"Ninja Turf"

The El Rey was running a Woody Allen double feature of "Zelig" and "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" in this shot from "Ninja Turf" (Ascot Entertainment Group, 1986). It's a tale about a Korean immigrant who resists joining a street gang at his school. It's also known as as "L.A. Streetfighters" and "Los Angeles Streetfighter." 

The film features Jun Chong, Phillip Rhee and James Lew. Woo-sang Park directed, billed as Richard Park. The cinematography was by David Kim and Maximo Munzi. Thanks to Eric Schaefer for watching this piece of high culture and getting the screenshot.

See the page about the El Rey Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It's at 5515 Wilshire Blvd. and now used as a music venue.

"The Word is out: Don't Cross Their Line!!!"  A March 14, 1986 ad in the San Francisco Examiner:

Thanks to Eric Schaefer for locating the ad.

L.A. Times: March 19, 1986 - "A blend of two genres found in 'Ninja Turf'." 

Wikipedia: "Ninja Turf" 

On IMDb: "L.A. Streetfighters"

"Whatever It Takes"

We pay a visit to the El Rey Theatre on Wilshire an hour and six minutes into "Whatever It Takes" (Dominion / Hudson River, 1998). It's a story of undercover cops investigating the trade in steroids and other drugs targeted at bodybuilders. Featured are Don Wilson, Andrew Dice Clay, Leslie Danon and Fred Williamson. Brady MacKenzie directed. The cinematography was by Andrea V. Rossotto.   

 

 

Panning down to the sidewalk. 

 

Inside with a bit of sidewall decor visible. 

 

 

A deco floor design and a floor show performer. 

 

Trouble coming in the front doors. 

 

A gunman walking along house right.

 

A view of the sidewall banquettes as the shooting begins. 

 

A different angle on the chaos.

The theatre is located at 5515 Wilshire Blvd. in the Miracle Mile district. See the El Rey Theatre page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of this 1937 vintage show place.

Thanks to Sean Ault for spotting the theatre. He notes that the full film can be seen on YouTube.

On IMDb: "Whatever It Takes"

"The Offer"

Downtown views during the shoot:

 

"Live Burlesk On Stage." Vintage cars are ready for action in front of the Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway. The September 22, 2021 shoot was for "The Offer," a ten part epic for the Paramount+ streaming service. Part of the block was getting dressed to emulate New York's 42nd St. in the early 1970s. Photo: Bill Counter

 

The series is based on the experiences of producer Albert S. Ruddy leading to the filming of "The Godfather" (1972). It stars Miles Teller as Ruddy. Matthew Goode plays Robert Evans. Dan Fogler plays Francis Ford Coppola. Patrick Gallo is Mario Puzo.

 

The Orpheum, other than its marquee copy, wasn't a major player in the action. The buildings getting all the attention were the Brown-Israel Outfitting Building (820 S. Broadway, here with new pizza signage), the Wurlitzer Building (818 S. Broadway, getting several adult businesses) and the Rialto Theatre (812 S. Broadway, now an Urban Outfitters). The Singer Building and the Tower Theatre/Apple store beyond weren't involved. Photo: Bill Counter

 

 

A closer look at the Wurlitzer Building, on the left, and the Brown-Israel Building as the crew installs signage and deploys trash, bus benches, etc. Photo: Bill Counter

 

 

The Wurlitzer Building storefronts get transformed. Photo: Bill Counter

 

 

Not an Urban Outfitters this evening. It had become a theatre again. Photo: Bill Counter

"Live Nudes" going up on the north end of the marquee. Photo: Bill Counter

 

New signage for the Rialto. Photo: Bill Counter

 

 

Copy going up on the south end of the marquee. Photo: Bill Counter

 

The Orpheum gets lit up later in the evening. Photo: Bill Counter

 

Testing Con Ed steam effects. Tubing in the gutter led to a boiler in the parking lot around the corner between the Brown-Israel Building and the Broadway Bar. Photo: Bill Counter

 

Some added neon at the Rialto. Photo: Bill Counter

 

More signage lit at the Wurlitzer Building. And, of course, a Checker cab. Photo: Bill Counter

 

An added piece of neon art at the Hot! Hot! Hot! establishment. Photo: Bill Counter

 

