Marcia Sherrill
The Glamour of Hollywood Regency
Marcia says: “Be a drama queen!”

Marcia Sherrill
Portrait by Steve Pomberg
Crystal pendant, Pieces, (404) 869-2476.
Fluted vase lamp, Belvedere, (404) 352-1942.
Right now we cannot get enough of Hollywood Regency designs. Lucite-legged tables, satin-upholstered headboards and the designs of Vladimir Kagan have us all aswoon. Surprisingly the Brits are in on the game, too—as are Miami, France and Atlanta.

Locally we have great purveyors of glam in Pieces and Belvedere with such creators as Tommy Parzinger and his ilk who took unexpected materials like shagreen and snakeskin to traditional side and coffee tables or the French advocates such as Line Vautrine, who bejeweled mirrors, or Hollywood set man-turned-designer-turned-bon vivant Tony Duquette who whipped out piece after piece of unimaginable glamour.

It seems that the Thin Man series may have well led the trend with stars William Powell and Myrna Loy solving mysteries with dog Asta in tow in one stunning Manhattan penthouse after another. Asta was living large in apartments chock-a-block with fur rugs, shimmering fabrics and gleaming surfaces. His was a yowl of content after the Victorian clutter of the Miss Marple, Charlie Chan and Sherlock Holmes series. The gloom and doom in The Hound of the Baskervilles found a design audience sick of baronial austerity and cozy Cotswold bungalows.

Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Cary Grant and the sirens of Hollywood starred in musical comedies and light dramas set in homes that left their audiences swooning—as if Grant weren’t enough already. In the film How to Marry a Millionaire we were sad as Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall watched the beautiful furniture leaving their rented apartment bound for the pawnshop. Such style, such elegance. But those gals were after millionaires, so out with the gleaming pianos and sumptuous sofas. And when Kate Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant starred in The Philadelphia Story on the grounds of a sprawling grand estate, one pined most for the luscious landscape and stunning mansion and pool that formed the backdrop for the love lives of the threesome.

Martinis and sloe gin tonics bolstered the urbane Nick and Nora Charles into the night as Asta scampered in the unlikeliest of places, from dark smoke-filled dens to glamorous nightclubs with satin-upholstered banquettes and tiny lamps atop cocktail tables.

1940s Hollywood button-back sofa, High Style Deco, (212) 647-0035, highstyledeco.com. All pieces available through 1stdibs.com.

Hollywood royalty lived the life that the screen brought so stunningly and luxuriously to life. From William Randolph Hearst’s legendary rave-sized cinema in San Simeon to Frank Sinatra’s love den in Palm Springs, to Fred Astaire’s oft-photographed mansion in Bel Air, it was living, Hollywood Regency style.

The designers of the moment caught the glittering big screen and whipped up interiors that still hold an allure. Simple clean lines with flirty swoops and gilded legs like dancers in a Busby Berkeley musical, all lavishly appointed with semi-precious stone lamp bases and silver-plated chandeliers laden with crystals and casting a twinkling aura that still holds us captive to that lost beauty and glamour.

At places like Atlanta’s own Antiques and Beyond, you can still scavenge for those mid-century steals and add simple solutions to your drab interiors. Upholster a headboard in satin, add giant rhinestones to that boring wood mirror and give your dull coffee table a little panache.

You’ll be a star!