Hollywood At Home: Pickfair

This a a re-blog share from My Love Of Old Hollywood about the 'Queen of Hollywood', Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks, and their legendary mansion Pickfair.

I have a distant tie to this old story of Pickfair. Something that didn't come real clear for me until the time my mom was dying. For some reason it never came up much that mom's cousin Beverly Ricono had married Charles 'Buddy' Rogers in the early 1980's. 

He had been married to Mary Pickford for 42 years after her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks ended. 

     

    

I remember going to one of Beverly's homes here in Tacoma when we were still little and her son Anthony entertaining Scottie an I all day. We had a blast. I learned she had actually lived just a couple blocks away from us in the early years of my folks moving into our family home. But our family was not close with her. I only met her a few times through life as a youngster.

Sometime in the early 1970's she became a real estate agent and moved to Lake Tahoe, where she met Buddy Rogers. He was still married to Mary Pickford at that time, Buddy and Mary had been married since 1937. 

The story goes that in her later years, Mary Pickford had isolated herself behind the walls of Pickfair, for the most part shutting herself away from the world. And by the late 1950's began to drink pretty heavily, and did so till the end of her life. Buddy formed a deep friendship and later a romantic relationship with Beverly after meeting her in Tahoe, but remained married and devoted to Mary Pickford until her death in May 1979. He married Beverly in July 1981. Buddy died in 1999 at age 94. Beverly died in 2007 at 79.

Charles 'Buddy' & Beverly Rogers Rancho Mirage CA 1990's

I didn't really know much of this story and the tie to our family. 

My first discovery of Mary Pickford had been when I read Mommy Dearest in the late 70's, I learned then that she was known as the 'Queen of Hollywood' in the 1920's and 30's, 'America's Sweetheart'. I thought then and still do, that she was perhaps the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Stunning! Not to mention a ground breaker, with formidable business acumen, becoming essentially a mogul who didn't hesitate to go toe to toe with the power brokers in the man's world of her day. I love her story. An excellent in depth bio of her remarkable life is American Experience: Mary Pickford. 

Documentary: Mary Pickford Muse Of The Movies

As it turned out, when mom was in the hospital, my aunt Gerry, took me under her wing, she was literally my angel as I went through the hardest days of my life up to that point. I had never really gotten to know her well through the years until that time, but she and my mom were very close, more sisters than even mom was with her own sister. Gerry was actually mom's cousin, but I always called her my aunt. She was a nurse and was always the one right there when illness came to any of us.

As Gerry and I spent time together, getting to know each other better, many many long conversations over coffee. Oh how much I miss that. This is when I got the full plate on this whole Pickfair story. I came to learn she was very close to Beverly Ricono, her cousin too of course. They had been tight for many many years. Beverly, who I learned was married to Buddy Rogers, Beverly who lived in the land of Pickfair! That Gerry stayed at their home, like four times a year. She had been in the actual Pickfair mansion several times in years back. 

I learned as well, that she knew and golfed with Bob Hope (she gave us a Bob Hope Classic sweater). As well, knew Glen Campbell, Tom Selleck and his parents among others, I can't even remember who all now. Oh yeah, golfed with President Gerald Ford. She had pictures of herself with these people and golfing with them. I was a bit bowled over by all this at first.

I'm just remembering as I write this that Gerry also had a china tea set in her hutch that apparently tied back to Napoleon & Josephine, this set had belonged to Mary Pickford, Beverly had given these to Gerry as a gift. The pieces were stunning.

When I got to the hospital to see mom one afternoon, I said, "mom, my God, Gerry knows Bob Hope and all these movie stars!"  And she says "oh yeah Stace, Gerry hobnobs with the bigwigs". "Holy crap--yeah ya think?" I replied with a laugh. Mom had obviously known this all along. I'm laughing out loud as I'm writing this at the thought of it and the way mom said that. We are just small town working class people. The circles Gerry ran in were far beyond our simple world. But I will say you would never know that in a million years. Gerry was the most down to earth, unpretentious and loving person you could ever know. She was not well to do, nor did she live that way. She just happened to be Beverly's angel too (Beverly called her most every day) and this was just part of her life.

