Lookiloos partnered with Scene Magazine to profile high-powered literary agent and philanthropist Jillian Manus, who raises money for cancer research, speaks to women at shelters and has a ghost in her garden. Read her fascinating story and get a glimpse of her gorgeous conservatory and the gardens of her Atherton estate.

By Julia Prodis Sulek

For Scene Magazine

As the electronic gate slowly opens, the grand estate built nearly a century ago reveals itself. A curving driveway takes you to the edge of the gray stone mansion that is in the heart of Atherton, but looks transplanted from the French countryside. Broad front steps lead you to the leaded glass front doors, where the staff invites you into the library and out back to the tennis court and pool, putting green and redwood grove. The grounds are so vast that you hear Jillian Manus’ voice, with its hint of a British accent, before you see her.
Then there she is, the high-powered literary agent with bestsellers and Oprah picks, gliding down the conservatory steps into the garden, her long camel jacket floating behind her. Like Grace Kelly in “High Society,” you half-expect her to toss back her blond hair and ask, “Are you having a wonderful time?”
She and her husband, venture capitalist Alan Salzman, have indeed thrown their share of fabulous parties here. At one of their legendary Valentine’s Day galas that raise $300,000 a year for the Stanford Cancer Center, a live elephant greeted guests at the door.
So it seems all the more unimaginable when you learn that as vivacious and strong-minded as Manus is now in her late 40s, two decades ago she experienced harrowing, life-threatening abuse. As Manus puts it, “I’ve had everything in my life, and I”ve had nothing in my life.”
And it was when she was left with nothing, “no pride, no hope, no integrity and no possessions,” that she rebuilt herself into the woman she has become.
She speaks at women’s shelters and raises money for women’s causes. She throws swanky fundraisers and wishes on stars. She has a ghost in her garden.
Along the way, she has earned the respect of everyone from domestic violence survivors living in shelters (whom she has invited home for lunch),  a close-knit group of friends she calls her “broad squad” and California first lady Maria Shriver, who recruited Manus to chair her annual women’s conference and has attended her Valentine’s Ball with her grown daughter.
“Jillian is incredibly smart. She’s late for every meeting – she flies in because she’s so busy. In 30 seconds or less, and 25 words or less, she gets to the core of the issue, and she’s always right,” says Barbara Ralston, vice president of international patient services at Stanford Hospital. “I wish she would get more sleep, and I wish she would take care of herself. But I’ve never seen her do that, because she’s always taking care of someone else.”
Manus has come a long way, mentally, spiritually and professionally, from a horrific turning point in her mid-20s. She was living in Switzerland working for an international finance company when she fell in love with a young Swiss baron, true royalty, who promised her a fairytale life. Instead, the fantasy fell apart when she learned he was keeping secrets, including his alcoholism. She says when she confronted him on the phone to call off the engagement two weeks before the wedding, he came home in a drunken rage.
“He beat me to a pulp,” she says, and left her in a bleeding heap. She was whisked back to her hometown of Manhattan and hospitalized in critical condition, so badly injured she feared she would never have children. At the same time, the man she had intended to marry cleaned out her bank account, and gathered all her possessions and burned them in a towering bonfire.
“I was broken. I had allowed a man to break me,” Manus says. “I was so ashamed. I didn’t know how to explain it.”
She couldn’t bring herself to ask for her high-profile job back. (“No one wants to hire someone who’s that pitiful,” she says.) And she didn’t want financial help from her entertainment lawyer father or her literary agent mother.
“I wanted my pride back,” she says, “not for my parents to save me, but for me to save myself.”
She needed to prove to herself that she was worthy of something, of anything. And so she took a job as – of all things – a roller-skating waitress at nightclubs. (And this from a woman who had written her first TV screenplay at 16, studied English literature and dramatic writing in England and New York, landed a job as a talent agent in Hollywood and was named development director at Warner Bros. and Universal Studios – all by her mid 20s.)
“I called it the ‘H and H’ year – humbling and healing,” she says. “It was the most important year of my life.”
After her roller-skating stint, she modeled shoes, then worked the graveyard shift as a receptionist for a year until finally, she felt ready to return to business, this time in magazine publishing for “Upside,” a technology publication in the Bay Area.
