Live from Author's Night! Ellie Cullman, "From Classic to Contemporary"
[0:00]Introduction. It's absolutely a true story.
[1:14]Henny and I decided, because I'm a crazy movie nut,
[1:17]I go to the movies at least two or three times a week.
[1:20]And Henny and I decided that we would write the story
[1:22]of her divorce from Henry Travis,
[1:25]a banker that nobody had ever heard of 35 years ago.
[1:28]Of course, now people have heard of him.
[1:29]So we spent a year writing a screenplay.
[1:32]We brought books about how to write a screenplay.
[1:34]120 pages, plot.1 on page 30, plot.2 on page 90.
[1:39]We spent a year writing this.
[1:41]What we thought was a wonderful run story about the wife,
[1:45]submitted it to our dear friend, Stanley Jaffe,
[1:47]who had just won an Academy Award for Kramer versus Kramer.
[1:50]Thank you.
[1:51]We went to his office, hoping that he would think
[1:53]we had some kernel of an idea that would make a really heart-warming story.
[1:58]And steady said, it was a single-war screenplay
[2:01]he had ever read in his 30 years of being in business.
[2:06]And without skipping a beat, I said to him,
[2:07]Stanley, what am I going to do when I grew up?
[2:09]Because I had already had five careers.
[2:11]And he said, you should be a decorator.
[2:14]And I'm like, what?
[2:15]And he said, I love both of your homes.
[2:17]I know you did them by yourselves.
[2:19]And I want to be your first client.
[2:21]So that was October 1, 1984.
[2:24]And the rest is history.
[2:26]We started just the two of us.
[2:28]And now we have a firm with 18 people.
[2:30]And we work all over the country.
[2:32]And I'm very grateful to him because this is a lot more
[2:36]fun than writing.
[2:37]Wow.
[2:38]Much more fun.
[2:39]So I feel like it's everybody, every woman's dream
[2:42]to start a business with their best-ending negatives.
[2:46]The natural continuation of our friendship.
[2:52]And I feel so lucky that when we started,
[2:56]and let me tell you, we knew nothing, absolutely nothing.
[2:59]So everybody would ask us a question.
[3:01]We would say, could you give me a minute?
[3:02]And then we'd walk in the hall and we'd say,
[3:05]we didn't know you should think about these in the head of time.
[3:07]Red walls, no yellow walls.
[3:09]And it was so supportive to have somebody
[3:12]that you love, that you figured something out with.
[3:14]So I feel so lucky that we've done this with heavy.
[3:17]And honestly, I would have never had the nerve,
[3:20]because I would have gone to school for 20 years
[3:22]before I even picked a fabric.
[3:23]It's been instinctive and original about it.
[3:27]She just did it.
[3:28]I have this mental image that I clocked in one afternoon.
[3:33]Like long after I feel like it was ready.
[3:35]And she was sitting in his living room, smoking,
[3:37]and his skin.
[3:38]And I'll get away, hang it.
[3:39]She looked like it.
[3:43]It wasn't in time because it also used to have,
[3:46]I always remember Hedy saying, every time
[3:48]we installed somebody's apartment,
[3:50]she would lean back and say, I just love our work.
[3:54]That's what the client is supposed to say.
[3:57]It's not the decorator.
[3:59]And then so sadly, Hedy kind of passed away.
[4:13]We're the biggest crises of my life.
[4:15]Hedy was diagnosed on February 2nd.
[4:18]I remember exactly 21 years ago.
[4:20]And she was dead by April 2nd.
[4:23]So the only good part about it is if she suffered
[4:27]for a very short time, right?
[4:28]She was suffering for a long time.
[4:30]She obviously didn't sick.
[4:31]We just didn't know.
[4:31]She got she had a back problem.
[4:34]Anyway, it was terrible.
[4:35]We had, by that point in our careers,
[4:37]we were not always working on the same job together.
[4:41]And I'll never forget this.
