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Biltmore Estate
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Biltmore Estate
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Biltmore House
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Location
Buncombe County, North Carolina, North Carolina, United States
Coordinates
35°32′22.74″N 82°33′3.42″W / 35.5396500°N 82.5509500°W / 35.5396500; -82.5509500Coordinates: 35°32′22.74″N 82°33′3.42″W / 35.5396500°N 82.5509500°W / 35.5396500; -82.5509500
Built
1889–95
Architect
Richard Morris Hunt;Frederick Law Olmsted
Architectural style
Châteauesque
Website
http://www.biltmore.com/
NRHP reference #
66000586[1]
Added to NRHP
October 15, 1966;
51 years ago (1966-10-15)
Biltmore Estate is a large (6950.4 acre or 10.86 square miles) private estate and tourist attraction near Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House, the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 m2)[2] of floor space (135,280 square feet (12,568 m2) of living area). Still owned by George Vanderbilt's descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Architecture
3 Interiors
3.1 First floor
3.2 Second floor
3.3 Third and fourth floors
3.4 Bachelors' wing
3.5 Basement
4 Park and landscape
5 Estate
6 In other media
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
History[edit]
In the 1880s, at the height of the Gilded Age, George Washington Vanderbilt II, youngest son of William Henry Vanderbilt, began to make regular visits with his mother, Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt (1821–1896), to the Asheville, North Carolina, area. He loved the scenery and climate so much that he decided to create his own summer estate in the area, which he called his "little mountain escape", just as his older brothers and sisters had built opulent summer houses in places such as Newport, Rhode Island, and Hyde Park, New York. Vanderbilt named his estate Biltmore derived from "Bildt," Vanderbilt's ancestors' place of origin in Holland, and "More", Anglo-Saxon for open, rolling land.[3] A portion of the estate was once the African-American community of Shiloh.[4] Vanderbilt bought almost 700 parcels of land, including over 50 farms and at least five cemeteries. A spokesperson for the estate said in 2017 that archives show much of the land "was in very poor condition, and many of the farmers and other landowners were glad to sell."[5]
The Biltmore Estate (c. 1900)
Construction of the house began in 1889 and continued well into 1896. In order to facilitate such a large project, a woodworking factory and brick kiln, which produced 32,000 bricks a day, were built onsite, and a three-mile railroad spur was constructed to bring materials to the building site. Construction on the main house required the labor of well over 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons.[6] Vanderbilt went on extensive buying trips overseas as construction on the house was in progress. He returned to North Carolina with thousands of furnishings for his newly built home including tapestries, hundreds of carpets, prints, linens, and decorative objects, all dating between the 15th century and the late 19th century. Among the few American-made items were the more practical oak drop-front desk, rocking chairs, a walnut grand piano, bronze candlesticks and a wicker wastebasket.[7]
George Vanderbilt opened his opulent estate on Christmas Eve 1895 to invited family and friends from across the country, who were encouraged to enjoy leisure and country pursuits. Notable guests to the estate over the years included author Edith Wharton, novelist Henry James, ambassadors Joseph Hodges Choate and Larz Anderson, and Presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in 1898 in Paris, France; their only child, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, was born at Biltmore in the Louis XV room in 1900, and grew up at the estate.
Driven by the impact of the newly imposed income taxes, and the fact that the estate was getting harder to manage economically, Vanderbilt initiated the sale of 87,000 acres (352 km²) to the federal government. After Vanderbilt's unexpected death in 1914 of complications from an emergency appendectomy, his widow completed the sale to carry out her husband's wish that the land remain unaltered, and that property became the nucleus of the Pisgah National Forest.[6] Overwhelmed with running such a large estate, Edith began consolidating her interests and sold Biltmore Estate Industries in 1917 and Biltmore Village in 1921. Edith intermittently occupied the house, living in an apartment carved out of the former Bachelors' Wing, until the marriage of her daughter to John Francis Amherst Cecil in April 1924. The Cecils went on to have two sons who were born in the same room as their mother.
In an attempt to bolster the estate's financial situation during the Great Depression, Cornelia and her husband opened Biltmore to the public in March 1930 at the request of the City of Asheville, which hoped the attraction would revitalize the area with tourism.[8] Biltmore closed during World War II and in 1942, 62 paintings and 17 sculptures were moved to the estate by train from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to protect them in the event of an attack on the United States. The Music Room on the first floor was never finished, so it was used for storage until 1944, when the possibility of an attack became more remote. Among the works stored were the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and works by Rembrandt, Raphael, and Anthony van Dyck. David Finley, the gallery director, was a friend of Edith Vanderbilt and had stayed at the estate.[9]
After the divorce of the Cecils in 1934, Cornelia left the estate never to return; however, John Cecil maintained his residence in the Bachelors' Wing until his death in 1954. Their eldest son George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil, occupied rooms in the wing until 1956. At this point Biltmore House ceased to be a family residence and has continued to be operated as a historic house museum.
