1920, they quietly divorced their spouses and married each other.

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks  1920

Their popularity with the public was enormous and they were dubbed “Hollywood Royalty”. As a wedding gift to his bride, Fairbanks bought a huge estate in Beverly Hills as a wedding gift that they called “Pickfair”.

Pickfair: A home renown for entertaining and hospitality.

Silent movies were Douglas Fairbanks’ forte. He loved showing off his athleticism and balletic moves making some hazardous stunts look effortless and in his future eschewed “talkies”.  But his business acumen, plus his stage and screen knowledge kept him involved in all facets of movie making. In 1921, he, Pickford, Chaplin, and others, helped to organize the Motion Picture Fund to assist those in the industry who could not work, or were unable to meet their bills.

Section of the Pickfair Living Room Design:

Pickfair was an elegant English-style home with leaded-glass windows, parquet flooring, ceiling frescoes, two new additional wings, an L-shaped veranda and a copper roof supported by heavy wrought iron. Ample seating for the multitude of guests entertained at Pickfair shown here in shades of golden tones. Pickfair’s interiors were filled with decorative arts and antiques, including English and French period furniture from the early 18th century.

Notable items in the collection are thought to have included gilded neo-classical and Rococo antiques, and Louis XVI furniture. The four-story, 22-room mansion featured many Chinese objets d’art, collected by the couple on their many visits to Asia. These included a pair of fine Chinese carved rhinoceros tusks and a Thai damascene silver lotus form covered urn, which was a gift to Pickford from the King of Siam.

Pickfair was said to have the first in-ground swimming pool in Hollywood, large enough for the Pickford’s to canoe.

Douglas was elected first President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences and he presented the first Academy Awards at the Roosevelt Hotel. Fairbanks and Pickford divorced in 1933  and each married new partners. Mary Pickford continued to live at Pickfair.  On December 12, 1939, Fairbanks suffered a heart attack and died later that day at his home in Santa Monica at the age of 56.

At the same time that Fairbanks was vaulting over rooftops, there was an abundance of other consequential silent films such as a scarily malevolent film made in the German Expressionist movement, The Cabinet of Caligari, 1920.

It is now considered to be the first and greatest horror film in that genre and said to still be frightening to watch with its  scary monsters, decomposing bodies, and grotesque art scenes.

Here’s a film trailer with discussion of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  research by J.A.Hernandez \

The Movie: Directed by Cecil B. DeMille starring Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson, Anatol dreams of spicing up his marriage and proceeds to seek excitement as does his wife. The film had pricey sets, lavish costumes and elegant lighting with outstanding actors of that time.

Design: A cozy and comfortable corner for conviviality or contentment with a draped tablecloth, slim bamboo chairs and a table set for dining. The background has patterned wallpaper two/thirds up the wall leading to pleasing flowered window boxes. Light is generated by the paned clerestory windows and two strange looking chandeliers. Clerestory windows originated in religious temples/ churches and are placed high on the wall. They are excellent for natural light to flood the area.  Natural light has a powerful and often positive effect not only on mental health, but also for the older eye.  They became popular in mid-century architecture. (Clerestory is pronounced clear story.)

2016 Roger Ebert 18th Annual Film Festival” A showing of L”Inhumane 1924:

“…no other silent film, perhaps, could match its sheer stylistic and imaginative daring.”

According to Ebert  “their real concern all along was with style, visual tempo, subjective states, delicate textures and private sensibility… The aim was less to tell a story…”

Visual techniques were interesting and prolific. They conveyed a scene showing a dining table resting on pontoons in the swimming pool. During the movie swans floated by the table.

Dining: Table on pontoons in the pool——L’Inhumane 1924 Design: It was the goal of French Director L”Herbier to showcase France’s contributions to the decorative arts. He went all out displaying painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and, of course, fashion. It was a veritable who’s who of Parisian artistic greats. Represented as contributors were: the glassmaker René Lalique; the Cubist painter, sculptor, and filmmaking compatriot Fernand Léger;  architect Robert Mallet-Stevens; and the famed fashion couturier Paul Poiret, to name a few. The leading star, Georgette Leblanc wore Poiret’s latest. L’Herbier delivered one of film’s history’s first haute couture touchstones.  A century later it stands as a firsthand visual account of one of Paris’ greatest artistic periods and made L’Herbier one of the first filmmakers to integrate couture and cinema.

(As quoted in telling the movie’s story, Ebert wrote: “Of course, L’Inhumaine must be one of the most absurd Great Movies ever made.” The ludicrous plot concerns a femme fatale and her four suitors.”)

Sy’s Salient Points: I wrote the name Robert Mallet-Stevens in Italics in some of the credits for L’Inhumane because I wanted to draw attention to the fact that he was a subject from other research. He was profiled in parts of my lecture ,”Modernism” which was presented at Design Conferences.

As a successful Architect, Furniture and Set Designer, Mallet-Stevens reflected the avant garde spirit of the twenties.

Research used in this blog came from the Hurray for Hollywood Lectures by Sheila Yates, Wikipedia, Britannica and other internet sites.

Hooray for Hollywood Blog Pictures: Original slides from SY lectures, Wikipedia, Britannica, Varying Websites

Happy Easter Darling Blaire

“To be continued…” Part Three

Lucky me to be offered the opportunity to speak at sundry design conferences. I loved exploring topics that I hoped listeners would enjoy and it was fascinating to think about researching the design world of Hollywood. There were countless topics and opportunities, literally box office gold just waiting for me. I hope you think so and like Hooray for Hollywood. – SY

There was a village out West where they built dreams that promised  you…. gasp… escape???

Casaba field in West Hollywood. 1918

Surely this patch of Earth could not be be the site for a new megalopolis with an advanced species?
Are you serious???   You bet I am!  Listen to their spiel———Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
Come on in folks, join our cavalcade of serendipitous tales and meet the ‘bees knees’!
For a few nickels and dimes we can make your worries vanish.
Mosey on in, take a chance on us and your imagination will soar, your heart will palpitate as far as you dare it to go!

We promise to bestow upon you exotica, fantasy, intrigue, sophistication, comedy AND, of course the flame of true love which in this village conquers just about anything and everything. You will love our gleaming satins and silks, our lavish sets, our sophisticated stars and our surreal who-dun-its.
We dare you to flee from your everyday run-of-the-mill reality, that’s our sincere contract to you… and then… in that village out West, the film was rolling. It was a new era!

HURRAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

In the theatre, there is little detail. Everything is visualized from one set angle. But when we watch movies the details can become the catalyst of an emotion with camera movement and close-ups. It is the camera that refines and enlarges with subtle adjustments.

Initially movie sets were painted by theatre scenic artists, there were no budgets and each mood was simply a painted background filmed with a stationary camera. It would take the pioneering wizardry of the illusionist and showman Georges Melies in the early days of cinema to invent methods of trick photography. Georges built a movie studio in 1896 outside Paris with a glass roof and glass walls. His glass building allowed Melies to film throughout the daylight hours in natural light.

Georges Melies Glass Box

He transformed and created movie magic with his 1902 movie,”Trip To The Moon.”The film had enormous success in France and around the world with Georges playing the chief scientist. The background was a painting and the foreground a stage set where his actors and props appeared and disappeared through trapdoors, chutes and revolving panels.

There was always a great sense of fun with his marvelous effects of fantasy and illusion. In this lift-off scene, a lady chorus-line honor guard offers a rousing sendoff—— aka a 1902 pin-up, if you will!

Georges used 30 sets showing a pockmarked moonscape, laboratories and launching pads. The movie lasted 14 minutes and was the first movie to be shown internationally.

 The moon was balanced on wires enabling it to move forward toward the space capsule holding the four explorers.

(Film producers in the United State made illegal copies of the film creating large sums of money for themselves prompting Georges to open an office in New York city that pursued counterfeiters and pirated copies. (Interestingly one of those producers who illegally copied this film was Thomas Edison.*)

Continuing his successful eponymous trick films, Melies has a group of tourists attempt a trip to the sun using diverse methods ot transportation, partially following another Jules Verne storyline. Film historians still consider this Impossible Voyage movie as exceptional movie making.

The Impossible Voyage 1904

Melies was the first director to plan his films and shoot them in logical order where each scene was packed with details. It showcased his trademark visual effects and he used color tints in all of his films. Melies success continued eventually creating nearly 500 movies until 1913.

