Lindsey Mackey I posted this answer to your question below. In September 1940, after filming Foreign Correspondent, Hitchcock bought the 200-acre 1870 Cornwall Ranch at the end of Canham Road near Scotts Valley. The $40,000 spread included a house, tennis court, stables, and a winery across Highway 17. The Hitchcocks kept a modest home in Bel Air while working in Hollywood, but preferred their main home near Scotts Valley. The Hitchcocks enlarged the 1938 adobe house from its original nine rooms. Entry was through a courtyard, where a Jacob Epstein bust of their daughter was displayed. A winding outdoor stairway led to the tower guest room, while inside, rooms surrounded a central atrium. The living room was lined with bookshelves and contained furniture by California designer Paul Frankel and paintings by famous 20th century artists. In the rose garden was a mosaic by the father of Cubism, Georges Braque. Hitchcock had a fearful side, so as a director he knew which buttons to push. He never drove, and surrounded his Scotts Valley compound with an electric fence. And to conceal his weight fluctuations, his closet contained the same style suit in a dozen sizes. Hitchcock worked very hard preparing for a film, visualizing many sketches and meditating in his enormous marble bathtub. In his 1941 film Suspicion, he used the north coast of Santa Cruz for its English coastline sequence. It was the rare time that Cary Grant was cast in a sinister role, and Joan Fontaine won the best-actress Oscar. Santa Cruz was Hitchcocks escape from the film industry, yet while he rarely shot scenes in the county, he took inspiration from these surroundings. Local legend indicates the mansion in 1960s Psycho was based on the setting of the dilapidated Hotel McCray (now Sunshine Villa) on Beach Hill, with its nearby motel. And the design of the mansion was a dead ringer for the decayed Bernheim House, which stood at Broadway and Ocean streets. In his 1963 film The Birds, Santa Cruz is mentioned as the place this phenomenon first occurred. Local news accounts bear this out, reporting incidents where birds got lost in fog, headed toward city lights and invaded the towns of Capitola and Santa Cruz. In 1966, Pacific Garden Mall landscaper Roy Rydell (who designed the forecourt of the Nickelodeon) was hired by Hitchcock to landscape his estate. Rydell became friends with the Hitchcocks, even visiting the set of Torn Curtain in Hollywood. Ingrid Bergman visited Hitchcocks Scotts Valley estate, and when Princess Grace of Monaco (formerly actress Grace Kelly) visited, Hitchcock re-oiled his entire driveway. Hitchcocks granddaughter, Teresa Carrubba, remembers a Christmas in Santa Cruz when Hitchcock dressed as Santa Claus, typical of his playful, humorous nature. Carrubba lives in La Selva Beach. After a break-in at the estate, Hitchcock replaced all his paintings with studio-made copies. They sold the estate in 1974, six years before his death. This article originally appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, November 29, 1994, p. 1B. Copyright 1994 Ross Eric Gibson. Reprinted with the permission of Ross Eric Gibson. View similarly tagged articles: Alfred Hitchcock, films, Scotts Valley
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 07:16:35 +0000
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