"I've been in pictures since 1932 (at the start of Hollywood's 'Golden Era')," Jane Wyman told Sheliah Graham of the North American Newspaper Alliance in 1949. "I was a dancer at Paramount and Fox until I signed with Warners 12 years ago (around 1937). It's interesting you trace the important steps that take you out of the cheesecake bracket into worthwhile roles." Readers of Woman's Home Companion voted Jane Wyman the most popular female movie star in 1952 in the magazine's annual survey, largely because of Jane's appearance in the 1951 motion picture, 'The Blue Veil'. In 1987, the 'Falcon Crest' series included scenes of 'The Blue Veil' in the show's cliff-hanger episode.
Between 1940 and 1948, Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan were Hollywood's most talked-about couple. Jane accepted the role of Angela Channing on 'Falcon Crest' in 1981 because "you can't miss on a thing like this, you really can't. If you do, you're dumb…I'd probably be working at McDonald's." After Jane looked the script over, "I was hooked…It's really an intrigue story about a dynasty family."
Earl Hamner Jr. had said, "Every TV script should begin with 'Once upon a time'. It should have a beginning, middle and an end. 'Falcon Crest' is like a book with different chapters, with satisfying experiences within each chapter." Jane also mentioned, "I wouldn't have taken it if the emphasis has been on me alone. I'm all for the idea that the focus is on 2 families and the emphasis is on different people."
Unlike 'The Jane Wyman Show' (1955-58) which "was an anthology show...When you're doing a continuing series, you use the same sets and characters, and the whole thing falls into a pattern. But an anthology show means a new cast and new settings every week, And each week you are faced with a new character to play. It's like putting on a miniature movie once a week."
Back in 1975, it was reported Jane was an advocate of pay-TV without commercials because "so many things are watered down on television, to a point where they shouldn't be on the air. I don't think television has found its pace. Television is still fashioned after the radio format. You've got to have the breaks for commercials."
On 'Falcon Crest', Jane insisted, "I don't deal with money, and I obviously don't deal in sex, so how I could be a J.R. type? I kind of resent the inference in a way for both (Larry) Hagman and myself. He has his own style and show ('Dallas') and it has nothing to do with 'Falcon Crest' at all." Earl reasoned, "Traditionally, this Machiavellian role would have been filled by a man, Angelo, and it would have been rather ordinary...Angela is like Big Daddy from 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'. Her passion for land and that way of life is akin to plantation owners before the (American) Civil War."
On 'Falcon Crest', Angela Channing and Melissa Agretti were a study in contrasts, 2 women, 2 worlds apart, representing the best of their generations. Ana-Alicia remarked, "Melissa is a character who can threaten Angie and push her to the wall. She is power oriented, manipulative, wild and free…bitchy, conniving, sexually oriented...She wants the power of owing the largest vineyard in the valley."
Earl maintained, "We do human drama that seems to please big audiences because of legitimate conflicts: traditional family versus fractured family, power versus weak, wealth versus poor…(CBS) thought a series with the wine industry as a background would work." Ana-Alicia argued, "An ingénue couldn't play Melissa. Melissa has fire. She looks ugly as hell sometimes. She's mean and vicious. She cries. She's not your typical ingénue. When I was first offered the role, I almost turned it down. I knew I should take it because it was a star-builder. It wasn't intended to be a regular role and nobody knew how strong it was going to be, and it had already been cast once and they fired the girl. But I'd read the stuff and I knew it could be a major role. When they called to tell me I had the role, 30 minutes after I'd read it, I already knew it would happen."
Ana-Alicia spoke to a priest, "He told me that the play started in the church and that since the beginning of time someone had played Good and someone had to play Evil to make Good looks good. 'Think about it this way,' he said, 'The better you play Evil, the better Good is going to look.'" Guest star Gina Lollobrigida made the observation in 1984, "California wine is sweeter. Italian wine is drier. But you treat the vines so well here in the Napa Valley. You have heaters and blowers." Gina said, "I started out when the Italian film business was at a peak, so I've been spoiled…This is my first venture into television...In movies you do scenes over until they are just right. Not so for TV...I learned a lot in experience in this short time with 'Falcon Crest.'"
