"Blade"

Wesley Snipes is a vampire hunter in downtown Los Angeles in "Blade" (New Line Cinema, 1998). Yes, that's his weapon of choice. We get this shot of the Tower Theatre, 8th and Broadway, in the opening credits. Wesley's sort of a mutant who can withstand sunlight, a "daywalker." But he's unhappy that he's been infected and does what he can to kill any vampires he encounters. 

 The film also features Kris Kristofferson, N'Bushe Wright, Stephen Dorff, Donal Logue, Udo Kier, Tracy Lords, Arli Jover, Tim Guinee and Sanaa Lathan. Stephen Norrington directed. The cinematography was by Theo van de Sande. 

 

Sunlight hitting Broadway. We're looking north from the Merritt Building at 8th and Broadway. That's the Globe down there at 744 S. Broadway. At the time of the shoot it was retail in the lobby. The nightclub in the auditorium used the alley as the entrance.  

 

Night in the city and the vampires are out. We're looking at the Palace Theatre, 630 S. Broadway. We've flipped this image horizontally. In the film this bit of footage appears backwards. 

 

Wesley is out with N'Bushe Wright, an epidemiologist who has been infected by a vampire bite. That's the Tower Theatre in the background. On the far right a bit of the Hamburger/May Co. building on the southwest corner of 8th and Broadway. 

 

 

Wesley driving south on Broadway with the red neon of the Clifton's vertical behind him.  

 

 

Another look at the Globe Theatre in the 700 block. It's another piece of footage that appears flipped in the film.  

 

 

 

This guy is out for a bite. We're again at 8th and Broadway. There's a sliver of the Tower's marquee on the far left and the dark Rialto Theatre in the center of the image. It's at 812 S. Broadway, now used for retail. 

 

 

A look west across Broadway toward the Olympic Theatre, 313 W. 8th St. On the right it's the Merritt Building, redone for the film to look like a nightclub. 

 

Another view of the Olympic. Thanks to the Worldwide Guide to Film Locations for noting the use of the 8th and Broadway corner in the film. They shared a shot from the scene on the Film Locations - Then and Now Facebook group and noted that Stephen Dorff's vampire club on the corner was called "The Pearl." 

 

 

Wesley and N'Bushe take another walk on 8th St. by the Tower Theatre. On the marquee: "3 For A Buck." 

 

 

A moment later at 8th and Broadway.   

In the daylight once again. We're looking west on 7th with the State Theatre's building across Broadway on the left. Note the Chinatown decor with the pole and phone booth. The film is pretending that we have a big Chinese-style park just out of the frame to the right. Wesley accosts vampire Stephen Dorff there, who had put on sunblock to enable him to try a bit of time in the sunlight.  

 

 

Wesley wants to shoot Stephen but he's holding a child as hostage. The then throws her out of the park, into the street. And gets away. Wesley is distracted and runs to save the kid from an oncoming bus.  

See the Los Angeles Theatres pages about the Globe Theatre, the Olympic Theatre, the Palace Theatre, the Rialto Theatre, the State Theatre and the Tower Theatre. You'll find lots of photos, a history of each venue, and shots from other films in which that theatre has appeared. 

On IMDb: "Blade" 

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"Godzilla"

Most of Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla" (TriStar Pictures, 1998) is set in New York but a substantial chunk was shot in downtown Los Angeles on Main, Broadway, 6th, 7th and 8th streets. This shot, from about 48 minutes into the film, looks down Broadway toward 7th St. On the right it's the State Theatre. We'll see a lot of it. See the pages about the State Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. 

 

The film features Mathew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Michael Lerner, Harry Shearer, Arabella Field, Vicki Lewis and Doug Savant. The cinematography was by Ueli Steiger.  

 

Another look-out-the-back-window shot from early in the film. Thanks to Kevin Binger for noting the L.A. locations in a Facebook post for the group Film Locations - Then and Now. 

 

 

 

Much, much later Matthew, Jean and several others escape from the beast in a taxi and try to get out of town. But we seem to be going around and around the same few blocks. Here we're on 7th looking west with the State on the left. They were running Disney's "Hercules."   

 

 

 The cab that our team is in heads west across Broadway. 

 

 

A view out the windshield. Godzilla approaches on the right from the 600 block. 

 

 

 Big trouble. 

 

 

 Driving over his toes. 

 

At last, on a different block. On the left it's the side of the Tower Theatre as the cab turns off Broadway to go east on 8th St. 

