Inside Jane Fonda's Any Wednesday Apartment

Happy Birthday Jane Fonda! Jane's 83 years old today and still every bit as strong and steely as she's ever been. 

gif by me

So, in honour of Jane's birthday, let's take a look inside her kitschy New York apartment/executive suite in Any Wednesday, a zany sex comedy adapted from a smash Broadway hit, from 1966. 

In Any Wednesday, Jane plays Ellen Gordon, a young woman working at an art gallery who meets the bossy and rich John Cleeves (played by Jason Robards) at a party and helps him, reluctantly, at first, conceal an affair from his wife. 

Any Wednesday alludes to Mr. Cleeves's travel schedule: he's always out of town on Wednesdays and therefore uses the day to philander wherever he may be. 

After helping Ellen get home from the party, Mr. Cleeves follows her into her ground level apartment with the artwork her gallery had lent the party hosts. 

Here's an interesting wallpaper choice out in the main hallway. 

Ellen's in the back apartment on the first floor, and it wraps around the back of the building. 

This is just inside Ellen's apartment. It's a mish-mash of styles and decor; and we'll find out her style inspiration a little later on. 

I love the salmon pink backdrop of the bookcase behind Mr. Cleeves. 

I love the base of that white lamp. Behind Mr. Cleeves is a white wrought chair. The front of the apartment offers a view out into the street. 

Since Ellen works at an art gallery, it's only natural that she has various paintings hanging on the wall. They may have been borrowed without the gallery owner knowing, so don't ask! Notice Ellen's portable record player? I have one that I bought at Urban Outfitters a few years ago: it's salmon pink. 

That's an interesting bird knick knack behind Ellen. 

And the kitchen appliances are hidden by bifolding doors. Most of the accents in Ellen's apartment, which she shares with two unseen roommates at the beginning of the film, are a muted blue or a mint green (in her bedroom). Her bathroom is a soft peach. 

The classic trick: all the umbrellas open on the floor to dry them off. There's an all-white writing desk behind Mr. Cleeves. I've always wanted one! 

To throw off his unwanted advances, Ellen tricks Mr. Cleeves into hiding in the storage room, which she tells him is the bedroom. 

...and he finds another door leading out into the hallway, and leaves Ellen behind. But he can't forget her and really wants her, so he spends a whole year chasing her only to be rebuffed at every opportunity. 

Finally, after a year, Ellen is in the hospital with hepatitis and Mr. Cleeves is her only visit. She tearfully tells him that her roommates moved out and she's going to have to move out as well, as she can't afford the rent on her own. He proposes buying the building as a tax write-off and calling it his company's executive suite, but Ellen will continue to live there. 

When he takes her back to her apartment, he's filled it chock-full of balloons. Ellen loves balloons so much that it causes her to immediately accept his offer. 

Flash forward: it's Ellen's 30th birthday. She's folded Mr. Cleeves into her life, though she only gets him on Wednesdays still. Note the new hairdo? She's becoming more domestic because she thinks she loves him, but he's still as grumpy as ever, bossing her around. 

Behind the kitchen, there's a terrace area that Ellen uses as an art studio. 

The exposed brick is painted blue. Whenever I see painted brick I imagine how much of a hassle it'd be to paint it and then what if you change your mind? Further art from Ellen: a coffee table book of Michelangelo on the bookcase. 

Ellen's record player has been upgraded since she started seeing Mr. Cleeves... 

A better glimpse at Ellen's kitchen and mini-fridge. 

I love that yellow desk behind her. 

Another view of the living room. 

Ellen's bedroom. Note the mint green accents and the floral wallpaper. 

Another angle of Ellen's bedroom. There's a vanity area behind her and a door that leads to the bathroom. In the window, her air conditioning unit and a porcelain doll on top of it. 

Oh! The plot is complicated when a young salesman shows up wanting to sell Mr. Cleeves his buglar-proof doorknob because the secretary agreed to put him up at the executive suite. Then Mrs. Cleeves shows up out of the blue, forcing Ellen and the salesman, Cass, to pretend to be husband and wife. 

Ellen faints in all the excitement, and we get a better look at the kitchen area. 

Mrs. Cleeve then begins to walk around the 'executive suite' and critique all of Ellen's design choices. The only thing she likes is the candlestick. "I adore church candlesticks. Such a sense of history!" 