They ordered winter weather. The truck in the foreground from Long Beach Ice Co. had a chipper that turned blocks of ice into snow. The rear truck, from Crystal Ice, was filled with huge blocks. Photo: Bill Counter

 

Adding snow to the wall next to the Broadway Bar. Photo: Bill Counter

 

A snowstorm at the Brown-Israel Building. Photo: Bill Counter

 

Rehearsing a few extras. Photo: Bill Counter

 

Shoveling snow at the Rialto after the marquee soffit lighting was turned on. One of the ice men is at the far left with the hose from the truck over his shoulder. Earlier a guy had been along spraying a dirt solution on the snow in the gutter for a more realistic look. Photo: Bill Counter

 

 

A different look for the lighting. The open soffit worked well for ease of access to mount instruments up out of sight. Photo: Bill Counter 

The camera crew has arrived. The Globe Theatre marquee can be seen down in the 700 block. In the center is a tanker to wet down the street. To the right are the ice chipper and the truck with the blocks of ice. Photo: Bill Counter

 

A look north with cars at the Orpheum awaiting action. Photo: Bill Counter

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. See the pages on the Rialto Theatre for many photos of that building, dating from 1917. The site also has pages on the Tower Theatre and the Globe. 

 

 

 

In a mid-December shoot the Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway, was used as the location for the premiere of "The Godfather." Thanks to Chris Nichols for sharing this photo on a Facebook post. 

 

 

Posters still in the display cases after the shoot. Photo: Bill Counter - December 16

See the pages about the Los Angeles Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the building and hundreds of photos. 

 

In the completed series:

In Episode 1 we get a look at the El Rey Theatre dressed up as if it's 1970. It's at 5515 Wilshire Blvd. and now used as a music venue. Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for the screenshot.

On IMDb: "The Offer"

"Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"

The El Rey on Wilshire Blvd. appears as the site of a film premiere in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (Dimension/Miramax, 2001). Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith aren't happy -- the film they see, "Bluntman and Chronic," is based on their lives and they're not getting compensated.

Thanks to Joe Pinney for the tip on this one. The screenshot comes from the page about the film's shooting locations on the site Filming.90210locations.

See the El Rey Theatre page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more on this 1937 vintage theatre, now in use as a concert venue.

On IMDb: "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"

"La La Land"

Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) mourns that his favorite jazz club, Van Beek, has been turned into a samba and tapas joint in Damien Chazelle's "La La Land" (Lionsgate, 2016).  "Just pick ONE!" he says. "Do it right."

He's done a drive-by and at the time of this shot is sitting at a drive-in restaurant across the street looking at the building. It's the former Magnolia Theatre, 4403 Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank. In the years since its film house life has been over it's been a recording studio, once owned by Barbra Streisand. See the Magnolia Theatre page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more on the venue. Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for this screenshot.

Sebastian keeps running into Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress. When they finally start clicking after a number of mis-steps, their first date is to be at the Rialto in South Pasadena to see "Rebel Without a Cause."  Here she's driving by earlier in the day and sees the show on the marquee.

She's late and he's waiting.

He gives up and goes in.

Not able to find him in the darkened theatre she steps out on stage to look into the house.  

The credits are rolling for "Rebel Without a Cause." 

Watching the film at the Rialto.

Projection problems as they're ready to kiss.

 

A "What do we do now?" look. Mia has an idea: they go to the Griffith Observatory.

Wandering by the former jazz club one afternoon. Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for the screenshot.

 Mia holds the doors while Sebastian does a bit of vandalism to their sign.

Mia rents a theatre for her one-woman show. The theatre is the Hayworth at 2511 Wilshire Blvd. Well, the interior is anyway. The exteriors were done at the Variety Theatre on W. Adams Blvd. See the page about the Hayworth Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about the venue.

Mia does another drive-by of the location of their first date. Things have changed. See the Los Angeles Theatres pages on the Rialto Theatre for more about this historic venue. The "closed" marquee we see in this shot was accurate until mid-2017. It's now been leased to a church group.

Sebastian, without funding to open his own jazz club, takes a gig with a group called The Messengers, headed by Keith (John Legend). Mia goes to see their first show -- it's at the El Rey Theatre on Wilshire Blvd. 

