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 cost $30 million and offer a glimpse of Hearst's storybook life entertaining guests like Charlie Chaplin and Carole Lombard. See exquisite artworks including a priceless 14th century Madonna and Child and visit rooms that are off limits to the public. AMERICA'S CASTLES invites you to explore the home at the heart of a private kingdom San Simeon.System Requirements:Running Time 50 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 733961747324 Manufacturer No: AAE-74732

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43607 in DVD
• Brand: A&E
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 50 minutes

Features

• 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

Customer Reviews

Excellent Overview of Hearst and his Ranch!
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!

Lightweight documentary
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!

Hearst Castle by A&E
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!