 The
Capwell mansion :
"This was the scene of so many memorable moments. Some wonderful
early stuff from Joe and Kelly, C.C. and Sophia and Mason and Ted, and of
course I recall the day that Eden first walked through the front door. She
had floated down from out of the sky to land with her parachute all
tangled up in the hedge of the adjacent Lockridge estate, where Warren was
waiting to give her more attention than she ever wanted from him. Her
Capwell homecoming was unforgettable, what with the whole family gathering
to present itself for the first time. It is also to the door of the
Capwell mansion that Cruz first came when he returned to Santa Barbara,
having just squelched an oil rig fire for C.C.."Kris
Kringle's cabin :
"I loved the scenes that Cruz and Eden got to play in this room, with
the wonderful actor Chuck McCann, who played Kris. The
way Santa
Barbara dealt with fantasy was one of the show's great strengths. It
delivered the storytelling far beyond the boundaries of what most
serialized television shows of the day were designed to explore. The
shows where the characters would step away from their troubles for a while
and engage with the more dreamlike aspects of life were often wonderful to
watch. And they were almost always a lot of fun to play." Cruz's
boat :
"So many moments, two of which immediately stand out. Cruz
had to do a scene in a storyline where he was trying to help Joe and
Kelly, a scene where he had been shaving when suddenly interrupted by
them. All day long, in rehearsals, I practiced the scene as if I had
shaving cream on my face, but I never actually used any. At the end of the
day, when we finally went to tape it for real, I finally put the real
shaving cream on my face. The stuff had an amazingly intense fragrance to
it. It smelled to me as if I was suddenly submerged into a giant tub
of lime jelly. It was ridiculously intense, this stuff, and suddenly I
couldn't remember my lines. At all.
Later,
the boat would prove to be the scene of one of my happiest moments ever as
an actor : it was on the boat that Marcy first pushed me into a
moment of free and genuine bliss. She surprised and delighted me to the
point that I just dissolved into laughter - with no sense of artifice. It
was the first time in my life that had ever happened. And until it did, I
wasn't quite sure if it was possible to do under the demands of
"performing.""
Cruz
and Eden's beach house :
"I remember Cruz, desperate and alone, drinking till horribly drunk,
after Eden was lost in Utah. And Julia coming by to try to rescue him. The two of them were always the best of
friends. That never wavered.
And I remember having to leave the house in a hurry one day, in the midst
of a driving rainstorm, and being unable to accomplish my exit. Cruz was
wearing a long overcoat to face the bad weather. There was a wind machine
just off the set, blowing the rain water into his face. Take after take,
that wind machine would blow that coat so sideways that it would get stuck
in the door. Cruz would throw open the door, lean heroically into the
crazy rain, and slam the door behind him as he ran off into the night.
Except that every time he ran, he traveled exactly one step before his
coat, stuck in the slamming door, yanked him back against the house. The
cameras kept rolling, as we'd try it again after we all got done laughing
(which took longer each time), and eventually the footage of those
repeated, pathetic, and fruitless attempts was played on a
"Bloopers" television show that got a lot of attention in the
U.S.. I'd like to think that those moments helped to bring a new and
larger audience to the show, but that may not be true." |
The
Capwell mansion :
"As to the Lockridge mansion... Capwells was
bigger ! Yup, they had the largest standing set in television. Ours was
richly furnished, if somewhat dowdy... All our sets had a real flair
though... some very talented people there as well. I don't really remember
much about them (either one). I suppose the scenes with Louise (Augusta)
when she was blind and we were doing the paraphrase of Cyrano De
Bergerac (with the milkman reading my letters, while I watched the
blind Augusta react) were the most fun. The other sets were of course
mostly beautifully constructed sets. All the art on the show was so good !
We had the finest staff of Art directors, Set designers, Set decorators,
lighting and music in the business ! How nice to see THEIR work
remembered."
"Johnny's
was a fun place where they served great seafood in Santa Barbara ! And of
course, Amy worked there and I as Brick would visit after work."
"The
only vivid memories I have are of the Capwell mansion atrium, where I
played my early scenes, and also the hospital room where I nursed C.C.
Capwell (that WAS his name, right ?)... It was a very long time ago, but
the reason I recall the atrium was that I was new to California and the
beautiful indoor/outdoor architecture so distinctive to this coast. The
atrium for me really represented California, my new home, where I was SO
happy to be..."