By then, in her late 20s, she was ready to say yes when she met a handsome young man at Sak’s Fifth Avenue in New York while she was there on business. He was buying a belt. She was choosing a tie for her father’s birthday.
“Can I help you with this?” Alan Salzman, a lawyer and venture capitalist going through a divorce at the time, asked. They had dinner that night and within two years were married, under a willow tree in a rented home on the Peninsula, with 11 guests. She was able to have children after all, two boys, and with his two young children from a previous marriage, they began to raise their family.
She joined her mother’s literary agency, a small niche firm in New York, opened a Palo Alto office and grew the agency tenfold.
Along the way, she found herself drawn to books about women overcoming challenges. She then began seeking out authors who had stories to tell of tragedy and triumph. “Cane River,” by Lalita Tademy, was on Oprah’s Book Club list. “Geisha: A Life,” was a best-seller. Jerry Rice and Newt Gingrich are clients.
She added California friends to her “broad squad,” a group that started as a circle of her teenage friends in New York who not only supported each other, but also reached out to other girls in need. (They were so earnest they once got lost on their way to Harlem to help a girl they read about in the newspaper who had been abandoned.)
“We don’t whine, we don’t judge,” Manus explains, a motto that has endured for 35 years. “And we’re on 24/7 for each other.”
They now number 42, and support one another like they always have, whether taking midnight phone calls from each other, or volunteering and donating to each other’s causes.
As chairwoman of the Governor’s California Women’s Conference since its inception, she speaks about women’s empowerment across the country. Meg Whitman asked her to lead her  women’s coalition for her 2010 gubernatorial campaign, which Manus aptly named “MEGaWomen.” She meets homeless women at churches and abused women at local shelters, and encourages them to see themselves not through a man’s eyes, but also through their own. Sometimes she tells them her own story.
Christina Dickerson, a board member of the Shelter Network that serves women in the Bay Area, remembers the time Manus invited women from a shelter to her garden for an author’s luncheon.
“She makes everybody feel welcome,” Dickerson says. “I think the women at the shelter knew that she understands them and can help them. She’s got a voice that they might not have, and she’s willing to use it on their behalf.”
And on top of that, she said, Manus is pure fun to be around. Every year, she hosts one of the most talked-about parties on the Peninsula – the Valentine’s Ball at her home to benefit the Stanford Cancer Center. The gala is a tribute to her mother-in-law, Helen Salzman, who has survived three bouts of cancer with the center’s help.
Every year, moving trucks arrive to remove all the ground-floor furnishings, and 100 workers build new sets in each room according to theme. Last year, with a “Love Is a Game” theme, actors dressed as a “Barrel Full of Monkeys” welcomed guests at the front door. The game “Clue” was played out in the living room. And that was a year after the elephant was brought in from Southern California. Manus and her husband underwrite the entire evening.
Manus is also on the steering committee for a campaign that is reorganizing and remodeling a cancer clinic to be dedicated just to women.
Manus is rarely in bed before 2 a.m., whether she’s staying up to study Latin with one of her sons or returning from one of their soccer tournaments or football games. She takes midnight swims in her pool. And when an old swing that hangs from an oak tree seems to sway without a hint of a breeze, she’s certain it’s the ghost of a little girl who once lived and died there – a testament to her belief that “the spirit lives on.”
She’s still on a journey, she says, only recently having a spiritual awakening that gave her life a sense of peace that seemed to elude her. After months of soul searching, it was a Biblical quote carved into a church bench that has inspired this newfound peace: “Rejoice always. Pray constantly. Give thanks in all circumstances.”
This year, when Manus and her husband celebrated their anniversary in Hawaii, he rested two chairs on a rock jutting into the ocean and got down on one knee. As the sun set, he proposed again.
“He said he wanted to give me the fairytale wedding I deserved,” she says.
But she told him she didn’t want to live in a fairytale. Even with the challenges she’s faced, it’s the real world she cherishes most.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

When Nora Sandoval first stepped into this house in 1997, lockers lined the entry way, desks were scattered through the living room and baby cribs lined the library. Surely this wasn’t a house for sale, she thought. In fact, though, it was a home for some 16 teenaged unwed mothers run by the Volunteers of America.