She then pronounces the 'executive suite' as overdone, diffuse, and bizarre, and that whoever decorated it is obviously insecure. 

I love the detail on the molding. 

Out in the terrace area. Ellen's got it overstuffed with flowers, some of which Mrs. Cleeves appreciates and some that she marvels can still be bought since they're out of season. 

Ellen's still crying and moping around the apartment while JASON ROBBARDS keeps calling back to get snippets of the story at a time. She tearfully tells Cass that Mrs. Cleeves may be nice, but she'd better keep her hands off her apartment: she's spent too much time scouring Third Avenue and Salvation Army sales to get her furniture and decor to give it all up now. 

The most elaborate fish tank/bird cage I've ever seen. Can you even get things like this anymore? 

Then, to further throw a wrench into everything, Mrs. Cleeves comes back with her decorator who takes one look at the place and calls it the most exquisitely beautiful example of bad taste he's ever seen. 

I know they make a big fuss about hating her style but...I'd definitely decorate this way. 

Did I forget to mention that Mr. Cleeves is also there and he's hiding in the bedroom so Mrs. Cleeves can't find him? 

Cass is watching it all from the terrace, and he accepts a dinner invitation from Mrs. Cleeves even though Mr. Cleeves is shaking his head no in the bedroom. The only reason he wasn't caught was because Cass slipped one of his doorknobs over the regular one, preventing Mrs. Cleeves and the decorator from entering. 

Oh, and in between all the revolving door shenanigans, Ellen and Cass ran down to the river (her to presumably jump in and him to talk her out of it) and they realize that they love each other. So Ellen's been planning to tell Mr. Cleeves it's over, but then she opens the main closet and finds more balloons that he'd stuffed in there as a birthday surprise, and then she realizes that she's still in love with him. 

After the double date, there'd been a power outage that forced them all to bond as they walked all the way down from the restaurant and back to Ellen's apartment. Ellen and Cass get there first, and he's trying to talk her out of being with Mr. Cleeves as she packs him up to leave. 

Then, Mr. Cleeves shows up. Cass leaves, defeated. But then he comes running back when he realizes that Mrs. Cleeves is on her way. She comes in and catches them all in compromising positions; and then she realizes why she thought Ellen's voice was so familiar. She was the voice on the phone from the beginning of the movie, pretending to be Mr. Cleeves' secretary with "Chicago calling" on the line. 

So Mr. and Mrs. Cleeves plan to divorce; Ellen's going to marry him and take over his 35-room mansion complete with staff and become stepmother to his two adult children. She even goes out to the country to see the house, and finds it all so overwhelming. 

Since both are going back to the city, she offers Mrs. Cleeves use of her apartment to take a bath. In a matter of weeks, it'll really be an executive suite, so she may as well use it instead of checking into a hotel. 

Mr. Cleeves shows up and finds her in the bath. It's a peachy-orange themed bathroom. Quite small, but bright! 

I love that shower curtain. 

Anyways, Cass had never removed the burglar-proof doorknob, so the Cleeves are stuck in Ellen's bedroom until she gets home at 6:30. Mr. Cleeves thinks of one way to pass the time. 

And while they'd been chatting and bathing, Ellen had been back to the playground and ran into Cass again, who came back for her to tell her not to marry Mr. Cleeves, to marry him. He'll love her and give her children and make her happy; Mr. Cleeves will be the child if she marries him. 

It's all over when Cass leaves to go back to his hotel, tail between his legs. Then Ellen goes to the bedroom, removes the doorknob and finds the Cleeves in flagrante delicto, and realizes that she doesn't love Mr. Cleeves. He realizes that he doesn't really love Ellen either, so he chases after his wife. 

I didn't get a good shot of the main door earlier, but I love that design. Anyways, Mrs. Cleeves tells Mr. Cleeves to call her up 'any Wednesday' if he'd like to see her. Good for her! 

And then Cass shows up again in the midst of all that with balloons: more balloons than Mr. Cleeves has probably ever given Ellen. 

And they live happily ever after! I know she's going to move to Akron with Cass, but man, I'd hate to have to give up that apartment!

___

I took all the screencaps in this post.

Read the Apartment Therapy posts for Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Ladies Man, Bachelor in Paradise, and Pillow Talk.