Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, and Noel Coward walk the

grounds of Ten Chimneys. (c) TCF

My wife and I recently returned from a two week trip to Wisconsin to visit family. It was our first time traveling with a baby, something I was a little anxious about. I was preparing myself to be "that guy with the crying baby," but fortunately, I had nothing to worry about. Hazel was probably the happiest baby to go through an airport and fly on an airplane. She was all smiles until she fell asleep. She did well enough that we will likely take her on another family trip. Although the primary reason for our trip was to visit family, we did venture out on occaision to check out some local attractions. Over the next two or three weeks I'll share some snapshots of our trip.

One of the first places we visited was "Ten Chimneys," the estate of husband and wife Broadway stars, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. During the 1920s, 30s, 40s and into the 50s Lunt and Fontanne, or simply, "The Lunts," were the toast of Broadway. Alfred and Lynn were considered two of the finest actors ever to grace the stage and had played a large part in developing what is considered modern acting. The Lunts popularized "realism" in acting. For example, The Lunts were known for talking over each others lines as opposed to waiting for the other to finish speaking (just like in real life we don't always wait for the other person to finish speaking before we ourselves start speaking). The couple had many offers from Hollywood to appear in the movies and they did appear in one major motion picture, The Guardsmen (1931), but The Lunts preferred the stage to the screen. When asked why they wouldn't do more movies, Lynn famously responded, "We can be bought, but we can't be bored." The Lunts desired the energy of being on the stage and the reaction of a live audience. When The Lunts were not appearing on the stage they were spending time at their estate, Ten Chimneys, in rural Genesee Depot, Wisconsin. Eventually when they retired from acting the couple would live out the rest of their lives at the estate.

Note: Click any of the pictures to see the images larger.

Wifey, Robby, Hazel at the Ten Chimneys Program Center

Ten Chimneys is now open as a museum. To begin a tour you first have to check in at what they call the Program Center. This is a separate building across from the estate where the tour starts. In the Program Center there is an art exhibit space, an excellent gift shop filled with all kinds of fun stuff, photographs, a seating area, and some interactive exhibits. 

Listening about The Lunts inside the Program Center.

Zinnia and Hazel take to the stage inside the Program Center.

Hazel waits for Mommy & Daddy to return.

Unfortunately, we could not take Hazel with us on the tour. Kids 12 and under have to hang out in the Program Center, so we left Hazel with Grandma. This is because on the tour you actually walk into each room, as opposed to standing in a hallway on some estate tours and only being able to look into a room. Also, there are a lot of steps around the property, so not very stroller friendly. From the Program Center a shuttle picked up my wife, Dad and myself and drove us to the entrance of the main house.

The entrance to the main house.

The Lunts ride bikes in front of the main house. (c) TCF

The estate gets its name from ten chimneys that are on the property. The estate consist of several buildings: the main house, a cottage, a pool house, green house, creamery, a chicken coop, a log cabin studio, stables and a few other buildings. The main house was always a work in progress. The Lunts were always adding on rooms and decorating the house with antiques and adding murals to the walls.

The entrance hallway. (c) TCF

There is no photography allowed inside the buildings, only outside photography is allowed, so I purchased some postcards from the gift shop. There are so many charming rooms but I only have a few to show off. One of my favorite interior rooms was the entrance hallway. On each of the walls is a mural showing characters offering up items to make your stay with The Lunts as comfortable as possible. The murals are both pretty and playful and are indeed a welcoming touch.

To be invited to Ten Chimneys and be a guest of The Lunts was quite an honor. Regular guest, broadway star, Carol Channing said, "If you get to go to Ten Chimneys, you must have done something right." Other regular guests included their close friend, writer/actor Noel Coward, who also wrote several plays starring The Lunts, including Design For Living, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and Helen Hayes. Coward, Olivier and Hayes in fact each have rooms in the home named after them because of their frequent visits. Some other guests have included Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor Roosevelt, Julie Harris and John Gielgud.

The dining room. (c) TCF

Alfred and Lynn in the dining room. (c) TCF

The above images show the dining room how it looks now and when The Lunts were living there. As you can see it is almost exactly the way it was left. The Ten Chimneys Foundation even leaves the candles all slightly crooked because in every photo of The Lunts in their living room the candles are never straight.

