Once an amazing ocean retreat for the upper echelon of wealthy celebrities throughout history, particularly in the 1920s and 30s, Hearst Castle is now one of the most visited attractions in California and the United States.
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Location
Ninety miles south of Carmel at the southernmost part of the Big Sur coast near San Simeon and Cambria, in San Luis Obispo County, lies Hearst Castle, the fascinating and magnificent estate of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.History
Built from 1919-1947 by well known architect Julia Morgan of San Francisco, on a 40,000-acre ranch, purchased by William Randolph Hearst's father, wealthy miner George Hearst in 1865. It was designed around the eccentric style of William Randolph Hearst. His love of antiques with functionality is something not to be missed.
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Once an amazing ocean retreat for the upper echelon of wealthy celebrities throughout history, particularly in the 1920's and 30's, an invitation to visit the castle was a highly coveted item. Hearst Castle is now one of the most visited attractions in California and the United States.
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Copyright ©2011 Michele Cameron Drew. All rights reserved.
2 comments:
I regret that in the 12 years when I lived in California (1982-1994) that I never got an opportunity to visit Hearst Castle.
Hearst Castle was immortalized by fimmaker/actor Orson Welles in his 1941 classic, "Citizen Kane."
His Charles Forster Kane was long said to be modeled on William Randolph Hearst (Hearst, in fact, fought in vain to stop production of the film) and Kane's sprawling Xanadu estate in Florida was doubtless patterned after Hearst Castle.
It wasn't until the mid-80s that Hearst's grandson, William Randolph (Will) Hearst III, sought to "bury the hatchet" and end his family's long feud with Welles.
The younger Hearst, then the publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, even filmed a series of Examiner TV commercials that humorously played on his grandfather's "Kane" image (Although ironically, Kane's megalomaniacal personality was based more on Hearst's arch-rival, Joseph Pulitzer).
Welles, unfortunately, passed away before Will Hearst had an opportunity to meet Welles face to face. "Damn! I wanted so much to meet him," Hearst was quoted as saying by the Examiner on the day after Welles' death in 1985.
Bottom line is that Hearst Castle's present status as a major tourist attraction (the Hearst Corporation donated it to the State of California in 1957) and national historic landmark can be attributed directly to "Citizen Kane."
Wow Skeeter, thanks for the comment and for all the additional info. You could have written an entire article. :)
Welles seems to keep showing up here on the Spectrum somehow. The last time it was for Glynis Smy's War of the Worlds, one of my favorite Spectrum articles. hrmmm.
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