"Perry Mason: The Case of the Ancient Romeo"

We're at a rehearsal for a production of "Romeo and Juliet" in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Ancient Romeo" (May 1962). The theatre is the Ritz at 5214 Wilshire Blvd. Thanks to Claudia Mullins for spotting it in the episode. She provided all but two of the screenshots seen here.

 

Rex Morrow as the theatre troupe's director. Note the sunburst design on the doors.

 

 

 

A down right preshow pep talk with Patricia Huston, Morrow, and Kendrick Huxham. It's a shot from IMDb. 

 

 

Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale watching the show.   

 

 

The director dies after a fight scene. Time for an investigation.  

 

 

A look down from the balcony. It's a shot on the episode's IMDb page.  

 

 

A view upstage right.  

 

 

Downstage right in front of the dimmerboard with Rex Reason discussing a sword used in the scene.  

 

William Hopper as Paul Drake, watching on a spiral stair that was brought in for this show.  

 

 

At the lockrail bringing in a crucial curtain.  The rigging equipment was removed prior to the theatre's demolition and ended up being installed at the Variety Arts Theatre downtown.   

 

 

The position of the tormentors results in a determination that a certain actress couldn't have seen what she claimed.   

 

 

In the alley after the wrap up. Thanks, Claudia!  

See the page about the Ritz Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It was a 1,660 seat design by Lewis A. Smith that opened as the West Coast Ritz in 1926. After 1929 it was called the Fox Ritz and just the Ritz after Fox West Coast dropped it from their circuit. It was demolished in 1977.  

On IMDb: "Perry Mason: The Case of the Ancient Romeo" 

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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.

"Opening Night"

We spend a lot of time at the Fox Ritz Theatre, 5214 Wilshire Blvd., near the end of its life when it was called the American in "Opening Night" (Faces Distribution, 1977). Here Gena Rowlands is seen upstage right, coming onstage from her dressing room. She plays an overwrought actress trying to understand the character she's playing in a new play headed for Broadway.

The Ritz is supposed to be a tryout house called the Orpheum in New Haven. John Cassavetes directed and also appears as an actor in the film. Other featured performers include Ben Gazzara as the director, Joan Blondell as the play's author, Paul Stewart as the distressed producer and Zohra Lampert as Gazzara's wife.

Does it look like a legit house? Not really with all those drapes. But that was its use at the time.

A side wall view during rehearsal with Blondell and Stewart watching.

Looking out. The square in the terrazzo where the boxoffice was says "American Theatre." 

"We're going to walk." We get a rare glimpse of the marquee soffit. 

Lampert, Gazzara and Rowlands on Wilshire. The street sign at the corner says "Sycamore." 

A look into the house during a preview performance. 

Gazzara pacing the lobby during a preview. 

A mirror view and a closer look at the Skouras-ized drinking fountain. 

Downstage right. We'll later see that dimmerboard at another theatre.

Another down right view.

The show is going badly. Gazzara is up on a platform letting in the house curtain. 

 

Heading out. Time to take the show to New York. 

See the Los Angeles Theatres page about the Ritz Theatre for more about the building. Now gone, it was a 1926 design by L.A. Smith for West Coast Theatres. Thanks to Brendan Lucas and Henry Stanny for noting the appearance of the Ritz in the film.

Rowlands spots the marquee of the show's New York theatre during a stroll the day of the opening. We are indeed on Broadway but it's Broadway in Los Angeles. It's the marquee of the Arcade Theatre, 534 S. Broadway.

The crowd coming into the Arcade Theatre for the New York opening. That bit of yellow readerboard just beyond is the marquee of the Cameo Theatre. 

See the pages about the Arcade and Cameo theatres on the Los Angeles Theatres site for the history of the buildings along with many photos both vintage and recent.

When we go inside our Broadway house in New York it turns out we're at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Here we're offstage right with the lockrail behind the dimmers we last saw at the Ritz. It's immediately obvious that we have lots more wing space here. The same set is onstage that we saw at the Ritz. 

Strangely overdressed theatregoers coming in for the premiere. And what's also strange is that they're coming down the balcony stairs ratther than going up.

A look across the auditorium prior to the show. Rowlands is late. Out drinking again and trying to come to terms with her part. It calls for an older woman and she's determined to figure out a way to play it without age being relevant. She's said that it'll be the end of her career if she's percieved as old. 

Downstage right at the Civic waiting to start.

Blondell and Stewart at the back of the main floor. 

Onstage at the Civic. The show doesn't go well. Rowland's character is drunk and improvising.

Rowlands and the crew backstage waiting for a cue during the show's last act.  

See the page about the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site for photos of the building and information about its history. 

Gazzara outside the Arcade during the show. He's heading to a bar for a double Scotch.

On IMDb: "Opening Night"