In time, other foresighted producers/directors rose to the forefront of the fast moving film world and Georges was left behind.
Although always highly-respected, by the late twenties Georges had no viable income and eventually became impoverished for the rest of his life. He and his second wife spent long hours selling candy and small toys at a stand in the Montparnasse train station.   Later, friends found rooms for them in a cinema retirement home.

Georges Melies was awarded the French Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur in 1931

A 1914 landmark film was created in Italy telling the early life story of Cabiria, a young girl who survives a major earthquake only to be captured and sold into slavery. Spectacular pageantry includes larger-than-life gold elephants supporting a Roman roof.

Cabiria 1914

Cabiria, a young girl, (also the title of the movie) arrives in Carthage during the Punic Wars where she is to be sacrificed to the Child-eating Statue Kronos.

“Kronos”, the Child-eating Statue.  This film had no shortage of lavish costumes, gigantic sets and grandiose special effects. Different landing and stair levels allowed the actors to move between battle scenes. Fires were lighted and blazed not only to portray the eruption of Mt Etna, but the burning of the Roman fleet, Hannibal crossing the Alps, religious rituals and epic rescue scenes. Cabiria is saved and is freed as a young adult.  The actual statue of Kronos is in the Cinema Museum in Turin.
**Available on Home Video. 2000 DVD edition—Kino International on Video

The  futuristic film Il Perfido in Canto 1916 features avant-garde design using bold, graphic geometric shapes, swirls and spirals. It is the story of a dazzling enchantress seducing married men.

She seduces the husband of her best friend. Her friend dies by suicide thus completing her downfall as…

she then commits her own suicide.

Thousands of miles away, sunny California would offer sunshine and the natural light needed for outdoor stages where the general approach to movie-making was to build unroofed stages covered with gauze cloth to shield the glare of the sun.

But it was the constructed set that would drastically change the format of movies when carpenters and artists began building them. Reflectors were often used in early outdoor stages for illumination.

THE WORLD OF W. D. GRIFFITH: “Design should ALWAYS be the background to an emotion because movies are made emotion by emotion, not picture by picture. What is important to the emotional content of the scene is HOW the light arrives and reflects.”

Charlie Chapman called Griffith “the teacher of us all” as he proceeded to develop close-ups and fadeouts, cross-cutting, night photography, subtitles, editing, deep focus and battle-scenes that included staged battle with hundreds 0f extras made to look like thousands in his blockbuster film Birth of a Nation. His 1915  film glorified the Ku Klux Klan. Riots broke out in the North over its violence and racial content.

Birth of a Nation 1915

The three hour film told the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War and two intertwined families bitterly opposed to each other because they are fiercely protective of their own North and South viewpoints. The sons from each family enlist to fight in the Civil War and when one of the  Confederate’s son is injured, he is sent to a battle field hospital where his nurse is the sister of the Northern soldier/son.

And lo and behold, true love transpires between more members of both families and despite many heartrendingly great sequences, marriages ensue between the two families.

Griffith Created Dynamic Civil War Action

Not only battle scenes depicted devastation of lives lost, but Northern carpetbaggers and vengeful Union politicians commanded forceful impact.

A renegade Negro tries to impose his will on a Southern daughter thus causing the Ku Klux Klan to be reborn. It was the first 12-reel movie and lasted three hours. A completely original musical score was composed where some theaters used a full orchestra while the rank and file used accompanied music as small as a piano and a violin.

Griffiths was highly criticized for using white actors in black face. Bona fide black players were only used in crowd scenes. It was banned in eight states convincing Griffiths to re-edit portions and even delete some KKK references in 1921.    The NAACP came to the forefront to organize demonstrations throughout the country, but yet the film drew massive attendance. Griffith’s film is estimated to have earned $18 million in its first few years.

And that fortune was completely spent on Griffith’s next film Intolerance 1916 where his imaginative concepts emphasized four different stories. But, he did not tell them in sequential order and kept exchanging anecdotes from story to story. Audiences found it difficult to follow his epic visions because the parallel storylines were not only separated by centuries, but by the use of a symbolic image showing a mother rocking a cradle between the different time periods. She was identified as The Dear One.

The Fall of Babylon in 539 BC, (no effort or money spared to create this court)

A Biblical Story in AD 27,——”The Woman Taken in Adultery

A French story of St. Bartholomew’s massacre in France in 1572

and A Modern US Crime Story in 1914 Showing Striking Workers.

In the Babylon story, ramparts were built for chariots to race and there was room for over 3000 extras. Cameramen filmed above the crowd scenes sitting in a tethered balloon. All of his old and many new technical devices were employed. Griffith was hurt and angry that critics derided and attacked Birth of a Nation  because he perceived he was treated with intolerance. He hoped to counterbalance his movie Intolerance by telling stories of true intolerance.

United Artists: Dreaming of retaining and taking their own destiny into their own hands, four actors joined together to create a new studio, United Artists. One major change occurred for them when they took control of the distribution of their own films from the monopoly run by the studios in 1919. The four were Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith.

Griffith produced more successful movies throughout the teens and continued carrying on with film making throughout the twenties and early thirties. However his later films never received the acclaim of his earlier successes.

He abandoned film making to live in isolation and was left behind for the rest of his life.

Actor Donald Crisp said, “It was the tragedy of his later years that this active, brilliant mind was given no chance to participate in the advancement of the industry.”

There were numerous posthumous awards for this iconic filmmaker and storyteller. A creator who transformed movies to capture and share the heights of imagination.

Sy’s Salient Points:

Pioneer movie makers included The Lumiere brothers, France 1895.

Thomas Edison developed the cinema camera 1890.

Georges Melies was an early pioneer of special effects.

Robert W. Paul a foremost pioneer in England.

D. W. Griffith created narrative film as we know it today.

When I originally presented Hooray for Hollywood at my first ASID Conference in Baltimore, MD, the web was nonexistent. All my information was referenced through time-consuming research about this storied past using books and magazines, some as far back as the early 1900’s.  My slides evolved by first using a stationary camera and then transferring the negatives into slides. Some of the lighter slides in this blog are from that period.

Hooray for Hollywood Lecture, Initially presented at the following varying venues: ASID Conferences  Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY,  The Mart, Chicago, IL, Atlanta Convention Center, AG,  Various Cruise Ship Lines, Various  California Universities

Hooray for Hollywood Blog Pictures: Original slides from SY lectures, Wikipedia, Britannica, Varying Websites

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Darling Blaire.

“To be continued…”

Believe it or not…

It was strongly suggested that I was actually asked to step up to the plate and be a sort-of-slave.

There were multiple choices available, but oh nooo, the “power-that-be” were pushing my one un-choice!  Nothing weird or interesting like asking me to teach tae kwon do, nope, and not because they liked me a lot, they did not… They liked their program/agenda a lot and wanted lots of us to like it…

Please join me as I look back on a most befuddled, baffled and bewildered time. I was about to embark upon a new job description for which I was totally unprepared.

As so often happens with me, my imagination circumvents and glosses over, under and around——in this case it was downright scary for me to be the person in charge of a loved one’s health. Therefore, not only did my imagination take over, (honestly, all by itself,) it concocted the following outlandish escapade…

THE CAPRICIOUS CAPER

My First Big Thought:

Impossible…absolutely impossible!
Me…be a nurse? No way!

In the beginning…Eons Ago:

I was that hopelessly squeamish kid! The tippy-toe who did not want to step into that mucky, smeary puddle in her bare feet. That said, I wasn’t much better as an adult;   This was a moonshot on their part of telling me to step up to the plate and be a nurse…unthinkable,  They would not…

They did!

Sooner then you can say…Jackie Robinson”   sob, sob,  I had…

My Very Own Nursing Hub
Tremble, shake, shudder…

Scene 1…

I really was a nurse with an honest-to-goodness patient.  My patient was actually going to trust me to be  a——gasp——nurse with bona fide medical equipment!  Granted, nurses need patients to practice nursing, but I’m downright sure my patient wanted  the real deal.   Reality started when the boxes started arriving  and kept arriving.

If you looked into our guest bedroom you would think it was sort of a surgery,  a tall chrome pole, long plastic tubes, a jug-looking thing.

Two chairs——one relaxingly comfortable, for the patient and the other——utilitarian——mine.

