22 Citizen Kane

15 08 2011

: Day of beauty

: South of San Francisco

CITIZEN KANE

Two outstanding California spirits helped me explore Central California; William Randolph Hearst and John Muir. HEARST was a man of excess, who dominated coastal California. . Hearst was a man of opulence, power, and influence. The other spirit, while modest and reclusive, and equally charismatic, left significant legacy; offering unparalleled stewardship of the natural environment that has kept California one of our national treasures.

I entered the I-580 loop traveling, from Manteca near Tracy, southwest on I- 680 to San Hose. From Santa Hose I took Hwy. 101 headed for the Seaside, Monterey, and Pacific Groves area. It was Big Sur time. I was looking forward to this leg as 101 passes through Gilroy (Touted to be the garlic capital of the world). (I did a master plan for a site in Gilroy several years ago. It had among other retail uses, twenty three theaters. That was back when we were the local “Theater Specialists”, having designed several Branson theaters and the Hammons- Carolina Palace in Myrtle Beach. ) I was also looking forward to seeing the Embassy Suites Hotel in Seaside, as our firm had designed that facility, also for Hammons.

The spirit of William Randolph Hearst:

The movie; Citizen Kane. It was a must see movie for student architects in the seventies. Citizen Kane was pre-empted only by The Fountain Head. Remember Gary Cooper blowing up his own project? Ann Rand’s battle: altruism vs. objectivism. Ah, Howard Roark. Now, there’s an architect; ravage the women and blow up your client’s life investment because your design sensitivity was offended.

So, young Orson Wells, star, creator/director of Citizen Kane, at age twenty-four was positioned for greatness. Wells seemed to explode on the Hollywood scene with the skill and charm of past master architect-Frank Lloyd Roark. Citizen Kane was an accepted success before the cellulose film dried. Now touted as a cinematic giant, Citizen Kane was, and is still, considered one of the greatest film ever made. Student architects were encouraged to watch the movie and learn production skills; the staging of the scenes, though in black and white, each scene was a photo masterpiece in its composition, form and void, use of light for impact and mood development, sense of order… all those freshman principles of design. (The real lesson from Citizen Kane was in the recognition of future client personality; i.e. type and temperament. There’s a little Kane to be found in every client.)

Wells soon imploded in Hollywood. Muzzled by William Randolph Hearst. It seems Wells had based the story of Kane around Hearst’s life and times. Hearst didn’t welcome being depicted on silver screen as a maniacal controlling media magnate. Further, it boded poorly of his mistress, Marion Davies. Hearst envisioned himself a modern Prince of all domains; he directed history and people at his pleasure. He stopped distribution of Citizen Kane. The movie was put on the shelf for some twenty years.(It would be interesting to have seen a Hearst’s response to a more recent film, 2002, “the Cat’s Meow”, by Peter Bogdanovich.)

Monterey, Pacific Grooves, Pebble Beach, Carmel by the Sea; the Big Sur area is a place I could live; if provided with a princely income; nature’s beauty, weather’s beauty, friendly people; beautiful people. Nymphet’s in bikinis. I find art galleries, Jewelry stores, and antique shops; all dropped into rugged environment. There are people here who actually value, buy, and pay for fine art? What? Is this all a part of a Hollywood fascademy scheme? Where I come from people visit galleries, observe, criticize, but to suggest purchase would be “bourgeois” at best. Monterey, on the other hand: as the governor would say, “I’ll be back”.

Enough of the good life. I’m back on Pacific Hwy 1 moving south through the twisties of the Santa Lucia Range. It’s Big Sur country. Like Oregon, and northern California, the San Lucia Range lays against the sea, offering a variety of plunging cliffs and rocky coastal beaches. Oh great. I’m swooning between cliff-side vertigo and indescribable panoramic beauty. I respond to the vertigo by focusing on the yellow center stripe. The bike goes to were your looking.( One of my riding buddies once had a head on collision with another biker caused by this phenomenon.) Lock eyes, lock horns. I respond to the beauty, well, I know it is time to stop and savoir, when the signs designate “vista ahead” pull off zones.

The beaches put me back to normalcy.( It gets to be Like the Louvre. Great! Another Madonna and Child.) Sea lions and seals have become familiar and common.” I’m loaded for whale”. So are many others. I see cars pulled over, drivers with two foot long telephoto lens pointed out to sea. I’m soon alongside with my Sony Cybershot.

I spend the night high in the San Lucias overlooking the Pacific at the Ragged Point Inn. It’s located about fifteen miles from San Simeon.

San Simeon Acres is the location of the Hearst ranch, or (castle). The ranch is sited on one of the most beautiful areas of California. The rolling grass covered mountains provide undisturbed landscape viewed in any direction. Prince Hearst’s castle, “La Questa Encantada” provided a nature/culture experience that felt like the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, N.C. it is steeped in European ornamentation inspired by Spanish Baroque style. Not surprising as both architects, Hunt (Biltmore) and Julia Morgan (Hearst castle) were schooled in the Beaux Arts Tradition. (Sondra and I visited the Academia one afternoon long ago. I looked it over pretty good. I guess you might say I, too, studied at the Academia).

Most of the day at San Simeon was spent on site. Actually, there is very little choice. The tours are formal, structured, and rigidly scheduled. With over a million visitors a year, the crowds are systematically, but courteously managed. You are greeted at the Welcome Center located at the bottom of the hill and bussed to the castle. The docents are available for questions and provided a rich background of the castle during its prime, which would be the twenties through the mid forties. Certainly the docents answered the regular questions about Patty (was she really kidnapped?), the terrorists who blew up a part of a housing wing, the earthquake that damaged the cathedral and plaza. There were the controversial guests, Wayne, Chaplin, Detrick, and on and on. (Hearst was a bit of a Victorian. One rule was no bed hopping. Errol Flynn lasted the first night before it was suggested he leave.

But docents also described a different Hearst. A man of great vision and ambition who used his power for great causes. He was the great mentor. Those observations sent me back to the internet trying to understand the man who was so instrumental to the growth of California during the first half of the twentieth century.

While there were certainly famous entertainers and politicians as his guests, there were also invited industrialists, financiers, entrepreneurs; those movers and shakers who were making the west coast the envy of the states. As I see it, the Hearst ranch served, during that period, as an incubator where idea people were introduced and aligned with resource people. Liaisons were formed that would generate the growth of business and industry for much of the nation for a generation. Hearst was apparently a gifted puppet master and Marion Davies was a capable and effective partner in achieving his goals. The seating arrangements at dinner, which all guests were required to attend, launched industries, partnerships, and literally, wars. It was, at times, the table of “Captains and Kings”. Hearst was a prince of the medieval tradition shaping modern California.

Hearst was indeed- Citizen Kane.