Cinema News: How servants lived at the Gamble House

August 01, 2025 | View in browser

A servant's bedroom in Pasadena's Gamble House.

By Jessica Gelt

Staff Writer

When looking at a majestic residence like the 1908 Gamble House — a Craftsman crown jewel of Pasadena — its easy to romanticize the lives of its owners. Luxury and wealth radiate from its graceful, low-slung eaves, sloping lawns and wide porches. But the idea of class is baked into its architecture, with a series of rooms built to be occupied by the domestic servants who toiled day and night to keep the house running for its privileged inhabitants, the heirs to the Proctor & Gamble fortune.

Through Aug. 17, those rooms are open for tours with the addition of a compelling art installation by Karen Schwenkmeyer and Lisa Mann titled "Dirty Laundry," which examines the heartache, disappointments and perseverance of domestic laborers in the early 20th century by printing their words on tea towels and sheets hung in the Gamble House's drying yard, and stitching them into a pillowcase in one of the small staff bedrooms.

"What I mind is the awful loneliness," reads the pillowcase on austere wooden twin bed. "Many times, many nights I went to bed and cried myself sick."

A sculpture constructed of Ivory soap, mops and scrub brushes takes up residence in the staff bathroom. The soap, one of Procter & Gamble's bestselling products, was marketed as 99.44% pure, and the sculpture is a meditation on "who is pure and who is not," explained Mann during an opening reception for the installation, adding that she and Schwenkmeyer approached the lavatory as "a place of resistance and empowerment."

The goal of the installation, say Schwenkmeyer and Mann, was to bring to light the "emotional and psychological toll of being on-call every day of the week."

A tea towel blowing in the warm Southern California air puts it more plainly: "I hope someday will come when I don't have to work so hard … I do hate to get up in the morning. I am so tired."

Domestic staff in many of the country's most rarefied households was made up of immigrants who came to America looking for a better life only to find themselves stuck in the same classist , low-wage systems they had fled in the first place, the artists explan.

"Servants in the United States 'were haunted by a confused and imperfect phantom of equality,' which promised perfect parity at one moment but then suddenly shouted a reminder that some people are more equal than others," reads a bedsheet quoting from a book about Americans and their servants by Daniel E. Sutherland, which greets visitors upon entrance to the yard.

Thinking of these words and imagining the lives of the many men, women and children who devoted their lives to caring for wealthy people is a potent way to walk through the beautiful rooms inside the Gamble House. We may not call domestic laborers servants anymore, but the way we choose to treat those who tend to our many needs — to see them and respect them, or not — speaks volumes of who we are as a society.

I'm arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, rethinking all my assumptions about a bar of soap. Here's this weeks art news.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Some Like It Hot
This musical adaptation of Billy Wilder's 1959 film comedy about two musicians who go on the run disguised as women after witnessing a mob hit in prohibition-era Chicago brings a contemporary sensibility to the 1930s shenanigans. The Broadway production won four Tony Awards in 2023.
Through Aug. 17. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. broadwayinhollywood.com

Robert Altman's America: A Centennial Review
UCLA Film and Television Archive celebrates the late filmmaker's 100th birthday with a 13-film series that kicks off with 1976's "Nashville," which melds politics with country music and features a large ensemble including Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duvall, Barbara Harris, Lily Tomlin and dozens more.
7:30 p.m. Friday; series continues through Sept. 26. Billy Wilder Theater, UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. cinema.ucla.edu

Adrian Quesada
De Los, The Times' platform for all things Latinidad, co-hosts a free concert by the Grammy-winning musician and Oscar-nominated songwriter. Best known for his work in the bands Grupo Fantasma and Black Pumas, Quesada's latest album, "Boleros Psicodélicos II," is "a 12-track sonic field trip through Quesada's Latin American influences — and a testament to teamwork," wrote Carlos De Loera in a recent De Los profile.
6 p.m. Saturday. Grand Performances, 350 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. grandperformances.org

Roswell That Ends Well
The Actors' Gang turns the Bard on his ear in this year's Shakespeare in the Park production, an adaptation of "All's Well That Ends Well" where outer space meets the Wild West in the form of a determined cowgirl with big dreams and a four-armed alien king.
11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Aug. 24. Admission is free, reservations highly suggested. Media Park, 9070 W. Venice Blvd., Culver City. theactorsgang.com