I had to call Gerry when she was down there in the summer of 1997, 
I really needed her support and some advice. I was very hesitant to make the call--Beverly Hills!! Yikes!! The Major Domo answered the phone. Gulp. It was a little intimidating for me. I myself would not want to be among that echelon at all, fun to view at a distance though.

It was a bit of amazement to me at the time having read many books and being enthralled by some of the Hollywood stories of old, and here is my aunt, unbeknownst to me, right in the very heart of it. LOL!

So, moral of the story--small world, as we all seem to find many times through life's journey.

~~~~~~    Pickfair    ~~~~~~
By My Love Of Old Hollywood   

Pickfair was the original Beverly Hills mansion in which all the stars of the day not only wanted to get an invite to but it was this lavish estate that they tried to duplicate in their own homes during and after the 1920s, It's an important estate, one that shaped the landscape of once was dusty dirt roads and orange groves. Your home doesn't get the title of The White House of the West Coast without being grand and over the top, even by Hollywood standards. So if you're ready, let's see how Pickfair came to be and how it looks today.

The most recognized photo of Pickfair that made it's way to postcards and all 

of the fan magazines of the day. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks 

in their pond with Pickfair as the backdrop.

In the early 1900's, DeMille, Mack Sennett, Jesse Lasky and a few other directors left their Astoria, New York studios for the warmer climate, vast areas of land that California provided to build larger studios and backlots. As the stars of the day followed in droves, there was one small problem. A lack of housing!

Beverly Drive south of Sunset in 1916.

What we now consider Beverly Hills didn't exist before 1906. Sure there were mansions being erected on large parcels of land up in the hills overlooking what would become these neighborhoods but they belonged to the wealthy like the Harry Winchester Robinson's, the Burton Green's, Donlevy's and then the Greystone family to name just a few. 'Movie folk' were looked down upon by the upper crust, reduced to living in boarding houses or in small tract homes on the outskirts of town, when they could find a willing renter.

An aerial view of the extravagant Beverly Hills Hotel in 1920.

The main entrance of the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1920 which was
accessible via automobile, horseback and by trolley.

A street view of the Beverly Hills Hotel as it appeared in 1912.

It wasn't until 1912 when the Beverly Hills Hotel was completed that the film industry found a place that they felt welcome, were able to dress up and mingle once the kleig lights went black for the night. 

When the Beverly Hills Hotel was completed it sat on a large parcel of land at the base of Benedict Canyon, quite a drive via automobile or a trolley ride from the studios but it was worth the trek. With an elaborate menu, flowing green lawns where the stars gathered to play croquette or gather by the opulent swimming pool. Of course the main appeal was the richly decorated private bungalows, hidden by citrus, eucalypti trees, they were perfect for late night rendezvous.

Beverly Hills got it's name from the Massachusetts town, Beverly Farms in 1906.

Beverly Drive in 1928

As we move along to the end of the 1910's with studio head, Cecille B. DeMille realizing that the west coast would be his permanent residence he knew it was time to spend some money on a home fit for someone of his stature. Jesse Lasky, Theda Bara and Harold Lloyd would follow suit. By this time, the elite of Los Angeles were starting to except the film industry, invite them into their large mansions for social gatherings. Of course they were renting large mansions up in Benedict Canyon, behind the Beverly Hills Hotel since the basin below was still undeveloped land or bean farms, ranches and oil fields for the most part with immigrant workers living in shacks on that land.

While little Mary Pickford, now separated from her first husband Owen Moore was renting a roomy bungalow with her mother near Sunset, DeMille and his wife Constance were enjoying a more lavish lifestyle in their newly rented Spanish style estate in Laughlin Park.

As southern California land developers realized that the film community wasn't going anywhere, they started buying up the bean farms and acres of land below Benedict Canyon, known as Beverly Hills by the mid 1920's. With movie stars making large salaries and paying very little in taxes they were ready to put down roots in as comfortable digs as possible. Even the very frugal Charlie Chaplin left his small room at the Beverly Hills Athletic Club, renting a large home next to Cecille B. DeMille. Of course he was encouraged by his new bride, Mildred Harris. This would be Chaplin's first of several residences around Los Angeles as his marriage and divorce count grew. (I'll be featuring both DeMille and Chaplin's homes at a later date.)