Younger son William A. V. Cecil, Sr. returned to the estate in 1960 and joined his brother to manage the estate and make it a profitable and self-sustaining enterprise like his grandfather envisioned. He eventually inherited the estate upon the death of his mother, Cornelia, in 1976, while his brother, George, inherited the then more profitable dairy farm which was split off into Biltmore Farms. In 1995, while celebrating the 100th anniversary of the estate, Cecil turned over control of the company to his son, William A.V. Cecil, Jr. The Biltmore Company is privately held and of the 4,306.86 acres that make up Biltmore Estate, only 1.36 acres are in the city limits of Asheville, and the Biltmore House is not part of any municipality.[10]
The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963,[11] and remains a major tourist attraction in Western North Carolina with over 1 million visitors each year.[12]
Architecture[edit]
Waddesdon Manor was a principal source for the east elevation
Vanderbilt commissioned prominent New York architect Richard Morris Hunt, who had previously designed houses for various Vanderbilt family members, to design the house in the Châteauesque style, using French Renaissance chateaus that Vanderbilt and Hunt had visited in early 1889, including Château de Blois, Chenonceau and Chambord in France and Waddesdon Manor in England, as inspiration with their steeply pitched roofs, turrets and sculptural ornamentation.[13] Hunt sited the four-story Indiana limestone-built home to face east with a 375-foot facade to fit into the mountainous topography behind. The facade is asymmetrically balanced with two projecting wings connecting to the entrance tower with an open loggia to the left side and a windowed arcade to the right which held the Winter Garden that was fashionable during the Victorian era. The entrance tower contains a series of windows with decorated jambs that extend from the front door to the most decorated dormer at Biltmore on the fourth floor. The carved decorations include trefoils, flowing tracery, rosettes, gargoyles, and at prominent lookouts, grotesques. The staircase is one of the more prominent features of the east facade, with its three-story, highly decorated winding balustrade with carved statues of St. Louis and Joan of Arc by the Austrian-born architectural sculptor Karl Bitter.
The south facade has the smallest dimensions for the house and is dominated by three large dormers on the east side and a polygonal turret on the west side. An arbor is attached to the house and is accessed from the library which is located on the ground floor. On the north end of the house, Hunt placed the attached stables, carriage house and its courtyard to protect the house and gardens from the wind. The 12,000-square-foot complex housed Vanderbilt's prized driving horses and the carriage house opposite the stables stored his 20 carriages in addition to any of his guest's carriages.
The rear western elevation is less elaborate than the front facade, with some windows not having any decoration at all. Two matching polygonal towers in the center are connected to the polygonal south turret by an open loggia that opens the main rooms of the house to the views of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. The loggia is decorated overhead with terracotta tiles set in a herringbone pattern. The self-supporting ceramic tile vault and arch system was used extensively inside and outside of Biltmore, and was patented by Rafael Guastavino, a Spanish architect and engineer, who personally supervised the installation. The limestone columns were carved to reflect the sunlight in aesthetically pleasing and varied ways per Vanderbilt's wish. The rusticated base is a contrast to the smooth limestone used on the remainder of the house.
The steeply pitched roof is punctuated by 16 chimneys and covered with slate tiles that were affixed one by one. Each tile was drilled at the corners and wired onto the attic’s steel infrastructure. Copper flashing was then installed at the junctions to prevent water from penetrating. The fanciful flashing on the ridge of the roof was embossed with George Vanderbilt’s initials and motifs from his family crest, though the original gold leaf no longer survives.[14]
Biltmore House had electricity from the time it was built. With electricity less safe and fire more of a danger at the time, the house had six separate sections divided by brick fire walls.[15]
Vanderbilt paid little attention to the family business or his own investments, and it is believed that the construction and upkeep of Biltmore depleted much of his inheritance.[citation needed]
Interiors[edit]
First floor[edit]
The Triumphal Arch
Biltmore has four acres of floor space and a total of 250 rooms in the house including 35 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and 19th-century novelties such as electric elevators, forced-air heating, centrally controlled clocks, fire alarms, and a call-bell system.[13] The principal rooms of the house are located on the ground floor. To the right of the marbled Entrance Hall, the octagonal, sunken Winter Garden is surrounded by stone archways with a ceiling of architecturally sculptured wood and multifaceted glass. The centerpiece is a marble and bronze fountain sculpture titled Boy Stealing Geese created by Karl Bitter. On the walls just outside the Winter Garden are copies of the Parthenon frieze. The Banquet Hall is the largest room in the house, measuring 42 feet wide and 72 feet long, with a 70-foot-high barrel-vaulted ceiling. The table could seat 64 guests surrounded by rare Flemish tapestries and a triple fireplace that spans one end of the hall. On the opposite end of the hall is an organ gallery that houses a 1916 Skinner pipe organ. Left unfinished with bare brick walls, the Music Room was not completed and opened to the public until 1976. It showcases a mantle designed by Hunt, and a large engraving by Albrecht Dürer called the Triumphal Arch commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The mantle had been stored in the stable for over 80 years. To the left of the entrance hall is the 90-foot-long Tapestry Gallery, which leads to the Library, featuring three 16th-century tapestries representing The Triumph of Virtue Over Vice. Elsewhere on the walls are family portraits by John Singer Sargent, Giovanni Boldini and James Whistler. The two-story Library contains over 10,000 volumes in eight languages, reflecting George Vanderbilt's broad interests in classic literature as well as works on art, history, architecture, and gardening. The second-floor balcony is accessed by an ornate walnut spiral staircase. The baroque detailing of the room is enhanced by the rich walnut paneling and the ceiling painting, The Chariot of Aurora, brought to Biltmore by Vanderbilt from the Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice, Italy. The painting by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini is the most important work by the artist still in existence.[16]
Second floor[edit]
Master bedroom of George Vanderbilt.
