"Blonde"

The Hollywood Hills on fire! We get this fine mid-1930s shot looking north on Wilcox toward the Warner Theatre in "Blonde" (Fireworks/Robert Greenwald, 2001). The blue neon is lit on the tower but in this shot the signage says "Pacific," a name change that didn't occur until 1968.  Of course, when Marilyn was a kid the towers would have said "KFWB."

 

See the pages on the Los Angeles Theatres site about the Warner Hollywood for a history of this theatre, opened in 1928.  The Hollywood Citizen-News building on the left has been rebuilt as restaurant, Mother Wolf. The hotel building beyond is now called Mama Shelter. 

 

A closer look. In the car that this policeman is turning around are the young Norma Jean Baker, played by Skye McCole Bartusiak, and her mother Gladys Baker, played by Patricia Richardson. 

Brian Michael McCray comments: 

"I was there the night they shot that. The street looked frickin' amazing with all the old cars on it. It was like stepping into one of my old painted postcards."

Estefan Bravo adds:

 

"We went down too.... my Mother was annoyed at the Pacific sign."

The film is based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Andrew Dominik also used the novel as his source material for his 2022 film for Netflix, again titled "Blonde." See the Theatres in Movies post about that version.

In this 2001 version Poppy Montgomery stars as the adult Marilyn. Also featured are Ann-Margret, Patrick Dempsey, Wallace Shawn, Griffin Dunne, Titus Welliver, Eric Bogosian, Kirstie Alley and Richard Roxburgh. Joyce Chopra directed. The cinematography was by James Glennon. The film had its initial run on CBS in May 2001. 

Most of the film was shot in Australia and the footage includes some nice theatre scenes. When Poppy and Wallace Shawn (as her agent) attend a screening of the 1950 film "The Asphalt Jungle" we get shots in a lobby that looks remarkably like the one at the United Artists in downtown L.A. 

Later we have shots of a theatre entrance when Poppy arrived at the premiere of the 1953 film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." But no Jane Russell character in sight. There's also a scene inside an Australian theatre for the shooting of "The Prince and the Showgirl" in 1957.

On IMDb: "Blonde"

A look up Wilcox toward Hollywood Blvd. in 2022. Photo: Google Maps.