A Tour of Hearst Castle: Hollywood’s Ultimate Party Palace

The year 1925 would have been a very good time to be a friend of William Randolph Hearst. Not just because the media mogul was on the top of his game, making money hand over fist with his string of over two dozen newspapers and magazines, radio stations and Hollywood film production studio. But because this signalled the beginning of an era of extravagant parties at a palatial mansion he had built high on the hills above San Simeon, California. That mansion, known today as Hearst Castle, saw Hollywood stars, political and literary juggernauts, art experts and gossip columnists come through its doors (and stay for extended periods of time). Henk and I joined that guest list when we took a tour of Hearst Castle for ourselves, getting a glimpse into the lifestyles of Hearst and his mistress, silent film star Marion Davies, and the famous celebrities who came here to play.

Born With a Silver Spoon in his Mouth

Growing up, William Hearst was no stranger to luxury. His father, George had made a fortune mining silver in California in the late 1800s, and as his only son, William lacked for nothing growing up, including a cultural and artistic education, thanks to his mother, Phoebe Apperson. A former schoolteacher, Phoebe made it her mission to introduce her son to all the finer things in life, taking him on a year-long Grand Tour of Europe in 1873 when he was only 10 years old. That proved to be a pivotal experience for William, and captured his imagination by exposing him to magnificent castles, palaces and masterpieces of art. The trip instilled a love for fine art and architecture in Hearst that would remain with him for the rest of his life, and be his inspiration for the construction of Hearst Castle.

From Camping to a California Castle

By the time William was 24 years old, he had begun laying the foundations for what would become his media empire. By 1920, he had already amassed a fortune, giving him more than enough capital to start construction on what would be his life-long creative project, the house at San Simeon. Inspired by the European architecture that he had been introduced to as a boy, Hearst indulged all his youthful fantasies with the design for his mansion.

Hearst was already very familiar with the area around San Simeon, California. Decades earlier, his father had purchased 40,000 acres of ranch land here where William would come to enjoy the great outdoors, hike the property, climb its trees, and camp out under the stars with friends and family. “Camp Hill” was the nickname for this wilderness escape, and when Hearst’s father died, and William inherited the property, he decided this would be the site to construct a more comfortable residence.

“A Little Something on the Hill”

Hearst’s mother Phoebe was actually the person who recommended the architect for the project, a woman named Julia Morgan, who had helped Phoebe build another palatial house in Pleasanton, California years before. Morgan was a trailblazer at the time, one of the first female engineering majors at the University of California at Berkely, and the first woman to graduate from Paris’ architecture school, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Both degrees would come in handy for Hearst’s vision on the hill.

For starters, William chose a location 1600 feet above sea level, on the crest of one of the surrounding hills and far above the low-lying fog banks that would regularly roll in off California’s Pacific coastline. Hearst was very familiar with the weather here, and wanted his home to be located where it would be bathed in sunshine year-round on what he referred to as ‘The Enchanted Hill’. Which meant Julia Morgan would have to tap into her engineering background to construct not just the house itself, but the road to get to the build site.

FYI, Hearst was right to choose the higher elevation, because even on the day that Henk and I arrived, marine fog blanketed most of the coast, but the Visitor Centre shuttle drove us up through the fog to the Castle, where it was nothing but clear blue sky and sunshine.

As it turned out, Morgan would have her work at San Simeon cut out for her, beyond just the difficult construction site itself. Because although Hearst had originally commissioned her to build “a little something” on the hill because he was “tired of camping out in the open”, the project would balloon into a 28-year-long, ever-expanding work-in-progress. By the end of that time, the estate would include 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways.

Nothing But the Best Would Do

Construction of Hearst Castle wouldn’t just take decades to [almost] complete, it would involve the best of everything. Luxurious building materials were imported from around the world, along with statuary, sculptures and artwork. What couldn’t be found or purchased elsewhere was custom-designed, whether it was carved wooden details for ceilings or mouldings, or fabric for draperies.

Hearst even reportedly purchased three Spanish monasteries, just to use the doors and other architectural details throughout the mansion.

Skilled artisans and craftsmen were hired to sculpt, carve, paint, gild and embellish every inch of the mansion and its 3 guest cottages, in order to replicate the European architecture that William had first become enamoured with on his European Tour.

And through it all, Hearst constantly changed the design, requiring Morgan to draw and redraw the plans for the house not just before but during the 3 decades of construction, often demolishing existing structures and re-building them to the new specs.

According to the architect’s accounting, by the time the house was ‘finished’, Hearst had spent 10-12 million dollars (today’s equivalent of almost $170 million dollars!)

The Scandal: a Chorus Girl Becomes a Consort

Even before it was ‘finished’, Hearst’s Castle had became a luxurious country getaway for William and his mistress, Marion Davies. Hearst had met Marion when he was 54 and married, and Davies was a beautiful 19 year-old chorus girl dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies. (William’s wife, Millicent, had also been a vaudeville showgirl in New York when William met her, so it seemed he was playing true to type.)

Davies and Hearst’s romance was one of Hollywood’s worst-kept secrets for years, and although Millicent was aware of it, she refused to give Hearst a divorce. Instead, she and their five sons kept their distance, making a home on the East Coast where Millicent lived her own life, enjoying a generous allowance from Hearst.

In the meantime, back in California, the party was just getting started for William and Marion, and that party was at Hearst Castle.

If Walls Could Talk

The 34-year age difference between Davies and Hearst and their different peer groups must have made for an interesting dynamic at the Castle’s parties, but one thing is certain: Hollywood’s elite were on the guest list. Hearst was already in the business of show business with his own production studio, entertaining stars, agents and other media types as a normal part of networking. He also personally cast Marion in films his studio produced in an effort to advance her career. So both she and Hearst were well known to the old and new guard of Hollywood, many of whom were invited to the Castle.