I was in charge! A real-life nurse with three months training, one week devoted to washing my hands, scrubbing my nails, argh. If I touched the wrong thing——back to the sink——I had the most hygenic hands in the Western Hemisphere..

Fortunately for me, my patient was patient.    My most hair-raising musings——he trusted me!

Scene 2

A Rare Opportunity:

There was one contrivance that was part of the equipment at my private nursing station that captivated my imagination…it possibly could,  yes——it  just might turn my new occupation into a CAPER…

ROMANCING THE POLE!

It was sort of love at first sight because…  EVERYTHING looks superb on the tall and slender, plus high on the preferred list in the design world is color.  All those shades and tints of silvery gray, pearl gray, smokey gray, platinum—— Those shades, tints, hues go with everything!

(I digress for a moment)—-Many years ago I told a cherished friend we were installing gray carpeting in some areas of our home.
My friend Margaret shut her eyes, grimaced, shuddered and said, “No way! Never!—-Don’t do it, reminds me of a shroud!”

Our shimmery gray carpet was on its way.
Not once, did it remind me of a shroud.

And, it worked extremely well, showed nothing, wore way too well, we actually became dog-tired of it. Then, we hated it.

About that slender object…  Truth be known—— I NEVER EVER THOUGHT I WOULD BE IN LOVE WITH A POLE!

Firstly I need to clarify my new affection in case you think I am speaking about a POL—-ISH PRINCE. I have not met any POL—ISH royalty ever. You also would be wrong to think it has something to do with the South Pole—–Antartica—-too cold and windy——equally so—–the North Pole. (Penguins are fascinatingly adorable—especially those who tap dance on TV and I do admire Inuit art, all that jewelry, baskets, wood and soapstone carvings, etc., but the cumbersome clothing and thick mittens would reduce my pole moving agility.

I would also be nervous about possibly having a momentary lapse of brain thought and accidentally touch my hand onto the pole.  Can you imagine?  If I stayed in either of those two Pole Places with their glacial temperature, my poor bare hand (sob) could forever become physically attached and maybe I (sob) would never get the pole off my hand resulting in a truly unwanted pole body attachment—-bringing this thought to mind…  Short Informative Scholastic Moment:

HISTORIC INTERVAL

I originally was not convinced my IVPole was a design piece-de-resistance because it really is not of modern contemporary 21st century design——they’ve been around a while, have they not, especially when observing their shiny foil exterior and sturdy feet.

(Talk about being around for a while…—— “The first recorded attempt at administering a therapeutic substance via IV injection was in 1492, when Pope Innocent VIII fell ill and was administered blood from healthy individuals. ”The History of IV Therapy” ivWatch https://www.ivwatch.com)

The stainless steel intravenous type drip stand that I was using was invented by a registered nurse named Marie D. Hollenback in 1963.

More Useless Info:
Did you know that every year a panel of color experts meet to decide the colors we will love and most importantly purchase for the next year. The Color Council also comes up with a lot of clever names to make the new shades enticing. My pole has three gray hues depending on where the light was shining upon different sections—-Sensuous Gray, Rhinestone Sparkle and Peaceful Starry Night.
Wow!  Working in Design, I know from experience catchy names do catch the eye of Design Shoppers.

Scene 3

I am working hard to get my core muscles in shape for…
My pole inducements:

The sturdy straight arms near its top offer the flourish of loopy curls AND that bracket for height adjustment solves adaptability constraints.  The five base bars next to the floor hold wheels that allow grace of movement and balance—–this is true ergonomic design resembling a bona fide anthropomorphic appearance.

(Because of the wheels it is not the kind of exotic pole you would find in a gentleman’s nightclub allowing me to swing around upside-down while wearing practically no clothing executing a sexy shimmie or performing exotic moves such as sliding my backside up and down.  (In the stripper trade – that is known as pole dancing.)

Definitely not in my trajectory of trendy talents as a nonagenarian but who knows? (I recently read an article that said a whole lot of older women were taking up just that type of tricky pole movements.)

My pole easily slides/glides allowing me to gracefully move backward——I like to think of it as floating. It is so light I can do this skillfully while holding my pole with only one arm while the other arm gracefully moves. (Sort of like the arm movements in Swan Lake.) At the same time, I am skillfully hopping between and around  the vogue-ish black wheels that turn on a dime.

One possibility is to learn a foxy dance routine and for that I will have to watch the old Fred Astaire movie, Royal Wedding where Fred dances with a hat rack—-certainly a close second to a pole,——also Donald O’Connor had some spiffy dance moves with a broom. The potential is there—-average is not in my vocabulary particularly when dancing in the future with an IV pole to Singing In The Rain.

If I learn to gyrate aka Elvis, I might do the version of pole dancing that Elvis did in his movie Jailhouse Rock wherein he meshed his rock and roll song and dance routine using a staircase pole thus turning it into a fitness routine.

I know I have the heart to learn tricks, move smoothly, be technically adept and rhythmically artistic on my IV pole.  Just watch me!

Scene 4

By Rights, there must be more,  I still have things to prove how fascinating a pole can be!

How about…

A brief and truly exciting jaunt. I’m thinking about rolling down the rather steep hill outside our driveway.

I should take this creature out for a spin!  I must learn how to make a left turn out of our gently sloping  driveway——(probably have to use only two wheels,). And then it will be  imperative to execute a sharp right at the bottom of the street to turn onto what can be an extremely busy downhill street.).  But by using my hand signals and wearing my gaudy helmet, I plan to coast all the way down to the freeway ramp.

(Not to worry, I plan to go at the first ray of dawn——no traffic.)

Tempting as it would be, my common sense will draw the line at cruising on the freeway. Although, I am definitely wondering, would it be possible to attach a simple gear or two? (Absolutely no motor!)    Surely an engineer or a whole bunch of them will leap at the chance to design a high caliber gear for an IVPole——think of the career recognition.       Oh my gosh, this could be the bold high-level opportunity of their lifetime.   (I am placing an ad right now for a “street smart” engineer.)

Scene 5

My ultimate escapade!

Perfecting the art of doing wheelies while riding downhill on an IV pole on my hilly city street——Wheelies whoa,

Whoops! Need a BRAKE,  Confirmation: trade the gears for a brake, keeping it simple with a classy, sleek look. I don’t want to muck up my pole!

My Second Big Thought:

Maybe I should enhance my pole with colorful decorations. Definitely worthy of a bit of exploration. It is the perfect way to customize my pole because once I have broken it in to all its many capabilities, I want it to be unquietly mine!

What To Do About Stylish Garments?

There has to be a type of tasteful ensemble for our new sport.   

You might think me frivolous, but doesn’t it just make sense if we are going to be serous athletes or ballroom dancers with our poles to have an innovative uniform style while we showcase our taste and talent. Sounds like a trip to Paris would be just the ticket for design advice. Then again, I am going to design snappy Bermuda shorts and t-shirts with Peter Pan collars.

(Probably date me in the future of my sport. I guess I’ll negate the Peter Pan collars or make them optional. I don’t know about you, but I think they are just darling!)

And, finally, to show our sound judgement, we will be wearing helmets. with sunny eye-catching hues completing  these uniforms.

Scene 6

Manifesting Another Breakthrough Concept:

My Boldest and Best!
The Optimum Pinnacle…

I’m thinking of emailing the head of the Olympic Committee regarding my state-of-the-art hybrid IVAcquaplane Pole.

If you follow the Olympics, doesn’t it seem like there is always yet another Olympic sport on the docket awaiting future fame and fortune. Indeed, are they not constantly coming up with what seems like some pretty outrageous or unimaginable Olympic Sports?

Why not my  IVPole Downstreet Aquaplane? Catchy right?

By then, I shall be doing aerial tumbling tricks like Shawn White and will have opened 90,000 Downstreet IVAcquaplaning Pole Training Schools around the World.  I’ll keep you posted——many of our successful students are planning to attend tryouts for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. I shall be right there with them.  If you need tickets for my event, let me know. I might have some clout——after all, I am the creator.

I have accomplished so much.

Yes, There truly are a few tears in the corners of my eyes.

Thus, completing the scale of my capers with and on my IVPole!

As a matter of fact , you may have assumed that my patient felt great and cherished my care; you would be exactly right.  But, it seems he was also happy and ready to work with some professionals IVers. Most likely they would not be day-dreaming about IV POLE Downstreet Acquaplaning during treatment.