If you were a guest at Ten Chimneys Alfred would probably have prepared some very gourmet meals. Alfred was known to be quite the chef. He was even certified by the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and in the kitchen hangs his diploma. Alfred's cooking was very European, rich in butter and cream that was prepared on the estate, and with vegetables and fruits grown on the property. Alfred was encouraged to make a cookbook, which he never completed during his lifetime, but you can now buy in the Ten Chimneys gift shop a beautiful hardcover book that includes many of Alfred's recipes and photos of the estate. Noel Coward wrote in his diaries that The Lunts "are deeply concerned with only three things: themselves, the theatre, and food - good hot food."

The Drawing Room in the main house. (c) TCF

Above is the drawing room which is another room filled with hand painted murals that wrap around the entire room. The murals were painted by artist Claggett Wilson. Wilson was a portraitist, decorator and a set designer. The Lunts first hired Wilson to design costumes for their 1935 production of The Taming of the Shrew. Then in 1938 they hired Wilson again for another project - to paint murals throughout their home, a project that lasted a few years.

Katharine Hepburn had said of Ten Chimneys, "Every time I was visiting with the Lunts in Genesee Depot, I was in a sort of daze of wonder; the dining room, the table, the china, the silver, the food, the extraordinary care and beauty and taste...a sort of dream, a vision."

Lynn and Alfred in the Belasco room. (c) TCF

Helen Hayes Bedroom in the main house. (c) TCF

A back view of the main house.

Above is a view of the back of the main house. Can you spot some of the chimneys?

One of the trails leading from the main house.

Genesee Depot was then and still is very much today a rural location. In the photo above you can see one of the woodsy trails leading away from the main house.

Looking at the cottage from the main house.

Alfred and Lynn in the cottage kitchen.

Alfred had a strong interest in Scandinavian arts and design and you can see the influence all over in the cottage. Some of the furnishings were picked up on trips through Scandinavian countries or were designed to look Scandinavian. The most impressive room in the cottage is probably the upstairs bedroom which I don't have an image for, but I do like the image of the kitchen because of the black stove. Apparently, Alfred imagined that black stove to have a top piece, which it did not have, so he painted the top part of the stove onto the wall so that it would blend into the stove, like an illusion or stage trick. The Lunts's were less concerned with what something cost and more concerned with how something looked. Extremely rare antiques would be mixed in with items that were inexpensive finds. If The Lunts liked the way something looked, that's all that mattered.

A view of the pool house and cottage.

A view of the pool house.

The Greenhouse and chicken coop.

The creamery I think? I can't remember.

Back at the Program Center.  In front of a wall of playbills.

At the end of the tour a shuttle picked us back up and returned us to the Program Center where we were able to continue looking at the exhibits there and browse the gift shop. I highly recommend the tour for anyone interested in the theater or Golden Era Hollywood. The estate is much more impressive in person and our tour guides were so informative. They had so many great stories about The Lunts and the property. If you are visiting Milwaukee, the state capital in Madison, or one of the other nearby cities in Wisconsin, it is worth the drive. I also highly recommend reading one of the biographies on The Lunts before your visit. I had read the biography, Design For Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne by Margot Peters before my visit and I think it made me appreciate the estate even more.

The estate is also more than a museum. Every summer there is the "Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program" in which 8-10 actors are selected from around the country to "participate in a weeklong master class and retreat with a world-renowned and respected Master Teacher." Acting classes and activities take place around the Ten Chimneys property and the Program Center. This years fellowship just ended when we arrived and featured musical theatre legend Joel Grey as the master teacher. Other Master Teachers have included Olympia Dukakis, Lynn Redgrave, Barry Edelstein and next year it was recently announced that Alan Alda will be the Master Teacher.

Ten Chimneys also hosts "conversations" or lectures with luminaries that have a connection to the theater, Ten Chimneys or the Lunts. Some of these special guests have included Robert Osborne, Dick Cavett and Michael York. Actress Laura Linney will be appearing at Ten Chimneys on August 24 for one of the Conversations at Ten Chimneys.

More to check out:

The Ten Chimneys Official Website

Ten Chimneys on Facebook

Ten Chimneys YouTube channel 

Ten Chimneys on Twitter

Have you ever visited Ten Chimneys or heard about this fanciful estate before?