The second floor is accessed by the cantilevered Grand Staircase of 102 steps spiraling around a four-story, wrought-iron chandelier holding 72 light bulbs.[17] The Second Floor Living Hall is an extension of the grand staircase as a formal hall and portrait gallery, and was restored to its original configuration in 2013. Several large-scale masterpieces are displayed in the hall, including two John Singer Sargent portraits of Biltmore's architect, Richard Morris Hunt, and landscaper, Frederick Law Olmsted, both commissioned for the home by Vanderbilt.[18] Located nearby in the south tower is George Vanderbilt's gilded bedroom with furniture designed by Hunt. His bedroom connects to his wife's Louis XV-style, oval-shaped bedroom in the north tower through a Jacobean carved oak paneled sitting room with an intricate ceiling.
The suite of rooms includes the Damask Room; the Claude Room, named after one of Vanderbilt's favorite artists, Claude Lorrain; the Tyrolean Chimney Room; and the most grand, the Louis XV Room, so named due to its architectural scheme and furnishings that were very popular in the late nineteenth century. The suite was restored and opened to the public for the first time in 100 years in 2011.[19]
Third and fourth floors[edit]
The third floor has a number of guest rooms with names that describe the furnishing or artist that they were decorated with. The fourth floor has 21 bedrooms that were inhabited by housemaids, laundresses, and other female servants. Also included on the fourth floor is an Observatory with a circular staircase that leads to a wrought iron balcony with doorways to the rooftop where Vanderbilt could view his estate. Male servants were not housed here, however, but instead resided in rooms above the stable and complex.[13]
Bachelors' wing[edit]
The Billiard Room is decorated with an ornamental plaster ceiling and rich oak paneling and was equipped with both a custom-made pool table and a carom table (table without pockets). The room was mainly frequented by men, but ladies were welcome to enter as well. Secret door panels on either side of the fireplace lead to the private quarters of the Bachelors’ Wing where female guests and staff members were not allowed. The wing includes the Smoking Room, which was fashionable for country houses, and the Gun Room, which held mounted trophies and displayed George Vanderbilt’s gun collection.[13]
Basement[edit]
Guests of the estate could enjoy other activities that were found on the basement level, including an indoor 70,000-gallon (265,000-litre and 265-cubic meter) heated swimming pool with underwater lighting, one of the nation's first bowling alleys installed in a private residence, and a gymnasium with once state-of-the-art fitness equipment. The service hub of the house is also found in the largest basement in the US, as the location for the main kitchen, pastry kitchen, rotisserie kitchen, walk-in refrigerators that provided an early form of mechanical refrigeration, the servants' dining hall, laundry rooms and additional bedrooms for staff.
Park and landscape[edit]
View of the south side of the house from the Shrub garden
Wanting the best, Vanderbilt envisioned a park-like setting for his home and employed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds. However, Olmsted was not impressed with the condition of the 125,000 acres (195 sq mi; 510 km2) and advised for a park surrounding the house, establishing farms along the river and replanting the rest as a commercial timber forest, a plan to which Vanderbilt agreed. Gifford Pinchot and later Carl A. Schenck were hired to manage the forests, with Schenck establishing the first forestry education program in the U.S., the Biltmore Forest School, on the estate grounds in 1898.