P.S. Happily after six or seven months, I was able to give up my Nursing Job. (As it turns out, I was not officially titled a NURSE.)

Nope, nada——after three months of training and having the cleanest hands in San Diego and outlying counties…

I was a Care Provider——

Happy Sorority Days, Darling Blaire!

My 2025 New Year’s Blog shares the aspirations and acumen of three diverse individuals who shared a “get it done now” mentality.

Please join me, keep reading and explore with me these perceptive “doers and shakers”—

Regina, Henry and Iris,

THE CATALYSTS:

They endeavored to motivate, engage, and commit their thoughts and enthusiasms to us. Thank you and well done, movers & shakers.

REGINA

 I recently reread an article from 2001:

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.

“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.  My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more….”

Miscellaneous lessons from Regina’s column:

Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

Pay off your credit cards every month.

You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

Forgive.

Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

Believe in miracles.

All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back. 

Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need.

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Interestingly, as I understand now, Regina did not write the tag line,“90 Years Old” or ANY reference at all to being 90 – including that “Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old…” She does not know who or when it was added to her list of life’s lessons, but it often perpetuates in repostings of the title, introductions and by-line.  Obviously, she hit a nerve by consolidating life wisdom in such an easily digested and simple list.  Wise beyond her years, indeed!  She was just 45 when it was written, and had also just learned of her breast cancer diagnosis.  She wrote, “At 45, I was so grateful to be alive, I wrote the 45 life lessons life taught me.  The column became a global hit.”

Regina is now 68 years old and still a successful author, blogger, journalist and family matriarch.

You have to show up when you have a serious diagnosis. Regina did. I did. I am a twice breast cancer survivor——it was truly a Herculean task for me to (as she wrote) “get up and go. I had to let go, reflect and then move forward.”

We all have moved forward in our individual ways.”Hurray for Moving Forward!”

HENRY

There was an explosion of criticism, critiques, and  commentary against the autobiographical novel, “Tropic of Cancer” penned by Henry Miller in 1934.

 One writer described Henry’s career as one of self-invention. Another as using semi-autobiographical novels merged with storytelling, philosophy, mysticism and social commentary. What is most important to remember is this reflection,”Miller was one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and provocative authors whose writing and literary example influenced many well-known writers who followed him, including Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Norman Mailer, Phillip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Paul Theroux, and Erica Jong, not to mention such pop culture icons as Bob Dylan and the Beatles.”

Henry Miller’s thoughts at age 80.

Defining Success;

… if you are content to get nowhere, just take each day as it comes, if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical, man you’ve got it half licked.  It’s the little things that matter, not fame, success, wealth.                                                                                                                                                                    Focus on Now: The future of the world is something for philosophers and visionaries to ponder on. All we ever really have is the present, but very few of us ever live it. I am neither a pessimist nor an optimist. To me the world is neither this nor that, but all things at once, and to each according to his vision.                       

At eighty I believe I am a far more cheerful person than I was at twenty or thirty.  It was only in my forties that I really began to feel young. By then I was ready for it. (Picasso once said: “One starts to get young at the age of sixty, and then it’s too late.”) By this time I had lost many illusions, but fortunately not my enthusiasm, nor the joy of living, nor my unquenchable curiosity. Perhaps it was this curiosity—about anything and everything—that made me the writer I am. It has never left me. Even the worst bore can elicit my interest, if I am in the mood to listen.

With this attribute goes another which I prize above everything else, and that is the sense of wonder. No matter how restricted my world may become I cannot imagine it leaving me void of wonder. 

The Perspective of Age:

Perhaps the most comforting thing about growing old gracefully is the increasing ability not to take things too seriously. With advancing age my ideals, which I usually deny possessing, have definitely altered. My ideal is to be free of ideals, free of principles, free of isms and ideologies.                                                                                                    ...in reality it means that I have become more humble, more aware of my limitations and those of my fellow man. I no longer try to convert people to my view of things, nor to heal them. Neither do I feel superior…

When Henry Miller moved to Paris in the early 1930ties. his writing made a paradigm shift with the book “Tropic of Cancer”, his first-person account of a writer’s life in Paris with frank descriptions of his own sexual exploits.  Published in Paris in 1934, it was immediately banned in the US and Britain. The ban was lifted in the 1960’s in the US. He is perhaps the most famously banned author in American history.

“…The US Supreme Court ruled in June 1964 that Miller’s banned books were not obscene, Miller drew no satisfaction from this finding because he knew that American readers were consuming his books for their sensationalistic elements.”

His last years were spent happily living in Pacific Palisades, California, entertaining and hosting dinner parties, painting and corresponding with a huge number of writers and friends.

Henry Miller was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973.

At 80, Henry vowed to “Keep his sense of wonder.” Let’s all keep our sense of wonder——it creates a smile.

Hurray for “our sense of wonder!”

IRIS

Sha Zam

The room lights up with color, a treasure chest of bold  jewelry arrives on one body and a pair of black rimmed mammoth oversized eye glasses perch under a cloud of silver white hair all accented by sparkling red, red, red lips.           

YEP,

The geriatric starlet, the matriarch of maximalism opens her door and we enter to hear Iris Apfel share parts of her story. Married for 67 years to Carl, they created the highly successful company Old World Weavers that sourced and replicated textiles from early centuries, traveled the world seeking and finding and working for nine Presidents at the White House.

She was adored globally and known for her acerbic wit. Completely unique, her admirers and followers were smitten. The New York Met Museum was a fan and gave her her own exhibition.

I never had to look for confidence because I just wore what I wanted to wear.

When you don’t dress like everyone else, you don’t have to think like everyone else.

Being yourself is always in style. “Style is in your DNA. You can learn to be fashionable and to have good taste, but style is something within.

Everything is your attitude. “When you think about things a certain way, you look a certain way.”

The fashion industry has done itself in by neglecting the 60 to 80-year-old market. They have the time and the economic resources. They want to go shopping.

Wear something that says, Here I am! 

You’re not a pigeon so don’t be pigeonholed.

Find your own way.

              “You only fail if you do not try.”

Always look at the world like you’re discovering it for the first time.Variety is the spice of life. Style has nothing to do with how much you spend on your clothes. …

Grow bolder as you grow older.

Love what you do and work hard at it. I think hard work is my medicine, my salvation.

The fun of getting dressed is that it’s a creative experience.

People are so tied up in the worst part of technology these days. They don’t use their imaginations.

Although Iris never met me——I know she was channeling this thought to me, just me!

 “Relax at home. There’s nothing like a good old bathrobe.”

(THANK YOU IRIS!!!)

Please know——if you see me in Walmart wearing my bathrobe, I am purely taking her advice!

Her husband Carl said this about Iris, “I have rarely met someone as vivid, alive, vital, vivacious, irreverent, joyous and needed as Iris.” He added: “She breathes young air, thinks young thoughts, and gathers no dust.”

Iris Apfel died at age 102 ——March 1, 2024

Let’s all be irreverent and joyous——

“Hurray for being irreverent and joyous!”

We are all our own, CATALYSTS!

Sy’s Salient Points:

Each subject in this blog brought energy and audacity to their personal lives and careers.

They knew the two above traits would help perpetuate their strengths.

You may have noticed, Regina Brett channeled some of Iris Apfel’s viewpoints into her 45 Lessons. It never hurts for me to read or hear worthwhile conceptions more than once.

Actually  for me, maybe  a  “plethorat!”

Happy 2025, Darling Blaire and please continue adding your own audacity and energy into your life!

My husband dropped me off to explore Casa Amesti for our first visit. He was picking up some new film and thoughtfully thought I’d like to view this first morning on my own; the home of Frances Adler Elkins where many of the rooms are almost exactly as Frances left them——one of the major decorators of the 20th Century who presaged significant interior design changes.  The bright morning sunlight disappeared as I opened the pale blue and beige glazed door of this 1833 adobe house to step into a dusky hall onto the used brick floor as the door closed behind me….

 In essence I was a lone sightseer adjusting to the dim light as silent tranquility surrounded me. The museum-worthy rooms beckoned. I loved that first moment of awareness and the mind-boggling treasures I was about to experience; too much for one blog to detail, but hopefully some “Casa Amesti highlights” to show a bit of what her breakthrough eclectic designs achieved.