A now bustling Beverly Drive in 1928.

As the bean fields made way for paved streets and small tract homes, larger parcels of land were being bought up as soon as water and electricity was available. With Mack Sennett, Theda Bara, Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, the Gish and the Talmadge sisters settling in, another Hollywood couple was getting acquainted but where would they live?

In 1911, a Los Angeles attorney, Lee Phillips built himself a large hunting lodge high above Sunset, overlooking Benedict Canyon on what would later become Summit Drive. Of course the lodge was in a desolate location, with narrow dirt roads, no electricity, no running water and plenty of wildlife. The perfect isolated weekend retreat.

Mr. Phillips decided it was time to sell his rustic retreat in 1919 so he thrust it up on the market. The first couple to view the lodge was director, Raoul Walsh and his actress wife, Miriam Cooper. It didn't take long at all for Miriam to realize the place was just too rustic, isolated for her taste. The next person to take the dusty roads up to the lodge with the Realtor was the silent actor, Douglas Fairbanks. Having just recently made his way to the west coast after finding success on Broadway, he was looking for a secluded property. He took to the lodge and it's undeveloped 14 acres immediately and by March of 1919 he was the proud owner, paying a mere $35,000 for the house and it's land.

An early aerial view of what would become known as Pickfair, isolated,
sitting all alone on 14 acres at the foot of Benedict Canyon.

Having separated from his first wife, Anna Beth Sully in 1918, Douglas Fairbanks was a hot commodity among his leading ladies off and on the set. Handsome, athletic and well spoken he was never short of company but that didn't last for long as he had fallen head over hills for the silent actress Mary Pickford while they were touring together to sell Liberty Bonds. The only problem was Mary was still legally married to Owen Moore so they had to do a lot of sneaking around until Pickford was granted a divorce and of course Doug from his wife Anna Beth.

While the couple was waiting on their divorces to be finalized, Doug kept busy with getting the hunting lodge in shape and by shape I mean building another large wing, adding a second story, ripping out walls, adding imported tile, paneling, new windows and of course electricity, running water and landscaping. He even hired studio set designer, Max Parker to draw up architectural plans, oversee the renovations with his brother, Robert Fairbanks supervising when he was kept busy at the studio. While Pickfair was taking shape, Doug was renting the very large Spaulding mansion down the hill while Mary and her mother lived in large gated mansion in Beverly Hills.

Pickfair as it took shape in the early 1920's.

An early Pickfair postcard

By the end of 1919 when Douglas Fairbanks was ready to move in to his former hunting lodge it looked more like a Tudor mansion with it's two large wings that overlooked the beautiful canyons below. The lowest level consisted of a large entry hall, screening room, formal dining room, breakfast room, drawing room, kitchen, glassed in patio and servant's quarters. The upper level housed the large private bedroom suite and five guest bedrooms. The third floor showcased a large bowling alley and Doug's billiard room. Of course no celebrity mansion would be complete without a cement pond. The Pickfair pool with it's own sandy beach would measure a grand 55 by 100 ft. Of course Fairbanks didn't stop there! He added small ponds around the property where he and his guests could canoe.

The formal dining room

The main entryway

The formal drawing room

As March of 1920 rolled around, Doug and Mary were finally able to wed and settle in as a married couple in their grand estate. To make Mary feel comfortable, Doug immediately gifted the home to her and Pickfair was born. Within no time they were entertaining like royalty as their movie friends made the trek up the winding dirt roads every weekend for picnics, pool parties, polo matches on the vast lawn or horseback riding adventures into Benedict Canyon high above. Life seemed perfect for Hollywood's most popular couple.

Doug and Mary show off their beautiful home in the early 1920's

Mary Pickford (center) enjoys one of her pool parties at Pickfair. She's being
served tea by director, John S. Robertson (right) with famed film
photographer, Charles Rosher pouring tea to her left

While Doug was possessive of his wife, they got along rather well for the first three years as they held court high above Beverly Hills, now expanding with equally large and opulent estates occupied by their peers. Of course Doug had his rules. Mary wasn't allowed to dance with other men, smoke, curse or drink more than one or two cocktails at social gatherings then she had to account for her whereabouts at all times when not by his side. She was to maintain that America's Sweetheart image on and off the set and things would be just fine.

