Goodness what incredible research ! People forget just how solidly sets had to be made especially staircases for security reasons. I can only imagine the number of coats of paint on the stairs ! And that little eagle table used over and over. I love to spot props in movies from one to another so I appreciate your video. It's such a pity that they don't show more of how sets are built, so many of us would love to see behind the curtain. So much work goes into these sets and decor with little recognition for the production designers and builders.
I work in film and can assure you that they are built based on the budget. Saftey of course is high due to talent , especially if it’s high profile talent. But back in those days they did things so much differently then today. I freelance in production but when I first started I worked on a few low budget films and did props and set work. I almost lost my finger when a false glass window slid down off its support when I tried to save it from being destroyed…for the rest of my time on set I had serious bandages and lost use of that hand… but I worked to the end…
This staircase also appears in "The Young Philadelphians" with Paul Newman and Barbara Rush. In the story it is the home of the character played by Alexis Smith, filmed on a sound stage at Warner Brothers. Exteriors of the house were filmed at the Will Rogers house in Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles.
A triumph of the set decorator's art! :) Ascending or descending a glorious, grand, sweeping staircase is an absolutely essential tool for conveying old school Hollywood glamo(u)r!. LOL
Lots of fun!!! I enjoyed every minute of it. If you have to add some shots from other movies, my only suggestion would be to include the different looks from Auntie Mame. Thanks for the work!!!
I watch a lot of old movies and tv shows. I am always amazed at how much the houses on the street where Bewiched and Hazel were filmed show up in different shows and movies. I watched a Jerry Lewis movie where the exterior of the house was the Baxters and the interior was from the Stephens. houses.
That tap dance on the staircase by Gene Nelson, in Tea for Two is very well done. It's a shame he didn't get the acclaim he deserved, as he was an even better dancer than Astaire and Kelly.
Fred Astaire was thee greatest American dancer ever !!! . . And Gene Kelly was a more acrobatic dancer. . . Gene Nelson and others were good dancers but not as good as Fred Astaire.
I have recently become aware of an earlier grand staircase repeatedly used and redressed at Warner Brothers. It was the Vale house in Now Voyager, the Berrigan house in Mildred Pierce and the big house in Mrs. Skeffington. And probably many other WB films, keep an eye out for it and let me know.
Our family watched Auntie Mame the other night, and we all thought she was going to break her leg in the scene where she comes running down the steps. It looks like she slips at the bottom. I guess she already broke her ankle.
Another staircase that got used more than once was the one in the Hadley mansion in "Written on the Wind" of 1959 and the same staircase appears again in "Marnie" of 1964. I believe the stairs case was also used in the Tom Hanks movie "The Money Pit" many years later. I'm going to do some comparing but, like someone mentioned below, I think this may be the same staircase to appear in two Bette Davis movies: "Jezebel" and 'Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte". Not sure if it was used elsewhere but ther was a big curving staircase in the 1960 movie "From the Terrace" starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
You are correct to have spotted a staircase used in other films but it is not the Auntie Mame staircase. That was at Warner Brothers. Written on the Wind is a Universal film and they had their own circular staircase and you have found it. I am not as familiar with it but it is easy to spot because a supporting post half way up. It was used in Tammy and the Bachelor, 1957 and The Glenn Miller Story, 1954. Also a Tony Curtis movie made about this time where he played a gambler but I don't know the title. "From the Terrace" is a Fox film so unlikely either staircase is in that film. I wish you good staircase hunting.
That was great! Thank you. Not quite the same, but I always thought the main entry hall in “The Sound of Music” looked so much like the living room in “Giant”…turns out same set designer…
"Fan"-tastic! I'm a fan of "see if you can spot the recycled set pieces". I've only seen or heard of a few of these movies so this was really interesting, especially the one where the moved a whole wall up into the curve of the staircase and almost hid it completely. (Spirit of St Louis)
I'm curious to know what other movie sets you have spotted that were reused? I know the "Meet men St Louis" house washed by Fox for "Cheaper by the Dozen" 1950 with Clifton Webb. Across the street on this MGM back lot was the mansion used for "Valley of Decision" 1947 and "Unsinkable Molly Brown" 1964.
I'd swear that it was used in the 1938 Bette Davis film "Jezebel" .....I remember the final scene on the staircase when she is begging to be allowed to go with Henry Fonda.
Haha, Doris Day must have got so tired of that set! Meanwhile I've seen all three of those movies (and in close succession, because I borrowed the boxset from a friend) and I didn't even notice!
