HBO to Air Mini-Series Filmed in Glen Cove

While viewers of HBO’s upcoming mini-series Mildred Pierce may marvel at the impressive mansion that becomes a centerpiece of Pierce’s life, Glen Cove residents will know that her home is really one of the city’s classic Gold Coast estates.

The mini-series – which debuts Sunday, March 27, 2011 – stars Academy Award Winner Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood, and Academy Award Winner Melissa Leo, among others, and involves the rise and fall of characters in 1930s California. The plot is loaded with twists and turns, intrigues and deceptions; but one deception that won’t be addressed in the series involves Glen Cove.

Rows of parked period autos from the 1920s and ‘30s lined Crescent Beach Road and Pine Low, which were also used in the filming, and an artificially created rainstorm drenched only the approach to the mansion, during one of the nighttime shoots.

“I could see very, very clearly I would be foolish to pass up an opportunity to play such a juggernaut of a woman,” Winslet explains in an HBO documentary, Making of Mildred Pierce.

Referencing the relevance of the series’ plot to the present day, director Todd Haynes, explains in the documentary, “this was a window into our time, the idealizing of wealth and unbridled consumption.”

The producers opted for natural light and real locations, determining that New York of today was more like Los Angeles of the 1930s than LA is today.

“The Woolworth Mansion doubled as (Mildred’s love interest) Monte’s grand mansion in various states of disrepair,” said executive producer Pamela Koffler in the documentary.

“A big demonstration of Mildred’s success was her ability to now buy the life of this man that she has dabbled with and turn his decaying mansion into a beautiful, opulent success,” explains production designer Mark Friedberg.

“I have scouted the old Woolworth Mansion on numerous occasions in the past,” HBO location manager Joe Guest told Patch during the filming. “As one of a few remaining classic ‘Gold Coast’ mansions on the North Shore of Long Island, it is hard to overlook.”

The opulence of the mansion and the adjoining estate were crucial to the plot.

“The mansion is suitably grand,” Guest said. “Architect C.P.H. Gilbert was known for his opulent townhouses and mansions. We needed a stately and impressive mansion to suit the characters in our story.”

Of course, there are significant differences between the California of any period and Glen Cove. All of the palm trees at the entrance to the mansion were imported to create the look of Southern California.

Download the movie

Download the movie