One of the little known cultural landmarks in the Bay Area is O'Neill's home high in the hills above Danville, with a stunning vista of the San Ramon Valley and Mount Diablo. O'Neill lived here, with his wife Carlotta Monterey, from around 1937 - 1944, when due to worsening health he had to move back east to be closer to his doctors. What's surprising is that he chose this location to build a home, as an escape from the pressures and attention of Broadway and the East Coast theatre and literary establishment. At that time artists from the East Coast tended to head to New Mexico, upstate New York, the Cape, even Carmel. But Danville? A beautiful location, and while the house doesn't have O'Neill's, or his family's, literary and personal writings, journals, laundry lists and other errata (those are housed at Yale University), his room where he wrote such masterpieces as "Long Day's Journey Into Night," and "The Iceman Cometh" is on display. The whole house is, including Carlotta's bedroom, a downstairs study with pictures of his father in "The Count of Monte Cristo," (the play which made him a fortune but haunted him thereafter by reminding him of the career as a great Shakespeare actor that he didn't have) and photos of of theatre luminaries of the time like George Jean Nathan and Kenneth MacGowan (the founder of my alma mater, UCLA's School of Theatre), and others. AND a glorious swimming pool, that, from the looks of it, people still use. Below are some photos....
O'Neill was also devoted to chicken farming, but once his bodyguard and chicken meister enlisted in 1942, the chickens were all either sold, or eaten.
In his study are examples of his handwriting, which is significant as O'Neill wrote only by hand when composing his plays. He never used a typewriter: Carlotta transcribed all materials by typing them out. And over the years his very meticulous handwriting - always composing by pencil - became smaller and smaller, until when he was writing "Long Day's Journey" it was tiny.
O'Neill was equally obsessed with privacy and absolute quiet in order to work. The second story, where the bedrooms and O'Neill's study are, is only accessed by a stairway above the entry way. Once up to the second floor, going to the right (south east) one encounters Carlotta's room, then Eugene's bedroom (with an antique Chinese bed, very low) and then the study. Doors could be shut between each of the rooms making the study as difficult to reach as possible. Such is the price of genius - the obligation to use it.
In his study are examples of his handwriting, which is significant as O'Neill wrote only by hand when composing his plays. He never used a typewriter: Carlotta transcribed all materials by typing them out. And over the years his very meticulous handwriting - always composing by pencil - became smaller and smaller, until when he was writing "Long Day's Journey" it was tiny.
O'Neill was equally obsessed with privacy and absolute quiet in order to work. The second story, where the bedrooms and O'Neill's study are, is only accessed by a stairway above the entry way. Once up to the second floor, going to the right (south east) one encounters Carlotta's room, then Eugene's bedroom (with an antique Chinese bed, very low) and then the study. Doors could be shut between each of the rooms making the study as difficult to reach as possible. Such is the price of genius - the obligation to use it.
RSS Feed
