Film Chiefs Command Posh Offices : Electronic Controls, Luxurious Furnishings, Paintings Their Reward

“Dynasty” Producer E. Duke Vincent’s offices are as luxurious as one of the network TV show’s splashy sets.

His offices are also typical of many entertainment executives’ retreats, which are generally more lavish than office suites in other industries.

Showy workplaces and the entertainment field seem a perfect match, anyway, but it’s a more-common-than-usual combination right now, because the industry is awash in cash from the booms in videos and stock, bond and film partnership offerings.

Motorized Skylight

A strike threatened by the Directors Guild of America after contracts expire Tuesday could put a crimp in revenues, but much is still being spent on management’s offices, especially--and not surprisingly--on special effects.

Vincent’s offices have a motorized, artificial skylight, which Joe Hooper, who designed it, says “gives an impression of clouds rolling overhead.”

There is an electronic panel in the arm of a sofa that activates doors, turns a coffee table into a conference table by mechanically changing the height of its legs, and raises and lowers a television.

“The biggest thing these higher-ups get is state-of-the-art electronics for viewing dailies,” Hooper said. He’s installing the latest in the antebellum-style mansion built by producer Thomas Ince.

Hooper is restoring the mansion, which is at Culver Studios (previously Laird International, Seznick, RKO and Desilu), for Grant Tinker/Gannett (GTG) Entertainment offices.

Besides electronics, studio heads often get fireplaces in their offices, “so they’ll have a den/living room feeling,” he explained.

Impressionist Paintings

Frank Mancuso, chairman of Paramount Studios, has a fireplace and such other home-away-from-home niceties as inlaid floors, detailed ceilings, French Impressionist paintings, Chinese rugs and a glass wall looking out onto a walled garden filled with fuchsias, begonias and azaleas.

Hooper just finished decorating Mancuso’s step-down, oval offices, which were originally Paramount founder Adolph Zukor’s, but were most recently former Paramount Chairman Barry Diller’s. Diller is now chairman of 20th Century Fox.

While at Paramount, Diller preferred a more modern look with wall-to-wall white carpet and gray-and-black furnishings. Hooper took out a wall to make a small sitting area, installed the wood floors, and used warm colors. There are taupe chairs, a pink-and-gray granite desk and a round, pink-and-gray granite table.

There are desk, conference and conversational/seating areas. There is a private bathroom that is carpeted and has a small desk and telephone. There is a compact, hidden-away kitchen, complete with dishwasher, refrigerator and microwave.

The large, free-of-clutter desk has a telephone hidden in a drawer. There are some buttons in another drawer for lighting the fireplace and turning on and off the nearby TV and VCR. There is a remote-controlled window shade.

Did Space Planning

The entire suite is about 600 square feet--a goodly size, though Hooper said, “(Producer) Aaron Spelling’s is about twice as large.”

Hooper didn’t decorate Spelling’s offices but did the space planning on others in Spelling’s company and designed the five-office suite for Vincent, a senior vice president and director of Spelling Productions, at a cost--for furnishings alone--of $250,000.

“Furnishings run about $50 to $100 a square foot for a nice office,” Hooper said, “but the price can depend on what art is chosen. A guy can buy a painting that costs as much as a sofa.”

The decor must reflect the client’s tastes, he stressed, and that’s especially true of art. Realtor John Cushman III has bronze sculptures of cowboys and horses. Real estate developer and business tycoon David Murdock has Persian rugs and English antiques. Entertainment figures have special interests, too.

Hooper decorated the office of producer Harvey Bernhard at 20th Century Fox with big-game trophies and African art that Bernhard collected 20 to 25 years ago when hunting with actor William Holden. Vincent’s suite has a six-panel screen of a tiger hand painted on silk and pillows accented by Oriental characters.

Oriental Decor

“He was a World War II fighter pilot, and I suspect he had something to do with the Japanese campaign. This might account for his interest in Oriental decor,” Hooper suggested.

From his own offices, which are unostentatious, albeit in Beverly Hills, Hooper designs more than offices for studio executives.

He just got a contract to restore some Mann’s theaters, including the famous Mann’s Chinese on Hollywood Boulevard, and he’s just finishing some work in the Hollywood landmark Capitol Records Building. He worked for years on interiors for General Dynamics and Garrett AiResearch.

It’s his studio work, though, that is most extensive. He provided architectural services for MGM from 1975 to 1982, developing--among other things--interiors for 45,000 square feet of new executive and general offices in MGM’s Producers’ Building. Since 1972, he’s also designed a variety of projects at 20th Century Fox.

Did Three Offices

“I just did Leonard Goldberg’s offices there,” he said. Goldberg is president and chief operating officer. Goldberg formerly had offices on the Paramount lot, and before that, he was a partner of Aaron Spelling’s. “So I’ve done three offices for Leonard Goldberg,” Hooper said.

The most recent one was once producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s.

“We put in state-of-the-art monitors but left the beautiful, herringbone-wood floors that were there when Zanuck had it,” Hooper said. Hooper lightened the walls, which had dark-walnut paneling, but left intact an art-deco fireplace and stepped ceiling.

Who Gets the Offices

He says it’s only a “certain level of producer” who gets the sumptuous offices--”you know, the producers with the good track records.”

Otherwise, they get offices in complexes like MGM’s Producers’ Building, built by studios that grew tired of redecorating. In the Producers’ Building, each office was designed to be slightly different from any other to accommodate the desire for individuality.

“But there are still plenty of high rollers--producers who get free rein on what they can have in offices,” he said.

The reason? Hooper says their productions can be expected to cover the costs. “Everything is written off.”