Garden at Biltmore Estate (Asheville, NC)
Another important aspect of the landscaping was the intentionally rustic three-mile (5 km) Approach Road that began at the brick quoined and pebbledash stucco Lodge Gate at the edge of Biltmore Village, and ended at the sphinx-topped stone pillars at the Esplanade. In between, the lane was densely filled with natural and uncultivated looking foliage and shrubbery to provide a relaxing journey for guests. Olmsted made sure to incorporate 75 acres (30 ha) of formal gardens that had been requested by Vanderbilt for the grounds directly surrounding the house. He constructed an Italian formal garden, a walled garden, a shrub and rose garden, fountains, and a conservatory with individual rooms for palms and orchids. There was also a bowling green, an outdoor tea room, and a terrace to incorporate the European statuary that Vanderbilt had brought back from his travels. At the opposite end of the Esplanade is the Rampe Douce, a graduated stairway zigzagging along a rough-cut limestone wall that leads to the grassy slope known as the Vista, topped with a statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt.[13]
Water features were an important aspect of Victorian landscaping and Olmsted incorporated two for the estate: the Bass Pond created from an old creek-fed millpond and the Lagoon. Each was used for guest recreation like fishing and rowing. To supply water for the estate, Olmsted engineered two reservoirs. One was a spring-fed man-made lake on nearby Busbee Mountain. The other was a man-made, brick-lined reservoir, located behind the statue of Diana in the Vista, at an elevation of approximately 266 feet above the Esplanade.[20]
Estate[edit]
Storage facility in the Biltmore Winery, 2017
Vanderbilt's idea was to replicate the working estates of Europe. He asked Hunt and Olmsted to design a village with architecturally compatible buildings and picturesque landscaping as a source of income through building rental, a place to help carry out philanthropic programs, and an easy point of access between the estate and the train station.[21] The result was Biltmore Village. The village included rental cottages complete with plumbing and central heating, a post office, shops, doctor's office, school, and a church, known today as the Cathedral of All Souls.[22] Intending that the estate could be self-supporting, Vanderbilt set up scientific forestry programs, poultry farms, cattle farms, hog farms, and a dairy. His wife, Edith, also enthusiastically supported agricultural reform and promoted the establishment of a state agricultural fair. In 1901, the Vanderbilts provided financial assistance to Biltmore Industries, started by Biltmore Village resident Eleanor Vance, which taught young people how to make hand-carved furniture, woven baskets, homespun wool fabric, and more.[23]
The estate today covers approximately 8,000 acres (13 sq mi; 32 km2) and is split in half by the French Broad River, overseen by The Biltmore Company, a trust set up by the family. The company is a large enterprise that is one of the largest employers in the Asheville area. Restaurants were opened in 1979 and 1987 as well as four gifts shops in 1993. The former dairy barn was converted into the popular Biltmore Winery in 1985. The AAA four-diamond 210-room Inn on Biltmore Estate opened in 2001, and in 2010, the estate debuted Antler Hill Village, as well as a remodeled winery, and connected farmyard.
In other media[edit]
The Biltmore Estate licenses its name and design elements to a line of housewares, linens, and luggage called "Biltmore For Your Home", marketed exclusively by Belk stores.[24]
The house has been featured in "Empires of the Smoky Skies", a scenario in Sid Meier's Civilization V. The estate and its surrounding forest make up the setting of Robert Beatty's 2015 middle-grade novel Serafina and the Black Cloak and its 2016 sequel Serafina and the Twisted Staff.[25]
The grounds and buildings of Biltmore Estate have appeared in a number of major motion pictures and TV series:
Tap Roots (1948)
The Swan (1956)
The Pruitts of Southampton (1966)
Being There (1979)
The Private Eyes (1980)
A Breed Apart (1984)
Mr. Destiny (1990)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Richie Rich (1994)
My Fellow Americans (1996)
Patch Adams (1998)
Return to the Secret Garden (2000)
Hannibal (2001)
One Tree Hill (2003)
The Clearing (2004)
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
Hannibal (2015)
See also[edit]
List of Gilded Age mansions
List of largest houses in the United States
Richard Sharp Smith
List of National Historic Landmarks in North Carolina
National Register of Historic Places listings in Buncombe County, North Carolina
References[edit]
Jump up ^ National Park Service (2006-03-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
Jump up ^ Buncombe County Tax Records, http://www.buncombetax.org/, Parcel ID 9637-94-40-00000, Residential Building 22 (mansion) and Commercial Building 9 (attached stable); see also http://www.biltmore.com/visit/house_gardens/house/faq.asp
Jump up ^ Sullivan, Mary Ann. "Biltmore Estate". Retrieved December 12, 2014.
Jump up ^ "When Pearson's Store disappeared". Asheville Citizen-Times. November 6, 2016. p. D6.
Jump up ^ Boyle, John (June 7, 2017). "Answer Man: Cemeteries on Biltmore Estate? Who lived there before Vanderbilts?". Asheville Citizen-Times. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b "Biltmore House". Retrieved December 12, 2014.