The elaborate dinner parties would continue throughout the 20's with the who's who of Hollywood accepting an invitation on a regular basis. Of course Charlie Chaplin was always around then John Barrymore with Lillian Gish, Anita Loos, Frances Marion or Gloria Swanson appearing on the guest list regularly. These weekday dinners were always held in the formal dining room with the guests being expected to dress in suit and tie, evening dresses. Following a formal dinner of the finest cuisine, embossed place cards, and silk linens, the guests would then be shown upstairs to the screening room to watch a movie. You could bring a change of clothes, more casual attire if you were invited up for the weekend, of course.

Doug, wasn't welcoming, so gracious to every guest as it turns out. Rudolph Valentino road down via horseback from his own vast estate, Falcon Lair one sunny day, appearing on the Pickfair front lawn. The same lawn that Doug and Mary practically used as their outdoor living room during nice weather. Doug felt this impromptu visit was just a bit too invasive, and Rudy got a very cold reception as he scurried on home.

The formal living room where Doug and Mary received
their frequent guests in grand fashion

Movie stars were the first guests to Pickfair but they weren't the the only guests of importance. The last King of Spain, Alfonzo XIII was the first of many titled guests to visit the mansion over the years. The Fairbanks's would also entertain the Lord and Countess of Lanesborough, the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, the King and Queen of Siam, the Duke and Duchess of Alba, the Duke of York, the Crown Prince of Japan, and the Crown Princess Frederica of Prussia

Mary's private suite with it's mix of pink and pale green, silk draperies,
matching wall to wall carpeting and French inspired furnishings

Mary and Doug enjoy their pool

One of the many publicity portraits Doug and Mary would take
throughout the years to show just how happy they were at Pickfair

As the 1920's came to a close, Mary and Doug were busier than ever with their newly acquired United Artists then their continuous work in front of the cameras. While Doug was always happy to have guests around, Mary was growing tired of it as she was exhausted and just needing a break, some privacy. You can have the largest estate on the west coast but when your husband always has company, dinner guests arriving 5-6 nights a week, it can get old pretty fast, even when you're as hospitable as little Mary Pickford, the doting wife.

Lillian Gish wrote in her biography that she got a call from Mary Pickford while at her home in New York, sometime in 1930. When she asked what Mary was doing in New York, Mary replied with "Oh, I just couldn't take it any longer, the house, the servants, the company. I'm here in a little hotel room, just for the quiet."

Of course Mary returned home to Pickfair, to her beloved Doug and her motion pictures for a little while anyway. But after visiting New York and it's upscale shops she decided it was time to do a bit of remodeling at Pickfair. No longer content with Doug's heavily paneled walls and open beamed ceilings, Mary sat out to give their estate yet another face-lift. This latest remodel would span another two years and lift Mary's spirits for awhile.

The newly remodeled dining room during the 1930's

Mary in her newly remodeled living room during the 1930's

As busy as Mary had been during the past 25 years making movies, she realized it was time to hang up her pinafores and her ringlet curls for a quieter life. With the advent of talking pictures and their success and her increasing age, she would retire from motion pictures, opting for a quieter life at Pickfair and hoping that Doug was ready to do the same. They had taken a few long trips abroad throughout their marriage and Mary hoped that Doug would be content to do that on a more frequent basis. With the success of their films and now United Artists they were certainly financially able to do so. 

Doug didn't have the same ideas as Mary as he was off making films and cohorting with his mistress Sylvia Hawkes Ashley. When word got back to Mary she retreated to Pickfair alone except now she was openly drinking and heavily, to mask her pain. To make matters worse, she had lost her mother and her brother Jack who had always been her rock. And now she was close to losing her husband to another woman.

The casual dining room at Pickfair, showcasing one of the bay
windows that Mary had installed in the 1930's

Mary get's ready to entertain on her glassed in patio during the late 1930's

Not long after finding out about Doug's affair, Mary would file for divorce in 1933 although it would take another 3 years before it was finalized. She would remain atPickfair alone while Doug remained in London with Sylvia, who was still married to Lord Ashley. Of course Mary didn't spend every night alone in her over sized but newly decorated, white elephant. It wasn't long before Clark Gable started calling on her night after night before getting the hint that she wasn't interested.