As in all adobe houses with 2′ thick walls, I entered into diffused light lighting my way as candle wall sconces and chandeliers called my attention to intriguing 18th century portraits of Spanish royalty.  One period table held a blue and white Ming urn holding seasonal plants.

The long hallway opened onto a library, guest rooms and traversed the depth of the Casa and toward the rear French doors, a white plaster elk’s head peered at me from his lofty height.

My husband arrived, camera ready as did the three chefs who began preparing daily lunches for the Old Capitol Club members.  We had permission for a week to photograph and research with the caveat of leaving the Casa during Club member hours, lunch and late afternoons.   

Frances thrived in her bubble-like environment of treasures that kept growing and growing through her sharp, observant skill set. Yearly buying trips to Paris, a stay at her Palazzo in Venice brought entire antique bookcases, parque flooring and much more from French chateaus. Spirited meetings turned into deep friendships with her avant-garde boundary-pushing designer friends CoCo Chanel, Jean-Michel Frank and the Gioacometti brothers.

Frances chiefly lived on the second floor of Casa Amesti where her bedroom, her daughter Katie’s bedroom and her brother David’s bedroom suites were located along with the dining room and the Sala, the main nerve center where guests were treated to convivial festivities.

When Katie was a little girl, she said, “I remember peeking into the Sala to see buckets of champagne, heaps of crepes, great big trays filled with splendid food…”

Climb the stairs with me and view the Casa’s amazing second-floor hallway guiding us to the Sala. We are surrounded by a rich nineteenth century panorama of a blue Zuber and Cie 1834 wallpaper. Ingenious chandeliers made of French wicker baskets painted and wired for lighting spearhead our way.

THE SALA: David originated the extensive alterations to the main living/reception Sala included replacing the floor boards with new highly polished redwood boards, repairing the plank ceiling, adding steel floor supports, installing closets, bathrooms and french doors, an overmantel from England, new Dentil moldings, and painting the original stucco walls a lustrous white.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          THE SALA

   The first commission David designed as a young architect  for his Uncle in Lake Forest, IL

 He did not start out small!

It must have been incredibly romantic to enter the Sala at night. Lamps and candle chandeliers enfolded guests into the glowing candlelight.

It was amusing to think that as we stepped into the Sala we were entering the same room that CoCo Chanel entered way back in the 1920’s. Frances’ unprecedented style of decoration included using the vibrant colors of blue, yellow and white, introducing Chinese Oriental rugs, French Provincial and English Antique furniture and a collection of Ching Dynasty 1622-1722 Turquoise Monochrome figures on demi-lune tables on both sides of the fireplace and more and more. An English Regency wine tasting table circa 1820 had a pivoting shelf for liquors with a net sling to hold the empty bottles along with a brass rail to hold linen cloths.

David Adler designed the fireplace mantel and crown molding around the room. Wedgewood dolphin candlesticks, stag corbels and an 1783 oil painting  “Saddle Horse” completed the handsome fireplace. In the room’s center, a 19th century Georgian partner’s desk held silver candlestick lamps and lapis desk appointments. House guests and visitors had never seen this manner of mixing periods and trailblazing styles in one  home. This was the 1920’s and eclectic decor was here to stay. Friends and visitors were inspired and asked for help in their own homes creating a profession for Frances who quickly became an interior decorator with an outstanding future. Her future offices would eventually include a staff of sixty.

Dinner was served in an adjoining dining room. A dumb waiter in the butler’s pantry between floors sent up Clementine’s meals.

Clementine, Frances’ private Basque cook who traveled with her sent up her dinner treasures on the dumb waiter.

(When we met with Katie in her Hillsborough home, she told us the story of one Parisienne visit. When there, Frances had to have a kidney removed. Not being able to cook and hoping to surprise her mistress, Clementine enrolled herself in classes at the legendary Cordon Bleu cooking school definitively increasing the fame of dinner parties at the Casa Amesti.)

Dinner was served on Ming Dynasty plates. her table decor included small hand-made red decorative beaded trees created by her close friend, Misia Sert, the best friend of CoCo Chanel. (Misia was known as “the Muse Who Inspired Icons of Art” by Toulouse-Lautrec.)  The table is English Regency-1899, the crystal chandelier-1900 and in one of two corner cabinets yellow French creil china depicting scenes of  Napoleon’s campaigns.

Join me as we walk downstairs to the rear garden and the Solarium. Although the bedroom suites adjoining the Sala and hallway are creative and design-worthy, other highlights attract.  The death of David Adler’s wife at a young age meant that he began spending more time in Monterrey with Frances. They traveled to Granada, Spain and were influenced by a courtyard at the Alhambra. They copied the design creating their own serene formal garden at the Casa in 1919.

An early photograph of David and Frances.

A gentle drizzle was seeping through the dense foliage and sections of leafy canopy over us on that first visit. As we walked through the arbors it felt as if we were in an ancient cave where antique fountains popped up surprising us on our trek.

On the garden’s left is the original 19th century building that once housed the laundry, heating plant, wine cellar, servant’s quarters, and garage where the roof is home to a sweet watchdog viewing the scenery.

Frances maintained this garden until her death in 1943.

Walk with me to Frances’ Casta Amesti’s office in…

The Solarium!

 Frances had her brother design a solarium where she had her home office. It is an amazingly stunning room. Graceful white metal curved mullions of  lovely shapes hold glass sections that are not on the surface but the glass must be inserted into the shapes.

Architecture by David Adler——Interior by Frances Adler Elkins

Frances and David Captured History

It’s been a privilege to have you walk with me this first day and see why,
it was invariably full circle——they always returned to Casa Amesti.

Sy’s Salient Points:

The Old Capitol Club Men’s club leases the Casa Amesti  property. It is open only to members and their guests.

Frances created a design movement that encapsulate and promoted the work of exciting new American design companies.

One hopeful client lamented,  “…if she turned you down as a client, you were better off leaving the state!”

Through Katie Boyd, we heard her Mother’s voice as only a daughter could bring their Mother to life.

The avant-garde designer, Jean-Michel Frank, a close friend of Frances was a first cousin to Anne Frank.

CoCo Chanel who seemed  to be famous for just about everything she said and did, made this comment,                               “Fashion passes; style remains.”  In making that statement, surely CoCo could have been thinking of her close friend,                                                                   “FRANCES ADLER ELKINS”

Resources: Katie Elkins Boyd,——Blogs: “A Daughter and her Mother,”  “Frances,” ASID Conference Lectures——Baltimore, MD.,  Sheila Yates,——Steven Salny,—— Scott Powell,-—— various University lectures, Sheila Yates,——Wikipedia

Happy Birthday Darling Blaire and Wondrously Festive Holidays To All

THE PRESERVATIONIST WHO WAS A NEOTERIC!

Frances embraced treasured design aesthetics and inspired the rise of eclectic design in your home and mine by blending periods, styles, and cultures.  She championed innovative new design industries, resources and in today’s world would probably be listening to the increasingly loud whispers of AI as it moves into the profession of Interior Design. Frances was open to the explorations of the old and the new!

There is adobe in Monterrey and then there is more adobe. The simple adobe mud bricks are built out of the soil that surrounds their foundations which then rise into picturesque homes and when built in walls two to three feet thick it gives protection against heat and cold. Massive walls of chipped paint and gnarled stones protect secluded courtyards and near one of  Monterrey’s busy intersections stands the Casa Amesti, a house destined for stardom!

The Star Maker: Frances!

Hard to believe, but in 1834 this house started out with only four rooms. Jose Amesti envisioned a grand home for his wife Prudencia and their daughters. Jose added four more rooms opposite the original set and then he continued his dream with an upper veranda across the front and the back facades supported by slim square columns in 1853——long before Frances was born.

Frances was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second child of Issac and Therese Adler. Isaac successfully  manufactured men’s clothing and when offered an executive position by Sears Roebuck moved his family to Chicago, IL  Therese turned traveling into an avocation, taking Frances and her brother to Europe for months at a time as they absorbed art and culture. David, six years senior to Frances set a high standard for artistic excellence eventually becoming a student at Princeton University although showing no signs of academic excellence.

David Adler

The University archivist said, “He began by flunking almost everything and for some time was in the sixth group, which is the absolute bottom. Then he began to pick up and in his senior year was actually in the first group.” Apparently the University did not drop him, he passed the failed courses and graduated.