Jump up ^ Chase, Nan K. Asheville: A History, (2007): 69-70.
Jump up ^ Hansley, Richard (2011). Asheville's Historic Architecture, pp. 151-52. The History Press.
Jump up ^ Kiss, Tony (February 16, 2014). "Biltmore Estate hid precious art during World War II". Asheville Citizen-Times.
Jump up ^ 2017 Buncombe County property and tax records
Jump up ^ "National Historic Landmark designation illustrates U.S. heritage". biltmore.com.
Jump up ^ "Coming Home to Biltmore". biltmore.com.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Carley, Rachel. Biltmore: An American Masterpiece, (2012).
Jump up ^ Dagmi, Jane. "The Biltmore Estate: A Brief Architectural Tour". Bob Vila. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
Jump up ^ Motsinger, Carol (January 9, 2015). "Downton Abbey is on fire". Asheville Citizen-Times. p. T12.
Jump up ^ "A Tour Through Biltmore Estate". FunTrivia. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
Jump up ^ Henion, Leigh Ann (December 2009). "Biltmore: Behind the Scenes". National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
Jump up ^ Steele, Bruce (September 6, 2013). "Biltmore House renovation restores historic hallway". USA Today. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
Jump up ^ Poupore, Darren (February 8, 2011). "New Suite of Rooms Now Open". Open House Official Blog of Biltmore. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
Jump up ^ Clark McKendree, Sue. "A Technological Tour of the Biltmore Estate". Retrieved December 15, 2014.
Jump up ^ Alexander, Bill (2008). Around Biltmore Village. Charleson: Arcadia Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-7385-6853-9.
Jump up ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-03-27. Retrieved 2008-03-12. Cathedral of All Souls: History
Jump up ^ Rickman, Ellen Erwin (2005). Biltmore Estate. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-7385-1749-0.
Jump up ^ http://www.biltmore.com/belk
Jump up ^ http://robert-beatty.com/serafina-twisted-staff/
General
Hewitt, Mark Alan: The Architect & the American Country House. Yale University Press: New Haven & London 1990, p. 1-10
External links[edit]
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text:
The Hanging Tree
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the 1959 film. For the Hunger Games single, see The Hanging Tree (The Hunger Games song). For other uses, see Hanging tree (disambiguation).
The Hanging Tree
Directed by
Delmer Daves
Produced by
Martin Jurow
Richard Shepherd
Screenplay by
Wendell Mayes
Halsted Welles
Based on
The Hanging Tree
1957 novelette
by Dorothy M. Johnson
Starring
Gary Cooper
Maria Schell
Karl Malden
Music by
Jerry Livingston (title song)
Max Steiner
Cinematography
Ted D. McCord
Edited by
Owen Marks
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release date
February 11, 1959 (1959-02-11)
Running time
106 min.
Country
United States
Language
English
Box office
$2.2 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[1]
The Hanging Tree is a 1959 Technicolor Western film directed by Delmer Daves. Karl Malden took over directing duties for several days when Daves fell ill. The film stars Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, George C. Scott and Malden and is set in the gold fields of Montana during the gold rush of the 1860s and '70s. The story follows a doctor who saves a criminal from a lynch mob, then learns of the man's past and tries to manipulate him.
The film was the first one for Gary Cooper's Baroda Productions company. This marked the first film for Scott. He and Malden later teamed for 1970's Patton, for which Scott won an Academy Award.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Soundtrack
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Plot[edit]
Joseph Frail (Gary Cooper)—doctor, gambler, gunslinger—rides into the small town of Skull Creek, Montana, with miners in a gold rush, looking to set up a doctor's office. He passes by the "hanging tree," an old oak with a thick branch over which has been slung a rope with a frayed end, presumably a former noose.
He rescues and treats Rune (Ben Piazza), a young man who was shot by "Frenchy" (Karl Malden) while trying to steal gold from a sluice. Frail forces Rune into temporary servitude with the threat of revealing he is the thief.
A stagecoach is robbed and overturned, killing the driver and a male passenger. A search party is formed, and Frenchy finds the sole survivor, Swiss immigrant Elizabeth Mahler (Maria Schell), daughter of the male passenger.
Crippled by burns, blindness and dehydration, Elizabeth is moved into a house next to the doctor's house to recover. The placement causes much chagrin among the town's righteous women, who believe that Elizabeth may be paying for her medical care through illicit behavior.
Frenchy sneaks in under the guise of trying to strike a business deal with Elizabeth, but instead tries to kiss her. Frail witnesses the aggression and chases Frenchy back to town. Frail beats him up and threatens to kill him. Meanwhile, a faith healer named Dr. Grubb (George C. Scott) sees Frail's medical practice as a threat.
