"Mr. Saturday Night"

A flashback to the Ed Sullivan Show in "Mr. Saturday Night" (Columbia, 1992). Buddy Young, Jr., the comic played by Billy Crystal, has been waiting a year for this. The scene was filmed at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4400 Wilshire Blvd. 

 

Crystal's brother Stan is played by David Paymer and Julie Warner is his wife. The film was written by Crystal along with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell. Crystal directed. The cinematography was by Don Peterman.

 

 

Crystal enthusiastically coming onto the thrust stage at the Ebell. He discovers that he's going on right after the Beatles and can't get the audience to pay any attention to him. He starts insulting them and blows his chances for a return gig. 

See the page about the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the building and many photos. 

 

Another flashback scene features the brothers as teenagers. We're looking at the act just before them at some unknown venue standing in for the "Pitkin Avenue Theatre" in Brooklyn. 

It's unknown where this was shot -- perhaps on a soundstage. Or maybe at the Ebell. The Skouras-style decor in front of the stage suggests it might have been shot at a house like the El Portal in North Hollywood or the California in Huntington Park that had a stage and had also been "Skouras-sized." But the decorative panel seen here in front of the stage doesn't seem to match what was installed at either of those two houses. 

 

 

 

A look behind the screen at the "Pitkin Avenue." The teenage versions of Stan and Buddy are played by Michael Weiner and Jason Marsden. It had been a double act but Stan decides he doesn't want to do it anymore. He becomes Buddy's manager.  

 

The brothers at an unidentified theatre later in the film.

On IMDb: "Mr. Saturday Night"