David and friends sailed for Europe to study architecture in Munich, eventually enrolling at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the foremost art and architecture school in the world. Again, David never bothered to take exams or submit dissertations, instead he traveled throughout the country on his bicycle collecting over 500 architectural post cards while using his photographic memory to retain styles and details.

He returned to Chicago with another student Henry Dangler to form a partnership. David’s first commission was a doozy as his rich and benevolent Uncle Carl Stonehill requested a sizable mansion. It was a major triumph and happily it was authorized to be built because David could not legally sign his own plans——he had no degree, no license——but Henry did and signed David’s plans until unexpectedly, Henry died. David was forced to sit for examinations to become a registered architect in the state of Illinois.

He failed, and failed, and eventually through the prestige of his masterful designs, the state granted him a license in 1928 for “Demonstrated Skill”.

Without question, David’s architectural career was exceptional, dazzling, virtuosic, and intelligent. There are many humorous stories resulting from his lack of scale in actual building elevations creating havoc for draftsmen but the final building renditions were superb. His many successes would take over a complete design blog, but David and Frances did work together on numerous projects.

While David was studying in Europe, the teenage Frances travelled back and forth across the Continent studying with great and near-great pianists. Frances was reported to be exceptionally talented but her career was curtailed when it was decided her hands were too small for a long professional career on the concert stage.

Frances Adler Elkins

In 1918 Frances married Felton Elkins a socialite polo player and in that same year they purchased the Casa Amesti in Monterrey, CA for $5000.00.  The marriage was not a success resulting in Felton deeding the house to Frances in 1923, and the birth of a decorator and the legacy she left to us.

When Frances and Felton bought Casa Amesti, it was clearly a rambling wreck but to Frances that doddering 1834 adobe spelled challenge!

Friendship and harmony described the lifelong relationship between Frances and her brother David. It was put into full force as they began their aspirations and goals for the “rambling wreck”. They removed the rear exterior staircase and replaced it was a new interior staircase, along with a little “Renaissance stairway in the sitting room off of the bar”.

  Example: Model of a type of Renaissance Staircase

A dumbwaiter made food accessible from the first floor kitchen to the second floor’s butler’s pantry. Bathrooms and closets were added, woodwork and hardware was replaced, and a new heating and electrical system was installed. Living room floor boards were replaced with new redwood boards and steel floor supports added.  An outbuilding was constructed with garage and laundry.  The grey desolate streetscape was replaced with lines of yew trees and when in full bloom, they formed an arcade of shade.  It is a masterpiece of historic preservation and design.

     Casa Amesti with newly planted yew trees.

The Gods of Design in Pebble Beach, Carmel, and Monterrey loftily smiled on themselves for centering Frances in their midst. The completed Casa Amesti captured the imaginations of decorating clients. They did not have to vicariously pour over magazines with black and white renderings; there was someone just down the road for ideas. They could visit her home, the Casa Amesti, Frances’ Design shop in the Robert Louis Stevenson dwelling or call her for insightful design conceptions for their homes. And they did!

Designated Robert Louis Stevenson House in the Casa

Casa Amesti was deeded to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1953 by Frances. My husband and I received the Trust’s permission to spend one week photographing and researching the property in Monterrey. We also needed to inform the Old Capitol Men’s Club of our permission. This Club leases Casa Amesti  for their private weekly use and serves week-day lunches to members with a full staff of three chefs.

We could work in the morning’s and afternoons towards evenings during the week. On weekends, the Trust offers tours of the Casa. We often were racing out the door every day at 11:30 a.m. with cameras and books to make sure we were completely away before Club members arrived.

We were soon to experience Monterrey first-hand because one week after our visit with Katie Elkins Boyd in Hillsborough, CA.* I unlocked the door to Casa Amesti, turning back the clock to the 1930’s decorating world of Frances Adler Elkins and her inter-layered treasures silently waiting to be admired and photographed….

Sy’s Salient Points:

There are many examples of Renaissance Style staircases. Some are circular, others were ramp-like staircases designed to prevent bottlenecks. One stair was used to ascend and one to descend.

* Reference to Blog #  “A DAUGHTER AND HER MOTHER”— Introduction to the esteemed decorator Frances Elkins during a fireside chat in the home of Kathryn Elkins Boyd.

Coming soon: Part Three——The Casa Amesti

Happy Halloween Blaire Darling

It has been said that it is positive to move on, embrace change, accept new challenges.

But how do we do that without giving up our own power?

“Aye, but that is the rub!”

O.K., so what is this rub, Shakespeare?

Prithee, Unknowledgeable, but Curious, 

It is a new, friendly and personalized companion, your digital aid/your secret friend! And——                                                            It promises to sharpen your focus all the while offering streams of information. Plus, it is a creative introspective species that will personalize togetherness!

“The world is our oyster!”

This is exciting, Sooo——Will, “Art thou referring to that new digital soulmate which is known as AI?  Artificial Intelligence?”

Aye, my Lady. Yea, totally!   A’hem,  I was always, always at the top of the creative word game. AI doth dream to emulate me.

Hmmm, if thee says so. Thanks for the intro Will. Onto the future——Soooo, here goes, since I am new to AI, time to ask a savvy collaborator who is an extraordinary teacher to elucidate us on some of AI’s mysteries.                   Matt Karl!

Take it away Matt!:

There are three prominent AI formats that interpret and offer feedback/responses to questions, topics, original essays, poems and illuminate personal requests.

ChatGPT——Gemini Google——Copilot Microsoft

Firstly, we began asking ChatGPT a series of questions and looking for a reply/answer that is both spot-on, and interesting.

ChatGPT: Please create a Sympathy Note to a son who has lost his mother. A lady, who successfully created a Poet Society throughout the internet. The answer:

Dear Grieving Son,

Sy’s Salient Points: As we made a request from each site the answer started online before the last word of the request was finished. AI is a phenomenal technology.

It seems paramount to balance new innovations with our personal and social values. We do not want to give our power away.

Does/will using AI take away students efforts to present original and creative material? Schools and Universities seem to have strong opinions on the subject.

* This blog could not have been completed without the help of my supportive daughters and adorable friend, Matt!

DARLING BLAIRE, CHEERS TO YOUR UNIVERSITY JOURNEY! I LOVE YOU!

THE BEGINNING

(of a whole lot of research for a whole lot of lectures!!!)

It all began as my proposal for a package lecture deal. I hoped to research three original decorators and present three one hour lectures titled: “Don’t Forget Elsie, Syrie, Frances and Ruby!” for an ASID National Design Conference in Baltimore, MD. 

   My subjects were the first decorators to turn their talents into dollars and cents in the early twentieth century and I wanted to know their stories and help preserve their accomplishments. I only told two people about what to me was a daring proposal and was not the least bit surprised when a close friend——an esteemed San Diego designer said, “Don’t get your hopes too high——Washington D.C. is pretty much of an ‘in group”. 

I honestly had not one hope, but then, the phone rang, ——Poof!

“Good news, Sheila, We’d like you to…”

I almost said, “REALLY, are you sure?”

The only words I had written so far, was a title and
they wanted three one-hour lectures, one after the other???

TOTALLY GOBSMACKED!!!

Magazine archives, used book stores and libraries became my nearest and dearest friends along with an opportunity  to interview Katherine Boyd in her Hillsborough, California home near San Francisco. She is the only child of Frances Adler Elkins who created a stunning career and a salient cottage design industry in Monterrey, California. My hope was to catch a glimpse of Frances Elkins who shared her life with her only child. We visited her daughter, Katie Boyd in  Hillsborough:

It was early twilight in her library where she entertained my husband and me. It was filled with treasures and mementos from renown European sources where a miniature fire illuminated our seating area. Endive with slivers of Roquefort circled a silver tray as we sipped Kir in our antique Venetian cocktail tumblers.

As a counterpart to her mother’s talent, Katie’s home generates her own international mood. In this universally appealing home there are separate seating areas, a “Frank” leather table and a “Giacometti” lamp in the sizable living room.   The dining room is dominated by large “McComas” murals and “Salviati” art glass designed by Katie.  There is a lovely chandelier that creates a pool of feathery light over the coral porcelain centered on the dining table.

McComas Art in Katie’s Home*

Jean Michel Steel & Leather Table **

*Behind my chair the soulful-looking Giacometti sculptured lamp with a mica shade offered diffused light as my sophisticated hostess, Katie, with her contagious sense of humor shared anecdotes of Jean Michel Frank, Coco Chanel and more.

