The classic 1968 movie Yours, Mine & Ours was the real-life story about a large blended family. Henry Fonda was Frank Beardsley, a widower with 10 children, and Lucille Ball played Helen, a widow with 8 of her own.
The movie covers many of the challenges that came along with their marriage, starting with the most pressing: finding a house big enough to hold their family of 20. (I mean, can you imagine?)
I loved the big old Victorian the Beardsleys buy and fix up in Yours, Mine & Ours and was excited to learn it was filmed at a real house in Pasadena, California. Not only that, but when I tracked it down, I found it has been beautifully restored. It’s a real knock-out now. Take a look!
Note: There are Amazon affiliate links in this post that may earn me commission.
“Yours, Mine & Ours:” Who Gets the Drumstick?
Helen Beardsley wrote Who Gets the Drumstick? (Amazon affiliate link) about her family:
“A Story of a Widow and Widower Who Met, Fell in Love, and Lived Happily Ever After.”
Lucille Ball co-produced the movie based on Beardsley’s book with her company, Desilu Productions.
The film became a surprise smash hit, grossing over $17 million.
Frank Beardsley (Fonda) says this in the movie about the day they moved into the old Victorian:
They filmed the exterior shots at the Blankenhorn-Lamphear house in Pasadena.
The interiors were sets on a soundstage.
In reality, Frank Beardsley added onto his house, and Helen North sold hers and moved in with her kids.
The Victorian was a Hollywood addition. His house was much more modern than this one.
The movie had three other working titles that they were considering:
The Beardsley Story, Full House, and His, Hers, and Theirs.
Every morning the family goes through 5 lbs of bacon, 3 dozen eggs, and 40 pieces of toast:
Making all those lunches for school is no easy task, either…
Ball and Fonda briefly dated when they were younger.
Jane Fonda told Barbara Walters in an interview her father was once in love with Lucille Ball, but that
she didn’t reciprocate his feelings. She said they were “very close” during the filming of “Yours, Mine and Ours.”
Van Johnson played Frank’s navy buddy Darrell Harrison:
Lucille Ball reportedly became close to the Beardsley family in real life after purchasing the rights to
Helen’s book. She even took their family to Disneyland.
The story of how Helen and Frank met was a little different in real life:
After Helen moved to San Francisco, she wanted to honor her dead husband’s wishes by enrolling her children in parochial school. She finally found a school run by a nun, Mother Superior Sister Mary Eleanor.
As she was enrolling her children in the school, Helen told Sister Mary that she was a widow with eight children. Sister Mary then confided to Helen that she has a brother with ten children who recently lost his wife to complications from diabetes. Helen asked Sister for Frank Beardsley’s address and she sent Frank a copy of a prayer that she clipped out which gave comfort on dealing with a loss of a spouse.
When a friend’s husband died, Helen wanted to send her a copy of the prayer that she sent Frank. She wrote to Frank asking for a copy of the prayer. Frank sent it back and a correspondence began between Helen and Frank.
They used the real names of the Beardsley children in the movie, although they changed the age order.
Frank used skills he learned in the Navy to keep his family organized, like this chart:
Bunk beds helped them fit more kids into each of the bedrooms:
Their wedding night doesn’t go quite as planned…
The Upstairs Hallway:
One of my favorite moments is when the doctor (Tom Bosley) slides down the banister like a kid:
The interior double front doors are a pretty good match for the ones we saw in the exterior shots:
The oldest son, Mike, was played by Tim Matheson.
He and Jennifer Leak, who played his sister Colleen, got married shortly after the movie came out.
Decorating the Living Room for Christmas:
It takes a big mantel to hold all those stockings!
Although the kids are upset that their parents are getting married and plan to adopt them all in the movie, it was the opposite in real life.
And Frank and Helen didn’t keep their children a secret from each other in the beginning, either.
In fact, Helen brought 5 of her kids to Frank’s house on their first date (!!) and they became immediate friends.
They urged their parents to marry and go through with the adoption.
On Christmas morning, Helen gets a phone call from her doctor with the news that she’s pregnant.
Which was truly a Christmas miracle since Lucille Ball was in her late ’50s at the time she filmed it.
The real Helen and Frank Beardsley had two children together: Joe and Helen.
“Yours, Mine & Ours” was remade in 2005 with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo:
I’ve had a lot of people write me about that one,
asking if it was the same house from “Father of the Bride:”
Nope! Although there are definite similarities.
The “Yours, Mine & Ours” remake was actually filmed at the same house we saw in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith:”
The original “Yours, Mine & Ours” house was in pretty bad shape when the Beardsleys moved into it.
