"Dolemite Is My Name"

The Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway, dressed for shooting the Eddie Murphy movie "Dolemite is My Name" (Netflix, 2019). Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

The film is directed by Craig Brewer and also stars Keegan-Michael Key, Wesley Snipes and Chris Rock. Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the star of the film "Dolomite," a 1975 release. As the marquee indicates, they're using the Orpheum to film shots of the movie's L.A. opening for near the end of the movie.


More views of the filming at the Orpheum: 

A look across the entrance. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

One of the poster cases. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

The display on the north side of the ticket lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

The stars of the 1975 film listed on the ticket lobby readerboard. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Looking north at dusk. This was the production's second night of filming at the theatre. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

The Cadillac for Murphy's character. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Waiting with a camera lift. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

The obligatory wetting of the street. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Extras between shots. They were doing a lot of  filming in the lobby and ticket lobby as Murphy's character exited the theatre. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Lots of 1975 vintage hair and clothing. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Waiting around. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Extras across the street. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

More waiting between shots. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Vintage cars ready for some action. Photo: Bill Counter - July 27, 2018

Shots from the film:

Eddie, as Rudy Ray Moore, goes with some friends to see a film at the Orpheum.

 

Watching "The Front Page." The guys are bored and can't believe the stuff the white audience is laughing at. One of the shots they show from the film is of Susan Sarandon playing the organ in a Chicago theatre -- a scene shot at the Orpheum. One of Eddie's friends notes that a big problem with what they're watching is that it has no brothers in it.

On the street after the feature. Eddie's character says he can do better than traveling the circuit and playing small clubs. With a movie you can be everywhere at the same time.

Working on rehearsing his Dolemite character for the film that'll be called "Dolemite." This shot makes it look like a theatre but it's just an alcove in the set that's representing the lobby areas of the the abandoned Dunbar Hotel on S. Central Ave. that he's using as his "soundstage." The set was built at the L.A. Center Studios.

The exteriors used the vacant Royal Lake Apartments, 1109 S. Lake St. Location manager David Lyons is quoted in Sonaiya Kelley's November 2019 L.A. Times article "How the 1970s came to the Los Angeles locations in Eddie Murphy's 'Dolemite is My Name'" as saying: "The Dunbar has maybe 60% of what looks like 1974 and the rest of it looks like 2019. With the Royal Lake, you could stand there and look 360 degrees and it feels like you’re in 1974 Los Angeles."  They used vintage photos of the Dunbar to re-create the hotel's signage.

Eddie, as Rudy Ray Moore, checks out a theatre in Indianapolis. He's got the film in the can but has been turned down by every distributor he's contacted. While doing PR for a club date in Indianapolis  a local DJ (Chris Rock) says he knows the owner of a theatre, the Uptown Cinema. The scene was shot at the Gardena Cinema on Crenshaw Blvd. in Gardena.

He does a deal for a midnight show and asks the owner "When do I get my money?" and learns what a four-wall deal is all about. When asked if he can get a share of the popcorn revenue he's told "No, that's mine." We also see more of the auditorium and, later, lobby and exterior views. 

With lots of promotion, Rudy packs the place and sets a house record. He finally gets a deal when a distributor who previously turned him down sees mention of the film's performance in Variety. One of this distributor's niches is blaxploitation and the chief exec gives us a nice little speech explaining what's happened to the big downtown movie palaces across the country after the white folks fled to the suburbs. With the right film he can fill them up with the urban crowd. "Dolemite" turns out to be one of the year's hits. Really.

Back at the Orpheum, this time for his own film. The reviews are terrible but there's a line around the block.

An Orpheum shot appearing with a review of the film on the site We Got This Covered. It also appears with the November 2019 L.A. Times article "How the 1970s came to the Los Angeles locations in Eddie Murphy's 'Dolemite is My Name'" by Sonaiya Kelley. She credits the photo to Francois Duhamel / Netflix.

Another shot of Eddie at the Orpheum. This one, credited to Netflix, appears with Jared Cowan's October 2019 L.A. Magazine article "Finding the 1970s L.A. of Rudy Ray Moore's 'Dolemite.'"

See the pages about the Orpheum, Rialto, Tower and Gardena Cinema on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about these theatres.

On IMDb: "Dolemite Is My Name"  On YouTube: trailer