Agnes Moorehead

Agnes Moorehead is probably best remembered as the meddling mother and witch, "Endora," on the hit 1960s television series Bewitched. But, long before Moorehead's memorable role on TV, she had a successful career as a stage, radio, and character film actress. 

Moorehead was one of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre performers on radio - one of the most infamous radio groups. When Welles went to Hollywood to film his iconic first picture, Citizen Kane, Welles cast Agnes as Kane's mother. Welles then cast Moorhead in the major part of "Aunt Fanny" in his next film, The Magnificent Ambersons, long considered one of Welles's forgotten masterpieces. This led Moorehead to many stand-out character parts on film. After Welles was ostracized by Hollywood, Moorehead would always stand up for him.

In between making films, Moorehead continued to work on the stage and as a star radio performer. During the 1940s, Moorehead starred alongside Lionel Barrymore on the hit radio show Mayor of the Town. First aired by NBC, Mayor of the Town, later moved over to CBS, broadcasting from their studio located at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower in Hollywood.

CBS Studios, Hollywood, California (1950s)

Former CBS Studios Site (2010)

Mayor of the Town was set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springdale and dealt with everyday issues. Barrymore played the tough on the outside, soft on the inside mayor, and Moorehead played his housekeeper. 

On Thursdays, the actors would get together to do a read through of the script which would be followed by a second read through with microphones and to time the sound effects. The show aired on Saturdays in front of a live studio audience. As was customary for the day, the actors performed the show at 6pm to be live for the east coast at 9pm, then the actors would perform the show a second time at 9pm to be live for the West Coast listeners.

Brittingham's Radio Center Restaurant (1940s)

Former Brittingham's Radio Center Restaurant Site (2010)

In between shows the cast would do whatever they wanted to do. Often they would run to Brittingham's Radio Center Restaurant located on the lower level of the CBS complex. CBS Studios no longer operates in this complex and the Brittingham Restaurant no longer exist, but fortunately, because of some vocal preservationists, the building still stands, although vacant at the time. 

The vintage photos above are from my postcard collection and I always like reading the messages on the back of the old postcards. Here's the message from the back of the CBS postcard which was sent to a Mr. & Mrs. Blake in Seattle in 1955:

"Hi Kids, Having a fine time and enjoying some nice weather [this was written in January]. After a quiet spell of not so good. Spent yesterday in Hollywood and saw some radio and T.V. programs put on the air. Will be leaving here tomorrow to go to Arizona. Expect to see your folk in just a few days. Love from us both, Mora & Ward."

I wonder what radio and TV programs Mora and Ward got to see back in 1955!

Lucille Ball

I was going through some of my old photos and came across one that someone took of me with Paramount Studios historical consultant, Gary DeVaugn, in front of the former soundstage for The Lucy Show. The photo was taken back when I was a page on the Paramount lot. Gary was usually around the Paramount lot and available to share his wisdom on the history of the studio and all things Hollywood. As you can imagine, being the Hollywood history fan that I am, I used to try and get as many stories out of Gary as I could. I probably drove the man crazy! 

To get a sense of the kind of stories I was able to learn from Gary, here is a behind the scenes look at Lucille Ball's (and Ginger Rogers') dressing room on the old Desilu Studios lot (now part of the Paramount Studios lot). The video is filmed and narrated by Gary.

Lucille Ball's Office @ Desilu Studios

Above is a photo of where Lucille Ball's office was when this was Desilu Studios. Before it was Desilu it was RKO Studios. Now it is part of the Paramount Studios lot. Looking at the photo below you will see "Lucy Park," which not only serves as a park area on the lot, but also, sometimes as a filming location.

The "Chevalier building" in Lucy Park

Lucy Park

"Lucky Stage 25" next to "Lucy Park"

Above is another photo of Lucy Park and in this shot we can see the exterior wall of soundstage 25. This soundstage is where they used to film The Lucy Show, as well as Bosom Buddies, Cheers, and Frasier. Where the blue awning is would have been the entrance to Lucy's stage dressing room "the leading ladies dressing room" as Gary refers to it in the video, which had direct access to the soundstage. Now, don't confuse this dressing room with Lucy's other one in the video which is located across from the park in the Bob Hope building.

Robby Cress & Gary DeVaughn

Above is the photo I mentioned at the start of myself with Gary

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