Once the couple's divorce was final, Mary would get Pickfair while Doug was content with taking their Santa Monica beach house. A year before, during their long separation, Mary had fallen in love with the dashing actor, Charles Buddy Rogers, whom she would marry in 1937. The first order of business for Charlie was moving out of Pickfair and to a smaller home in Bel Air. (I'll be writing about this estate as well as Doug and Mary's Santa Monica beach house at a later date.)

Pickfair after Doug's renovations in 1920

Pickfair as it appeared during the 1930's after Mary's renovations

Although, Charles Rogers and Mary Pickford Rogers would live in his Bel Air home in later years they decided to hold on to Pickfair and it would belong to Mary until her death in 1979. Of course, like any home left unattended, it did fall in to disrepair through the years, no longer being the backdrop for the fabulous parties or weekly dinners of the Hollywood elite. Guests stopped accepting Mary's invites up to her once elegant home and eventually she stopped asking.

Mary would also sell off the surrounding 14 acres to Pickfair throughout the years, to put more money aside for herself and Charles. With Benedict Canyon being such a prime real estate location, she made quite a bit of money which she used to purchase the expensive jewelry, fabulous evening gowns and furs that she had always loved so much.

Upon Mary's death in 1979, Pickfair sat empty for several years before being purchased by Los Angeles Lakers owner, Jerry Buss, who took on the task of restoring it to it's former glory. The first private pool in Los Angeles was repaired and filled with water as the front entry where F.Scott Fitzgerald and Amelia Earhart once walked, was getting re-framed and painted.

If only that was how things ended with Pickfair. Newly renovated, the estate was sold to the actress, Pia Zadora and her husband, businessman, Meshulam Riklis in 1988. They announced shortly after this that they would be remodeling the home but by 1990 it came out that the main house had to be demolished due to disrepair, a termite infestation. Whatever the reasoning, a very large, Venetian style pilazzo was erected where Pickfair once sat. With that being said, the gardens, the original swimming pool and the three wrought iron gates remain as they were until Mary's death. As you will see below, the new home is very luxurious and I think Mary would actually like it. While it's quite large, I feel it fits the scale of what anyone would build considering how magnificent Pickfair once was. Now if only an actual 'actress' lived there!

And I'm not saying that I'm happy to see that Pickfair no longer exists because like many who adore Hollywood's Palaces of the Golden Age, it's very sad.

Upon her divorce in 1993, Pia remained in the estate until it was sold in 2006 for $17.6 million. The new owner is businessman, Corry Hong.

The Pickfair estate as it appears today.
The original pool can be seen to center, left

The estate during the time Mary resided there part time with
Charles Buddy Rogers. Vast manicured lawns and winding roads
through the canyon. The estate was still secluded at that time

The original Pickfair gates (back entrance) at 1143 Summit Drive, Beverly Hills.

Pickfair as it appeared in the 1920's and you can see the cherubs holding court
on each side of the long drive as they remain today with the added security gates

The main facade, entry to the new estate.

The main facade, entry to the new estate.

Another view of the original front gates at 1143 Summit Drive

I hope you enjoyed this look back at Picfair.

Recently I was made aware of an episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories where Pia Zadora was featured discussing reasons for tearing down Pickfair so I thought I would address it after so many have contacted me.

I've done exhaustive research in writing this post and I've read bio's on Doug Fairbanks Sr and Jr. as well as several books on Mary Pickford and even Charles Buddy Rogers. Not once have I ever heard about Pickfair being haunted. I did not watch this show that Pia appeared on but I can say that Doug had moved out of Pickfair by the end of the 20s and was living mostly abroad with Sylvia Ashley so I'm not sure who she's referring to as his mistress that died at Pickfair then later haunted her.

Mary and Buddy Rogers resided at Pickfair off and on until her death and I do believe that if they were haunted they would have lived at their other properties full time. Nobody wants an exe's dead mistress running around interrupting their sleep. (At least I would hope so!) Also, in all of Pickford's bios she never mentioned that Doug brought women back to their estate nor was he the type to do so. Or maybe if there was a ghost haunting Pia and her family it was Joan Crawford. She never was accepted by Doug and Mary as their daughter in law so she could have been roaming around the halls trying to scare the heck out of anyone around that giant estate where she was never welcomed and looked down upon. (Just kidding but that would be funny!)

