Mildred and the Beach House

The beach house pictured above, under my blog title, is a cherished home.  My Grandma and Grandpa Rindge lived there and raised their three sons, Fred, John and Ronald.  And as luck would have it, Ronald brought his family back to the beach house to experience a little of what he did while growing up.  And, as luck would have it, I was Ronald's second born of six, so I was fortunate enough to experience growing up on the beach.

The beach house was one of the five first homes built in Malibu, a small town in Southern California, in 1923.   It was built on a small little road called Latigo Shore Drive.  Over the years, many more homes were built along Malibu's 26 mile coastline including the famous "Movie Colony".  The movie colony was a small cluster of homes built on the beach leased or bought by the movie stars in Hollywood, thus the moniker.  Movies and Malibu seemed to go together and still do to this day. 

Joan Crawford as Mildred

When my father was about ten years old, Hollywood came to Latigo and my father couldn't have been more excited.  The huge movie trucks rolled into the beach house driveway and giant movie lights rolled out.  It was 1945 and a movie called "Mildred Pierce" was being made, starring Joan Crawford, and a beach house was featured prominently in the story plot.

Mildred arrives at beach house

Our house was chosen as the perfect setting, but it still needed one more thing - a big deck.  So the movie crew set about quickly building the "big deck" you can see on the first photo above!  From that point on, our family called it "The Big Deck" and it was the setting for many a birthday party - but that will be another story!

Mildred's Restaurant in 1945 Movie

Joan Crawford won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as "Mildred" in the movie.  The movie is iconic Hollywood at it's finest.  Watching it now, you will love to see vintage fashions, cars, architecture as well as historic footage of Los Angeles, Malibu and surrounding areas.  

HBO is currently running a mini-series entitled "Mildred Pierce" starring Kate Winslet as Mildred - the third installment is playing this Sunday, April 3rd.  If you like period films, this one is for you!  I am a fan of classic black and white Hollywood movies so I love the original version of Mildred Pierce, but I am truly enjoying this version as well!
        As for the beach house - so many people knew and loved that beach house- from the surfers who would stroll by in search of the perfect break off Latigo Point, to the charter fisherman who viewed the "light mint castle" from the deep sea waters, to all of us, the cousins, the PV Rindges, the Malibu Rindges, and extended families.

Our cherished home is lost to the sea!

Sadly, our cherished home was lost to the sea, in a wild storm in 1983, when her feet were knocked out from under her.  But our cherished beach house, once a movie star, will remain forever ours, in our memories which are just too good to forget.