I wonder what they’d think if they could see it now:
It was also used in the 1999 movie “Teaching Mrs. Tingle” but looked very different then,
painted blue and surrounded by mature bushes, hedges, and trees
The last time it was on the market, the listing said:
The Foster/Blankenhorn home is an enduring icon of turn of the century Pasadena grandeur sensitively updated & peppered w/ whimsical modern surprises.
Throughout the years this stunning Queen Anne Victorian has sheltered an eclectic mix of distinguished people including a railroad baron, a professional golfer and a celebrity radio DJ.
Visually captivating from the street, this grand dame deliciously mixes gabled, hipped and conical forms w/ clapboard siding & a wrap around porch for maximum impact at 1st impression.
Lauded as ”perhaps the most outstanding example of Victorian architecture still standing” by the Pasadena Star News, this estate made its big screen debut in Lucille Ball’s 1968 blockbuster ”Yours, Mine and Ours.”
It’s dramatic redwood staircase, 11′ ceilings & round turret rooms are just some of the interior charms.
“The Brady Bunch” came out shortly after Yours, Mine & Ours, and the filmmakers threatened to sue Sherwood Schwartz for stealing their concept.
He’d been trying to sell the idea for the show for years, though, and had the notes to prove it.
According to Trulia, the house was built in 1901 and has 6 bedrooms + 2 baths. The 3,000 square-foot home was on the market in 2017 for $2.2 million.
For more photos and information about the “Yours, Mine & Ours” house:
Iamnotastalker and the listing for 346 Markham Place in Pasadena.
Visit my Houses Onscreen page to see the other movies I’ve featured, listed A-Z.
Don’t you mean Henry Fonda, not Henry Ford? 🙂
Ha! Yes! Thanks for catching my typo so I could fix it this morning, Fran. 🙂
Love it! This was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, and its nice to see the house again. That kid schedule on the linen closet door is both intense and awesome!
I love this old house! I haven’t seen the original version of this movie, but I did recently see the re-make with Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo. I loved the sea-side house used in the re-make too! Could you maybe (pretty please?) do a piece on that house too? 🙂
I’ll take the house… but not the bigger family!!
I’ve always loved that movie! When I was a kid, I had a paperback called Who Gets the Drumstick?–a book adaptation of the movie, complete with still photos from the movie. So your post brings back lovely memories of watching the movie and reading that book! 🙂
I would love to have that large family now but not so much when I was doing the raising of mine. I’m hoping that my 3 kids will provide enough grandchildren to fill up the house for holidays and summer vacations.
Thanks Julia! I remember seeing this movie as a kid and then more recently on Turner Classic Movies. I just noticed that one of the still shots that you posted of the linen closet has a organizer hanging on the door with names of all the children. Two of the kids names are both mine and my hubbys! (Tommy & Teresa). Never caught that before.
I love your site. I follow it all day, here, from Brazil. Congratulations!!
Thanks for the memories, Julia. I love that movie. The link to the family’s website is also interesting.
Julia, you nail it every time! As an only child I LOVED this movie (and the house) and watch it every time it comes on. So happy the real house looks so loved!
I am jealous of parents who have the patience (and money) to bring up such a big brood. My best friend growing up was one of eight and I always envied the camaraderie the kids had.They learned to make do with what they had, shared everything. Good life lessons. Plus, it takes an extraordinary couple to manage so many, especially like in this movie, a blended family. I was not blessed with the “patience gene” and found two was all I could handle. And there were days when two seemed two too many!
Great post to a great old movie. If you look closely at the photos of the kitchen, it is pretty amazing. Marble counter-tops even and a neat old oven. I imagine today, this house would be an episode of Unsellables, with two bathrooms for the 7 bedrooms! 🙂
Hi Julia: Interesting and fun to read about this house and family. Thanks for posting it.
jean
I once had the pleasure of staying with friends who have seven kids. At the time I only had three. Our breakfasts and lunches were exactly like that assembly line production pictured.
I can’t imagine doing that for twenty people every day. 🙂
I have a relatively large family (6 kids) which seems completely normal to me at not at all chaotic. But I must be used to it because my sister and her husband (1 child) always prefer to stay in a hotel when they come to visit, even though we’ve got plenty of room.
We have a very big house but even so I have my younger kids sharing rooms because I think it builds camaraderie (when they’re not screaming at each other, of course!). I dream of living in a sprawling old Victorian but I don’t dream of paying the bills for such a place! Or having to clean it. My kids clean A LOT but the mess is never-ending.
The minute I looked at the picture of the house, it looked familiar. I have driven past this house a million times to visit friends. Funny, I never knew it was the house in the movie. Thanks, Maddie
Yay, I can actually drive by this house. It’s beautiful. Glad to hear it still exists. Thanks. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this movie.