Alberto Giacometti Sculptured Lamps ***

Example of Salviati Wine Glass Set****

Although wanting to ask a million questions,——I was not invited to move in for a month or two therefore my goal centered on a bit of her personal history with her mother,—-Frances,—-a decorator whose work has long enticed designers and writers to research the eclectic and brilliantly conceived interiors she created. It was a journey worth taking!

When I asked Katie about life in their home, the “Casa Amesti” in Monterrey, she said, “I grew up there with Mom, but we traveled all the time. I had a pretty solitary life because there were really no children to play with, but it was interesting. Mom took me everywhere. I always had a governess and that was my schooling. I never went to college because I got married.

That was a very glamorous era with its own aura. When we were in Biarritz in southern France, the King of Spain and his court was there.  My Grandmother Adler traveled over to help. Grandmother was a beautiful old-fashioned lady— from Milwaukee. It was a startling contrast when Ma had her wear dresses designed by Chanel.”

“Did that make your Grandmother Adler less old-fashioned and more sophisticated?”

Her emphatic answer, “Never!”

Katie became adept in living a life of dramatic change which included traveling with a governess, a cook and family. A fascinating account included her story——”Mom adored Venice and every year rented a palazzo on the Grand Canal. Coco Chanel was often our guest. I was a little one then and I loved looking out the window with its magnificent view.”

One day, I said to my mother, ‘What are all those white things floating out the window? Is it snow?”

Mother said, “It’s nothing dear, Mademoiselle Chanel is very upset with Monsieur Dali.”

I said,  “But what ARE all THOSE white things floating around?”

And my Mother said, “Oh, he keeps sending her all these drawings and paintings because he says he is in love with her,—but,—she doesn’t think they’re very good so she’s tearing them up and throwing them away!”

Katie said, “How I laugh when I think of all those Salvadore Dali’s at the bottom of the canal.”

“Mademoiselle Chanel occasionally did keep some that she considered well done. Of course he was not the only one in love with Coco”,—-three-fourths of the men in Europe were because she was such an interesting woman and always ahead of her time.”(Picasso once said, “She has more sense than any woman in Europe.”)

“When Mademoiselle Chanel visited us in Monterrey. I remember some of the clothes she designed for Mom. I’ve never seen any like them. They were absolutely beautiful.”

“Did you ever wear Chanel?”

“No, but some of the designers were very nice. They’d make pieces for me which I could purchase. Before Monsieur Mainbaucher died, he said, ‘I want you to have some of my clothes for your mother’s sake.’

Katie smiled when she remembered her comment, “But I can’t begin to afford you.” He answered, “Don’t worry, it will be all right,”

“Was your father Felton Elkins a part of your life?”

“No, I think I was four when they divorced. The little I know is it was not a long marriage. Those were the years when you could be a glamorous playboy. My father was a polo player and I think he was one of those men who always had too many ladies.”

“I believe mom realized she couldn’t have a life with him.”

In Monterrey, there is adobe and then there’s more adobe. The simple mud bricks are built out of the soil that surround foundations which then rise into picturesque homes and the Casa Amesti has been described as a superb example of Monterrey Colonial architecture. When Frances and Felton bought the Casa in 1918 Monterrey had become a forgotten world and it was a lingering wreck built in 1834.

The chronology from the National Trust for Historic Preservation show photos from 1915 of the Casa in deplorable conditions. A private men’s group, the exclusive and expensive Old Capitol Club leased the Casa in 1955 for their sole use during the week where daily luncheons are offered for members and in return they maintain the property.

When I asked Katie, “What do you think of your mother’s home being occupied by a men’s club?”

Her look of genuine disbelief precluded her answer, “I am trying to help the National Trust organize details. Mom would have a heart attack if she saw what was happening in her boudoir—actually playing cards and backgammon in her bedroom!!”

Part Two:  Soon!

Sy’s Salient Points: Both Katie’s and the Casa Amesti are aesthetically beautiful with treasures worthy of museums and galleries.

*Francis McComasÚ “…once rated “among the twenty best painters of the world,”  Monterrey Museum of Art

** Jean Michel Frank Table on sale at 1stdibs for $42,816.91 (at time of this writing.)

*** Giacometti Lamp Bases on sale at 1stdibs.com for $37,000 (at time of this writing.)

****Salviati Wine Glass Set on sale at eBay for $85,000 (at time of this writing.)

Happy Moving into Your University Freshman Dorm, Blaire Darling

David Brooks, N.Y Times Opinion——“The universe is a silent, colorless place. It’s just waves and particles out there. But by using our imaginations, we construct colors and sounds, tastes and stories, drama, laughter, joy and sorrow.”

THE FOUR WALLS

When my daughter and her husband purchased their home one late September, they offered me a preferred design space. It was the Nursery for their Christmas Baby.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           DISREGARD THAT TIME LINE

It was the day before Thanksgiving and I was lunching with a friend  amidst the clamor of enveloping noise, squished tables, Japanese fast food when my cell phone rang. My daughter was in a Phoenix hospital awaiting an emergency C-section at 9:00 p.m. that night. My husband and I were in San Diego.

FOUR VERY DETERMINED RELATIVES

My watch dial pictured 1:45 p.m. I offered a nervous, graceless good-by and become a purposeful NASCAR driver on a busy California freeway not known for sensible or sparse traffic. My husband dismissed his University rehearsal, the Aunt-to-be was already at a satellite L.A. airport and the Daddy-to-be was piloting a plane from Canada with extra gas to get to the hospital pronto.

ACTUALITY

Television news relentlessly informs us that this Thanksgiving week has unusually heavy air traffic. We know! No tickets! But wait, A Wrinkle in Time opens for us and we become the last two standby passengers to board a late afternoon flight.

SERENDIPITY

Three of us meet in the waiting room along with neighbors and friends. It’s a crowd scene.

The Daddy appears behind a glass wearing a deliriously sappy grin holding a 3 lb., 6 oz. baby girl. Entranced, our noses are at the apex of the glass window as we gape, grin, and hug. Heaven! All too soon, she is whisked back to her Mommy for their first skin-to-skin contact.

OUR MAGICAL BABY IS HERE!

Our beguilingly new arrival needs a room of her own and since it was too soon to ask her what color room she’d like, I chose green. To me, It is a source of energy and takes its cue from the natural world with green walls that are intimate, livable, and inspiring.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Green is a life force, a hue that is “shown to reduce stress and foster creativity.” Her Daddy is a distance walker, hiker and loves moving in fresh air. Her Mommy is a Master Gardener who grows “Jack-in-the-Beanstalk” veggies, Moringa trees for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory assets and creates picturesque leafy trellis walls. Green!

HER OWN ROOM!

I planned to create a joyful space containing pops of animated and whimsical figures from the artist Silke Leffler.*

“Silke Leffler’s delightful and whimsical drawings capture some of the happiest and most curious moments in life. Inspired by a childhood exposed to a variety of cultures, nature, books and poetry her illustrations reflect a world that is part make-believe and magic.”  We laminated her creations and placed around her poem.

What could be better, for my Granddaughter!

                                                .   

Sweet dreams, hopeful dreams, peaceful dreams to hopefully evoke and support her fast changing development with a poem of her own. Written words that will always be “hers” and will watch over her.

IMPLEMENTATION!

The green walls were a snap to achieve. Her Mommy and Daddy painted them. Painting the words of my poem on the wall to her was another story!  Not only did I want meaningful thoughts, I opted for a clever arrangement proving detrimental to my neck, arms and back because I was doing it on a small stepladder in the dark while a projector was shining that “clever poetic arrangement” on the wall. I had clearly underestimated my painterly ability as the ladder and I stumbled back and forth. Her Mommy stepped in to lend a helping hand.

TOGETHERNESS!

The ladder and I still needed more togetherness moments. I eschewed curtains in favor of  blinds for privacy and light control, but wanted a stylish window treatment and found a lace pattern that I could stencil in white around her windows.

HGTV: “A key advantage of using a stencil is that it can be used repeatedly to rapidly reproduce a design or lettering.”

ME: (It is not rapid and unless it is a large one piece stencil. The constant overlapping, matching, and repositioning of the stencil over and over can be monotonous.) Guess who came to rescue?