It was time for this 1912 home originally owned by a dentist and his wife and their six children to revert to a single family. But with stenciled rattles painted up the stairway and each bedroom painted in a flower theme (daisy, rose and violet) it needed a lot of work.

Still, said Nora, a Realtor with the Sereno Group, “when I came in here, I felt good karma. There was a lot of love in this house.”

Over the past 13 years, Sandoval and her husband, Adobe executive Digby Horner, and their now-grown son, Matthew, made it their own. Digby did most of the detail work himself, including stripping hinges, and adorned the ceilings throughout the home with his collections of antique light fixtures and shades. They splurged on Bradbury and Bradbury wallpaper for the living room, which hadn’t been produced by the Benicia manufacturer since it ran the 17-color paper for singer Linda Ronstadt 11 years earlier.

A century-old pool table from Pennsylvania adds gravitas to the room. The couple recently finished a major kitchen remodel, adding a sunny breakfast room with a beadboard ceiling they had milled to match the original laundry room walls.

Upstairs, the house has what appears to be twin master bedrooms connected by a walk-through closet. The couple is waiting to finish the front landscaping until they determine whether their efforts to save the oak tree out front are successful.
For years after they moved in, people would leave bags of baby clothes and diapers on their front porch. When the mailman left soap samples, he would stuff 20 through the mail slot.
“This house has wrapped its arms around a lot of people,” Nora said, “and now we’re wrapping our arms around this house.”

The couple readied the house for the Rose Garden Homes Tour, benefitting St. Martin of Tours school. Hill’s Flowers providing the floral arrangements.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

When Brent Riedberger and Chris Johansen offered their backyard for their neighbor’s wedding in late summer, they shifted into high gear to get it ready. And as they have with much of their Dutch Colonial house, they did most of the work themselves – and with vintage materials.

“It’s been a hodgepodge of resalvaged this and repurposed that,” Brent said.

Whenever they noticed piles of old bricks being pulled out of neighbors’ yards to make way for stamped concrete and pavers, Brent would ask if he could take it off their hands. “We’ve salvaged 9,000 bricks since March.” And one by one, he recovered what had been a broad black asphalt motor court with old bricks, which made for a perfect area for dinner tables for the wedding guests. They also asked the owner of a house around the corner for the discarded pillars that had been removed from a port cochere. With them, they built a lovely pavilion at the back of the property.

“The bride, groom and parents came over and whitewashed all the arbors so it will look crisp and white for the wedding,” Brent said. He even transplanted an ancient rhododendron from a Los Gatos house.

Along with the garden, Brent and Chris graciously opened the first floor of their 1920s Dutch Colonial to Rose Garden Homes Tour, sponsored by St. Martin of Tours, which includes a remodeled kitchen and grand living and dining rooms. One of the most fabulous rooms on the tour was their spectacular dining room, with a huge round table with leaves that circle the table. Perfect!

“She’s a great old girl with good bones,” Brent said.

Interior Design by Julie Riera Matsushima, Floral Design by Bloomster’s,

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Window seat in the Dutch Colonial

We were able to take a few advance photos, just to lure you in. Don’t you love the window seat in the photo above? That’s in the Dutch Colonial. While the owners are kind enough to host the tea in the backyard, they are also opening the first floor to the tour. (Lookiloos got access to the second floor –with permission of course — and will  we run a full slide show of that space later. Stay tuned.)

Vintage Dutch Colonial

French-Style Estate Once Home to Unwed Mothers

1940s New England Style Home, with Big Additions

1940 Brick Ranch-style home

To have a chance to win a pair of tickets. leave a comment about the home tour and we’ll draw names randomly. For more information, go to http://www.rosegardenhomestour.com or call 408-287-3630. You can also purchase tickets at Not Too Shabby at 491 South Bascom Avenue and Willow Glen Home and Garden on Lincoln Avenue. 

