Saratoga Sampler

Documentarians focus on local art colony

By Mary Ann Cook

VILLA ON VIEW: Villa Montalvo: the Evolution of an Art Colony is ready to be marketed to a public broadcasting channel. The documentary film, which features interviews with Saratogan friends and neighbors, was produced by Valerie Archer and John Wainwright, a husband and wife team whose company is called Lyric Media.

The two have spent the past two years combing through 22 boxes of archival material at Montalvo and interviewing people who were instrumental in saving the villa from deterioration, and pointing it in the direction to become the showcase for the arts that it is today.

Archer/Wainwright first got the bug to do something to record Montalvo--past and present--when they toured the artists' studios during an open house there. Now, 10 more resident units are being built, which means the documentary will be an ongoing process.

They will film the different stages of construction for the new residences. Among those interviewed for the documentary were Pat and Jim Compton, Helen Metcalf, Sally Lucas and Willys Peck. The film was previewed recently at the Foothill Club's public lecture series.

James Duvall Phelan (pronounced feelin), who built and bequeathed Montalvo, was born a millionaire. Phelan's family fortune was in real estate and banking. His father sold hardware equipment during the Gold Rush. But Phelan didn't do too badly in his own right.

He was a three-time mayor of San Francisco, and the first popularly elected senator from California. (Before his tenure the position was appointed.) In the Senate, he didn't get along very well with his peers because he was so chauvinistic about the West.

As mayor, Phelan helped design Union Square. Montalvo was built in 1912, showing reflections of a Mediterranean villa. The gardens were the work of John McLaren, the architect of Golden Gate Park.

After years of being immersed in Phelan, his life, his works, his letters, Archer considers him as she would an uncle--witty, urbane and, well, lewd.

Phelan never married, bequeathing his villa to the San Francisco Art Association. That group wasn't able to maintain it, so local citizens set up a foundation and the Montalvo Service Group was born.

The service group set to work with pruning shears and determination, because the villa had started to deteriorate after Phelan's death in the '30s. The group is still in action, sponsors the yearly Yuletide at Montalvo, summer luncheons in the courtyard and other fundraisers.

Phelan was very generous--left other parts of his fortune to widows and orphans and churches. Montalvo was to remain dedicated as an arts center.

MARCH VALENTINE: Anne and Bob Louden have been sweethearts almost as long as they've known each other--since middle school years. They were high school sweethearts, but their families shunted them off to same sex schools to forestall their getting married before completing college.

He to Princeton for an engineering degree: she to Vassar to obtain a degree in economics. But, though parted, they wrote each other every day. Anne's letters to him--1,000 in number--were so thoroughgoing and detailed, Bob thought they should be preserved in book form for their family.

So, with the help of a desktop computer program he did just that and several copies were made. Now their three sons and two grandchildren have a record of their courtship. Bob's letters to Anne were tossed out many years ago, but he claims his letters were mere hastily scribbled notes, not the quality correspondence of Anne's efforts.

The Loudens are very active members of the community: Bob is the new president of the Saratoga Historical Association, the former president of the Lions Club and commodore of the San Jose Sailing Club. Anne was the volunteer librarian at Montalvo for 17 years, recently retired.

FLOWER SHOW: Landscape designer David Brunner and Richard Singletary of South Peninsula Landscape of Saratoga have merged their talents to create one of the 23 displays featured in the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. The show will take place at the Cow Palace on March 21-25.

Singletary is the installer of the contemporary creation he is doing with Brunner. It's a sophisticated, contemporary plan, "almost a cityscape," as Singletary puts it. Titled Juxtaposition, the display incorporates and contrasts the rigidly defined space of architectural elements with the chaos of natural elements.

The garden show also includes a koi competition (how do they possibly train those slippery koi to compete?) Actually, the koi are judged on quality of skin, depth of markings and conformation. Some 50 demonstrations and seminars are sponsored by Sunset Magazine.

The orchid pavilion is part of the floral splendor. Tickets are $18, or $14 in advance from nurseries.

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