"Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman"

We get a short montage as a marginal singing cowboy played by Lee Bowman rises to become a major singing radio star in "Smash Up: The Story of a Woman" (Universal-International, 1947). This shot features an unidentified theatre. 

At the beginning of the film we see that his wife, played by Susan Hayward, was headed for quite a singing career herself. But after her marriage as the husband's career blossomed she felt neglected and started serious drinking. Also featured are Marsha Hunt, Eddie Albert, Carl Esmond and Carleton G. Young. It was written by John Howard Lawson, Lionel Wiggam and Dorothy Parker. Stewart Heisler directed. The cinematography was by Stanley Cortez. 

The second image we get is of the Four Star, on the Miracle Mile at 5112 Wilshire Blvd. See the page about the Four Star Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. 

The last marquee we see in the montage is a doctored view of the Beverly on Beverly Dr. in Beverly Hills. The marquee actually had the theatre's name above the three readerboards. See the Los Angeles Theatres page about the Beverly Theatre for photos and more information.

On IMDb: "Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman"   The full film can be seen on YouTube.  

"One Way Street"

Near the beginning of "One Way Street" (Universal-International, 1950) James Mason turns from Citrus Ave. and we get this view of the Four Star Theatre at 5112 Wilshire Blvd. He's a mob doctor who has run away from boss Dan Duryea's nearby apartment with $200,000 and Dan's girl, Märta Torén. They end up in a small beachfront village in Mexico. 

Also featured are William Conrad, Basil Ruysdael, Rodolfo Acosta, King Donovan, Emma Roldán and George J. Lewis. Hugo Fregonese directed. The cinematography was by Maury Gertsman. The full film is on YouTube.

 

In the center of these images, down in the next block, we get the vertical sign for the Fox Ritz at 5214 Wilshire. Note the dark roofsign on the stagehouse of the Ritz, seen just to the left of the speed limit sign. In the upper right that structure with the tower is the E. Clem Wilson Building at Wilshire and La Brea. 

 

See the pages about the Four Star Theatre and the Fox Ritz on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about these two Miracle Mile theatres. They've both been demolished. 

 

 

 

 

A process shot as James Mason drives on Wilshire.  

 

 

 

Jack Elam pops up from behind the seat. Part of that 200 grand is his. 

 

 

 

Märta drives as the two guys fight in the back seat. One gets killed. And it isn't James. He doesn't think his time is up yet. 

On IMDb: "One Way Street"   

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"Chaos: The Manson Murders"

A fine view east on Wilshire Blvd. in 1967. It's from footage used in the Errol Morris documentary "Chaos: The Manson Murders" (Netflix, 2025). On the right it's the United Artists Theatre Circuit's Four Star Theatre, running the Peter Yates film "Robbery." Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for spotting the theatre and getting the screenshot. 

"Robbery," which was advertised as "The Robbery" on the theatre's signage and in some directory ads, opened November 10, 1967. It was initially a single feature but was still running in mid-December with "The Slender Thread" added as a co-feature.  

The theatre was at 5112 Wilshire, on the Miracle Mile. See the page about the Four Star Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about this early 30s vintage theatre, demolished in 2014.

On IMDb: "Chaos: The Manson Murders" 

 

This Wilshire Blvd. footage seen in "Chaos" also appears as a 3:42 clip on YouTube from Producers Library.  

 

 

The November 10, 1967 ad for "Robbery" that appeared in the L.A. Times. 

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"How To Commit Marriage"

A crowd behind the Ritz Theatre, 5214 Wilshire Blvd., in Norman Panama's film "How To Commit Marriage" (Cinerama Releasing, 1969). In the distance we're looking at the west side of the Four Star Theatre, 5112 Wilshire. 

Bob Hope and Jane Wyman are there to sneak into an event their daughter and son-in-law are attending featuring Professor Irwin Corey, playing an Indian guru called The Baba Ziba. Jackie Gleason, Maureen Arthur, Tina Louise and Tim Matheson are also featured. The cinematography was by Charles Lang. 

