Customer Reviews

America's Castles - The Grand Tour [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're involved in a re-fi to remodel or re-decorate, you owe it to yourself to get a bigger perspective of just what a fine home can be. AMERICA'S CASTLES THE GRAND TOUR (A&E/NewVideo) is a glorious look at a handful of the most extraordinary American homes; grand estates that reflect the life and times of the original owners.

This two disc set features dozens of unique landmarks that will astonish you with their exuberantly inventive splendor. Experience Rockefeller's fabled estate in the Hudson Valley, the breezy elegance of the Newport mansions, the wooded seclusion of the grand Adirondack "camps," Donald Trumps Mar-A-lago in Palm Beach and many more including the fabled Vanderbilt estate.

America's Castles is an open door invitation to the exclusive and spectacular addresses that not only reveal the exteriors and interiors but remarkable lives of the denizens who dwell, and dwelled within.

I was dazzled at the opulance and the indulgent decadence. This is a great documentary on the far end of material success America offers to the lucky and the blessed. And the criminality of the lords of industry.

Our daughter and I have visited many of these houses and plan to visit more on future trips. The photography in the series is excellent as are the choices of what to show in the houses and on the grounds. This DVD adds to our photos and diary accounts of the places we have seen.

"The Grand Tour" is a 2-disk compilation of six episodes from the A&E series "America's Castles," which was produced in the mid-1990's Using historical footage, the show highlights properties built during the Gilded Age when rapid economic growth created a new kind of wealth - the industrialist. The homes are oppulent and ostentatious, a true showplace to display their fortunes before taxes made them unmanageable to operate. Each episode has a certain theme such as "Florida's Grand Estates" highlighting the beach front homes of several northern industrialists to south Florida or the "Gold Coast Estates" which highlights luxurious Hamption homes on New York's Long Island sound, concentrating on two to three homes per episode. Providing history of the family that built the original home, and in most cases, the persons who brought the property back to it's original glory after years of neglect. The original owners are a who's who of the Gilded Age including super-rich industrialists and financiers such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew W. Mellon, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Flagler, J.P. Morgan, and of course the Vanderbilt and Astor families.

One of the standout segments is included in the "Grand Plantation" episode - Longwood, an octagonal plantation featuring a Byzantine onion dome that is breathtaking on the outside and completely unfinished (except for the basement where the family lived during construction) on the inside. Construction started in 1859 and halted with the outbreak of the Civil War, the family's loss of fortune, and the loss of the patriarch.

I love the America's Castles series - and wish that A&E would continue to produce quality programming like this instead of the many tacky reality series that now make up their programming like Family Jewels, Billy the Exterminator, and Storage Wars.

The views inside the castles and the information is interesting, but too much of the time is spent showing a historian on camera speaking about the mansion rather than hearing them speaking and seeing the mansion itself. I realize that much of these mansions is not open to the public, but we've been to many of these and have seen much more than what is shown on these vids. That's too bad because these mansions are worth seeing at least on the screen. Showing only a few (3 ?) of the Newport mansions and making as though the rest are no longer open to the public is a horrible thing to say in the video. We have seen all of the Newport mansions and there was much left out of Newport castles. I realize they tried to squeeze Newport into about 15 minutes, something which should not have been done. It did bring back great memories but is not good for the viewer who had never gone or will never go to the castles !! Anyone know of a better collection ? I seem to remember these as better on TV, so maybe there was a different presentation on another network, such as History Channel ? This was a 5 star idea reduced due to bad production (too little of mansions shown).

A great video...If you have not been to any of these you will want to go after viewing!

This series from A&E is absolutely fantastic, the images are first rate and the narration is perfect. All six of these programs are wonderful, but the one on Newport is the best, the "cottages" are a sight to behold. The producers have architecture scholars critique the houses and comment on the styles and history. Anyone with an appreciation of great craftsmanship and fascinating American history will love this series. Well done, indeed.

This entire series is superb, from the dazzling videography to the great v/o work and historical bios. I started with this single 2-volume DVD set and was instantly captivated, buying almost all the other DVDs in the series.

If you're in sales, copywriting, marketing, an entrepreneur of any kind, this series provides great motivation for becoming successful. Learning the case studies of the successful industrial barons and business leaders, by seeing their private castles and mansions, is a priceless expeerience. Highly recommended for all business people.

In nlp-talk, we'd call these anchors, I'd call them "wealth motivating anchors", visual cues to help one continue one's path towards achieving success. Plus, they're terrific for home decorating tips too, if you're trying to figure out how to do marble baths etc. Any way you slice it, this is a wonderful series, and I wish I'd found out about it years ago.

Superb workmanship on this entire series - bravo!


Ken Calhoun

I bought this DVD because I don't have a VCR. If I did, I would have purchased America's Castles Part I ON VIDEO. Why? The music! The music on the video version and the music on the DVD version are different and it matters because when I am away from the tv, I can hear the music and the music gives me an image of what magnificent Castle home is being shown. In my mind I can still see the images. This matters only if you've seen the video version FIRST. Otherwise this DVD purchase is great, very informative in fact even more than the video version etc...but what I wouldn't give to have the SAME MUSIC which was so much more in line, so much more grand and in keeping with the opulence of these fabulous palace-homes. Ah well! I'm still pleased BUT truth be told if I'd known the music was different, I'm not sure if I'd have purchased this.