Updated:
July 18, 2007
aster of the Inn Frank Miller was a “citizen of the world.” He embraced many cultures. The Mission Inn reflected this international flavor, a flavor of acceptance. He chose to evoke the romance of the Mission Era in his early 20th century vision of California’s history. One overriding symbol was the bells. Allis Miller Hutchings, Frank Miller’s daughter, is credited with inspiring the collecting of bells. She purchased a bell in Rome believed to have belonged to the banking family of Medici. Over several decades, Miller and his family acquired in approximately 800 bells. Today there are roughly 500 in the collection (Hutchings, DeWitt). Some identify the hotel by the bells and not by the architecture and other attributes.
The bells, as well as the collections of dolls and animals, the crosses, the paintings, and aviation insignias were all international in scope. Bells from Asian countries (Bali, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, and the Philippines) make up a significant portion of the collection. Other areas of the world represented include Austria, Ecuador, England, Belgium, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Palestine, Persia, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, and the United States.
Miller’s definition of a bell was somewhat all-encompassing. The bamboo angklung from Indonesia, Chinese temple gongs, cymbals, temple blocks, castanets, and drums. The angklung is made of two or three bamboo tubes. Each tube has a different pitch. They are played by shaking them back and forth, usually in a group similar to a bell choir. Temple blocks resemble a fish with an open mouth and are made of camphor wood. Percussionists in orchestras and concert bands often use temple blocks of graduated sizes.
One bell of importance once was in the Church of St. Francis at Molokai, Hawaii where Belgium born Father Damien (Joseph de Veuster) worked with the lepers. Damage to the bell occurred when a fire destroyed the church. Miller’s daughter and her husband acquired the bell in 1911-1912 (Hutchings, A., 1944).
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