 

See the pages for the Ritz Theatre and the Four Star on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about these two Miracle Mile theatres, now both gone. While we see lots of the Ritz auditorium and backstage, we never see the facade or lobby. And this shot is all we get of the Four Star. Evidently the film is trying to pretend we're in Santa Monica. The shot before this one was of a crowd gathering near the Monica Hotel.

 

 

 

The Baba Ziba and his entourage head into the theatre. 

 

A peek inside. Note the beige drapes inside that we later get a better look at. 

 

The Baba Ziba coming in. But the dressing room scenes were shot in a different building. 

 

Jackie Gleason showing the guys to their dressing rooms. It's another shot that doesn't have the look of a 20s movie palace basement. More like a gym somewhere -- check out the light fixtures. 

 

Later we get Bob Hope coming onstage to impersonate Baba Ziba. But he got the wrong guy's clothes -- the real Ziba will catch up with him. 

 

 

One of Ziba's entourage comes onstage with Bob. 

 

 

Stagehands offstage right at the Ritz wondering about this strange show they're working.  

 

 

 Showing Bob where to sit. 

 

 

A look into the house. 

 

Another house left view. We never see anything else in the auditorium.

 

 

Yet another look off right at the rigging. That's Jackie Gleason coming in the stage door. 

 

 

A last look into the auditorium of the Ritz as Bob Hope runs out a side exit. Note the Skouras-style fixtures on the pilasters, the surround speakers, and the beige drapes over the organ grille area.

On IMDb: "How To Commit Marriage"

"Smog"

When we first see Annie Girardot 30 minutes into Franco Rossi's "Smog" (Titanus/Gala Film Distributors, 1962) she's turning onto Wilshire Blvd. from Orange Dr. and we get a quick look at the Four Star Theatre, 5112 Wilshire. 

 

She turns east in her Thunderbird and we get a better look at the readerboard advertising Luchino Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers." A comment from IMDb: "Girardot and another star of 'Smog,' Renato Salvatori, met while making 'Rocco and His Brothers' and were married by the time they made this film together." 

 

In the next block we get a look at the stagehouse of the Ritz Theatre at 5214 Wilshire. 

 

We get part of the building's facade but cut to a shot of Annie adjusting the radio before we can see what's on the Ritz marquee. But the theatre was dark at the time of the filming. 

Our male lead in the film, Enrico Maria Salerno, is an Italian attorney and we follow his adventures during a layover on a trip to Mexico to deal with the divorce of a client. Beginning with LAX, of course, we get views of many L.A. area locations including a visit to Pasadena, a scene at some oil wells of Culver City, several visits to the Stahl House, we go bowling at the Hollywood Legion Lanes bowling alley and take a ride down Hollywood Boulevard. 

 

In a drive west we get a look at the Hollywood Theatre at Hollywood and Highland. Well, we almost get a look at the marquee. It's the mess of lights seen inside the steering wheel. 

Bruce Kimmel comments about the shoot, done sometime in the fall of 1961: 

"'Rocco' opened on September 20 at the Four-Star and played at least six weeks there, so hard to pinpoint when this was shot exactly. If it was that first two weeks then 'Guns of Navarone' was at the Hollywood. As to the Ritz, it was closed. It closed after the run of 'Scent of Mystery' in May of 1960. By that time, it wasn't a Fox West Coast theater anymore and was listed in the Independent Theaters section, which means Mike Todd, Jr. himself four-walled its run there, which given the huge flop it was, ran almost four months there."

Production designer Aldo Capuano once commented that the title didn't refer to the dirty air in Los Angeles but rather to the haze in the brains of the many Italians that the attorney meets during his wanderings.  The Cinematography was by Ted D. McCord. And it's actually quite nice. The images seen here were taken from a poor DVD.

See the pages about the Four Star, the Ritz and the Hollywood Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about these show places. 

 

A poster appearing on a page about the film on the site Shock Cinema. There's a similar poster on the "Smog" page of the site Letterboxd.