Sebastian playing at the show at the El Rey. We don't get any exterior shots or see much of the interior. The Los Angeles Theatres El Rey Theatre page has more about this 1937 vintage theatre, now used as a music club.

Sebastian at the keyboard for a photo shoot at the Regent Theatre, 448 S. Main St. The scene starts with Gosling nervously pacing outside in a driveway on the west side of EastWest Studios, 6000 Sunset Blvd., a location whose interior is used for several other scenes. But for this scene, when we go inside we're in the Regent.

The Egyptian columns aren't part of the Regent's normal decor -- they're just in for the shoot. The giveaway is that bit of light fixture we see above the photo on the wall. It's the day of Mia's one-woman show and he's worried that he'll be late for the show. He ends up missing it entirely.

Our obnoxious photographer getting another camera from his assistant. You know, one that works. That purplish glow to the right of the guitar player is part of the Regent's proscenium.

Another view of the photo shoot scene with Keith (John Legend) at the center and Sebastian on the left. Again a bit of the Regent's proscenium is seen as a purple glow in the background. The wizard who does the site Seeing Stars figured the Regent location out. He's got it detailed on a page as Location #43 - the Photo Shoot.

Thanks to Mike Hume for digging through the many well documented pages about the film's locations on the Stars site to find the details about this scene. Mike has a fine page about the Regent on his Historic Theatre Photography site.

Check out the pages about the Regent Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about this 1914 vintage film house, now repurposed as a music venue. 

Mia heads into the theatre the afternoon of her show. The exterior of the theatre she rents for the production is the Variety, 5253 W. Adams Blvd. See the page about the Variety Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about the building. In recent years it's been used as a music club and events space.

Onstage at the Hayworth before the one night run of her show.

Onstage during Mia's one-woman show. Thanks to theatre detective Mike Hume for this screenshot. And also thanks to Mike for figuring out where these interior scenes were filmed. Visit his great Historic Theatre Photography website for hundreds of photos of theatres he's explored in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Sebastian at the Variety Theatre after Mia's show. Few people came. Sebastian misses it because of his photo shoot. Mia is depressed and tells Sebastian it's over. "What is?" he asks. "Everything" she says -- and goes home to Boulder City, Nevada. He'll have to drive to Boulder City to get her when that magical phone call from a casting director comes that makes her a star.

Other locations seen include the freeway interchange between the 105 and the 110 for the opening number, the Smokehouse Restaurant in Burbank (where Sebastian plays Christmas music), the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach, the Hermosa beach pier, Angel's Flight, the Watts Towers, Griffith Observatory, and the Blind Donkey in Long Beach (Seb's nightclub at the end).


More information: 

Architectural Digest weighed in with "La La Land Set Design" profiling designers David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco. E Online has "The Official La la Land Guide To Los Angeles." There's a page about the film on the website for Elle.

 
"La La Land" director Damien Chazelle talks with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone during filming at the Rialto in South Pasadena. Thanks to Escott O. Norton for posting an album of sixteen photos of the 2015 shoot on the Friends of the Rialto Facebook page. The photos appear courtesy of David Wasco, production designer for the film.

On Curbed L.A. see "LA's Starring Role in 'La La Land'" and "The Ultimate 'La La Land' Filming location Map."

 Discover L.A. put together the "La La Land Virtual Location Tour," a lovely hour-long Zoom Webinar presentation hosted by acclaimed location managers from the film, Robert Foulkes and Tristan Daoussis. Thanks to Mike Hume for spotting the presentation.

The N.Y. Times had a fine story "L.A. Trancendental: How 'La La land' Chases the Sublime" that included several shots from the film. David Ng's December 25, 2016 L.A. Times story "'La La Land' looks beautiful but..." talks about the difficulties of location shooting for this film (and others) with so many historic locations vanishing.

The site Seeing Stars says they have the "world's most comprehensive guide" to the film's shooting locations and it's certainly hard to disagree with that. Pages and pages of well documented information. The photo is from their page about the scene shot at the Regent. Thanks to Mike Hume of Historic Theatre Photography fame for spotting it on the Stars site. 

USA Today has "Your La La Land Cheat Sheet."  The trailer is on YouTube, as is a four minute making-of featurette. 

On IMDb: "La La Land"