Apple TV+’s new show Palm Royale features one of the most colorful settings on TV as the upper echelon of Palm Beach, Florida, in 1969, scheme their way to the top of society. The series stars Kristen Wiig, Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb and Ricky Martinez, but are the details from the show accurate?
‘Palm Royale’ Was Inspired by Photographer Slim Aarons
Slim Aarons was a photographer whose photography was focused on the lives of the wealthy from the 1940s to the 1980s. Many of his images featured socialites enjoying summer poolside, which could be a very short description of creator Abe Sylvia’s Palm Royale. Slim’s photography was what inspired Abe to create the series, according to production designer Jon Carlos.
Jon added that Abe was actively trying to recreate the “romance of Slim Aarons’ photography in Palm Beach, but also the gallivanting travels his subjects took, from Capri to Acapulco.”
Is the Palm Royale a Real Place?
While the country club in Palm Royale is essentially a character in its own right, a club by that name never existed in Palm Beach. Instead, Abe and director Tate Taylor used a combination of clubs for the wealthy that existed in the ‘60s to create the Palm Royale in the series.
“The idea of the Palm Royale is an amalgam of real-life places in Palm Beach — The Breakers, The Everglades Club, The Bath & Tennis Club — but we needed to create a fictional version for our story. Our Palm Royale is a mixture of locations and stage builds, with many exteriors shot at The Ebell of Los Angeles,” Jon told Condé Nast Traveler in an article published on March 20, 2024.
Are the Clothes the Women Wear in ‘Palm Royale’ Historically Accurate?
Fashion plays a huge part in the series, which is why costume designer Alix Friedberg researched the styles of that time period in depth and sourced most of his costumes from actual designers from that time.
“We took our research right from the pages of magazines from the 1960s. We went to the society pages to see these real galas that were really happening,” Alix told Harper’s Bazaar on March 22, 2024.
Alix continued, “We got pretty lucky in that there is a lot of designer vintage in pretty great shape still around from the 1960s. I would say 50 percent of our principal cast is in sourced designer vintage pieces, and the other 50 percent we built. The background characters are probably 90 percent in vintage.”
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