HBO Finds California in Glen Cove

As Mildred Pierce, played by Academy Award-winner Kate Winslet, glides about the house and grounds of her California mansion in the upcoming five-hour HBO miniseries of that name, she will be entangled in a plot loaded with deceptions. 

For viewers, however, one deception involves the actual location of the mansion because it's in Glen Cove, not "The Golden State." In fact, the California palms viewers will see in the film were imported and would never have survived the winter at the Glen Cove Mansion on Crescent Beach Road. 

Producers shot scenes for the miniseries at the mansion, also known as the Woolworth Mansion and Winfield Hall, last month. 

"Mildred Pierce," now in production for broadcast next year, also stars Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood and Mare Winningham, among other Hollywood stars. It is based on a novel by James M. Cain, which first spawned the 1945 film noir of that name, starring Joan Crawford. The story line involves the rise and fall of characters, in a quasi-Shakespearian plot, that includes any number of intrigues, even murder.  

But, how does a fictitious California mansion, for a plot set in the 1930s, find a real home in Glen Cove in 2010?  

"I have scouted the old Woolworth Mansion on numerous occasions in the past," said Joe Guest, the HBO location manager. "As one of a few remaining classic 'Gold Coast' mansions on the North Shore of Long Island, it is hard to overlook." 

As the "Gold Coast" mansion of F.W. Woolworth, who built it in the early 20th century to impress even the robber barons who were his contemporaries, the property was ideal to address the requirements of the script. Guest said he had considered other North Shore estates, but the Woolworth won out.   

"The mansion is suitably grand," he explained. "Architect C.P.H. Gilbert was known for his opulent townhouses and mansions. We needed a stately and impressive mansion to suit the characters in our story." 

Gilbert, who designed more than 100 mansions and townhouses in Manhattan and Long Island from the mid-1880s through the 1920s, also had designed Woolworth's home on Fifth Avenue.   

Since shooting for the HBO series involved both interiors and exteriors, the location had to be subjected to some of that glorious fudging the movies are noted for.   

"We had to dress the interior and add palm trees and other California-style landscaping to the exterior," Guest said.   

Aside from the static display of the property itself, nearby residents were recently treated to a cavalcade of period automobiles from the first third of the 20th century, which were parked at the gateway to the estate and along Pine Low late last month.   

Residents, along with a worldwide audience, will get to see the results of all this when the miniseries debuts some time next year, preceded by a good deal of promotion. But perhaps only Glen Cove residents will know the secret of the imported palms.