Elizabeth eventually regains her sight and makes romantic overtures toward Frail. He rejects her. She leaves in a huff, determined to strike it rich as a prospector so that she can pay off Frail and get out from under his control.
She teams up with Rune and Frenchy, who plan to buy a claim and set up a sluice. To get money, she pawns a family heirloom necklace. It is worthless, but Frail secretly tells the storekeeper to loan her however much money she needs. Thus Frail secretly continues to control her.
She finds out and asks Frail why he did not respond to her affection. He reveals that his wife had an affair with his own brother. He found them together, both dead, an apparent murder-suicide. In a rage, he burned down his house with their bodies in it. He tells Elizabeth he is "not allowed to forget."
Elizabeth, Frenchy and Rune strike it rich on their claim, finding a "glory hole" of gold under a large tree stump. They ride into town, tossing a few pieces of gold to the townsfolk. The gaiety quickly turns into a riot of the lawless town members led by Dr. Grubb. While the lawful citizens of the town are engaged in fighting fires set by Grubb, Frenchy takes advantage of the commotion to make advances on Elizabeth. Her disinterest sparks a brutal physical assault as he attempts to rape her. Frail again catches Frenchy just in time. A fistfight ensues. Frenchy pulls his pistol and shoots, but misses. Frail kills Frenchy.
Seeing his opportunity to remove his "competition", Grubb incites the mob to lynch Frail. They carry him to the hanging tree, tie his hands, and stand him up in a wagon bed, the rope around his neck. Rune and Elizabeth rush in carrying their gold and the deed to their claim. Elizabeth offers everything to the townsfolk if they will let Frail live. As the mob turns on itself in the struggle to grab the gold and the deed, the lynch party disperses.
Elizabeth now feels she has finally repaid Frail in full. Rune slips the noose off, and Elizabeth turns to walk away. Frail calls out her name. She turns back, and steps to the end of the wagon. He kneels down, cups her chin with both hands, and they touch foreheads, while a ballad plays in the background.
Cast[edit]
Gary Cooper as Doc Frail
Karl Malden as "Frenchy" Plante
Maria Schell as Elizabeth Mahler
George C. Scott as Grubb
Karl Swenson as Tom Flaunce
Ben Piazza as Rune
Virginia Gregg as Edna Flaunce
John Dierkes as Society Red
King Donovan as Wonder
Production[edit]
Principal photography was shot on location in the Oak Creek Wildlife Area, in the mountains west of Yakima, Washington. The scenes during the opening credits and title, where Gary Cooper rides alongside the river on horseback with a pack horse in tow, were filmed about mid-June in 1958, just northeast of Goose Prairie, Washington, along the north bank of the Bumping River. The fictional small gold mining town of Skull Creek was a temporary film set constructed along the south side of Little Rattlesnake Creek by its confluence with Rattlesnake Creek, just southwest of Nile, Washington.[2]
Soundtrack[edit]
Marty Robbins performed the title song that was nominated for best song at the 32nd Annual Academy Awards and the 1960 Golden Laurel Award for Best Song.[3] The text is a short reference to the film's story. It was also released on the reissue of the album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959) by Marty Robbins, who performed this song in the opening credits of this film. A known cover-version is by Frankie Laine who performed this song at the 32nd Academy Awards.
The film's score was composed by Max Steiner.
The Hanging Tree
Lyrics by Mack David
Music by Jerry Livingston
Vocal by Marty Robbins
See also[edit]
List of American films of 1959
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "1959: Probable Domestic Take", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
Jump up ^ Gene Triplett (August 11, 2012). "Gary Cooper's daughter revisits 'The Hanging Tree'". NewsOK blog.
Jump up ^ "The Hanging Tree". Retrieved 7 January 2018 – via www.imdb.com.
External links[edit]
The Hanging Tree on IMDb
The Hanging Tree at the TCM Movie Database
The Hanging Tree at AllMovie
The Hanging Tree at the American Film Institute Catalog
hide
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e
Films directed by Delmer Daves
Destination Tokyo (1943)
The Very Thought of You (1944)
Hollywood Canteen (1944)
Pride of the Marines (1945)
The Red House (1947)
Dark Passage (1947)
To the Victor (1948)
A Kiss in the Dark (1949)
Task Force (1949)
Broken Arrow (1950)
Bird of Paradise (1951)
Return of the Texan (1952)
Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953)
Never Let Me Go (1953)
Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)
Drum Beat (1954)
Jubal (1956)
The Last Wagon (1956)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Cowboy (1958)
Kings Go Forth (1958)
The Badlanders (1958)
The Hanging Tree (1959)
A Summer Place (1959)
Parrish (1961)
Susan Slade (1961)
Rome Adventure (1962)
Spencer's Mountain (1963)
Youngblood Hawke (1964)
The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Hanging_Tree&oldid=830194547"
Categories:
1959 films
English-language films
1950s Western (genre) films
American films
American Western (genre) films
Films based on works by Dorothy M. Johnson
Films directed by Delmer Daves
Films directed by Karl Malden
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text:
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
For the film's soundtrack, see The Pick of Destiny.
