"Sherlock Jr."

 

The Paramount Theatre (as it was then known) at 5528 Santa Monica Blvd. appears in this shot from Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr." (Metro Pictures, 1924). Later it was called the Loma Theatre.

 

Another look toward the Paramount. That's Keaton on the bike. 

Thanks to John Bengtson, "the great detective of silent film locations," for identifying the theatre in the film. See his Silent Locations blog for several great posts about "Sherlock Jr." including one titled "Case Closed! How Buster Keaton filmed Sherlock Jr." He also discusses additional locations on the Blu-Ray edition of the film.

Visit the Loma Theatre page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about this now-vanished theatre.

Keaton plays a projectionist who has dreams of being a detective. At the beginning of the film he's framed for a little burglary that he'd like to solve. His job is being a projectionist at the local theatre. And also its janitor. He's reading his book on how to be a detective. The manager will come along and tell him to get busy cleaning the theatre.

The assumption is that all the theatre scenes were done on sets. Here, for example, if it were a real theatre we'd have additional ports for a stereopticon and maybe a spotlight. John Bengtson comments:

"You’ll see movie theatre interiors frequently in silent movies, but I’ve usually assumed they were an interior set at some studio or another. Keaton used 4 different studio backlots when filming 'Cops,' so the 'Sherlock Jr.' theatre might have been a set at a nearby studio. They staged so many filming effects inside the theatre – starting and stopping the camera, it just seems too uncontrolled and expensive to use a real theatre."

Looking in the window of the candy shop next door. Thanks to John Bengtson for this nice screenshot. He comments:

"My sense is that the theater exterior was a backlot set. The structure and the sidewalk look too pristine, while true locations are always a bit gritty. The candy shop next door looks like a set too. As further proof, when Buster is shown in reverse view looking through the candy shop window (shot below), they filmed it miles away on Motor Ave in Palms, with the Arden Grocery at back, where Stan Laurel also filmed 'Kill or Cure.' If the candy shop was a set, the reverse view would reveal the backlot, necessitating filming the reverse view elsewhere, which they did."

The reverse shot looking through the windows. It's another screenshot from John Bengtson. We're on Motor Ave. in Palms for this shot.

A view of the set for the booth. What? No storage cabinets for those reels of nitrate film?

A look toward the screen before the show begins. Keaton falls asleep after starting the film and joins the characters onscreen, playing, of course, a detective. The big chase scene where we get the shot of the Paramount/Loma Theatre is all part of the dream sequence.

Waking up back in the booth after the big dream. In the meantime, his girlfriend has solved the burglary mystery. She comes up to the booth and the film ends with a kiss with Keaton taking instant lessons from the couple pictured on the screen.


Publicity stills for the movie:

A boxoffice view unlike anything we see in the film. This version of the image was seen on eBay.  

Another boxoffice shot. It appears on a post about silent film on the blog Movies I Didn't Get.

A boxoffice view of a scene not in the film. It's a still from the John Bengtson collection.

A publicity still of Keaton with his detective book, a scene that appears early in the film. It's a still from John Bengtson's collection. 

A view toward the screen.

A shot at the back of the auditorium, not something we see in the film. It appears on a page about the film from the site Wired. 

On IMDb: "Sherlock Jr."