"My Dream Is Yours"

We get a fine view north on Vine St. toward what is now the Montalban Theatre in "My Dream Is Yours"(Warner Bros., 1949). Here it's a radio studio with the vertical signs saying "CBS" and "KNX."

Michael Curtiz directed Jack Carson and Doris Day in the story of an agent who will try anything to turn a talented singer into a new star he needs for a radio program. Lee Bowman plays a cad of a crooner Doris (temporarily) falls for, Adolphe Menjou is Jack's frazzled boss in the talent agency and Eve Arden is a colleague in the office. Bugs Bunny also makes an appearance.

Later Jack and Doris are having a cheap lunch and we get a nice view up the street toward the Montalban.

We get a view of Grauman's Chinese in the background as Jack makes a phone call from Hollywood Blvd. and Orange Dr.

See the pages on the Chinese Theatre and the Montalban on the Los Angeles Theatres site for the history of these two Hollywood landmarks along with hundreds of photos.

On IMDb: "My Dream Is Yours"

"Burlesque"

Christina Aguilera looks out her hotel window in "Burlesque" (Sony/Screen Gems, 2010) and sees the Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory and, on the far right, the vertical at the El Capitan. Which is pretty amazing considering we see her going into the Rosslyn Hotel at 5th & Main.

See the pages on the Chinese Theatre and the El Capitan on the Los Angeles Theatres site for the history of these two Hollywood landmarks along with hundreds of photos.

Christina hits the streets looking for work as a singer or dancer and stumbles into the Burlesque Lounge, club on Sunset Blvd. run by Cher. Peter Gallagher plays Cher's ex-husband who still owns half of the club. Christina falls in love with the place and chats with bartender Cam Gigandet, who eventually becomes her boyfriend.

Alan Cumming is in the boxoffice, Stanley Tucci is the costumer and all-around backstage guy, Kristin Bell and Julianne Hough are dancers. Oh, yes. We learn about air rights, something that will save the club from foreclosure, via a real estate developer played by Eric Dane.  Steve Antin directed. Cinematography was by Bojan Bazelli.

Another exterior shot of the club. We're not actually on Sunset, but close. It's the fire escape on the north side of the Montalban Theatre, 1615 Vine St. in Hollywood.  The club interiors were done on a set.

A scene in the parking lot north of the theatre with Cher and pissed-off dancer Kristen Bell. You couldn't shoot this today as there's a new parking garage on the site.

Another view from across the street. See the page on the Montalban on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of this legit house along with many photos.

On IMDb: "Burlesque"

"Lady Killer"

"Lady Killer" with James Cagney (Warner Bros., 1933) starts in New York on the rooftop of a Warner Bros. theatre called the Strand. It's time for roll call and a pep talk. Silent film detective John Bengtson has determined that the scene was shot on the roof of the former Arnold Building auto dealership and parking garage at 7th, Figueroa and Wilshire. Later the Statler Hilton was on the site. It's now the location of the Wilshire Grand Center. John has it all delightfully analyzed in his article "How James Cagney Filmed Lady Killer."

On the right it's part of the Barker Bros. Department Store, a building still on the southeast corner of 7th and Figueroa. The Signal Oil vertical sign we see at the center of the image is on the building now known as the Fine Arts Building.

Cagney showing up late for roll call.  On the left in the distance is the Bible Institute on Hope St.

The manager telling the head usher that he's been hearing stories about a particular usher using the mezzanine men's room for games of dice. We don't see it in this shot but the usher's hat has a lovely WB crest on the front.

We get a night view of the marquee of the theatre whose roof we were supposedly on earlier. It's actually just a couple blocks away. It's footage of the marquee of the Warner Bros. Downtown Theatre at 7th and Hill. with a bit of work in the center to rename it the Strand. We get the tip of the Hill St. vertical sign on the right where it says "...TOWN THEATRE."

"Wild Boys of the Road" was a September 1933 release. "Lady Killer" was out in December. See the pages about the Warner Downtown on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the building as well as several hundred photos. The theatre, now used for selling jewelry, opened as the Pantages in 1920.

Cagney soon gets fired at the theatre for multiple infractions including not being nice to a lady trying to bring her dog into the show and then gets involved in various rackets. When things get too hot he leaves New York with Mae Clark and goes to Los Angeles. He gets picked up by the cops at the Santa Fe station but Mae bails him out. Of course Cagney becomes a film star when a scout looking for gangster types spots him. The film, directed by Roy Del Ruth, also stars Douglas Dumbrille, Margaret Lindsay and Leslie Fenton.

Later some mobsters from back east arrive and we get a chase that includes this view up Vine St. showing what is now the Montalban Theatre south of Hollywood Blvd. Thanks to John Bengtson for spotting the theatre in the film. All ends well with Cagney continuing his film career and marrying a movie star.

The Los Angeles Theatres site has a page on the Montalban Theatre with many photos.

On IMDb: "Lady Killer"

"Rules Don't Apply"

We get some lovely 1959 background footage as we drive down Hollywood Blvd. near the beginning of Warren Beatty's "Rules Don't Apply" (20th Century Fox, 2016). One moment we're at the airport with Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich) picking up aspiring starlet Marla Mabry (Lily Collins) and her mother Lucy (Annette Bening). The next shot is this lovely drive east on Hollywood Blvd.