Here are highlights from this year’s tour:

1.)  Deborah Arant and Richard Nieset’s Spanish Colonial Revival on Sequoia Avenue seemed like a dream.  I could imagine lounging by the pool, margaritas in hand as I cooked a grand BBQ in their outdoor kitchen.  The home shaped like the pii symbol had three separate gardens, giving everyone in the household an area to relax and call their own.  The home featured an extensive collection of Turkish rugs and art from the couple’s travels around the world, including pieces by Thomas McKnight. Desiree and I were on vacation!

The homeowners also remodeled the original kitchen, transforming it in a green certified masterpiece.  They reused 100% of the materials, meaning nothing went to the dump!  The result?  A modern kitchen with a nod to the 1920′s feel throughout the home, complete with built-in espresso maker!  In addition, when building their outdoor kitchen and gates, the couple used reclaimed wood from Napa.

2.)  The Washington’s Tudor Revival home on Sierra Avenue was picture perfect. Central to the quaint home, the fireplace features Malibu pottery tiles in the Mayan and Aztec motif, very typical of California homes. On the other hand, consistent with classic Tudor styling, the home had perfectly preserved Tudor arch door with glass stained windows and American walnut beamed ceilings. I loved their collection of antique silhouettes from the 1890′s through the 1930′s.

3.)  Collections and Obsessions make a house a home.  The gorgeous example of a modernized American Foursquare on Yosemite Avenue belongs to Michael Abler and Michael Smith.  While the home boasts many features that make this a stand out ( alabaster light fixtures to die for, a grand kitchen, box-beam ceilings and impeccable landscaping), what stuck with me were its owners collections – vintage martini shakers, globes, marbles, pez dispenser and sea shells.  All thoughtfully displayed in cases, shelves or oversized jars; they begged me to ask the owners to tell me more. Alas they were not there to chat with, but it made me think about what collections I would put out for display.  A wonderful and quick idea I could replicate immediately!

4.) Architect Steve Hinderberger and Michael Segovia own the modern prairie style bungalow on Yosemite.  The home is furnished in Bauhaus style with a mix of modern furniture, sculpture created by the homeowner and nods to the homes 1920s roots.  I was in immediately in love with lines of the Eames Lounge chair and the glass Noguchi table.  Hinderberger also created an easel to hold a beautiful Calder by repurposing a vintage handcart.  The bathroom featured chocolate walls with chocolate towels – how is that for a quick way to keep dirty finger print hidden with a touch of panache!   The kitchen itself was another example of smart design, where custom built oak cabinets created ample room for a access to a basement office. The  result is modern and functional.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Prairie style. Tudor Revival. American Four-square. Mediterranean Revival. You name it, the Hanchett Park Historic Home Tour in one of San Jose’s most charming and eclectic neighborhoods has it. They’ll be open for your indulgent pleasure this Saturday, May 22.

Lookiloos has just given away two tickets to two of our fans. I drew names from a bowl! Barb B. and Nancy M. were the lucky winners who each get to take a friend to five fabulous homes, plus a backyard boutique.

 And I’m telling you, as a voyeur from the next neighborhood over, these homes are Lookiloos-worthy! Two in particular resonate with me: one is the one-story Mediterranean revival (pictured above) with an interior courtyard that has always been the style for my fantasy home.

The other is this Prairie style look that feeds my clean-lined-architect’s-daughter sensibility. And wouldn’t you know an architectural designer, Steve Hinderberger of Hindesign, owns it and has filled it with modern furnishings? Here are just a few of the famous pieces you’ll see: a 1928  le Corbusier lounge chair; 1925 Marcel Breuer Wassily chairs, a 1929 Eileen Gray breakfast tabl, a 1944 Noguchi coffee table  and two mid-century classics, an Eames lounge chair and ottoman and a Beroia diamond chair. The art collection is also a must-see, including an Alexander Calder.

 This is another gem — a 1920 American Four-square completely remodeled down to the studs in 2008, with new landscaping last year. The home is decorated with luxurious, contemporary furnishings. 