I do know that it is well documented that Pickfair went into disrepair after years of neglect and once Jerry Buss purchased the property he spent a fortune in restoring it back to it's former glory. Do I think Pia Zadora needs publicity and a bit of cash? She's obviously not hurting for cash after selling the estate so I couldn't tell you why she's coming forward with this information now. She's welcome to contact me any time and provide further details about her 'hauntings', what she saw there that caused her to bulldoze such a landmark of Hollywood's golden era to the ground.

I'm not here to call anyone a liar and if you want to tear down a house it's none of my business as to the reasoning but I just wanted to address the matter since I've had so many reach out asking for details about a dead girl at Pickfair. In all seriousness, I'm sure Pia is a lovely lady and I hope her children weren't traumatized by ghosts.

Story and images courtesy of My Love Of Old Hollywood

Never Never Land

I was going through files earlier and came across something quite bittersweet. Never Never Land at our treasured Pt. Defiance Park here in Tacoma. So many wonderful memories from childhood and well into adulthood, this enchanting place we were so very fortunate to have. As a child it was truly like stepping right into your story books. Walking down the cobble lined path in the thick woods and coming upon all the little houses and and characters of this fairy tale land. So real and magical.

I have some very specific memories....the earliest is of going to Never Never Land when I was around 6 with Mom, my Aunt Donnie, my brother Scottie and our cousins Pam and Joey who were exactly Scottie and I's age. Oh what a treat we were in for!

The sight of the gigantic Humpty Dumpty and books brought such excitement, we couldn't run to it fast enough! First stop after passing under the massive books and Humpty Dumpty was the little dutch boy standing with his finger in the dike and then on to the cute little gift shop.  We'd get a big pink billow of cotton candy and balloons, then start down the enchanting trail.

Each stop had a little striped painted post with a mailbox and on the door which you opened to read was the corresponding fairy tale to the scene before us. Looking back, I'd have to say the craftsmanship of these little houses and characters were exceptionally well done and intricate with no detail overlooked. Capturing so completely the true aura of Mother Goose and Grimm's fairy tales.

And some of these tiny houses you could go into! Like the Three Little Pigs and The Hansel & Gretel Ginger Bread House. I can remember pleading "Mom, can't we build one of these in the yard PLEASE!!"

When we got to the There Was A Crooked Man's House, you entered in to a wood paneled maze, it was dark and a little creepy. Then you had to climb some rickety crooked stairs and at the landing was a very steep silver slide. I, naturally, stood at the top too afraid to ride it down when all the other kids had...my Mom standing down below encouraging me to go ahead, in the end I chose to chicken out and walk back down and back through the dark maze, disappointed in myself.

There were many many more visits to this magical land, I never tired of it. One time my older brother Steve and his friend Bill, who was a complete nut, took Scottie and I out on a summer late afternoon not too long before it would be closing. There weren't as many visitors there at that time. And Bill being his crazy self proceeded to climb into Old Mother Hubbard's house...this was not one of the huts that was to be entered, only a stoop and a large open window ledge to step up to and look in. Well, he just jumped right in there (showtime!)

He got in there and started kissing, hugging and talking crazy to Mother Hubbard. Oh how we laughted! Steve started freaking out "Bill get the hell out of there or we're going to get into trouble!" Which made us laugh harder.

Then another beautiful summer day my Aunt Donnie brought my cousin Pam and the three of us had a picnic on the grass right outside Never Never Land, I still remember enjoying the rasberries we had with our sandwiches on a big checkered blanket. Then going down this wonderful path again. One of the neatest scenes on the path was a crooked wooden bridge with giant striped painted polls and rope along the sides. And high above in the trees was Jack In The Bean Stalk... he was so real. I still wouldn't go down the Crooked Man's House Slide, I don't know what it was about that slide. But this time did go down The Old Woman Who Lived In The Shoe slide...what a hoot! It was a yellow plastic slide..and really fast--I loved it!!

I still have my Humpty Dumpty Bank too, let's see, it's like 45 years old now. I treasure it...I can look up at it as I'm writing. It has been sitting on a shelf in my bedroom all those years.

The love of it did not stop as I grew older...one of my best dates ever was with my highschool sweetheart...he had just graduated in very late June 1979 and I just finishing up my sophomore year. Very late because we hadn't started the school year the previous fall until October 2nd due to a teacher's strike, so we ended up with a very short summer in 1979.

