We get a walk by the Egyptian during their engagement of "Darker Than Amber" in Floyd Mutrux's film "Dusty and Sweets McGee" (Warner Bros., 1971). Note the peek at the lush foliage in the forecourt.
It's a story of aimless people with drug problems that features Clifton Tip Fredell, Kit Ryder, Billy Gray, Nancy Wheeler and Beverly Eckert. The cinematography was by William A. Fraker. In addition to Hollywood, they shot all over the Valley, in Venice, and maybe other beach towns.
A drug dealer called City Life, played by Billy Gray, is on the right, discussing car stereos with "Patton" on the marquee in the background at the Del Mar Theatre, 5036 W. Pico Blvd.
See the Los Angeles Theatres page about the Del Mar, a theatre that opened in 1939 and is now an art gallery.
Thanks to Marc Edward Heuck for spotting the theatre in the film and sharing a shot from the scene with the LAHTF Facebook group. He was trying to identify the location. Bruce Kimmel gets the nod for being the first to identify it as the Del Mar. In a comment to a post of the shot on the Los Angeles Theatres Facebook page he noted:
"I've got it. Theatre is the Del Mar. Everything matches up, including the bit of the building to the left. And across the street if you Google street view, you can see the bottom of the circular thing in blue. Also, the movie shot from late October through end of November - and Patton was playing at the Del Mar the week of October 29th. The Del Mar has no signage above the marquee at that point. If you could pan to the right, you'd see the big Del Mar sign. To the right it was Davis Radio and Stereo, formerly Al Davis' Radio Drive-In."
"Want to know how I found it? It was one of those happy coincidences - first of all, the theatre looked familiar to me. But I searched 'Patton' and October of 1970, which was when the movie started filming. So, it highlighted all the Independent theatres that were playing it. I started with the outlying areas first and the first thing I saw was some theatre located on Del Mar Street or Blvd. And a little bell went off in my head and I scrolled up and bingo - 'Patton' was playing there the first week of filming.
"Then I went to the Los Angeles Theatres page and saw the photos and it matched up perfectly. Then I did Google to see what was across the street and found that place. Then I searched that address and found Al Davis' ads and then the ad for Davis Radio and Stereo in 1970. Most amusing of all is that I worked at the Del Mar in 1964 and that's why it looked familiar to me. I lived ten minutes from there near Pico and La Cienega."
Thanks to Larry Karaszewski for looking up an October 23, 1970 L.A.
Times listing that revealed "The Out-Of-Touners" was the second feature
playing with "Patton." Ken McIntyre then came up with this October 19 listing for the Del Mar and other theatres in the neighborhood:
Rio Dylan Hernandez was also active on the hunt. She comments:
"I noticed the car stereo mechanic's jumpsuit says Davis and there was a famous car radio drive up installation place right across the street from the Del Mar built in 1938 so it has that Deco look but there for a long time - Al Davis Radio Drive-In, 5037 W. Pico Blvd. Looks like you can see the blade sign poking up from the theatre.
Rio grabbed this shot from earlier in the scene and did some background research:
"Al Davis was a car radio installation guy, who made a company out of
it, and in the same type of business as Mad Man Muntz he was a success. Sounds like it was a famous place. He was the first to import Japanese car stereos, etc. Kind of a fascinating history and sounds like this was also an in-the-know movie biz spot. He had a good enough business or location that Rock Hudson was a customer in 1963. The business went bankrupt in 1986."
Thanks to Rio Dylan Hernandez for locating this postcard in the Boston Public Library's Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection.
Thanks to Mark R. Simpson for this Google image. He comments: "The collision shop is now LA Masters Collision Center and you can see the rounded portion of the building painted red behind the wall."
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