 

 

  

The beast rounds the corner a moment later.  See the pages about the Tower Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1927, a design by S. Charles Lee that's been turned into an Apple store. 

 

 

Guess what? Another look at the State Theatre in this view south.  

 

 

 

A corner view of the State. On the right in this shot we're looking west on 7th.  

 

 

Finally a view farther down Broadway. We're looking north from 8th St. On the right it's the Globe Theatre, in a three-story building at 744 S. Broadway. But the building the Globe is in is actually much taller. For the film they whacked it off at the cornice above the 3rd floor to make room for Godzilla to swing his tail around. 

 

 

A view of the Globe's truncated building a moment later. See the pages about the Globe Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1913 as the Morosco, a two-balcony legit house. It's now a nightclub.  

 

 

We move farther north on Broadway for this shot in the 600 block. On the left note the bottom of one of the vertical signs of the Palace Theatre, 630 S. Broadway. For the theatre on the right they've added some signage on top of the readerboard so we don't recognize it as the Los Angeles, an unlikely name for a theatre in New York. See the Los Angeles Theatres site's pages about the Palace Theatre and the Los Angeles. 

 

 

 

Circling back to 8th St. for yet another shot of the Tower Theatre.  Here the cab is coming out of the alley behind the theatre to head west on 8th. 

 

 

A last look at the Tower to end the film's tour of downtown Los Angeles theatres.  

On IMDb: "Godzilla" 

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"I Wanna Hold Your Hand"

Six New Jersey teenagers head to the big city in 1964 with hopes of catching a glimpse of the Beatles the weekend of their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (Universal, 1978). The film revolves around CBS Studio 50 at 1697 Broadway in New York. Here they're using a backlot version for the exterior. The night of the show when one of the gang climbs a tower atop the theatre trying to disable a microwave antenna we get a nice look at the Eastern Columbia Building.

 

In 1967 CBS renamed their theatre the Ed Sullivan. Originally it was Hammerstein's. Beginning in 1993 it was used by the David Letterman Show and, since 2013, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The other focus is the Plaza Hotel, where the Beatles were staying. They use a backlot set for the exterior scenes with the Biltmore for many of the lobby scenes. We also do lots of driving around on Main St., 6th and 7th. There's a scene in a barber shop near 6th and Main and we see a bit of the "Santa Fe" vertical sign. 

The film features Nancy Allen, Bobby DiCicco, Marc McClure, Susan Kendall Newman, Wendi Jo Sperber, Theresa Saldana, Eddie Deezen, Christian Juttner and Will Jordan as Ed Sullivan. Robert Zemeckis directed. The cinematography was by Donald M. Morgan.   

 

 

 

Inside the theatre. It's obvious we're not in New York's Studio 50 but certainly difficult at this point to see what theatre was used. 

 

 

 

It's the day before the big show and ushers are gathered on the main floor for a briefing. 

 

 

 

Looking in from the rear of the house. Here it becomes evident that we're at the Hollywood Playhouse, 1735 Vine St. Originally it was a legit house, later a TV studio with its best-known branding as the Hollywood Palace. It's now a music venue called Avalon. 

 

 

 

Will Jordan as Ed Sullivan briefs the guys on the rambunctious behavior they might expect. 

 

Later Theresa Saldana, one of the teenagers who aspires to be a photographer, sneaks in to get some shots. 

 

 

 

On the set the Beatles will use. She's accosted a moment later by a security guard and taken downstage right and shoved out the stage door. But before she leaves, the guard agrees to open the door for her during the show if she'll bring $50. 

 

Shoved out the stage door, Theresa ought to be at street level. Instead we're up on the second level of a fire escape. Look familiar? We're in the exit passage on the south side of the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles, 630 S. Broadway. She's just come out of an exit from the 1st balcony.   

 

 

 

One of the gang rushing to the theatre on the night of the show.  

 

Will Jordan onstage before the show trying to calm the action in the balcony. Note a bit of the Hollywood Playhouse's ceiling. 

 

 

 

Another balcony shot. 

 

 

 

A look at the stage during the show. 

 

See the Los Angeles Theatres pages about the Hollywood Playhouse/Avalon for the history of the theatre and many, many photos.   

 

 

To get to the big city Marc McClure, one of the teenagers without a license, has borrowed a limo from his father's mortuary. The show has begun but Theresa, young aspiring photographer, has come up with $50 and her friend is driving her to the stage door. In this shot we're looking west on 7th St. toward Hill.   

The blank marquee just beyond the intersection is the Warner, at the time of this shoot closed and getting turned into a jewelry mart. 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.  

