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In the end, San Simeon backfired on its creator.
In 1919, weary of taking his movie star friends camping on his vast ranch, America’s
most powerful man—newspaper and film mogul William Randolph Hearst—decided to build
the ultimate country guest house, a palatial Mediterranean Revival structure perched
in California’s prized Santa Lucia mountains. When construction finally finished
nearly 30 years later, the 90,080-square-foot “Hearst Castle” boasted 165 rooms
stuffed with Renaissance antiques, 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, and two Roman-style
swimming pools, all surrounded by exquisite gardens.
In the 1930s, Hollywood stars arrived here in droves for week-long costume parties
thrown by Hearst’s mistress, silent movie star Marion Davies. But the events were
not quite as much fun as they were depicted, partly because Hearst had a Puritanical
streak. As a teetotaler, he kept a tight rein on his guests’ alcohol consumption.
There was a 2-drink maximum on pre-dinner cocktails and during the meal, waiters
were under strict instructions to limit the wine. Guests who misbehaved would return
to their rooms that night to find their bags already packed. (The only exception
was Davies herself, a hopeless alcoholic who often had to be carried drunk from
the table.)
Hearst was also a sullen host, and he often retreated to his chamber for long soaks
in his solid-gold tub. In the end, San Simeon backfired on its creator. Americans
began to view the mansion as the product of an eccentric and possibly unhinged mind.
Today, most of us know little more about William Randolph Hearst than through Orson
Welles’ unflattering—and far from historically accurate—portrait of him in his 1941
classic, Citizen Kane. The film’s fantastical castle setting allows us to believe
almost anything about the mogul, not that it staunches our fascination: San Simeon
receives 2 million visitors a year.
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