- At a time when most of America pinched pennies, media mogul William Randolph Hearst commissioned one of the largest homes ever built. Centerpiece of an estate nearly half the size of Rhode Island, the 165-room San Simeon overlooks the California countryside from a hilltop high above the Pacific. From the initial plans in 1918 to an all-access tour, HEARST CASTLE is a fascinating look at this extra
Product Description
At a time when most of America pinched pennies media mogul William Randolph Hearst commissioned one of the largest homes ever built. Centerpiece of an estate nearly half the size of Rhode Island the 165-room San Simeon overlooks the California countryside from a hilltop high above the Pacific. From the initial plans in 1918 to an all-access tour HEARST CASTLE is a fascinating look at this extraordinary mansion. Rare home movies show its construction rumored to have … More >>
America’s Castles – Hearst Castle at San Simeon
Tags: America's, california countryside, Castle, Castles, centerpiece, Hearst, hearst castle, hilltop, initial plans, media mogul, pennies, san simeon, Simeon, size of rhode island, william randolph hearst
#1 by Wabe on April 18, 2010 - 7:32 pm
This is the best video about Hearst Castle I have seen. High quality video and a very comprehensive look at one of the most impressive estates in the world. I am planning a trip to see Hearst Castle and wanted to whet my appetite with a little video tour. This really exceeded my expectations. Of course it includes a biography of William Randolph Hearst and the history of his “ranch” home in the San Simeon hills. There is simply so much of Hearst Castle to see and this video gave me a taste of nearly all of it. I can hardly wait to tour Hearst Castle in person. I suppose for me it would have been 5 stars if it were longer and gave me a summary of the tours available – which tours covered which parts of the estate – that sort of thing.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by J. Brown on April 18, 2010 - 10:26 pm
We’ve been to Hearst castle on several occasions but now we live in Idaho, not California. My videos were good but you really can’t beat the professional videos such as this one to really get a good combined story of the overall history of the ‘castle’ as well as the images of rooms and items you just can’t get unless you go on multiple expensive tours at the facility. If you’ve been or are thinking about going get this video from Amazon sellers, don’t wait to buy it from the gift shops, way more expensive there!
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by R. Gale on April 18, 2010 - 11:23 pm
First, know that this is a 45 minute documentary; at $20 or more, it’s a rip-off. This is a travelogue oriented presentation, and although it’s well photographed, the information is presented in a sort of stream-of-consciousness manner — it jumps around all over the place, and then goes back to things that you thought had already been covered…including repetition of several shots. There are two reasons to recommend it. Reason 1: if you want a souvenir of your visit to Hearst Castle, this is certainly better than any home video you can take yourself. Reason 2: if you’ve never been there, and don’t know much about it, it does serve as a decent, although scattered, introduction. Of course, nothing can compare with actually going there, and that’s what I recommend most of all!
Rating: 3 / 5
#4 by ThreeBirdy on April 19, 2010 - 12:42 am
We just visited Hearst Castle, took several tours, saw their featured “Building the Dream” DVD, purchased a DVD tour from their store. I learned more from this A&E presentation than any of these others! Excellent footage (including live movie clips of Hearst during the 20s), shots of different rooms, history of the art. This makes an excellent souvenir if you have visited, or a feasible trip if you live too far away to go in person. The Castle looks better in this film than in person since the film is about 15 years old. Wish I had seen it before our visit to have better appreciation of what the tour presented. Highly recommend!
Rating: 4 / 5