"Play Misty For Me"

Carmel

The Monterey Peninsula and Big Sur was the inspired location for the Clint Eastwood "shocker" made in 1971. Clint directed for the first time and featured opposite Jessica Walter, but the real star role was taken by the scenic beauty of the Monterey Peninsula. Clint Eastwood, once Mayor of Carmel and for a time part owner of "the Hogsbreath Restaurant" revitalised interest in the Carmel area, it had long been a favourite haunt and home of the artistic community. California's poet, Robertson Jeffers lived there as did Ansel Adams. Doris Day also has a home in Carmel. The Clinton Walker House situated on the Scenic Road at Martin Street was designed in 1948 by America's greatest architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The house ( the set for the film "A Summer Place"), sits on its stone base looking over the Pacific and with its apparently floating roof and the prow-like form of the stone terrace bears a strong resemblance to a ship

(Update on Clint's Hogs Breath Restaurant... it was closed last year. He now owns the Mission Ranch).

Further information regarding the location for this film is available at: http://www.movietours.com/misty

Phoenix Sculpure by Edmund Kara

Those who drive the Big Sur road enjoy not only one of the world's scenic highways but also share a time capsule of recent American cultural history.

Jack Kerouac stayed at Big Sur in a cabin on the edge of the Pacific during the period when he was struggling with alcoholism. The fruits of this being "Big Sur", one of his most approachable books. While, "Nepenthe" features in the book that defined the Beat Generation, "On the Road".

Nepenthe once visited remains with you forever. Nepenthe is on the the site of a cabin once owned by Orson Welles who intended to build a house there for his wife Rita Hayworth. Shortly after the cabin was sold in 1947 Welles place became "Nepenthe", (surcease from sorrow) named after a drug famous from Egyptian history as being able to help you forget. Nepenthe now, designed by a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright, is a classy stopping point on the route south and is a restaurant and visitor centre where it is possible to buy memorabilia of the area and of those who have lived in the area in recent times. The views from the upper deck "gay pavilion" are spectacular. Whereas dress is fairly casual, it is not too casual as the young John Kennedy was once turned away for turning up barefoot.

Close to Nepenthe is the well known "Coast Gallery" rebuilt from circular redwood water tanks. The Coast Gallery features local arts and crafts and also some watercolours painted by Henry Miller. The Henry Miller Memorial Library, also in the vicinity, contains an assortment of the author's possessions.

L to R: The Coast Gallery Big Sur - Lunch on the Gay Deck, Nepenthe