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Liam Lynch
Produced by
Jack Black
Kyle Gass
Ben Stiller
Written by
Jack Black
Kyle Gass
Liam Lynch
Starring
Jack Black
Kyle Gass
Music by
Tenacious D
Andrew Gross
John King
Cinematography
Robert Brinkmann
Edited by
David Rennie
Production
company
Red Hour Films
Distributed by
New Line Cinema
Release date
November 22, 2006 (2006-11-22)
Running time
94 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$20 million[1]
Box office
$13.9 million[1]
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a 2006 American musical fantasy comedy film about comedy rock duo Tenacious D. Written, produced by and starring Tenacious D members Jack Black and Kyle Gass, it is directed and co-written by musician and puppeteer Liam Lynch. Despite being about an actual band, the film is a fictitious story set in the 1990s about the band's origins, and their journey to find a pick belonging to Satan that allows its users to become rock legends.
The film was released on November 22, 2006 and was a box office bomb. The soundtrack, The Pick of Destiny, was also released in 2006 as the band's second studio album.
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Release
3.1 Box office
3.2 Jack Black's salary
3.3 Critical reception
3.4 Home video
4 Music
5 Legacy
6 Sequel
7 References
8 External links
Plot[edit]
As a young man, JB (Jack Black) runs away from his religious family and oppressive Midwestern town for Hollywood on a quest to form the world's most awesome rock band. There he meets acoustic guitarist KG (Kyle Gass), who is performing on the street, and begins worshipping him as a rock god because of his skills and attitude. JB attempts to ask KG to teach him Rock and roll lessons, only to be refused. later in the night, a crestfallen JB mopes on a park bench, seconds before being beaten by cheap knockoffs of the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange. KG takes pity on JB and agrees to teach him. KG feeds JB's fantasy by pretending to be famous with a self-named band ("The Kyle Gass Project"), and exploits him to do work such as cleaning his apartment and buying him weed (under the promise that JB can audition for his fictitious band.) After JB learns KG is actually unemployed and living off his parents, the two become equal, and KG apologizes to JB by giving him a brand-new guitar. They create their own band: Tenacious D, named for birthmarks found on their buttocks. (JB has a birthmark which says: "Tenac", and KG has a mark which reads: "ious D".)
Soon JB and KG learn the deepest secret of rock: all the rock legends used the same guitar pick, "the Pick of Destiny," which has supernatural powers. It was created by a dark wizard from a piece of Satan's tooth, as a gift to a blacksmith who saved his life from the great demon. The pick gives its holder unnatural abilities with stringed instruments. Infatuated by the prospect of becoming the next great rock star, JB immediately sets Tenacious D on a quest to steal the Pick of Destiny from a rock history museum. Along the way, the band briefly splits up, when KG decides that sex comes first in "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" after getting invited to a party, while JB wants to stick to the mission at hand. They are eventually reunited after KG is kicked out of the party.
Later, the two manage to steal the Pick of Destiny due to incompetent security at the rock museum. Armed with this supernatural pick, they plan to use the winnings from a local bar's talent contest to pay their rent, but before they can go on stage, they argue over who gets to use the pick first, snapping it in half accidentally. After a pep-talk from the bar's owner, they decide they are good enough to go onto the contest without the pick, not knowing that the owner is Satan in human form, looking for his missing tooth piece. Coming back outside (deciding they can both use half of the pick), they are confronted by Satan, who is "complete" when he places the Pick of Destiny back on his broken tooth, giving him the ability to use his supernatural powers on Earth. He threatens to make Tenacious D his first victim.
To save their lives, Tenacious D challenge Satan to a "rock-off", which he cannot deny, as the "demon code" strictly forbids him from declining such a challenge. As the bargain goes, if Tenacious D wins, Satan must return to hell on his own and pay their rent. But if Satan wins, JB states that he can take KG back with him as a sex slave. When KG reacts to JB's statement in disbelief and asks him what he's talking about, JB replies "Trust me Kage, it's the only way!" Ultimately, they lose (KG sings, "That was a masterpiece! / He rocks too hard because he's not a mortal man."), and Satan attempts to shoot KG with a bolt of energy. JB jumps in the way, and the bolt bounces off his guitar, blowing off a piece of Satan's horn. JB is able to send him back to Hell with a magical incantation. (As explained earlier, should Satan become "incomplete", he can be banished from the Earth with said incantation.)