Hong Kong Cinema Classics
The American Cinematheque and Beyond Fest, in partnership with Shout! Studios and GKIDS, present a retrospective of seminal films, many of which are rarely screened. Genre master John Woo will appear with his films "Hard Boiled" (7 p.m. Saturday), a triple feature of the "A Better Tomorrow" trilogy (11 a.m. Sunday) and "The Killer" (7 p.m. Sunday). The monthlong series also includes films by stalwart action directors Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Ching Siu-tung.
7 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. Sunday; 7 p.m. Sunday. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. americancinematheque.com

Complications in Color
A new exhibition marks the 100th birthday of Claremont artist Karl Benjamin (1925-2012), a painter and leader in the 1950s hard-edge abstraction painting movement. In his review of the 2007 survey of the painter's work, Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote, "Benjamin emerges as a colorist of great wit and inventiveness." The current exhibition also features the work of fellow abstractionists Florence Arnold, June Harwood, Rachel Lachowicz and Terry O'Shea.
Noon-4 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays; noon-7 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 16. Claremont Lewis Museum of Art, 200 W. First St., Claremont. clmoa.org

Gustavo Dudamel returns
The maestro is back at the Bowl next week and makes the most of it. On Tuesday, he conducts the L.A. Phil as Ravel meets Ellington with a little help from star Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho. Two nights later, Dudamel's back leading the orchestra in works by Korngold (Featuring violinist Vilde Frang) and Mahler. Dudamel completes this brief concert run Aug. 8-9, conducting John Williams' crowd-favorite "Jurassic Park" score over a live screening of the summer blockbuster.
Ellington and Ravel. 8 p.m. Tuesday; Mahler and Korgold, 8 p.m. Thursday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com

Culture news

Philanthropist Wallis Annenberg — whose name became synonymous with arts and culture in Los Angeles — died earlier this week of complications from lung cancer at the age of 86. The wealthy patron was memorialized in tributes for her commitment to making art accessible to people from all walks of life, as well as for her friendship and love of animals. Annenberg was the daughter of publishing magnate Walter Annenberg, who made his fortune, in part, by selling TV Guide, among other publications, to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. For the last 16 years of her life, Wallis served as chairwoman of the board, president and chief executive of her family's Annenberg Foundation.

Only July 23, Congressman Bob Onder introduced the Make Entertainment Great Again Act, which proposed that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed the Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts. NPR reported that the bill is likely a long shot.

The SoCal Scene

"Jesus Christ Superstar," starring Cynthia Erivo as Jesus and Adam Lambert as Judas , opens tonight at the Hollywood Bowl for a sold-out, three-night run. I spent last Saturday at a rehearsal dishing with Josh Gad on the sidelines while watching Lambert strut his stuff and tearing up over Phillipa Soo's performance of "I Don't Know How to Love Him." Read my behind-the-scenes story of how the musical came together and why the casting is so important in this era of political turmoil and change. (Gad, who was to play King Herod, had to drop out of the show Wednesday, after contracting COVID.)

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a variety of special programs and events. In August, the museum is holding a Saturday afternoon film series titled, "Cinematic Touchstones 1975," which features four movies that made a lasting impact on the culture 50 years ago. The stellar lineup consists of "Mahogany," "Escape to Witch Mountain," "Grey Gardens" and "Barry Lyndon." Admission to the theater is free with general admission to the museum. For schedule and additional details, click here.

The Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center opened in May in the tiny Santa Barbara County town on 3.5 acres of land planted with native blooms, trees, grasses and shrubs. Times staff writer Jeanette Marantos paid a recent visit and reported back on the high-tech interactive displays that bring the past to life and highlight the continuing importance of the tribe and its lasting impact on the area.

The nonprofit organization Tierra Del Sol, which champions professional development through arts education for people with disabilities, will stage its inaugural fashion show in West Hollywood on Sept. 27. The show will showcase hand-crafted designs from eight developmentally disabled artists working out of the organization's Sunland and Upland studios. After the runway show, the creations will remain at Tierra del Sol's Gallery, located at 7414 Santa Monica Blvd., for a six-week exhibition, ending Nov. 1.

— Jessica Gelt

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