I think it was the first weekend after school was out and he called me and told me to be up and ready to go at 10am on a Saturday morning ...he had a surprise. He took me to the park and we spent the whole day... going through Ft. Nisqually, Camp Six (neat sites in the park) and of course Never Never Land. He was so patient as I rode the shoe slide again and again. Such fun!

I rode it like 20 times as a 16 year old! LOL... I was so young, so in love. The world felt perfect walking hand in hand with him through this magical forest in the summer sun, stealing tender kisses where we could.

I still treasure the memory of that day. And laughing to myself right now wondering if he does...does he even remember? LOL. I have forever been more sentimental than most. We broke up five years later... it was not a pleasant parting (most aren't though are they). But I found as the years passed, the bitterness faded and I was just grateful for the wonderful experiences I was fortunate to have. And this day was one of them.

Then the next generation's time came...how fun it was to cart my little niece on our shoulders through the magical trail and watch as she pointed with glee at the Big Bad Wolf. How wonderful those times were. By this time, early 80's, Little Black Sambo was ousted--he was no longer politically correct.

On it went, going again with my husband to be..our first real date in summer 1984...Treasured days. Our last time, which I didn't know it would be, was in Aug. of 1995. There was an advertisement in the Tacoma News Tribune for free admission to Never Never Land if you brought your teddy bear with you. Well, that was right up my alley as I was a teddy bear collector. Allen took Opie and I took Oatmeal 
(my scrumfy bear who looked like oatmeal). Boy am I now glad we went that day and that we finally had a good camera and actually TOOK pictures for once! I sure wish we had taken alot more. Little did I know that just a few years later it would all be gone.

Tom Tom The Piper's Son

Tortoise And The Hare

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Rub A Dub Dub Three Men In A Tub

Little Boy Blue

The Big Bad Wolf


The Three Little Pigs

Goldilocks And The Three Bears

Mr. McGregor's Garden and Peter Rabbit

Allen & Peddler

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

These pictures are of course very treasured, the only ones that exist in the family photos of all the years of enjoying this local treasure, which is now sadly like a graveyard. In 2001 they had closed it and took away all the statuary and buildings. 

When we went to the park in 2005 only remnants were left. A shock as I wasn't aware it had been closed. The Old Shoe was still there, but very weathered, the slide, steps and roof gone. Also was the Hickory Dickory Dock building (real mice were in it when we were kids) A very eerie sight indeed. I was SO sad and I did not want to stay there at all...so desolate and a ghostly feeling. Now it is completely devoid. 

We went to the park this last January, it is now as if it never even existed. It is very hard to see. It certainly speaks to the simpler more innocent times we were so fortunate to grow up in, before all the technology, video games and smart phones. I am go grateful to have been a part of those times and I cherish these wonderful memories and the few pictures we have that do not even begin to capture the magic that was Never Never Land.

As it was virtually all gone 2005.....

The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe

Hickory Dickory Dock

                        •~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•

Never Again Land

A Hungarian sculptor gave them life.
Tacoma's favorite theme park gave them purpose.

The the city took them away.

The Orphaned Sculptures In Hewitt's Tacoma Basement

Granted, he was a fast-talking born salesman given to fits of elation. But this was a dream come true: the grand opening of a fairy-tale theme park at Tacoma’s Point Defiance. The ticket booth was besieged. Car after car arrived, and all of them drove away with the words “Never Never Land” stuck to their bumpers. He built it; thousands came.

Forty-five years later, the visitors have left — forever. The parking lot beside the stack of books where Humpty Dumpty once sat stands empty. The odor of Coney Island hot dogs has been replaced by the smell of Douglas fir. The Old Woman’s shoe, which generations of Tacomans slid down, is boarded up, condemned. Little Bo Peep, Jack Sprat and the Three Little Pigs have disappeared. It’s almost as though Never Never Land never was.

But as the forest inexorably reclaims its curb-lined paths and crumbling foundations, Never Never Land’s uprooted cast lives on in an underground diaspora. Tacoma Metro Parks stores a cracked Humpty Dumpty and other fiberglass figurines, and a nearly identical collection resides in the downtown basement of eighty-one-year-old Tacoma businessman John Hewitt Jr.