Aside from acting, Jane also painted. She elaborated, "I’m not a still-life painter. I do small paintings, 8 by 10, or 9 by 12. I love country scenes (preferably northeast of the U.S). I love its lushness. Friends take pictures of beautiful scenes and send them to me. I paint from those pictures...I am very realistic in my style. I love colors so I do an awful lot of reflective things. The barns, the farms, the trees reflected in pools. And I only do small paintings because I use a double-aught brush, so you can imagine how long that takes to do. They're not miniatures, but small, comfortable paintings that you can group on a wall. There's always room for one more small painting."
The Associated Press reported in November 1987, Alan Bond "was the anonymous buyer of the world's most valuable painting, Vincent Van Gogh's 1889 masterpiece 'Irises', but kept the purchase secret for a year because he had nowhere to hang it." It was understood Alan Bond paid John Whitney Payson $53.9 million for the painting at a Sotheby's auction in New York "with the help of a one-year $27 million loan from Sotheby's auction house, with 'Irises' used as collateral on the loan." In 1990, the Vincent Van Gogh's 1890 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet' was sold at Christie's auction for $82.5 million, making it by far the most expensive painting in the world at the time. "We may have to wait another 10 years (say 2000), another 20 years (say 2010) for a picture of that importance," Christie's representative remarked.
Earl maintained, "We do human drama that seems to please big audiences because of legitimate conflicts: traditional family versus fractured family, power versus weak, wealth versus poor…(CBS) thought a series with the wine industry as a background would work." Ana-Alicia argued, "An ingénue couldn't play Melissa. Melissa has fire. She looks ugly as hell sometimes. She's mean and vicious. She cries. She's not your typical ingénue. When I was first offered the role, I almost turned it down. I knew I should take it because it was a star-builder. It wasn't intended to be a regular role and nobody knew how strong it was going to be, and it had already been cast once and they fired the girl. But I'd read the stuff and I knew it could be a major role. When they called to tell me I had the role, 30 minutes after I'd read it, I already knew it would happen."
Ana-Alicia spoke to a priest, "He told me that the play started in the church and that since the beginning of time someone had played Good and someone had to play Evil to make Good looks good. 'Think about it this way,' he said, 'The better you play Evil, the better Good is going to look.'" Guest star Gina Lollobrigida made the observation in 1984, "California wine is sweeter. Italian wine is drier. But you treat the vines so well here in the Napa Valley. You have heaters and blowers." Gina said, "I started out when the Italian film business was at a peak, so I've been spoiled…This is my first venture into television...In movies you do scenes over until they are just right. Not so for TV...I learned a lot in experience in this short time with 'Falcon Crest.'"
Aside from acting, Jane also painted. She elaborated, "I’m not a still-life painter. I do small paintings, 8 by 10, or 9 by 12. I love country scenes (preferably northeast of the U.S). I love its lushness. Friends take pictures of beautiful scenes and send them to me. I paint from those pictures...I am very realistic in my style. I love colors so I do an awful lot of reflective things. The barns, the farms, the trees reflected in pools. And I only do small paintings because I use a double-aught brush, so you can imagine how long that takes to do. They're not miniatures, but small, comfortable paintings that you can group on a wall. There's always room for one more small painting."
The Associated Press reported in November 1987, Alan Bond "was the anonymous buyer of the world's most valuable painting, Vincent Van Gogh's 1889 masterpiece 'Irises', but kept the purchase secret for a year because he had nowhere to hang it." It was understood Alan Bond paid John Whitney Payson $53.9 million for the painting at a Sotheby's auction in New York "with the help of a one-year $27 million loan from Sotheby's auction house, with 'Irises' used as collateral on the loan." In 1990, the Vincent Van Gogh's 1890 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet' was sold at Christie's auction for $82.5 million, making it by far the most expensive painting in the world at the time. "We may have to wait another 10 years (say 2000), another 20 years (say 2010) for a picture of that importance," Christie's representative remarked.
