01 Feb F.B. Nightingale- Magician, illuminating engineer, Garden lighter, author-Renaissance Man
By Mike Gambino
This is the 4 bedroom, 4 and 1/2 bath mountain cabin home where Frank B Nightingale wrote his books after retirement from the Garden lighting industry.
This unique ‘get-a-way’ was originally built by Published Author Frank B. Nightingale who was born on December 26, 1885 in New York and was intrigued with magic, lighting and illumination.
As a child, and well into his adulthood, Nightingale was known for his magic tricks and famed traveling shows. Nightingale worked for General Electric for 25 years and did the lighting for various parties for Hollywood Celebrities including Shirley Temple’s Wedding. His three books were published during the early 1960’s, ‘Lighting As An Art’ and ‘Garden Lighting’ and ‘Magic For Magicians’.
Frank Nightingale, The Mystifier, was a professional vaudeville magician.
Nightingale, from upstate New York, first teamed up with Jack Merlin as “Nightingale and Merlin”. It was Nightingale who suggested that his friend (then Jimmy Meyers) use the stage name of “Jack Merlin”.
Nightingale went on to played in vaudeville and later the Palace Theatre in New York City, which at that time was considered the acme of success.
In 1913, he decided there was no future in vaudeville and went to California after having worked for the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York. He started the Kim Lighting Company on the West Coast, having success with lighting estates and gardens of movie stars.
Frank died of a malignancy of the central nervous system on Easter Sunday. [1]
This character vintage home is located up a long private drive in Skyforest and is perfectly nestled into the forested mountainside on a 39,040 square foot lot. The main house features a 1,000 square foot entertaining deck with glorious panoramic Lake Arrowhead Lake Views, snow peaked Mount Baldy, and views clear out over the High Desert.
The level entry living room is complete with romantic stone fireplace, an inviting open eat-in kitchen, and main level master with stone fireplace, stone bath and walk-in closet. Additionally, there are two charming bedrooms and a full bath downstairs. Total square footage in the main home is 1,731 sqft.
For guests, there is a 600 square foot free-standing two story guesthouse with full bedroom and full bath up, its own private deck, and lower level open living room with stone fireplace, eat-in kitchenette and half bath.
Nightingale’s Garden lighting book has long since gone out of print however it is available once again in its entirety plus new enhancements and published as “The original garden lighting book” by Mark A Carlson and Michael A. Gambino (me).
The book can be purchased at amazon.com
This landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .
Blog articles may be published with permission on other websites without editing or removing links.
Gregg Catanese
Posted at 18:41h, 22 FebruaryThanks Mike!
Who lives in the cabin now? Did you take these photos?
Mike Gambino
Posted at 04:44h, 23 FebruaryGregg, I don’t know the current owners and I got the photos from the interwebs.
Thanks
Mike
Gregg Catanese
Posted at 08:10h, 23 FebruaryThanks Mike. There’s a photo of Frank on this page. Wasnt sure if you’d seen it.
http://www.westphalfamily.com/star.html
Mike Gambino
Posted at 13:10h, 23 FebruaryYes Gregg, thanks for providing link, that is the star of Palawoo on the Nightingale estate. I did a blog post about it gambinolighting.com/2012/1216/the-lighted-star-of-palawoo/
Coincidentally Mark Carlson and I were just there again this past Friday afternoon.
Kim Orloff
Posted at 01:04h, 08 NovemberMike – I was a friend of Nighty and Onie (Leona) – met them in 1962 when I went, as a brand-new 21-year-old high school drama teacher to borrow some lighting gear for a play I was producing. I stayed
friends with Onie after Nighty’s death, until she also died (until her death in the late 1980s; my honeymoon in 1966, a year after Nighty’s death, was spent at their their Laguna Beach home.) My last correspondence was with their daughter Nancy shortly after her death. I found your website when I Googled Frank B. Nightingale… was giving my copy of the non-magician portion of Magic for Magicians to a grandson, and wanted to see if there was any record of his life outside the magic portion that I could pass on, besides the stories that Nighty had told me.
I am very curious – how did you get involved, and the rights to the garden lighting book? Are you related to family, or work with the estate? I have several photos of the original house/Dragon house (which is now referred to as the guest house) as they were when he was still alive, before they were expanded from one story, and the stone walls were added. One photo is of Nighty at his desk in his office, working on the magic book. If you send me an email, I will scan the photos and send them to you as jpeg attachments.
(I do not do Facebook, etc… just plain email)
Sincerely,
Kim Orloff
former Skyforest resident, now 73 years old