By 1929, thanks to Hearst’s backing (and her own talent and expressive good looks), Davies had achieved reasonable success as a silent film actress. But when talkies began to replace silent films, Marion was terrified her career would end, owing to a significant stutter that she had had all her life. Having previously turned to alcohol to relieve her stage fright, Davies did the same to help suppress her stutter. It worked, because Davies was able to perform stutter-free whenever the camera started to roll, but she became an alcoholic, something she would struggle with for most of her life. Marion’s drinking problem became one of the reasons why Hearst always served weak drinks at their parties and kept the house booze strictly monitored under lock and key.

Weak drinks or not, the Castle saw a steady stream of famous names and faces who would come to be entertained by the couple: politicians like Winston Churchill and Calvin Coolidge were invited to visit, as well as writers like Howard Hughes and George Bernard Shaw. From Marion’s peer group, there was a huge selection of Hollywood’s youngest and brightest stars, including Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Charlie Chaplin, with whom Marion was rumoured to have had an ongoing affair that made Hearst jealous. In fact, Chaplin’s ‘open invitation’ to visit the Castle only applied if Hearst were present as well.

Hearst’s House Rules

The rules were few at Hearst Castle, the most significant one being zero tolerance for drunken, sloppy behaviour. Overnight guests were encouraged to have a grand time, swim in the pool, play tennis and billiards, horseback ride on the property and enjoy dinners with the host and hostess. There was even an in-house theatre that showed films for the guests in the evenings.

Costume parties were very popular, the themes usually chosen by Hearst himself, and there were even on-site tailors to help guests with their outfits. At other times, Hearst hung oranges around the property in the trees, to affect a Garden of Eden ambiance. And to stay connected with the happenings in Hollywood, hundreds of telephones were scattered throughout the property, even in the trees and under stones, so that celebrities were always able to contact their agents or stay on top of the news or the gossip (when they weren’t the subject of it themselves).

Hearst Castle was THE place to be, and even Katharine Hepburn apparently always regretted turning down Hearst’s invitation to visit the Castle, an invitation that Hearst only extended once. Many guests who did accept the invitation arrived with no fixed ‘departure date’: in fact, one actor in particular, William Haynes, reportedly stayed for three and a half months.

FUN FACT: At dinner, first time guests to Hearst Castle were invited to sit beside Hearst himself, but the longer the guest stayed, the farther down the table they sat – a not-so-subtle hint that they may be overstaying their welcome!

Hearst Castle Was Quite the Zoo – Literally

By the early 1930s, Hearst had bought up even more property surrounding the Castle, to the tune of over 250,000 acres, part of which was used as an actual zoo, the largest private one in the world at the time. The idea for the zoo may have come about after the head of MGM Studios gifted Hearst with a pregnant lion, or perhaps it was just another product of William’s insatiable curiosity and limitless funds. Regardless, before long there were all kinds of animals on the property, including tigers, leopards, bears, monkeys and even an elephant.

FUN FACT: Today, although the zoo has long since been dismantled, there are still over 150 zebra descendants running around on the property. (Henk and I looked for them as we drove along the coast, but never saw one – other than the wine pourer at Hearst Winery where we went for a wine tasting after our tour of Hearst Castle).

Eventually All Parties Must End

By 1947, after 10 years of financial setbacks and health issues for Hearst, he and Davies moved out of the Castle. Four years later, William died at the age of 88, bringing the parties to an end once and for all. Davies moved on and married a sea captain named Horace Brown in 1951, (who was a Hearst lookalike), and after a tumultuous marriage to him, she died in 1961.

Despite their age difference and the scandal that came with it, Hearst and Davies’ 34-year relationship had outlived many Hollywood marriages, then or now. And the legendary parties they threw for the glitterati at Hearst Castle would lay the groundwork for making this property one of the most famous in California.

And if the 700,000 or so visitors that come here every year are any indication, this pleasure palace will continue to be a magnet for those who want to see how America’s rich and famous once lived.

EPILOGUE: Thirty-two years after the death of Marion Davis, news surfaced that William and Marion’s relationship had produced a love child, Patricia Van Cleve Lake, a woman who had always been presented as their ‘niece’. After Lake’s death in 1993, her family revealed that Patricia was William and Marion’s daughter, based on information she had shared with them. Lake’s claim has never been definitively proven and many consider it a rumour still, including spokespeople for the Hearst Castle National Historic Landmark. Perhaps the only witness to the truth is Hearst Castle itself, and those walls aren’t talking.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION FOR A TOUR OF HEARST CASTLE

TOURS & ADMISSION FEES

Visitors can take a tour of Hearst Castle all year long with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Days. There are actually 4 different tours to choose from, as well as seasonally-specific ones, with prices starting from $35. One of the most popular tours for first-time visitors is the Grand Rooms Tour which shows you the main floor of the main house (‘Casa Grande’). For those who want to go deeper, there are tours that take you to the upstairs rooms, the cottages and kitchen, and even one that focuses on the architect Julia Morgan. For more information on visiting the castle and its history, check out the website.

TIP: Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark and as such everything in it (including the paving stones around the pool) is considered part of the museum. Don’t touch or lean on anything inside or outside the house or the Rangers will be on you like a hawk!

WHERE TO STAY NEAR HEARST CASTLE

We highly recommend booking a hotel or B&B in the charming town of Cambria, which is delightfully artsy, has great shopping and restaurants, and is less than 15 minutes’ drive from Hearst Castle.

Special thanks to Visit Cambria for hosting Henk and I on our visit to Hearst Castle