WOW! Cosmic connections! You did the tour too? Do you recall the "Batman" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" stuff? I think it was a Sunday so they were not doing much when we were there, but the Dolly Street was being prepped for the next day. Adding the wet look to the fountains, etc.
I don't remember which day it was, only that it was on the weekend. Someone at our church arranged for a group tour. We got to walk down the Dolly Street and see the train station, and the park with the fountain. No one was around doing prep work, except on the Harmonia Gardens set. I guess that's how we got to see it, because the sound stage doors were open.
Oddly enough, other than the Dolly sets, I mostly remember the entry area/first floor for the Von Trapp Family mansion set. I couldn't get over how small it actually was in person. Seems so much bigger in the film. And we also got to see one of the Planet of the Apes interior sets, which was filmed the year before. Much of the film was done out at the Fox Ranch, two years before M*A*S*H was filmed there.
DLP was my shot at literally doing that set.Tony and I totally wanted to take the design in that direction. I think we got there graphically as the whole Main Street Motors area plays off of the street corner in Dolly with the signage (Pourous Plaster) and tall buildings behind the wedge shaped single story building (Vanek).
You definitely pulled it off.
The day we were there we were not allowed into the Harmonia Gardens. I would have remembered that set. We met in Century Plaza Mall first and there was a model of the "Seaview" Submarine in the tour office there. I was already wowed by that point and we had not even departed. We saw what was left of the Western Street, a Prison Block, A Waterfront with a Ship, the NY urban "Batman" Street, New England "Peyton Place", and then the Dolly Street as the finale.
I remember the submarine model, just not any sets. I thought that's what you meant. And we did walk down the Gotham City street, but for some reason, it didn't make an impression on me, even though I loved the show as a kid. I don't remember the western street or the prison block. I do remember the New England location, but I didn't tie it to Peyton Place because I didn't watch the show. And for some reason, we saw the Dolly Street earlier in the tour, and saw Harmonia Gardens last. Not sure why we didn't finish with the street, unless the Harmonia Gardens set was a serendipitous event that the tour guide wasn't planning on.
If you have the Dolly DVD, there is a "making of" the parade sequence featurette I was watching not 5 minutes ago and it has the drill team and so much of what I recall that day on that magical tour. Maybe she is in it.
I seem to recall that she was towards the back of the group. I guess I should rent the DVD and look for her in the "making of" short. I know she isn't easily spotted in the actual film.
I freeze frame it so many times it's not funny as that design of that film is the benchmark for everything we did on Main Street. Peter Kelly was a set designer on Dolly and he was on our staff, he gave me the blueprints of Harmonia Gardens!
Whoa!
I dragged the lake for every old school movie set designer that could bring that cinematic look to Main Street. It had to have the depth of the Fox look! I recall you doing things for technicolor especially with the costumes. You want them to stand out from the sets. They told stories of birds trying to land on faux painted window sills and they would fall off the NYC flats. De Cuir and others had this special color palette that Fox used and I'm still trying to acquire it from and old Art Director friend. It's grayed and restrained as a background like Disney. Look at the soft wall colors in the Hat Shop and the Feed store. Totally tasteful. The rugs and costumes,flowers and accents stand out.
That's what I remember about the Harmonia Gardens set. The flowers were so bright, almost reaching retinal burn status. I never really thought about the costumes and accents standing out against the background, but it's true.
I can't honestly say I "worked" with DeCuir on projects, but spied on him and hung in his office and bugged him. He thought big and drew everything bigger. i stopped in and saw he had drawn a massive ten story Xmas Star in the middle of Hollywood and Highland Avenue for a project we were proposing at Landmark entertainment. It looked like the 50's spiked star on the Matterhorn, but insanely huge like a building with a traffic circle."Anyone can do something small" he said and drew this thing on an epic scale as he was an epic guy. That stayed with me. My first week at WED, I did the same thing and enlarged a small sketch to be close to ten feet in length then detailed it. Everyone was wowed because it took two people to bring in this big spacecraft rendering. An idea seems bigger when it is presented on a massive scale. He was right.
You're lucky to have had access to DeCuir. Even though you didn't get much face time with him, he sounds like one of the more influential mentors in your career.
The DW Griffith (His Hero)silent epic "Intolerance" set ripoff at "Hollywood and Highland" (Mall in Hollywood) was originally his idea as a mega set shopping complex, and when it did not happen, I proposed it again as an homage, and eventually it ended up being executed on a shoestring by others on that very spot. Sorry John, I tried.
I didn't know you were connected to that project, Eddie, even if the Intolerance set was just a suggestion.
The depth and breadth of your professional experience never ceases to amaze me.
