Hearst Castle - evening routine

For all their luxury, the little houses contain no kitchens and the many staff did not provide room service. Russ tells us that Mr Hearst regarded the ranch as his home and expected guests to join him in the dining room for their meals.

For breakfast and lunch that just meant wandering up to Casa Grande and ordering whatever you wanted from the staff, who would then serve it to you in the dining room or a sunny antechamber nearby. Dinner, however, was a rather more elaborate affair. Dress was casual, so naturally the gentlemen wore suits and the ladies wore cocktail dresses. At 7pm the guests would come up to the main hall for cocktails.


During the day this room might have been configured differently. Table tennis tables or other games were sometimes set up for guests to play, but in the evening this glorious room was the social centre of the ranch.



Everything in this room is interesting. Above is a single panel from the medieval church pews imported from Europe to line the room and provide additional seating. The mantel below is another European antique imported especially for this room. Every detail, down to the paintings, the wall hangings and the mosaic in the entranceway was chosen and placed by Julia Morgan. This room alone would have been a massive undertaking.

Cocktails at the ranch were notoriously weak. Mr Hearst personally added the liquor to the punch and a number of former guests have commented that you could drink a lot at the ranch without ever getting drunk. Russ delicately suggested that Mr Hearst's uncharacteristic stinginess was a reaction to the alcoholism of his companion, movie actress Marion Davies.

After cocktails the guests amused themselves in the pool room before dinner. Playing pool at the ranch was a thoroughly progressive affair because ladies were permitted to participate.

Dinner was served at 9pm in the massive dining room. According to Russ, the dining room was visited by the set designers for the Harry Potter films and was part of the inspiration for the Hogwarts Great Hall. I had previously heard that the hall at Hogwarts was based on the Great Hall of Christ Church College Oxford, but I can certainly see elements of Mr Hearst's Gothic dining room in the final set design.

Former guests of Mr Hearst have noted that although an invitation to stay at the ranch was always open ended, the nameplate that marked your place at dinner moved further down the table the longer you stayed. Russ told us that the British author P.G. Wodehouse noticed his nightly progression away from his host and elected to leave when he reached the last place at the table. "One more night and my plate would have been in the fireplace," he said.


Note the flags and the lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The ceiling of the Hogwarts Great Hall is bewitched to look like the sky outside, but I think the dining room ceiling at Hearst Castle is just as impressive in its own way.

At a quarter to midnight, Mr Hearst would round up his guests to join him for a film to be screened in the cinema. The light in this room was too low for me to get any more photographs than the one below so you'll just have to take my word about its magnificence.

The cinema was as big as ... a cinema. Instead of modern plastic moulded seating, Mr Hearst's home theatre was decked out with rows of custom built armchairs. Each armchair had its own padded footrest, cosy rug, cushions and a table for drinks and cigarettes. Everyone smoked, of course, except Mr Hearst, but he did provide cigarettes for his guests.

Movie producers competed keenly to have their movies screened there because if Mr Hearst liked the film it would be well reviewed in the Hearst newspapers. If Mr Hearst didn't like the film he would phone the projectionist and have it stopped at once. An alternative film would then commence, usually one starring his companion Marion Davies. The screening started at 11.45 pm sharp and, depending on the film, might not finish until 3 or 4 am. Russ assures us that Mr Hearst was never offended if his guests fell asleep. He just wanted them to be there.

At the end of the film guests were free to wander off to bed or amuse themselves as they saw fit. Mr Hearst, a lifetime insomniac, would go upstairs to his office and start phoning around the country to talk to the editors of his newspapers.