Humpty Tastes Brief Freedom From His Tacoma Cell

Hewitt flips through an antique rolodex.

“Here it is,” he says. “Alfred Pettersen. This number must be forty years old.” He picks up the phone and dials. Wrong number.

“He was quite a fellow.”

Eventually, I track down Pettersen’s new number in Victoria, BC, and give him a call. “I was twenty-five going on eighteen,” Pettersen recalls, laughing. In 1963, he had arrived in Tacoma hoping to replicate the Wooded Wonderland theme park he had built for Victoria the year before. On his way into town, he saw an advertisement for the Bank of California. He liked the ad so much that he decided to ask for a loan.

“They asked me what my assets were. I said, ‘What are assets?’ I literally didn’t know what an asset was! Can you imagine?”

Not knowing his assets may have been Pettersen’s greatest asset. He had the dauntlessness of the young and ignorant. His infectious enthusiasm soon had the loan officer sold on his idea. But not on his personal credit.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you call Chauncey Griggs?’”

Pettersen called the Tacoma lumber magnate. Soon Griggs, John Hewitt Jr., and several more investors signed on. The next July, Never Never Land was born. “We did about $1,350 that first day,” says Pettersen, now seventy-one. At fifty cents admission for adults and twenty-five cents for children, that’s a lot of visitors. And they kept coming. By the end of the first year, more than ninety thousand visitors had passed through the gates.

Hewitt eventually became the principal owner of Never Never Land, and in 1986 he sold it to the city. He also owned a stake in another Pettersen park in Hill Island, Ontario. When that one closed in the late 1970s, Hewitt traveled to Boston, bought a Toyota, picked up his son from prep school and headed north to rescue the orphaned statuary. Back in Tacoma, he deposited the figures in the basement of his office, where they remain today.

Planned by museum designer Jean Jacques André and fashioned by sculptor Elek Imredy, Hewitt’s orphans lack the bright festiveness Disney and others have taught us to associate with cartoons. In their dungeon-like confines at Hewitt’s place, the characters seem tragic, not comic — more Brothers Grimm than Mother Goose. The wolf looks depraved, the witch very wicked indeed; the children are lonely and frightened to death.

Elek Imredy's Witch

“The talent of Imredy really shows through, even today,” says Hewitt. “They’re really wistful figures.”

Huddling in the shadows, the figures look like refugees, a trait they share with their maker. Born in Budapest in 1912, Imredy fled Hungary’s bloody 1956 anti-Communist revolution and settled in Vancouver, BC. Well known for his public bronzes, including the iconic Girl in Wetsuit in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, he might seem an odd candidate for a Humpty Dumpty job. Indeed, had fate not intervened (as it seems inclined to do where Pettersen is concerned), Imredy likely would never have known about the gig.

Pettersen hit a snag when building Victoria his first park, Wooded Wonderland. The friend he hired to sculpt the characters took weeks to make just one, and then quit. But the friend promised to help find a replacement. By chance, Pettersen’s friend encountered a sculptor working in the friend’s old home in Vancouver. The sculptor, Imredy, showed him his new technique for making fiberglass sculptures from clay molds. The method enabled him to efficiently produce and duplicate complex pieces. His prototypes were beautiful. Pettersen had his man.

“He was really a hell of a sculptor,” says Hewitt.

Hewitt laments that some Never Never Land visitors may have missed Imredy’s artistry. In the waning days of the attraction, Hewitt complains, when Metro Parks was maintaining it, little attempt was made to adhere to the visions of Imredy and André. Primary colors were used in place of muted tones, he says. The characters’ expressive eyes, the source of their pathos, were repainted by park workers not trained in fine arts.

“There were a lot of subtleties associated with the exhibit that were lost on the city,” Hewitt contends.

Elek Imredy's Baker

But the hill Island figures languishing in Hewitt's basement escaped that misfortunes.Some may not have been built by Imredy's hands, but even the ones reproduced from his molds honor the artist's intentions.And while Pettersen seems content to see the figures in the eternal glow of 1964,they clearly have more than just sentimental value.

Hewitt's son, John Stanton, would like to see Elek Imredy's creation in a museum. Hewitt at first seems more pragmatic. "I'd sell them if anyone wanted them," Hewitt says, standing in his office. Then smiling, he reconsidered, What would interest me is if somone wanted to put Humpty Dumpty together again."

                             Article Credit to Mark Thomas Deming

So long Humpty, guardian of the enchanted forest. I will always 

treasure the memories and will forever miss it all.....