Terrific video! How late was it used? I may be projecting, but it reminds me of the staircase for Barbara Parkins' mansion in "Peyton Place: The Next Generation" in 1985.
this set in anything after the early 1960s, but it was also used in some TV shows at that time. The Peyton Place you mentioned was done at 20th Century Fox, so highly unlikely it was the same set.
Hampton, Thanks for enjoying Auntie Mame's Staircase. However, I don't think you are correct about the 2 staircases you mention. The double staircase in the Warner Brothers film "Giant" I have seen in no other film. Not to say it wasn't used somewhere but I haven't spotted it. "The Sound of Music" was a Fox film with a different double staircase. Universal had a circular staircase used in several films. "Tammy & the Bachelor", "The Glenn Miller Story" and an early Tony Curtis film, "Mr. Cory".
I am a bit surprised that a more involved makeover, via wallpaper or whatever, only occurs in Auntie Mame. But then, when something is a classic, why change it?
The other set that was famously used on the 20th Century Fox Lot was a huge interior hall with two levels and a grand central staircase. The first use I know of was for "Giant" with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. I dont know how many other movies used that imposing room, but it was perhaps most famously used in none other than.... "The Sound of Music" as the interior of the Von Trapp villa. Love Hollywood not letting anything go to waste!
The Von Trapp staircase & hallway scenes were filmed in the City Hall in Salzburg, Austria. I saw it when I went there with my family, when I was a teenager.
@@OofusTwillip I had The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg and it was wonderful, but I think most oil the interiors were done in Hollywood, The double staircase in that movie really looks like a set. There are no windows in it anywhere. What architect would design a major room like that with no windows?
Warner's recycled other scenery too. Lilli Von Shtupp's dressing room, in "Blazing Saddles", has very striking large-print yellow Art Nouveau wallpaper that was originally part of a room in Henry Higgins' house in "My Fair Lady".
Wow both are Warner Brothers film so it might be the same. I don't remember wallpapers from Blazing Saddles but I do remember wallpaper from Henry Higgins house in My Fair Lady. And it was very ugly and very distinctive but probably accurate to the period which justifies its use. I will watch for it next time I watch Blazing saddles. .
When Sandra Dee greets Troy Donahue on the stairway she acts as though it's s surprise to see him unexpectedly at her college. In fact they're desperately trying to figure out what to do because she is pregnant, and they're not married, and that's a terrible scandal.
When son Ron told Ronald Reagan he wanted to be a dancer, dad wasn't too concerned at the time; he thought Ron meant a dancer like his Warner Bros. pal Gene Nelson, who, like Gene Kelly, had a butch athleticism.
@@CaryCotterman If, say, 60% of male ballet dancers are straight, that would be of little reassurance to someone like Reagan Senior. Throughout the years, Reagan would occasionally confide his worry that Junior was gay. Even without his aborted ballet career, Junior came across as the stereotypical gay. Thin, artsy, fey... the type Senior would make fun of privately.
I dont think so. They are very similar, however. Does the Jezebel staircase have a landing a few steps up from the bottom? In an issue of Architectural Digest I once saw a photo spread Jack Warner's house and it had a staircase very much like that of Auntie Mame. I think Jack had this notion of what a rich man's stairs looked like and that found its way intimacy films. By the way, David Geffin now owns Jack Warner's old house and I would like to see if it is still the same.
First, I love this compilation, and appreciate it so much. But I contend that the staircase was built earlier, because I just saw it in a 1936 short called "Give Me Liberty" about Patrick Henry. czcams.com/video/v1TktwG7L54/video.html Fast forward to 4:42 to see the unmistakable and iconic staircase!
You could be right about this. The 1936 staircase looks a little steeper than the Bright Leaf staircase but its hard to tell its camera angles and stuff. Years ago there was an Architectural Digest story about Jack Warner's house in Beverly Hill and his staircase in his front hall is almost identical to one in my compilation. I always watch for WB staircases and I've never seen one like it, earlier than 1949 so you spotting it in 1936 is terrific. Let me know if you see it anywhere else.
Dancing up the staircase backwards, dancing up the bannister backwards, into the window? Beats gymnastics any time! Aside from Tea for Two this is repetitive. I stopped a little before 6:00
There is absolutely nothing "gay" about the choreography or the dancing. Not only that, but the dancer, Gene Nelson, was married three times and had three children.
@@CaryCotterman Oh girl: Keep telling yourself that, as you somehow find it easy to hate your fellow Americans. Just let us live our damn lives, without your ignorant, poor, hater white interference. Thx
So interesting. Gordan McRae, what a dancer, and they say Fred Astaire was the best hoofer. We're Suzanne Pleshette, and Steve Forest ever really that young?
