Holiday Glow over Hollywood - Page 2

“It was a tremendous experience,” Bliss said of the Stahl House shoot last spring, for which he was blessed with “beautiful” weather.

“No wind, which was good, so we were able to open some windows,” he recalled, referring to his grandfather’s hanging-tree design and its vulnerability to breezes.

Bliss’ grandfather, Lawrence ‘Bud’ Stoecker, was an engineer and a builder of several hundred A-frame homes in the Rocky Mountains. He designed the first tree in the 1960s out of graduated concentric circles, strung together by beaded chains and hanging from the roof or a pole. Stoecker put up the tree in his family home every year, often refining it with new materials.

It was a cherished family tradition for Bliss, and Stoecker gave him the final version a few years before he died in 2012.

The prior year, Bliss hit on the idea of marketing the design as a tribute to his beloved grandfather. His company, Modern Christmas Trees, makes its product from a choice of five different colors of transparent acrylic. A spotlight casts the room in curving shadows and colorful glow, and afterward, the tree collapses conveniently into a zippered bag for storage.

Priced from $299 to $799, orders have increased every year, and the tree is now in 30 countries. Bliss said he has sold a half dozen to Eichler owners, and has even sold trees to the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim (where it graces the lobby), the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, and the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai, which purchased 20.

“People just took to it,” he sais, “and it’s interesting in that it’s basically the same tree that my grandfather designed 50 years ago.”

Having learned more about Buck Stahl while preparing for the shoot of his grandfather’s invention at Stahl’s dream home, there was one vision Bliss just couldn’t shake.

“Stahl was an amazing man, and so was my grandpa,” he said, noting that both men were engineers intrigued by modernism. “It would have been interesting to see them talk during the [photo] session. I think they would have like each other.”

In honor of his grandfather, Bliss donates part of the proceeds from each sale to the Alzheimer’s Association.

For CA-Modern’s earlier in-depth story of Bliss’ Modern Christmas Trees, click here.