The two turn Satan's horn into the "Bong of Destiny" and the movie closes with the two smoking from it as they write new songs.
Cast[edit]
Jack Black as Jack "Jables/JB" Black
Troy Gentile as young JB
Kyle Gass as Kyle "Kage/KG" Gass
JR Reed as Lee
Ronnie James Dio as himself
Dave Grohl as Satan
Ben Stiller as Guitar Center Guy
Paul F. Tompkins as Open Mic Host
Tim Robbins as The Stranger
John C. Reilly as Sasquatch
Meat Loaf as Bud Black
Cynthia Ettinger as Betty Black
Andrew Caldwell as Billy Black
Amy Poehler as Truck Stop Waitress
Colin Hanks as Drunk Frat Dude
Amy Adams as Gorgeous Woman
Gregg Turkington as Neil Hamburger
Evie Peck as KG's Mother
Jason Segel as Frat Boy #1
David Krumholtz as Frat Boy #2
Fred Armisen as Security Guard #1
Ned Bellamy as Security Guard #2
Jay Johnston as Gang Member #1
John Ennis as Gang Member #2
David Koechner as Surplus Store Clerk (deleted scene)
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
The film performed poorly at the box office, only grossing a total of $8.2 million in the United States. It debuted with a mere $3 million during its opening weekend at number eleven.[2]
Jack Black's salary[edit]
Black agreed to a pay cut from his standard $12 million fee to $1 million that was then split between Black and Kyle Gass.[3]
Critical reception[edit]
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny received mixed reviews from critics with a 54% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with several commentators impressed by the film's low-brow humor; the site's consensus states, "Tenacious D fans will find this movie hilarious; everybody else will see only a low-brow concept movie and a small assembly of jokes stretched past the 100 minute mark."[4] Michael Phillips criticized the frequency of the drug-use by saying: "This may be the problem. Pot rarely helped anybody's comic timing."[5] Stephen Holden of The New York Times suggested that the film could be viewed as a "jolly rock 'n' roll comedy", but he also described the progression of the film as being a "garish mess."[citation needed]
Home video[edit]
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny was released by New Line Home Video on February 27, 2007 on DVD. A version sold by retail chain Best Buy came with an extra disc with exclusive footage. Wal-Mart customers received a copy of the CD More Rocktastic Music from the Film bundled with the DVD. In Japan there was a box deluxe edition released which came with a t-shirt.
In 2008, the movie was re-released and bundled with Run, Fat Boy, Run and Dumb And Dumber in a three disc set for the United States and Canada whereas for the UK there was a three disc set with Fracture and The Alibi. The Australian re-release featured the movie with Be Kind Rewind in a two disc set as well as another set with the film being bundled with Grandma's Boy.
Music[edit]
Main article: The Pick of Destiny
The soundtrack, the band's second studio album, includes vocals by Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf. Dave Grohl plays drums on the album, as he did on their first album, Tenacious D (2001). Grohl also contributes his vocals on "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)", as Satan. An edited version of the album was also released, replacing all of the profanity with made-up nonsense words.
The score by Andrew Gross, John King and Trainwreck, More Rocktastic Music from the Film, was released in limited quantities to Wal-Mart stores. They have made an original soundtrack from the movie also. The score was orchestrated by Richard Bronskill and Tony Blondal, and recorded with a large orchestra and choir at the Sony Scoring Stage, in Culver City, Ca.
Legacy[edit]
In their 2012 album Rize of the Fenix, Tenacious D reference the film's relative unpopularity with the opening lyrics "When The Pick Of Destiny was released, it was a bomb". The 2012 EP Jazz also references the film, when Jack Black sings, "Who put Beelzeboss into my jazz?"[6]
In 2016, ten years after the release of the movie, Tenacious D performed at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals in June, and at the Bråvalla and Roskilde festivals in July. All shows featured a large Pick of Destiny backdrop during the performance.[7]
Sequel[edit]
In September 2018, the band would release the first episode of their animatic YouTube series, Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto. The final and sixth episode would be released in November 2018 along with the album Post-Apocalypto.
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b "Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
Jump up ^ "Rotten Tomatoes: Box Office Summary". Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
Jump up ^ "Jack Black Revisits the Glory Days Known as Tenacious D". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
Jump up ^ "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny". Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
Jump up ^ Phillips, Michael (2017-05-30). "So-so story of a superband". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
Jump up ^ Tenacious D (2012). Simply Jazz. Event occurs at 06:24.
Jump up ^ "Tenacious D Setlist at Rock am Ring 2016". Setlist.fm. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny on IMDb
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny at AllMovie
Interview: Jack Black and Kyle Glass Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny at Rotten Tomatoes
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny at Metacritic
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