Yeah, if Gordon MacRae could have done that, it would have been what he was known for. And holy crap, Gene Nelson was amazing... like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire all in one.
Goodness what incredible research ! People forget just how solidly sets had to be made especially staircases for security reasons. I can only imagine the number of coats of paint on the stairs ! And that little eagle table used over and over. I love to spot props in movies from one to another so I appreciate your video. It's such a pity that they don't show more of how sets are built, so many of us would love to see behind the curtain. So much work goes into these sets and decor with little recognition for the production designers and builders.
CGI has changed things with digital revolution.
I work in film and can assure you that they are built based on the budget. Saftey of course is high due to talent , especially if it’s high profile talent. But back in those days they did things so much differently then today. I freelance in production but when I first started I worked on a few low budget films and did props and set work. I almost lost my finger when a false glass window slid down off its support when I tried to save it from being destroyed…for the rest of my time on set I had serious bandages and lost use of that hand… but I worked to the end…
Obviously a fabulous addition to any movie
This staircase also appears in "The Young Philadelphians" with Paul Newman and Barbara Rush. In the story it is the home of the character played by Alexis Smith, filmed on a sound stage at Warner Brothers. Exteriors of the house were filmed at the Will Rogers house in Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles.
Wow, I had no idea that staircase served so many sets. 🤩
Thanks
A triumph of the set decorator's art! :) Ascending or descending a glorious, grand, sweeping staircase is an absolutely essential tool for conveying old school Hollywood glamo(u)r!. LOL
Lots of fun!!! I enjoyed every minute of it. If you have to add some shots from other movies, my only suggestion would be to include the different looks from Auntie Mame. Thanks for the work!!!
Two of the other films are The Young Philadelphians with Paul Newman 1959, and My Blood Runs Cold with Troy Donahue, 1965
I watch a lot of old movies and tv shows. I am always amazed at how much the houses on the street where Bewiched and Hazel were filmed show up in different shows and movies. I watched a Jerry Lewis movie where the exterior of the house was the Baxters and the interior was from the Stephens. houses.
I'm no great fan of movies or TV shows. But I LOVE these behind the scenes historical bits.
I caught the eagle a few times. :)
love this - thanks! no matter the movie's setting...state, country, time...itll always be AM's apt to me!
That staircase's filmography is longer than many Hollywood's actots
Fausto Fernandez Yes and I now know of other films where it was used such as The Young Philadelphians. And My Blood Runs Cold
MrFausto do you know where exactly was the saucer tank located at mgm studios?
That tap dance on the staircase by Gene Nelson, in Tea for Two is very well done. It's a shame he didn't get the acclaim he deserved, as he was an even better dancer than Astaire and Kelly.
Fred Astaire was thee greatest American dancer ever !!! . . And Gene Kelly was a more acrobatic dancer. . . Gene Nelson and others were good dancers but not as good as Fred Astaire.
The interior of the house from Bewitched was used frequently too.
I have recently become aware of an earlier grand staircase repeatedly used and redressed at Warner Brothers. It was the Vale house in Now Voyager, the Berrigan house in Mildred Pierce and the big house in Mrs. Skeffington. And probably many other WB films, keep an eye out for it and let me know.
"A Summer Place" was filmed in 1958 and released in 1959, not 1961. Thank you for showing us all these clips.
Love it in Ocean's Eleven with that mix of dark and white elements
Oh , I love this !!! Thanks ♥️♥️♥️
Thank you! Great observation!
This staircase is also featured in 1965's "My Blood Runs Cold" within the mansion of Barry Sullivan and Jeanette Nolan.
You are correct about that one. Good eye.
Yeah, Rosalind Russell broke her ankle on that staircase prior to the filming!
Our family watched Auntie Mame the other night, and we all thought she was going to break her leg in the scene where she comes running down the steps. It looks like she slips at the bottom. I guess she already broke her ankle.
very cool, well done.
I feel like that stairway...used!
Another staircase that got used more than once was the one in the Hadley mansion in "Written on the Wind" of 1959 and the same staircase appears again in "Marnie" of 1964. I believe the stairs case was also used in the Tom Hanks movie "The Money Pit" many years later.
I'm going to do some comparing but, like someone mentioned below, I think this may be the same staircase to appear in two Bette Davis movies: "Jezebel" and 'Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte".