ACCENTS & FURNISHINGS

We used a combination dresser and changing pad to save space, anchoring the dresser and crib to the walls, covered electrical outlets and used the top dresser drawer to store medicines/ointments and diapers. A comfortable rocking chair for sleep and night time stories with arm rests at a restful height was a priority.  Also necessary, a video baby monitor to check on our baby when she was sleeping.

Small bookcases and shelves appropriate for a nursery’s toys and books, two streamer ribbons with rosettes at the top held tiny gifts, even a decorative vase to hold future baby teeth.                                                                                                                         

And of course, the real purpose in designing a nursery is to offer a nurturing, creative and safe room that incorporates an  environment to spur intellectual growth. Words, colors and figures that teach the magic of discovery. As a professional designer, my goal for my grand baby and every client is to interpret and embrace sustainable design.

Again, as David Brooks said, “… by using our imaginations, we construct colors and sounds, tastes and stories, drama, laughter, joy and sorrow.”

Our grand daughter has given us millions of precious memories.

Sy’s Salient Points:–SustainableDesign:

Design that protects people’s health and well-being while also protecting the environment. (We used paints with no VOCs——volatile organic compounds,) to improve indoor air quality, recycled furniture, and materials.

*Silke Leffler: Silke Leffler was born in 1970 in Vorarlberg and grew up in Holland, Austria, Germany, and Africa. After graduation she did a tailor’s apprenticeship and studied textile design. Since 1998 she has worked as an illustrator for stationery and children’s books. She lives with her family near Lake Constance, Switzerland.

My grand daughter loved having her own poem. When her family encouraged her to move to a larger bedroom with bath, she wanted them to move her wall poem and delayed moving. She eventually did and together we designed her new digs.

Blaire wishes Happy 4th of July to all!

A PERIPATETIC SOFA & ITS COAT OF MANY COLORS

Travel along with me and enter the zeitgeist of my peripatetic sofa as we roved through many, many incarnations!

Once upon a time, I decided to try solo living and move a few blocks away from my large rental house on the beach. It was a great property and my roommates could easily find a replacement.

I assured my new landlord I would never, ever want to vacate the stunning haven he had newly created over a double garage——meaning a “two Volkswagen bug-sized garage” with an alley view.

“All right,” he optimistically said, “let’s give it a try.” I met my husband the next month, after I signed the year lease.

In the meantime, it was my first opportunity to decorate and that desire had been percolating on my back burner ever since I discovered the heartless truth at University that the Interior Design branch was under the Home Economics umbrella with a requirement of Chemistry & Physics. The brutal truth is I clearly knew the “math problems” in chemistry would be my “problems”. New major——History and Education.

The sofa was white wool. Who in their right mind would buy a white wool sofa to hang out at the beach?  Hmmm…

It was not a confrontational sofa, but it demanded most of my living area and when it teetered up the slender handmade rickety wooden staircase, its girth was revealed. Tucked inside was a heavy queen size bed!

I happily looked forward to my parents visiting my new lair and resting on the sofa bed when I heard a throaty whisper, “Thanks, it’s serendipity to have a home. I love your choice of white wool fabric.”

“You talk!” I screamed.

“Just to you! No worries——only a mini-interlude——my new rhythm and pace——, you know, I’m mostly a ‘sleeper!”

(I had high hopes that was our one and only conversation.)

Fortunately my landlord, albeit a little tersely allowed me to break my lease. This was only the tip of the iceberg.

Our sofa, “IVY” was on the move and taking two of us along with her.

My husband, Ivy and Me moved inland to a rental that Ivy disliked. To please her, we bought a house with a view. I was beginning to follow her directions!

Optimism ruled. Perfect!

Almost!

Seven months later, my husband was offered an Assistant Professorship in Long Beach. We moved. Ivy adored our delightful rental in Naples, CA as it nestled on the corner of a picturesque canal where we brought our first precious daughter home.

Never assume, always presume!

Private time. Ivy was an irrepressible eavesdropper and heard the word——Idaho. She whispered, “I’m staying.” We suggested a furniture psychologist. Nope!

Ivy:  “I like you——I ‘really’ like you.”                                                                                                                                                                Us:  “You’re moving.”

All in all, we moved, she moved, but believe it or not——ten months later, Ivy happily agreed to move to Hermosa Beach, CA with us. USC offered my husband a teaching contract with a salary and reduced tuition to complete his PhD.

Ivy sang, “California, Here We Come”  all the way back.

And so our behemoth was moved and moved up, down, in, and out.

We were back on the beach. The moves took a toll. She sat huddled in a dismal gray with baby and child stains artistically interspersed between cocktail party and house guests’ stains.

I came up with a savvy solution. Why not hide the stains with a custom professional dye job in a lush forest green? The “professionals,” said, “Good choice!”

Truth is, bad choice. The green was murky and swampy while each stain took on its own aggressive hue. After a few weeks of passing  with our eyes averted, IVY actually yelled to me, “I have no more self-esteem or dignity. Do something! I need a real face-lift!!”

Out the door and back in came a new pragmatic brown naugahyde Ivy, making realistic beach wear sense.

Two years later we were now a family of four with a treasured second baby girl. Another hither and yon move to a home we would cherish in the San Diego area and an esteemed University position for my husband (where my husband retired as Professor Emiritus). Ivy was smitten with a long term residency.

When we moved her to our family room Ivy looked sartorially ugly and started to whine. I tersely told her in a raised voice, “No! No more cosmetics for you. I’m going back to school. My time——my turn.”

Because sofa Ivy was seriously addicted to us, she knuckled down to mellow and wait her turn. And what a turn! “Oh boy.”

Her naugahyde really did not look like leather in this brightly lit room! What are the odds?

Luckily for her, at least I thought so; I studied Environmental and Interior Design at San Diego State University, began a design career and became a member of ASID. Best of all, I worked with Dusty, my blue-chip upholsterer.

I asked Dusty to  slim down Ivy’s solid two seated cushion back and replace it with six down cushions and build up the sloping arms to back height. A  practical and handsome fabric was next.

My thought was a canvas that could be whisked off and dumped in the washing machine and whipped back in place, but this was early in the game of canvas upholstery weight fabrics in showrooms. Nada!

I would wing it!

AAron Brothers sold artist canvas. But I would need extra yards, because unbleached and unprimed canvas shrinks and ravels. A vortex of long tangled fringe appeared every time it was washed and re-washed before it was ready for Dusty’s magic touch. I persevered. Ivy smiled.

Characteristically, time and the dreaded bargain-basement guise. Granted all the cushions could be bleached and washed but its outer limbs, the sides and backing would not fit in our washing machine.

That intractable sofa never wavered when our teen age daughter approached with a can of white latex paint. Beautiful!

We next painted it blue. Eventually we painted wide white stripes on the blue. Ivy said, it was her favorite incarnation.

We/she kept evolving.

After repainting it white, I added bright quilts. A bit of grime, out came the roller to recreate a pristine back.

Before dinner guests, ”Honey, do you mind painting the sofa again?”

Expressing my final thoughts on our sofa parody, I did not want it to be up for grabs in the crowded world of used furniture at a re-sell-it shop. We called a charity that supplied items to needy families. They knew of a family who needed seating!

Our sofa was hoisted on sweet shoulders and then onto a small worn-out truck as we waved good-by to a lovely family and a beloved sofa.

Ivy and I had a private moment where she whispered, “I had a fantasy life. Thank you for not letting me be adrift in no-man’s-land.”

We closed and locked our gates. Our family would forever have happy memories of a long journey, we shared with a piece of furniture——a sofa——and its comfort——and its coat of many colors.

There is always a choice to reinvent, refresh and renew. In this case it was a piece of furniture——an elixir to create. That stalwart hunk of upholstery was willing to shed personas and become a catalyst for blossoming new looks. We had fun and then, astonishment——a new look!

There is still equilibrium to the universe after all.

I kept my  sofa out of the landfill.

I rest my case!

Did we sit ON our sofa a lot? We did, hence we have barely a single photo OF HER!  Her quilt incarnation.

(This was the best I could find!)

Sy’s Salient Points:   Ivy, our lionhearted sofa personified a “what-if” lifestyle.                                                                                  She continued to sparkle as we waved good-bye!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Picture: Partial family room with view of solarium.

                                                                 HAPPY SUMMER VACATION BLAIRE DARLING