Odds & Ends Around the Valley : Hollywood Glamour House
Legendary director Cecil B. DeMille would be proud of the way his house looks today, thanks in no small part to the efforts (and expenditures) of Marsha Broderick. She is owner of Pink Ladies Design in Calabasas and president of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the International Society of Interior Designers. Along with the Los Angeles chapter of the society, the Valley group completely redecorated the privately owned DeMille mansion in the Los Feliz neighborhood for their 1989 Design Showcase House.
About 23 designers participated, each decorating a particular room that was named after a Hollywood legend. Broderick was assigned the living room, also known as the DeMille room. Like DeMille’s work, the room is grand.
“Its contents are insured for $150,000,” Broderick notes. In addition to custom furniture and antiques, the room contains a trophy-size stuffed lion (one of DeMille’s favorite animals), the tablet of the Ten Commandments and the golden calf featured in his film “The Ten Commandments,” and his two Oscars.
“As is typical with a design house, the designers receive donations from all their suppliers,” Broderick says. “Over and above that, though, are the additional costs of things that weren’t donated, as well as delivery costs, office staff time, etc.” She looks at her expenses as a form of advertising.
Not counting office time, Broderick says she spent about $8,000 out of her own pocket to decorate the room. The lucky owners of the mansion--Terry and Evelyn O’Toole--get to keep everything that isn’t nailed down: wallpaper, carpeting, window coverings, custom doors and appliances.
The rest is for sale to the public, with proceeds going to the San Fernando Valley unit of the American Cancer Society. The house is open for tours until July 30. Call (818) 989-5555 for information.
Best Sellers
Slippers have moved beyond calfskin flip-flops for men and pastel fur balls for women. Too boring. Slippers are now a new frontier for humor.
Take the $30 political slippers, for example. They resemble beds. Popping out of the toes on one slipper is the plastic face of George Bush, with Barbara in her simulated pearls snuggling out of your other slipper.
If you don’t like beating around in the Bushes, you can slip into the Reagans (with a grotesquely smiling Nancy), or try on the Gorbachevs, or pad about with Charles and Di.
“The Bushes are the most popular, followed by the Reagans,” notes Wenc Ramirez, a salesman at Bullock’s in Sherman Oaks Fashion Square. “The Gorbachevs and Charles and Diana are the least popular.” (The slippers are also available at Rocs of Valencia in Valencia.)
For those who prefer plain animals over the political variety, an assortment of critter-slippers is available for $19.95 at L.A. Wildlife in Studio City. At the moment, it’s a tossup whether the cow or the moose slipper is the top seller, but the horse is out of the race.
Picture This Vacation
Forget about asking a travel agent to name the hot vacation spots this summer. Your local photo developer is probably just as knowledgeable about where people go for R&R.;
“The most popular vacation spot is Hawaii,” says Marina Nishikawa of Just One Hour in Panorama Mall. A number of other photo developers agree.
“You just know it’s Hawaii because everybody shoots the same pictures: hula dancers, the water, the beach, the palm trees and sunsets,” says Mary Ann Balbier, co-owner of Marks Color Lab in Northridge.
“They usually get carried away on the sunset pictures,” notes Tina Su, who runs her family’s Better Image One-Hour Photo in Sherman Oaks. “They just keep on snapping. They all look kind of the same after a while--maybe the color is brighter in some.”
A vacation in Hawaii typically results in five to seven rolls of film, the developers report. “I think they actually could cut it down to about half of that,” Su says.
Another popular destination this summer is Europe. “They’re always more paranoid about their film from Europe than Hawaii,” Balbier says. “They tell us to be real careful, like we’re going to say, ‘Oh, this is Europe? Then let’s stomp on it!’ ”
Does it get a little boring seeing roll after roll of the same Hawaiian scenes?
“I would never go to Hawaii,” Balbier admits. “Because of all the pictures I’ve seen of it, I wouldn’t bother.”
Bridesmaids’ Fashions
Think of a bridesmaid and you picture a woman in gauzy pastel pink, yellow or blue. You think of wedding guests making snide comments about puffed sleeves or empire waists or too much lace. “She’ll never be able to wear that dress any place else,” someone whispers.
It’s time to widen your vision. Bridesmaids are abandoning tradition.
“We’re selling more cotton fabrics with floral prints for bridesmaids’ dresses,” notes Joy Tamblyn, owner of Wedding Wizard in Simi Valley. “It’s more of an informal look with cotton, and it works well with smaller weddings, where the bride wants it to look like a wedding party but not be overdone.”
Bridesmaids like the long cotton gowns because they can be shortened after the ceremony for use as summer dresses, she says. “The floral prints are predominantly in pastel colors, but it’s a mixture of colors, like pinks and ivories and sky blue.”
Other bridal emporiums report a trend toward more sophisticated and formal attire. “We’re doing a lot of black-and-white weddings in which the bridesmaids wear a white dress, or a black one, or a black-and-white combination. This is the most formal look you can get,” observes the owner of Bridal Images in Woodland Hills.
“I’ve even had several European brides come in and ask for black wedding gowns, but I don’t carry any,” she adds.
At Country Elegance in Toluca Lake, manager Lois Higgins reported that sheer lace blouses (a camisole is worn underneath) and lace skirts are a popular combination for bridesmaids. “They might not wear that combination together again but they will wear one or the other,” Higgins says.
Overheard at . . . .
“I’d rather go into the ring and fight Mike Tyson than face an irate woman. They’re fearless.” --One man to another at a nursery in Sepulveda