While the film got a UK release, it evidently didn't play anywhere in the US until a screening at LACMA's Bing Theatre years later. The Getty screened the film in 2013. The Getty Research Institute website has a page with notes prepared for that screening: 

"The laconic and moody 'Smog' (1962, 35 mm, 88 min.) is a little-known film from director Franco Rossi that presents a compelling outsider's perspective, following Italian attorney Vittorio Ciocchetti (Enrico Maria Salerno) through two days in the City of Angels. Stumbling upon several expatriates from his homeland, Ciocchetti is shown the vast and enigmatic city through their eyes, from Los Angeles International Airport and Pierre Koenig's Stahl Residence (both newly built) to the oil wells of Culver City. Ciocchetti's encounters reveal a stark contrast between the liberated lifestyle of midcentury Los Angeles and the struggles of postwar Italy.

"Rossi's depiction of Los Angeles is unique, devoid of sensationalism, and true to the city's eclectic mix of landscapes, cultures, social strata, and peculiar vocations. Smog was the first European film with the majority of its footage shot in Los Angeles, and Rossi and his screenwriters spent three months of preproduction absorbing the city's atmosphere. Shooting included several significant locations, particularly newly built architectural experiments, that do not appear in the final film. However, these omitted scenes are referenced in various reviews from the 1960s and '70s, which detail different iterations of the film, title, and credit changes as well as stalled international distribution deals..."

UCLA's Billy Wilder Theatre screened it in March 2022.

On IMDb: "Smog"   

 

A lobby card appearing on IMDb. 

A poster from IMDb.

"Witness to Murder"

The Four Star Theatre, 5112 Wilshire Blvd, is seen in "Witness to Murder" (United Artists, 1954). Jack Tillmany spotted it 68 minutes into the film when Barbara Stanwyck drives by. On the marquee it's  "Julius Caesar" with Marlon Brando, which opened there in November 1953.

The film was directed by Roy Rowland and also stars George Sanders and Gary Merrill.  It's a tale of Stanwyck's sanity being questioned after she reports seeing a murder from her apartment.

 

Another frame a moment later. See the page about the Four Star Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about the deco house designed by Walker & Eisen and Clifford Balch. Sadly, it was demolished in 2014.

On IMDb: "Witness to Murder"

"Hollywood Cavalcade"

Alice Faye plays Molly Adair, who gets an Egyptian Theatre premiere of her first talkie "Common Clay" as the film-within-a-film in "Hollywood Cavalcade" (20th Century Fox, 1939).  The feature is in Technicolor -- this image above is from a lobby card. Thanks to the Egyptian for posting it on the Egyptian Facebook page in 2012 when they ran the film.

We actually get a better look at the entrance here than we do in the film itself.  But the film, about early Hollywood, does give us a peek in toward the entrance as it was in 1939 and a view of a Bedouin patrolling the theatre's rooftop. "Hollywood Cavalcade," directed by Irving Cummings (with uncredited work by Buster Keaton), also stars Don Ameche, Buster Keaton and Al Jolson.

The crowd coming out of the Egyptian.

A frame from a quick pan up the facade.

One of Sid Grauman's famous Bedouins patrolling the roof.  He was just up there for the film. At the time of the shooting the theatre was operated by Fox West Coast and rooftop patrols were a thing of the distant past.

See the Los Angeles Theatres pages on the Egyptian Theatre for a history of the building along with many photos.

Too bad when the film was released it didn't play at the Egyptian. It  had a premiere at the Four Star on Wilshire Blvd. This shot is from Fox Movietone News coverage of the event that is included on the DVD of the film.

Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for this view of the "Hollywood Cavalcade" premiere at the Four Star. It appears in the LAHTF photo pool on Flickr.

The poor theatre is no longer around. Demolition was in 2014. See the Los Angeles Theatres page about the Four Star Theatre for many photos.

On IMDb: "Hollywood Cavalcade"