Saturday, January 14, 2023

"Hollywood Story"

 We are treated to a view of the Admiral Theatre, 6321 Hollywood Blvd., during the opening credits of "Hollywood Story" (Universal-International, 1951). The theatre was renamed the Vine after a 1969 remodel.

See the page about the Vine Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. Those are the towers of the Warner Hollywood in the distance.

The film, directed by William Castle, stars Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Jim Backus, Fred Clark, Henry Hull and Paul Cavanagh. The cinematography was by Carl E. Guthrie. We get a variety of nice Hollywood locations including breakfast by the pool at the Hollywood Roosevelt. 
 
Conte plays a producer who rents the Chaplin Studios on La Brea and decides to make a film about a shooting that occurred in a bungalow on the lot occupied by fictitious director Franklin Ferrara. It's loosely based on the still-unsolved 1922 murder of film director William Desmond Taylor. We get cameos by Francis X. Bushman, Betty Blythe, Helen Gibson, William Farnum, Joel McCrea and others. 
 

Fred Clark, playing Conte's business partner, makes a call with an image of the Chinese in the background.  What he hasn't yet revealed is that he was the business manager for the dead director they're making the film about. 
 
 
 
A moment later we get shots of the November 1950 Hollywood Christmas Parade as it passes the Chinese. There's some actual footage intercut with backlot stuff of Conte on the south side of the street looking for Ferrara's daughter, played by Julie Adams. 
 

 Another float at the Chinese.  
 
 
 
That "Churches - Labor - Press - Urge - Maintain Good Government - Vote NO Recall" billboard was up to oppose a recall campaign against reform Mayor Fletcher Bowron that had been on the November 7 ballot. He had been elected in 1949 and survived the recall attempt.

See the pages about Grauman's Chinese Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the 1927 vintage building plus hundreds of photos.

On IMDB: "Hollywood Story"   The full film can be seen on YouTube

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