Mare Winningham and
Anthony Edwards meet cute at the La Brea Tar Pits at the beginning of Steve De Jarnatt's "Miracle Mile" (Hemdale Releasing, 1989). It's a playful start to what seems like it's going to be just a sweet little love story.
We get a scene in the park in front of the Pan Pacific Auditorium during an event to support a restoration of the building.
Anthony is playing in the band.
Mare is there with her father, played by John Agar.
Another shot from the scene. The poor Pan Pacific, at 7600 Beverly Blvd., was neglected and unloved after newer facilities took away many bookings. It had opened in 1935, closed in 1972 and was demolished after a spectacular fire in May 1989, the same month the film was released.
See the page about the
Pan Pacific Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more photos.
We get a look at another fenced-off building when the trolley is on Wilshire, going by LACMA. That's the Ahmanson Building on the left and the new addition, the Art of the Americas Building on the right. The building with the Bing Theatre is farther to the right, out of sight.
The Miracle Mile trolley takes them to Park La Brea, where Mare and her mother, played Lou Hancock, have an apartment. Her father has a separate apartment. The parents are estranged and haven't spoken to each other for years.
Mare works as a waitress at Johnnie's, on the northwest corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. The film's tone suddenly shifts darker when Anthony answers a call in that phone booth.
He goes inside to ask if anyone knows about the imminent event he heard about on the mis-dialed phone call. On the left it's Denise Crosby, talking to Claude Earl Jones. On the right the drag queen with back to the camera is Danny De La Paz, talking to Earl Boen.
O-Lan Jones plays a waitress at Johnnie's and Robert DoQui is the cook. Also featured are Mykelti Williamson,
Kelly Jo Minter, Kurt Fuller and Brian Thompson. Theo van de Sande was
the cinematographer. The production design was by Christopher Horner.
The art director was Richard Hoover. In addition to directing, Steve De
Jarnatt also wrote the script.
Later that day at Johnnie's. The production relamped all the signage on the building. And then dipped all the hundreds of lamps with a blue tint as they were reading too yellow in test footage.
Anthony oversleeps due to a power outage at his hotel. He's supposed to come back that night and pick up Mare. She waits and finally goes home. The revolving clock only has one side. The entire sign was made for the film and they could only afford to do one side of the clock.
The sign's famous revolving hamburgers.
Of course see lots lots of the May Co. building across Fairfax from Johnnie's. It's now the home of the Academy Museum, with the Ted Mann Theatre in the basement and the David Geffen Theatre in a new orb behind. We also spend some time in that high-rise at 5900 Wilshire, at the time called the Mutual Benefit Life Building.
On the right it's the building that had been built in 1962 for the Japanese department store chain Seibu. They soon closed and from 1984 to December 1986 it was Ohrbach's. At the time of the shoot it was empty and had to be filled with merchandise for the film. Later there's a scene inside with a stolen police car crashing through the front. The building is now the Peterson Auto Museum.
Back at LACMA with Anthony running after a street sweeper in an attempt to get a lift to Mare's apartment. He wants them to get out of town while it's still possible.
A shot a moment later. The Bing Center, where the Bing Theatre was located, is seen on both sides of that huge column of the Art of the Americas Building that's out at the sidewalk line.
Anthony has no luck getting a ride. When he gets to Mare's apartment he finds that she had taken some sleeping pills and can't wake up enough to walk. So here we are back at LACMA using a shopping cart.
Running toward Wilshire. Thanks to Steve De Jarnatt, the film's director, for this screenshot and the one below. The Bing Theatre is off to the left.
A look back up the stairs. Steve notes that he did several early screenings of the film in the Bing, up the stairs and to the right in this shot.
See the page about the Leo S. Bing Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1965 and was demolished in 2020. The replacement venue, called the Steve Tisch Theatre, is on the south side of Wilshire in the new building designed by Peter Zumthor.
Madness on Wilshire as the sun rises. On the right it's the May Company wing that was just east of the main building containing their appliance and budget departments.
On IMDb: "Miracle Mile"
Check out Steve's website for Miracle Mile items and posts on other topics: www.stevedejarnatt.net
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