"Tales of Manhattan"

 

A tailcoat gets passed around in "Tales of Manhattan" (20th Century Fox, 1942), a five part film that recounts how it affects the lives of different groups of people. Here we have a backlot version of the entrance to Carnegie Hall in an episode featuring Charles Laughton as a composer trying to get his work performed. He's sneaking in to see a musician friend who's in the middle of a rehearsal.  

 

A look down on the orchestra from one of the stage right dressing room levels.  

 

 

 

Victor Francken plays the temperamental conductor, a take on Toscanini. 

 

 

Another look into the empty house. 

 

 

 

A rare view offstage left as Charles comes in an upstage door. 

 

Tangling with stage braces as he makes his way downstage. 

 

The house right proscenium box seen behind Victor. 

 

Passing the word to the friend that Charles is waiting to get an introduction to Victor. 

 

 

 

Waiting downstage left with a view of the dressing room stairs beyond.

 

 

 

Victor conducting at the concert. He liked Charles and put his piece in the program.

 

A look across to stage left. Charles will be on the podium next to conduct his piece. 

 

Elsa Lanchester, playing Laughton's wife, in the house left box with Adeline De Walt Reynolds as her mother. At the last minute Elsa had found Charles a nice tailcoat. Although it's too small he decides to wear it anyway. 

 

Charles on the podium, full of confidence.  

 

 

 

All goes well until laughter erupts in the audience when the coat's seams start splitting. 

 

 

Dejected, he stops the program and takes off the coat. 

 

Victor, in the box, takes off his own coat as a show of support.  

 

A look to the stage. 

 

 

 

Beginning again. 

 

Audience members taking off their coats as well. 

 

 

Latecomers bewildered by the casual dress.

The other episodes star Henry Fonda, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Eugene Palette, Cesar Romero, Gail Patrick and many others. W.C. Fields and Margaret Dumont are in a sequence that was deleted from the U.S. theatrical release version of the film. Julien Duvivier directed. The cinematography was by Joseph Walker. The script is credited to Ben Hecht and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on a play by Ferenc Molnár.

 Check out the page about the Philharmonic Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history and many photos of the building. It was demolished in 1985.

On IMDb: "Tales of Manhattan"

"Possessed"

A production still of Clark Gable on the stage of the Philharmonic Auditorium, 5th and Olive. Thanks to Paul Ayers for sharing this photo from his collection on a Facebook post. Paul notes that Gable was taking a smoke break prior to filming the finale of "Possessed" (MGM, 1931). The Auditorium was being used as the site of a political rally.

Clarence Brown directed, based on a play called "The Mirage" by Edgar Selwyn. Leonore J. Coffee did the screenplay. The film also stars Joan Crawford and Wallace Ford. The cinematography was by Oliver T. Marsh. 

 

Shots from the scene in the film: 

 

Gable on the stage. He's running for governor. 

 

 

A look into the house.

 

Let's be symmetrical. A view to house right. 

 

A view from the top. The guy on the left is a paid agitator.  

A fine look across from house left. Trouble is about to begin. 

 

A view from house right. 

 

 Another house right view. 

 

Can you imagine? A paid protestor trying to disrupt the meeting. 

 

 More chaos to begin in a moment. 

 

Time to start throwing leaflets. But we get a nice view of soffit decorative work. 

 

More leaflets. What do they say?

 

More floating down from the ceiling dome.  

 

Gable on stage with lots of shouting and a snowstorm of leaflets. 

 

Crawford catches one: "Who is Mrs. Moreland?" Well, that's the name she's been using. 

Crawford stands up to address the crowd. "I am Mrs. Moreland."

 

She's recently broken off her affair with him: "He means nothing to me. And I mean nothing to him."

 

She makes a hurried run across the lobby after her speech.

 

And out the Olive St. exit doors. We're supposedly in New York so she heads for the el station. 

 

The final clinch on the stairs in the rain after Gable runs after her. "If I win I want to be with you. If I lose I want to be with you."

See the page about the Philharmonic Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the building and many photos. The 2,670 seat theatre opened in 1906 and was demolished in 1985. 

On IMDb: "Possessed" 

This film has nothing to do with the 1947 film of the same title, also starring Joan Crawford.

"Rhapsody in Blue"

Near the end of Irving Rapper's "Rhapsody in Blue" (Warner Bros., 1945) George Gershwin goes to Hollywood to perform in a concert of his works with the L.A. Philharmonic.

The filming was done at the Philharmonic Auditorium, 5th and Olive, the location of the original event. The scene re-creates the second of two benefit concerts held February 10 and 11, 1937. His "Concerto in F" was one piece on the program. These were to be the last two events he played. At the time of the concerts, Gershwin was actually living in Los Angeles, having come west a few months earlier to do some film work.

The film stars Robert Alda as George, Herbert Rudley as Ira, Joan Leslie as the singing star George should have married, and Alexis Smith as another girlfriend. Also featured are Charles Coburn, Hazel Scott, Oscar Levant, Al Jolson, Paul Whiteman and George White. The cinematography was by Sol Polito. 

 

 

 

Ira (Herbert Rudley) sitting in the house left box with friends and family. 

 

George Gershwin (Robert Alda) at the piano. 

 

A look to the rear of the main floor. The Phil's conductor is played by Hugo Kirchhoffer. 

See the page about the Philharmonic Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the building and many photos. The 2,670 seat theatre opened in 1906 and was demolished in 1985.

On IMDb: "Rhapsody in Blue"

"St. Ives"

 

A fine view across the parking lot at 6th and Hill from J. Lee Thompson's crime drama "St. Ives" (Warner Bros, 1976). The lot used to be the site of the Metropolitan/Paramount Theatre. Across the park it's the Biltmore Hotel and, a bit right of center at 5th and Olive, the Philharmonic Auditorium Building. 

 

The film stars Charles Bronson, Jacqueline Bisset, John Houseman, Harris Yulin, Harry Guardino, Maximilian Schell and Dana Elcar. The cinematography was by Lucien Ballard.  

 

Looking into Lindley Place, the alley north of the Los Angeles Theatre. 

 

 

Bronson at the newsstand with the Philharmonic Auditorium seen in the upper left. It would be demolished in 1985. The newsdealer is also Bronson's bookie.

See the pages on the Los Angeles Theatres site about the Metropolitan/Paramount Theatre, the Philharmonic Auditorium and the Los Angeles Theatre. 

 

 

 

The Pickwick Drive-In in Burbank makes an appearance late in the movie.

 

It's the site of a payoff operation that gets badly bungled. One party is driving in.

 

 

A look at some of that "Action Packed" western drama on the screen. 

 

 

 

Another shot from a bit farther back. 

 

Party number two arrives and we get a view of the projection building, decorated in the Pacific Theatres yellow and blue. Two more vehicles are involved with various individuals observing. Jacqueline turns out to be dangerous and two corrupt cops get killed. 

Visit the page about the Pickwick Drive-In on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the theatre.

On IMDb: "St. Ives"