[4:42]We had, I mean, besides the personal loss,
[4:45]remember there was no email at that time, right?
[4:47]So every morning, I would have my morning conversation
[4:50]with Hedy, my husband would be like,
[4:52]would you please get off the phone or anything?
[4:55]But we would discuss not only what we're doing
[4:56]in good, but also life.
[4:59]And so losing her as a best friend was terrible, terrible.
[5:02]But professionally, I was really out on my own
[5:04]because I remember the first time I went to the
[5:06]CU childhood we were doing in Greenwich.
[5:08]He was about 25,000 square feet.
[5:10]And I didn't know where he drew was
[5:13]because he was so big.
[5:15]So I was walking around with the owner
[5:16]and he said, well, now let's go to the library.
[5:18]And I was like, wait for him to walk there first
[5:21]because I was not gonna walk in the right direction.
[5:23]So it was a double, double problem.
[5:26]But you obviously have recovered come into your own
[5:33]as one of the preeminent centers,
[5:35]really the most important thing.
[5:45]Well, I agree with what you said to me before
[5:48]and that I think pain is absolutely the biggest.
[5:50]And it's really, if you just do it on a mathematical basis,
[5:53]if you end up the square footage of four walls
[5:56]compared to anything else in your house,
[5:57]the carpet, chair, a piece of curtain.
[6:00]The walls have the most impact.
[6:02]It's also the most cost-effective wave of food
[6:04]to fix the room.
[6:06]So I'm always for pain, pain is wonderful.
[6:09]Pain is wonderful.
[6:10]Do you have any decorating tattoos?
[6:12]Like when you go into someone's house and you see them,
[6:14]they do?
[6:15]Miss, Miss.
[6:17]I think every house can be 1,000% improved
[6:21]if somebody just organizes it.
[6:24]And we tell our clients, particularly,
[6:26]and it's very hard when you have your own children.
[6:28]We often sit our clients.
[6:30]First of all, take everything off of every table top.
[6:33]And this is a very Japanese thing.
[6:35]And then you only put back what you think
[6:38]really enhances the environment.
[6:40]Because people tend to get in house presence.
[6:42]You get an ashtray from a nowadays and ashtray plate.
[6:44]There's somebody that stays there for the next 20 years.
[6:47]And the whole idea in Japan of the tokenoma,
[6:51]the art niche where you only put out one artwork
[6:53]and one flower, you have to think about what's
[6:56]on every single surface.
[6:58]And to me, deep cluttering, everything looks better
[7:03]on cluttering.
[7:05]So you have to have a closet, which sometimes in New York,
[7:07]you don't have a closet.
[7:08]If you have a closet, it's a great thing to have.
[7:11]Yeah, I'm constantly picking up.
[7:13]I feel like even if I can get the kids stuff behind a door,
[7:16]like even if it's a cabinet, just like they show fit in.
[7:20]And the drawer is going to be messy,
[7:22]but if I can't see it.
[7:23]And I'm like, I can go to sleep.
[7:24]I like my money.
[7:26]Because that's your sense.
[7:27]It's just me, thank you.
[7:29]Kind of cohesion to your home, an order, which
[7:32]is nothing more beautiful.
[7:35]So what do you think I vote for the lamp as the most
[7:38]of her priest?
[7:39]OK, I can't get her.
[7:40]I'd be like lamps are, I'm like, how can this lamp be $600?
[7:43]Why is so expensive?
[7:45]Because it's not $10,000.
[7:47]OK, so let me just talk about lamps for a minute.
[7:49]Every item in her design has a good, better, best.
[7:53]It's just like clothing.
[7:55]And sometimes, you know, there's an inch of Chinese waz
[7:59]that is going to cost $10,000.
[8:00]That's not for everybody.
[8:03]I went to CB2 the other day for a client.
[8:06]And I bought for their kids rooms lamps with shades for $150.
[8:10]I was like so proud that I did that.
[8:12]And it's just like the way a little shop for clothing.
[8:15]You can buy a blue blazer at H&M,
[8:18]or you can buy it at Laura Piano.
[8:21]Everything is a good, better, best.
[8:23]And I think the important thing is to evaluate
[8:26]is cars, too.
[8:27]You don't need to have them or savings.
[8:29]You have to look at everything as one of the parameters
[8:32]of the design.
[8:33]And is it important to you?
[8:35]And a big level, you're going to jump in.
[8:37]And that's a rather time, thank you.
[8:39]Because most people do have a budget.
[8:42]We have to put it all together.
[8:43]And I'm a big advocate of doing one or two signature pieces
[8:48]always.
[8:49]And then the rest is around it.
[8:50]Looks good just by proximity to the signature items.
[8:54]So that's my philosophy.
[8:56]And not lamps, because CB2, I don't know if you've been there.
[9:00]I've said that I've been to the website
[9:01]like a billion times.
[9:02]Well, that's another thing.
[9:04]OK, OK, I'm not.
[9:05]I've been to.
[9:06]OK, I like websites for finding out what's available.
[9:10]But I can't.
[9:11]I'm in an old school.
[9:12]I have to see it.
[9:14]When you see something, it's either better or worse
[9:16]than you expected.
[9:17]For example, when we get to some of these catalogs,
[9:21]we open now and we dog your every page and we say,
[9:23]Mrs. X, Mrs. Y. And then we go to the sale
[9:26]and maybe we like free things.
[9:28]Conversely, on the websites, if you're lucky enough to see it,
[9:32]there's more that you're going to like than you think from the site.
[9:34]So I'm advocating just going out in the field.
[9:38]Yeah, I have to say, Kyle and I thought it would be a decorator house.
[9:55]That's why thank God people still need decorators,
[9:58]because it's not only this.
[10:00]scale. It's also the relationship of one thing to another that takes years to figure out.
[10:05]So that's my thing. And you have a place in LA, I'm excited.
[10:09]Wow.
[10:10]Yeah.
[10:11]Anyway, so you worked at these three books on with Tracy.
[10:17]Yes, he's a singer and also a singer and a singer and a singer and a singer and a singer.
[10:19]I think which houses to focus on.
[10:25]It was actually easier than the first step of deciding. We need to write a book. The first
[10:30]book was all about how you put a project together because I wasn't trained. And I don't
[10:34]know why I figured out some liminally what the first step, the second, third, whatever steps
[10:39]were including a project together. So we decided to write that. And of our three books,
[10:44]that one sold the best and is still alive because people don't understand how logical
[10:49]and sequential what we do is. And I think that book really helped it. And then after that
[10:54]then it became, he's cake to write these books. And we may have one more left. I don't
[10:59]know.
[11:00]I don't know. And what about, like what's on your wish list for you to accomplish so much
[11:04]professionally already instead of I think you still want to catch it?
[11:07]I have a huge wish. I really want to do a movie. I really want to do a movie. And I
[11:13]can't.
[11:14]Maybe for dessert.
[11:15]I didn't know that.
[11:16]I don't think that it seems that.
[11:18]We have, as I said, we have to talk.
[11:21]It's OK.
[11:22]I don't know that. I swear to you. It's huge. Anyways, I have a son. A son is a director
[11:34]and a son is also a filmmaker. So we need a hero. No, no, no, no, no. So if you're the producer,
[11:40]you need to hire these people.
[11:42]Right?
[11:43]It's true.
[11:44]It's true.
[11:45]It's working. We get them.
[11:46]Networking.
[11:47]I'll just say it's hard to hear first.
[11:48]You know I saw your brother. So I saw him at the Venice Film Festival.
[11:52]I've seen him all the sound festival. So I've not seen him.
[11:56]OK.
[11:57]Well, thank you so much.
[11:58]Thank you so much.
[11:59]Thank you so much.
[12:00]Thank you.