Thanks for the great post, Julia! This is one of my all-time favorite movies! As a kid it made me wish I had 20 siblings and a kitchen table with a lazy-suzan! 🙂
Oh, my sister and I love this movie, too! The remake wasn’t nearly as good as this classic. The speech upon heading to the hospital is one of my favorite parts, too.
One of my favorite movies. The house looks absolutely amazing now, a gorgeous restoration.
What a fun movie and a beautiful house. I wish we could see the real interior.
I love this movie! Nope. Never wanted a big family. We have one son and that is plenty. 😉 I will say, as the middle child of 7, I often wished I was an only child but I love my siblings dearly.
good one, julia! thanks!
This post was so interesting. I love finding out the background stories of the Hollywood movie houses. I can’t imagine having that many kids. It seems overwhelming but fun at the same time!
Gorgeous house!
It does take a great deal of patience to manage a family that big. I grew up the youngest of seven kids in a seven bedroom victorian (built in 1902). To this day I’m in awe of my parents who raised brought us up on very little money. My first house was a beautiful victorian but the heating bills were just too much! Now my husband and I live in a mid-century split level with just two kids. That’s enough people for me.
I love that movie, but I had no idea it was based on a true story. Reminds me a lot of Cheaper by the Dozen! And like Cheaper by the Dozen, I MUCH prefer the original movie to the remake. Thank you for sharing the shots of the interior, and for sharing facts I didn’t know! 🙂
I saw the newer version of this movie, but never realized it was based on a true story and that there was an original with Lucille Ball!! I’ve got to see the original!! Loved this house and story! Thanks for sharing!
I Love Lucy, the movie, and the house!!!
Lordy! What a coincidence! The very first house I decorated (at 19 years old!!) was right next door! To the right in the picture! 366 Markham Place, Pasadena!
I posted on Facebook (I think…..I don’t work it very well. I will try to copy and paste the story. Unless you can read it…….let me know; please!
I was in college….1967…and my mother bought it…..and gave me an allowance to decorate it…..and we made “a fortune” percentage wise!! 9 months later!
Just amazing!! It looked exactly like the pictures in the movie when I was fixing up the house next door!
Can you see my story on Facebook?
Let me know, please!
LOVE THIS BLOG!!!!
No kidding? Wow! That’s so cool. I don’t see anything on my Facebook page. Is it on yours?
tell me what to do! Do you have to ask me to be a friend? Sorry to be so lame…..I love this story so much! I almost fell off my chair when I saw that house; and I never saw the movie!
That is one of the most brilliant things about your brilliant blog! Think of it! Literally 46 years ago!
Yikes!
Penny
I just checked…….it seems to be on mine……how do I get it on yours?
Lame, lame lame! But I will try!!
XXOO
Penny
I have a public page, so all you have to do is click “like” on it and you can post on it. Here’s the link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hooked-on-Houses/55680190818
Thanks, Penelope! 🙂
Wow. Normally my heart belongs to the little guys, but this restoration is jaw-droppingly beautiful. BUT its nice that it is in Cali, cuz I sure wouldn’t wanna heat it. Annnd I just sounded like my mother.
I feel so inspired to see the movie now! I love those ’60s madcap comedies.
I just posted last week about my stroll through a gorgeous neighborhood in Pasadena (actually, on the border in South Pas). Total house envy.
https://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/11/pasadena-house-lust.html
So happy I’ve recently found your blog.
Nice post! I have never heard of this movie. Looks like a good one for a Saturday night with a bowl of popcorn and my feet on the coffee table.
Lived in a house like that, maybe, had a family of that size, most definitely not! Holy man, could you imagine the monthly grocery bill? Eeeek!
This movie came out my senior year in high school – and I loved it, as well as the house. What fun to see it then and now. Thank you.
That was so interesting. I didn’t realize they were a real family. Thanks for all the links. I”m off to check them out.
Is the house on “Your’s, Mine, and Our’s” with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, the same house used in “Meet Me in St. Louis” with Judy Garland?
No, they’re different. You can see my post about the “Meet Me in St. Louis” house here: https://hookedonhouses.net/2009/12/13/meet-me-in-st-louis-the-victorian-on-kensington-ave/. It was built on a studio backlot, whereas the “Yours Mine Ours” one was/is a real house.
one of my all-time favorites!–and one of my favorite pieces of trivia is that one of the babies, “Germaine” was played by Tracy Nelson, who grew up to play “Sister Steve” in “Father Dowling Mysteries” with Tom Bosley, who played the doctor. 🙂