In Steven
Spielberg's "The
Fabelmans" (Universal, 2022) the family goes to see Cecil B. DeMille's "The
Greatest Show on Earth" at the Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway. It's standing in for a theatre in New Jersey -- note thar we have a bit of snow on the sidewalk.
Watching the train holdup scene from "The Greatest Show on Earth" in the Orpheum. The aspiring filmmaker would soon get a train set so he could re-create crashes like he saw in the movie.
The Orpheum got dressed up as if it were the 1950s again. "The Greatest Show on Earth" did actually play the theatre in 1952. Thanks to Mark Fugina for noting at the time that the shoot was for Spielberg's film. Photo: Bill Counter - August 12, 2021
One of the displays. Photo: Bill Counter - August 12, 2021
Visit the pages about the Orpheum Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the 1926 vintage vaudeville house along with hundreds of photos.
On IMDb: "The Fabelmans" | trailer on YouTube |
The film playing the Orpheum in 1952. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the photo. It's one appearing on our page of vintage Orpheum street views.
Unfortunately... in the movie they used fake digital art to represent the letters on the marquee. I have no idea why but as the world's largest dealer of marquee letters and regular supplier to film and TV productions I was saddened by the fail.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's not the case. While my screenshot from the trailer makes it look like the marquee letters are sort of fake, there actually were letters saying "The Greatest Show On Earth" on the marquee. Did you see the photo below that that I took when the theatre was actually dressed for the shoot? Real letters were on the marquee. It was, however, manufactured snow on the sidewalk that we see in the film.
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