 This is another special home, built in 1924 for the owner of the old Pomeroy’s clothing store in downtown San Jose. Gilt wall sconces, crystal doorknobs, windows and floors are all original. Enjoy the batchelder tile fireplace and a gorgeous sun room

And if you love a storybook cottage, here’s a charming Tudor Revival owned by artist Margaret Washington and her husband, Austin. It’s loaded with original details, including exposed beams and hardware — and even the original stove!

Hanchett Park Historic Homes Tour is one day only, Saturday, May 22, from 10 to 4.  You can purchase tickets for $20 in advance at Green Design, 1341 The Alameda, and at Willow Glen Home & Garden, 1123 Lincoln Ave. On May 22 tickets are $25 and will be sold on the corner of Hanchett and Sequoia avenues.

There were so many features I absolutely fell in love with. To start with the light fixtures over the casual dining table.  The homeowner told me she got them from flea market sale and that they had come from a See’s candy factory.  The shape is perfect, but the price was spectacular– $15 each!

Now of course another favorite was the artist studio.  My family might never see me again!  The rustic stone walls and the skylights just make you want to stop, stay and create.

The master suite was truly an escape with a large window seat and views of the city.  The master bath had all the bells and whistles from the marble counters to the elaborate dual sinks–nothing was left behind.

And, lastly one of my favorites had to be the guest bath The mirror over the vanity matched the plaster cut-out over the shower and toilet.  This remodeled home had so much thought put into the details. And,  I’m so glad they did!

This home is currently for sale. You can check out the Realtor’s virtual tour here. And if you’re in the neighborhood you should see it in person because it is one fabulous home.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Depression-Era Charm, with Sparkle

depression era charm-breakfast nook

Tin Ceiling Kitchen in Eclectic Shingle Style House

Tin Ceiling in Kitchen of Eclectic Shingle Style

(keep scrolling for more kitchens..)

Neoclassic bungalow kitchen

Eclectic neoclassic kitchen remodel

Which kitchen do you like best? Anyone dreaming of a kitchen remodel?

All proceeds from the tour are dedicated towards renovating the original electrical elements of the clubhouse and expanding its capacity to meet the needs of the 21st century. The group’s goal is to make the San Jose Woman’s Club a performing arts venue for the city by upgrading the stage lighting and heating system, and adding air conditioning and wiring for modern technology. You can buy tickets here or  Lookiloos is happy to offer two pairs of tickets to see these spectacular homes.  So, if you’d love to see these wonderful homes all you need to do is leave a comment.  Tell us why you are a “Lookiloo”.  The tour is Saturday, April 24th from 10 am to 4:30 pm. We will announce the winner Friday April 23rd at 5:00pm.

 When my contractor invited me to an open house to view his latest
project–a renovation and addition to a 1927 Spanish Colonial home in Palm
Haven –I jumped at the chance to legitimately snoop around one of the most
historic, eclectic neighborhoods in San Jose.

A neglected two-bedroom one bath in disrepair when acquired by John
Ammirato of Ammirato Construction is now a four bedroom, two and half bath
dream home. While it has all the modern creature comforts, including an impressive
master suite, renewable resource cabinets, solar panels, and data networking
throughout, painful efforts were made to preserve the home’s original
architecture.
Like re-roofing the composite roof with reclaimed vintage clay tiles.
And keeping many of the home’s original features: the living room sconces,
fireplace mantel, arched doorways, built-in hutch, and coved ceilings.

“The living room hasn’t changed,” said Rita Strena, whose family owned
the home for more than 60 years before selling it to Ammirato. “But John
improved it. It has a new life now.”

Ammirato worked extensively with Stonelite Tile–which has been in
business in San Jose since the 1920s–to design the detailed tile work
throughout the house. Some of it was hand pressed and painted using
original plates and molds from the early 1900s.
Ammirato, who has built several Spanish-style homes in Palm Haven, made
design decisions along with his wife, Linda, referencing books like Red Tile
Style, California Romantica, Casa California, and George Washington Smith:
An Architect’s Scrap Book.
The result is modern, stylish living while honoring the home¹s historic
past down to the gutters and porch brackets.

By Kim Kooyers,  a freelance writer and blogs at gratitude365 and SpiroChicks.

Here’s the complete slideshow: