by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, Jeanette Dryer Spencer, et al.
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
ART OF THE LOUNGE
AHWAHNEEE HOTEL ⎔ BOG OAK ⎔ COOPER’S HAWK ⎔ GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL ⎔ HOUND IN FIELD ⎔ IRISH SETTER ⎔ TATÂNGA MÂNÎ PORTRAIT
APPEARANCE
Seen never and always, so to speak – the Overlook was intensely modelled after the design elements of the historic Californian Ahwahnee Hotel.
IDENTITY
During the Colorado Lounge tour, we’re introduced to the intricate and dynamic five stained glass pieces at the tops of the floor-to-ceiling window units. These are basically copies of the work of Jeanette Dryer Spencer, who worked as the interior decorator of the hotel that the Overlook’s lobby and lounge are modelled after. As such, she and the hotel’s original designers, husband and wife Dr. Phyllis Ackerman and Professor Arthur Upham Pope, are much to be credited for the Overlook’s general aesthetic and layout.
The major departure would be the Gold Room area, whose overhaul Ullman cites at the beginning of their walk through that space.
Kubrick has suggested that the design for the Gold Room bathroom (and, therefore the bloodfall access hall), comes from a Frank Lloyd Wright hotel in Arizona. There’s no photo of that building (online, anyway) that even vaguely resembles the Gold Room bathroom, so I don’t know. It almost seems too cute to have a “Lloyd” “follow” Jack and Grady into the bathroom (or Wendy into the bloodfall), but if we can ever confirm this inspiration to be direct and factual, that’s what that would do. Also, I’ve never seen anything that resembles the larger Gold Room as identically as the rest of the Overlook resembles the Ahwahnee. Wright did operate out of Chicago, which is where Ullman cites the “decorator” to originate.
SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE
Ahwahnee is a word derived from the Miwok word meaning “mouth” and an Aztec word, which is the equivalent of “geisha”. So, anytime we see the gang in any of these locations throughout the film, we might think of them as being in the “mouth” of the Overlook. I have wondered if Kubrick thought of the Torrances as being like the little plovers who live inside the open mouths of crocodiles, picking at the teeth. Mainly thanks to the appearance of these plover-esque birds at the beginning of Jack’s pursuit of Danny.
As for the Aztec part, one of my largest and most complex and nonlinear theories is for what I call the Tower of Fable, which involves the hotel being modelled after a set of Mesoamerican pyramids, which you can read about here.
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 