The Center has made a new film! As part of our recent gala fundraiser, A House Party at Two Cranbrooks, we worked with Elkhorn Entertainment & Media to produce a short documentary about the Booth family’s connections between England and Michigan. Today, we are excited to share the film with the wider world! Watch the film below, or here.

Now that you’ve seen the new documentary, I thought I’d invite you “behind-the-scenes” into how A Tale of Two Cranbrooks came together.

As with all Center projects, I started work on the film in Cranbrook Archives. The Booth family records are extensive, and with our archivists Deborah Rice and Laura MacNewman, I spent several afternoons consulting documents (letters, photographs, manuscripts, scrapbooks, etc.) assembled by many generations of Booths to learn the family story. Henry Wood Booth’s handwritten The Annals of Cranbrook were especially helpful.

Then, through the support of Bobbi and Stephen Polk and Ryan Polk, I travelled to England! I visited Cranbrook, Kent, spending time at Cranbrook Museum and Archives and at Cranbrook School. (You can watch a walking history tour I did in Cranbrook, Kent, here and learn more about the Booth family and my trip to England in my virtual lecture, Uncovering Cranbrook: Two Pilgrimages to Kentish Cranbrook.)

I also worked with an independent filmmaker, James Ducker, to film scenes around town. (As a fun fact, James worked on the sets of both Downton Abbey and The Crown, my favorite British period dramas!)

Back in Michigan, the Center team (especially Nina Blomfield and Leslie Mio) worked to prepare Cranbrook House for its closeup. We relied on historic photographs of Cranbrook House to reset the interior back to the 1910s—this meant bringing over objects now stored at Cranbrook Art Museum, rearranging furniture, restyling bookcases and tabletops, and even procuring a polar bear rug from the Institute of Science.

The house resetting was complimented by floral arrangements made by Darin Lenhardt of Fleur Detroit, who took inspiration from photographs in Cranbrook Archives. The days before filming required lots of dusting and vacuuming—and I am grateful to Emma Brick, Matt Horn, Alexis Weisbrod, and Anna Mrdeza for helping make the house sparkle. Cranbrook Facilities, Housekeeping, and Grounds and Cranbrook House & Gardens Auxiliary members also helped make sure the campus was looking its best for our project.

Filming was completed in just one day, April 6. The Elkhorn Entertainment crew was led by Vince Chavez, whom we’ve worked with on our previous documentaries about Carl Milles and Loja Saarinen. It was a busy, exciting, and long day moving from Brookside School to Cranbrook School and back to Cranbrook House.

Once filming was complete, Nina and I (literally) took a pair of scissors to transcripts of the footage to cut together a script that told the story of the tea kettle and the Booth family. Our edits were pieced together at Elkhorn Entertainment by Lead Editor Emily Craft. Once the voiceover was set, Nina and I worked closely with Deborah and Laura to hunt for more supporting historic images in Archives. It was truly a group effort!

Finally, on the night of the big House Party celebration, the film was ready. It premiered in the tent to rave reviews. On behalf of the entire Center team, I hope you enjoy A Tale of Two Cranbrooks!

—Kevin Adkisson, Curator, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

A Tale of Two Cranbrooks was made possible by the Sponsors of House Party 2023, with gratitude to Bobbi and Stephen Polk and Ryan Polk for making curator Kevin Adkisson’s pilgrimage to England possible.