Forbes is a driver for Howard Hughes. Drivers, according to the Hughes rules, aren't supposed to date the starlets. So, of course, we know the young couple will get together. Beatty himself is Howard Hughes. Others featured include Martin Sheen, Matthew Broderick, and Candace Bergen.

Glen Norman comments: "'Rules Don't Apply' was a bit flexible with the history of Hollywood Blvd. in 1959. Construction on the Walk of Fame didn't actually begin until 1960; the first star (Stanley Kramer) was set on 03-28-60. The Walk of Fame was dedicated in November 1960 and was finally completed in the Spring of 1961. From a street light historian's point of view that means there wouldn't be any of the 5-Star triple-lamps in any photo dating from 1959. Given the 98 week run of 'Ben Hur,' the film AND the street lights would have coexisted in late 1960 and 1961--not 1959. I got my dates from the Hollywood Walk of Fame website."   

Another look as we drive east. Sights include a bit of the Vogue Theatre vertical and a good view of the Egyptian Theatre facade with signage up for "Ben Hur." The story is that they found a car to use in the film that was a match for the black one we see ahead in this footage.

A detail from the footage gives us a closer look at the Egyptian. That canopy sticking out this side of the theatre is from the Pig 'N Whistle restaurant. "Ben-Hur" opened in November 1959 and got a 98 week 70mm reserved seat run.

We continue east and in several shots we see the Egyptian and the Hollywood Inn behind us. But then, in a case of bad movie geography, we're seen driving by the Chinese:

In this background footage the Chinese is seen running "The King and I" in Grandeur 70. The film, shot in Cinemascope 55, had played the theatre once in 1956 in 35mm. This was a 70mm reissue that opened May 10, 1961 and ran for five weeks.

We get another trip down the same stretch of the street about forty minutes into the film -- but this time driving west.

Getting a bit closer to Musso & Franks and the Vogue Theatre over on the right as we head toward Highland.

A look to the backseat during a conversation with Marla gives us this view of the Iris out the right side of the window. The theatre, at 6508 Hollywood Blvd., was later renamed the Fox.

A later trip north on Vine St. toward the Ricardo Montalban Theatre. But the scene isn't long enough to get close for a view. At the time this footage was taken it would have been called the Huntington Hartford.

We look to the backseat at Marla during this excursion on Vine St. The theatre we see isn't anything on Vine but one miles away. It's the Loyola at 8610 S. Sepulvda Blvd., down near LAX.

See the pages about the Vogue, Egyptian, Montalban and Grauman's Chinese on the Los Angeles Theatres website for many photos of these theatres.

On IMDb: "Rules Don't Apply"

"Earthquake"

The title sequence of "Earthquake" (Universal, 1974) includes a flyover of Hollywood. On the left it's the Huntington Hartford, 1615 Vine St. It's now known as the Ricardo Montalban Theatre. 

 

The film stars Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, Genevieve Bujold, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Richard Roundtree, Victoria Principal and Marjoe Gortner. Mark Robson directed. Philip Lathrop got the credit for cinematography. The big attraction was Sensurround. When the film ran at the Chinese Ted Mann put a net under the ceiling, allegedly to catch debris falling during the earthquake scenes. 

 

 

 

A moment later the Pantages comes into view in the upper right. The theatre, at 6233 Hollywood Blvd., was still a movie house at the time of this shoot. Thanks to Kurt Wahlner for noting its appearance in this sequence. That's vine St. running up the center of the image. The concave yellow facade on the far left is the Vine Theatre at 6321 Hollywood Blvd. 

 

 

Here on the left it's the Hollywood Palace, 1715 Vine St. It had opened as the Hollywood Playhouse and is now a music venue known as Avalon. The roof of the Pantages is on the right.

 

 

Much later in the film we get a look at the Cinerama Dome, 6360 Sunset Blvd. This shot also includes the Huntington Hartford over in the upper right. Thanks to Cliff Carson for calling attention to the Dome's appearance in the film in a post on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page. The skinny building in the center is the Sunset Vine Tower. The highrise to the right is the Sunset Media Center, 6255 Sunset Blvd. 

 

See the pages about the Montalban Theatre, the Pantages, the Vine Theatre, the Hollywood Palace/Avalon and the Cinerama Dome on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of  each of these theatres along with many photos. 

 

On IMDb: "Earthquake" 

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"The Comic"

The Carthay Circle Theatre, 6316 San Vicente Blvd., appears in Carl Reiner's film "The Comic" (Columbia, 1969).  The film features Dick Van Dyke as fictitious silent film star Billy Bright, Michelle Lee as his wife, Cornel Wilde as a film director, and Mickey Rooney as Bright's sidekick Cockeye. In this scene, set in the 20s, we're at the theatre for a premiere of a Billy Bright film.

The theatre opened in 1926 and was long a major first-run house with many roadshow engagements. See the Los Angeles Theatres pages on the Carthay Circle for photos and history.

An interior view at the premiere, not shot at the Carthay Circle.  

Decades later Billy Bright and Cockeye walk by the Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. The theatre is running some old Billy Bright films. 

Cockeye inquires at the boxoffice about start times. Not until next week, he's told. A Chaplin festival has been held over. See the page about the Silent Movie Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for some photos. It opened in 1942. 

On Vine St. with the Huntington Hartford Theatre in the background. Cockeye has his eyes closed trying to guess whose star they're standing on. See the Los Angeles Theatres page for information on the 1927 vintage legit house. It's now known as the Ricardo Montalban.

On IMDb: "The Comic"