Not sure if it was used elsewhere but ther was a big curving staircase in the 1960 movie "From the Terrace" starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
You are correct to have spotted a staircase used in other films but it is not the Auntie Mame staircase. That was at Warner Brothers. Written on the Wind is a Universal film and they had their own circular staircase and you have found it. I am not as familiar with it but it is easy to spot because a supporting post half way up. It was used in Tammy and the Bachelor, 1957 and The Glenn Miller Story, 1954. Also a Tony Curtis movie made about this time where he played a gambler but I don't know the title. "From the Terrace" is a Fox film so unlikely either staircase is in that film. I wish you good staircase hunting.
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte was more compact, with a landing halfway to the top.
That was great! Thank you. Not quite the same, but I always thought the main entry hall in “The Sound of Music” looked so much like the living room in “Giant”…turns out same set designer…
I think a tremendous staircase along with provocative wardrobe can supply interest to a film that would flounder without such distractions.
Most of these films were forgettable B movies.
"Fan"-tastic! I'm a fan of "see if you can spot the recycled set pieces". I've only seen or heard of a few of these movies so this was really interesting, especially the one where the moved a whole wall up into the curve of the staircase and almost hid it completely. (Spirit of St Louis)
I'm curious to know what other movie sets you have spotted that were reused? I know the "Meet men St Louis" house washed by Fox for "Cheaper by the Dozen" 1950 with Clifton Webb. Across the street on this MGM back lot was the mansion used for "Valley of Decision" 1947 and "Unsinkable Molly Brown" 1964.
Auntie Mame stare case was in this week of the Gotham tv show. Inside Falcone's home.
Very Interesting
They got their money's worth out of that lumber.
I'd swear that it was used in the 1938 Bette Davis film "Jezebel" .....I remember the final scene on the staircase when she is begging to be allowed to go with Henry Fonda.
Haha, Doris Day must have got so tired of that set! Meanwhile I've seen all three of those movies (and in close succession, because I borrowed the boxset from a friend) and I didn't even notice!
Terrific video! How late was it used? I may be projecting, but it reminds me of the staircase for Barbara Parkins' mansion in "Peyton Place: The Next Generation" in 1985.
Very interesting
More like the Doris Day staircase.
Does anybody knows where exactly was the saucer tank located at MGM STUDIOS ?
this set in anything after the early 1960s, but it was also used in some TV shows at that time. The Peyton Place you mentioned was done at 20th Century Fox, so highly unlikely it was the same set.
Hampton, Thanks for enjoying Auntie Mame's Staircase. However, I don't think you are correct about the 2 staircases you mention. The double staircase in the Warner Brothers film "Giant" I have seen in no other film. Not to say it wasn't used somewhere but I haven't spotted it. "The Sound of Music" was a Fox film with a different double staircase. Universal had a circular staircase used in several films. "Tammy & the Bachelor", "The Glenn Miller Story" and an early Tony Curtis film, "Mr. Cory".
I just commented about the “Giant” and “Sound of Music” sets…it’s the same set designer…
@@wgbltd Very good investigating. I think its unlikely but I don't pretend to know everything. You could be right.
I am a bit surprised that a more involved makeover, via wallpaper or whatever, only occurs in Auntie Mame. But then, when something is a classic, why change it?
What's the piano music on the opening? It sounds a lot like Debussy...
Thanks. I actually have many works by both and listened to them endlessly years ago. I love both equally.
Good ear. The piano music is the Ravel Sonatine. Ravel and Debussy have a similar sound and I often have trouble figuring out who wrote what.
@@richardorton3881 Same hear, but I often prefer Ravel, so once I heard this piece, I knew it was special. Thanks for the answer!
The other set that was famously used on the 20th Century Fox Lot was a huge interior hall with two levels and a grand central staircase. The first use I know of was for "Giant" with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. I dont know how many other movies used that imposing room, but it was perhaps most famously used in none other than.... "The Sound of Music" as the interior of the Von Trapp villa. Love Hollywood not letting anything go to waste!
The Von Trapp staircase & hallway scenes were filmed in the City Hall in Salzburg, Austria. I saw it when I went there with my family, when I was a teenager.
@@OofusTwillip I had The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg and it was wonderful, but I think most oil the interiors were done in Hollywood, The double staircase in that movie really looks like a set. There are no windows in it anywhere. What architect would design a major room like that with no windows?
That was a totally different staircase in The Sound of Music. It was a double staircase.
@@OofusTwillip No, it was all a set at 20th Century Fox.
@@SymphonyBrahms You did not read my comment... it was not about the staircase here in this video.
