Tag archives: William Randolph Hearst

The Woman Behind the Building
By Richard Mineards   |   October 8, 2024

Victoria Kastner, historian at William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon for 38 years, gave a captivating lecture at the Santa Barbara Club to Montecito Bank & Trust’s MClub, focusing on the publishing magnate’s trailblazing architect Julia Morgan who designed more than 700 buildings in California. Morgan, who died in 1957 at age 85, was the first […]

Citizen Ganna: How Lotusland’s founder helped inspire one of the greatest films of all time
By Pauline O'Connor   |   May 20, 2021

Released 80 years ago this September, director Orson Welles’s debut film Citizen Kane has been inspiring countless arguments, articles, books, documentaries, parodies, and homages ever since. Playing a significant part in the film’s enduring mystique is the widespread belief that its two main characters, bombastic newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane and his much-younger mistress, alcoholic […]