Friday, November 4, 2016

"Number, Please?"


 Harold Lloyd, trying to capture a missing dog in the two-reeler "Number, Please?" (Hal Roach/Pathé, 1920), crouches down beside a concrete embankment that we see (in another shot) helpfully tells us we're on W. Seaside Way -- which puts us in Long Beach. We're looking east and in the distance on the left is the mansard roof of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium.



A continuation of the scene filmed on Seaside Way -- the dog has found him. See the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for information about the building.

The film features seaside locations in Long Beach and Ocean Park for a tale of a guy trying to win the heart of a girl who's paying too much attention to a rival. Directed by Hal Roach and Fred Newmeyer, it also features Mildred Davis (as The Girl) and Roy Brooks (as The Rival).



Another Long Beach shot -- on The Pike, again looking east. The dance hall nearest us on the left was originally a roller skating rink. Just beyond is the Strand Theatre. Way in the distance is the side wall of the Jergins Trust / State Theatre Building. Later in the 20s this view would be blocked by construction of the Ocean Center building at the west end of The Pike.



After the dog down The Pike. 



Coming back in the other direction. See the pages about the Strand Theatre and the State Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for information about those two now-vanished Long Beach theatres.



A shot on the Abbott Kinney Pier in Venice. We're looking toward the shore with the dance hall just out of the frame to the left.



There had been some great Ocean Park shots earlier in the film -- but not featuring theatres. At the end of the film Harold is on the beach and, looking north, we get a view of the Pickering Pleasure Pier on the south end of the Santa Monica city limits. So, we're actually in Venice. Note the stagehouse of the Rialto Theatre, a venue that was earlier used as the Rosemary Theatre -- the third of their five locations.



Another shot near the end. At the far right note a portion of a dome -- with part of the letter "D" visible. It opened in 1916 as a dance hall --  two years after this film shoot it became the Dome Theatre. It all burned in a 1924 pier fire. See the pages on this third Rosemary Theatre location and the first Dome Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for lots of information on the multiple locations using those two names.

On IMDb: "Number, Please?"

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