What about Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. Olivia Da Havilland and Bette Davis were in that too.
Yes but the staircase in this video is not in “Sweet Charlotte”
Looks kind of like the mansion from Libeled Lady and Gold Diggers of 1935 too...
Warner's recycled other scenery too. Lilli Von Shtupp's dressing room, in "Blazing Saddles", has very striking large-print yellow Art Nouveau wallpaper that was originally part of a room in Henry Higgins' house in "My Fair Lady".
Wow both are Warner Brothers film so it might be the same. I don't remember wallpapers from Blazing Saddles but I do remember wallpaper from Henry Higgins house in My Fair Lady. And it was very ugly and very distinctive but probably accurate to the period which justifies its use. I will watch for it next time I watch Blazing saddles. .
m.czcams.com/video/7HNZXoZEkEU/video.html
My Fair Lady hallway paper
@@rickyorton8836 I believe it was a reproduction of designer, Cecil Beaton's doctor's residence?
They couldn't even change the carpet???
Wow! I never knew this …..
When Sandra Dee greets Troy Donahue on the stairway she acts as though it's s surprise to see him unexpectedly at her college. In fact they're desperately trying to figure out what to do because she is pregnant, and they're not married, and that's a terrible scandal.
Maybe it was Troy Donahue's mansion, lol!😆
I doubt it. He flopped early in his career and went into obscurity. A cute guy but a terrible actor.
When son Ron told Ronald Reagan he wanted to be a dancer, dad wasn't too concerned at the time; he thought Ron meant a dancer like his Warner Bros. pal Gene Nelson, who, like Gene Kelly, had a butch athleticism.
It's obvious what you're getting at, but the fact is the majority of male ballet dancers are straight.
@@CaryCotterman If, say, 60% of male ballet dancers are straight, that would be of little reassurance to someone like Reagan Senior. Throughout the years, Reagan would occasionally confide his worry that Junior was gay. Even without his aborted ballet career, Junior came across as the stereotypical gay. Thin, artsy, fey... the type Senior would make fun of privately.
Could the staircase be even earlier than that? It looks very much like the one in "Jezebel". c1.staticflickr.com/9/8367/8532490453_2bb7953a44_b.jpg
I dont think so. They are very similar, however. Does the Jezebel staircase have a landing a few steps up from the bottom? In an issue of Architectural Digest I once saw a photo spread Jack Warner's house and it had a staircase very much like that of Auntie Mame. I think Jack had this notion of what a rich man's stairs looked like and that found its way intimacy films. By the way, David Geffin now owns Jack Warner's old house and I would like to see if it is still the same.
First, I love this compilation, and appreciate it so much. But I contend that the staircase was built earlier, because I just saw it in a 1936 short called "Give Me Liberty" about Patrick Henry. czcams.com/video/v1TktwG7L54/video.html Fast forward to 4:42 to see the unmistakable and iconic staircase!
You could be right about this. The 1936 staircase looks a little steeper than the Bright Leaf staircase but its hard to tell its camera angles and stuff. Years ago there was an Architectural Digest story about Jack Warner's house in Beverly Hill and his staircase in his front hall is almost identical to one in my compilation. I always watch for WB staircases and I've never seen one like it, earlier than 1949 so you spotting it in 1936 is terrific. Let me know if you see it anywhere else.
I think they used it in "Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte" too.
That was a different staircase. More compact with a landing halfway up the staircase.
Dancing up the staircase backwards, dancing up the bannister backwards, into the window? Beats gymnastics any time!
Aside from Tea for Two this is repetitive. I stopped a little before 6:00
The tap dancing on the staircase is TOTALLY GAY - in The Best Possible Way! Thank you. 💕👍🏼✨
There were a few totally gay actors in Hollywood.
There is absolutely nothing "gay" about the choreography or the dancing. Not only that, but the dancer, Gene Nelson, was married three times and had three children.
@@CaryCotterman Oh girl: Keep telling yourself that, as you somehow find it easy to hate your fellow Americans. Just let us live our damn lives, without your ignorant, poor, hater white interference. Thx
So interesting.
Gordan McRae, what a dancer, and they say Fred Astaire was the best hoofer. We're Suzanne Pleshette, and Steve Forest ever really that young?
Neil, that was Gene Nelson, not Gordon MacRae, dancing on the staircase.
Yeah, if Gordon MacRae could have done that, it would have been what he was known for. And holy crap, Gene Nelson was amazing... like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire all in one.
@@BeeWhistler They were all three very good dancers.