 

 

 

Pulling into the alley between Broadway and Spring, behind the Palace Theatre. 

 

 

 

Theresa Saldana heading up to the stage door. This passage later makes appearances in many films including the 1993 Bette Midler TV version of "Gypsy," "The Gambler," "Dreamgirls," as the back entrance to Ciro's in "Being the Ricardos" and in "Blonde."   

But she returns to the limo and uses her $50 to bribe a cop who has arrived and asks to see the license of her limo driving friend. The Beatles set is over and they exit and think this is their limo parked at the stage door. Our heroine, sitting in the front seat, turns around and as the limo heads down the alley, gets the shot of the Beatles she came to the city for. 

See the pages about the Palace Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1911 as the Orpheum.    

On IMDb: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" 

"Magazine Dreams"

The camera wanders into the Palace Theatre, 630 S. Broadway, in a scene from "Magazine Dreams" (Briarcliff Entertainment, 2025). Elijah Bynum's film about a bodybuilder and his struggles features Jonathan Majors, Harrison Page and Harriet Sansom Harris. The cinematography was by Adam Arkapaw. Thanks to Tommy Bernard for spotting the theatre in the film's trailer. 

 

 

 

 

A look over to the house right side of the lobby.

 

 

 

 

Heading into the empty auditorium. 

 

 

 

On the Palace stage. 

See the pages about the Palace Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1911 as the Orpheum.    

On IMDb: "Magazine Dreams"  The trailer is on YouTube. 

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"Strange Days"

It's a dystopian nightmare in New York City in 1999 with guns and tanks on the streets in Kathryn Bigelow's "Strange Days" (20th Century Fox, 1995). Ralph Fiennes cruises the streets on December 30, two days before the expected Y2K meltdown. But the Christmas decorations look suspiciously like the ones on Hollywood Boulevard during that era. Indeed, the theatre he passes is the Ritz/Pussycat at 6656 Hollywood Blvd. 

 

Ralph is playing a cop turned street hustler who peddles "clips," videos that feel real if you are "wired" by putting on a special headset. Customers, of course, want sex clips but also thrills they can't get in their own boring lives: robbing a liquor store, getting in fights, etc. Many of the clips are generated by people wearing the headsets and having a recorder nearby that records not only what they're seeing but also their feelings.  

 

Ralph and friend Juliette Lewis stumble upon what looks like a police department death squad after an acquaintance is executed. There's a clip to prove it and two cops are after it. The film also features Angela Bassett, Tom Sizemore, Vincent D'Onofrio, Brigitte Bako and Josef Sommer. The cinematography was by Matthew F. Leonetti. Thanks to Sean Ault for noting the various theatres that appear in the film. 

 

Ralph drives around a lot with different footage cut together to make the streets look different. But this is a second view of the same theatre. And we get it in a brief shot a third time as well.

See the page about the Pussycat / Ritz Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It had opened in 1940 as a newsreel house. By the time of this film shoot it was in use as a church. 

 

It's new Year's Eve and we're supposedly in Times Square. We are on Broadway but it's the one in Los Angeles. The Palace Theatre, 630 S. Broadway, is down there in the distance in the center of the shot. 

 

 

 

The Palace is in the background as Ralph Fiennes, on the left, and Angela Bassett, on the right, run from a death squad cop who has spotted them. 

 

 The military on alert in front of the Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway. 

 

 

 

Another shot at the Los Angeles. 

 

See the pages about the Los Angeles Theatre on the L.A. Theatres site for a history of the 1931 vintage movie palace along with hundreds of photos. 

 

A troublemaker at the festivities. And a bit of the Palace signage on the left. 

 

 

Angela Bassett is in the foreground, trying to flee from one of the death squad cops. She has the clip showing a murder and gives it to the police commissioner. The overexposed signage in the background says "... Times Square," trying to help with the New York Vibe.

 

Angela still running, with the Palace in the background. Evidently she was looking in the wrong direction. Note that the shot has been flipped.  

 

 

 

One of the cops has her on the ground. She's fighting. 

 

More wrestling in front of the Palace. 

 

 

 

She triumphs. But only for a moment and then additional police subdue her. She's rescued by the arrival of Josef Sommer, playing the police commissioner. He's finally looked at the clip and now understands what has been going on.  

 

See the pages about the Palace Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1911 as the Orpheum.    

 

 

A distance view of the New Year's Eve celebrations. This shot actually IS New York City. Note the marquee of the National Twin in the upper left.

On IMDb: "Strange Days"