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20.03.2024 - 20:55 / cntraveler.com
“Attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.”
That’s how Slim Aarons—social photographer and much-loved socialite himself—described the iconic images he captured around the world from the 1940s-1980s. It’s that glamour that inspired Palm Royale, a new 10-part show set in Palm Beach, 1969. Think palm trees, fringed pool parasols and a color palette of avocado, canary yellow, and bubblegum pink. Lots and lots of pink.
The story follows social outcast Maxine Simmons (played by Kristen Wiig) who’ll do whatever it takes to gain acceptance into Palm Beach’s upper echelons, where life revolves around country clubs, charity balls and stiff cocktails. It may be 1969 in the rest of the country—a “powder keg” year that witnessed Vietnam war protests, Nixon’s election, and Woodstock—but in vacuum-sealed Palm Beach, the only politics in play are who is on the guest list and who is sleeping with whose tennis coach.
Palm Royale was created by Abe Sylvia who consciously tried to replicate the “romance of Slim Aarons’ photography in Palm Beach, but also the gallivanting travels his subjects took, from Capri to Acapulco”. We spoke to Jon Carlos (production designer) and Ellen Reede (set decorator) about Palm Royale and how they managed to bring these big ambitions to the small screen.
The Palm Royale and its interiors are inspired by real-life places such as The Breakers and The Everglades Club.
Where is the real Palm Royale Country Club?
Jon Carlos: The idea of the Palm Royale is an amalgam of real-life places in Palm Beach—The Breakers, The Everglades Club, The Bath & Tennis Club—but we needed to create a fictional version for our story. Our Palm Royale is a mixture of locations and stage builds, with many exteriors shot at The Ebell of Los Angeles [an historic 1927 arts venue off Wilshire Boulevard.] The more intimate spaces such as the steam room and women’s powder room were built on stage, though there was a second unit that went out to Palm Beach to shoot aerials and wide establishers.
We were fortunate that much of the development of Los Angeles in the 1920s and 30s was occurring around the same time as Palm Beach, so there is a nice mirroring of architectural style. We felt there wasn’t anywhere better that we could “cheat” than Los Angeles.
Was that necessary, because Palm Beach council rejects many filming proposals?
JC: No, it was a choice. We had a big team already here in Los Angeles. Plus, even if we went to Palm Beach, a lot of it has changed since ’69 so we were going to have to augment or change it back. We had heard that Palm Beach is not like Hollywood—it’s not widely filmed in—but it didn’t come into our conversations anyway. I do love the idea of filming there in the future; I
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