Corinne “the camera loves her” Griffith is seen by many as one of the most beautiful stars of the silent screen. After retiring from acting, Corinne found continued success as a businesswoman and as an author with such fantastic titles as Truth Is Stranger, I Can’t Boil Water (a cookbook), and Your Money Went That-A-Way, campaigning to repeal the federal tax.
Turning in a three acre estate in favor of a “plain” Beverly Hills Spanish style home (converted to Italian style in favor of Corinne’s personality), Corinne tells Photoplay, “If neither of us earned another penny, we could live in this house for the rest of our lives …the estate was too expensive.” A sound example of frugal living from Corinne’s even-if-your-road-to-life-turns-out-differently-in-a-grand-way perspective.
The design of her home during her “Orchid Lady” years reads like a sophisticated playbook with a sharp taste in colors. A few things from which one can perhaps be inspired…
A library completed with two gold-plush chairs, cretonne drapes, Chinese cabinet over a cafe-au-lait carpet which leads into the modern French style “Whoopee Room” below, (done in THE quintessential 20s deco palette of orange, black, and silver…) whose two removable panels in the doors hide a screen on which pictures can be projected for viewing in the lower room. Quite an advanced design and technology for 1929!
Behind Green and gold carved doors that hail from a Venetian palace of the early 17th century, Corinne’s bedroom combines the softest flesh pink colorings with touches of carved crystal and silver in objects of admiration scattered throughout.
Her bathroom, a circular-domed room paneled in gold moiré silk, has waterproofed carpet (your guess is as good as ours), black marble and gold-on-crystal fixtures (observe the clear sink legs), and was fully stocked with June Geranium soap. We would sincerely appreciate if Elizabeth Arden would bring this soap back.
The modern version of a masculine bedroom, as designed by Mrs. Morosco for the man of the house. Furniture is black mahogany, the walls are ivory. The bedspread is colorfully striped and the chairs a jazzy deco pattern.
SO Corinne, you leave us with some lessons in life and living…
• It doesn’t matter the style of the home, do as you like to suit yourself; you’re the one who has to live with it. In fact apply this to almost everything, except for the modern shades-of-beige Tetris-box homes built over their historic predecessors… those don’t apply.
• Doorway pizazz is achievable with a little extra frame trimming. If you’re quite extra, make sure it’s from the 17th century like Corinne. If you’ve got wood, wood shouldn’t let you down, in décor or otherwise. Even more achievable would be to trompe l’oeil it. That’s pronounced in one swift word trump-o-loi, saved you the trouble of looking it up like we always have to.
• Flesh-pink and silver coloring are forever. And so is orange, black, and silver, the colors of a “Whoopee Room”.
Corinne’s life had many twists and turns, when she departed she left an estate of over $150 million. Although she entranced viewers with her innocent beauty in films, she left that industry behind, became a writer and successful business woman. Where you start may not be where you finish, but that’s the point.
