Leave it to Harold (and Beaver) at the Long Beach Pike

In a prior post I wrote how an idyllic Skokie, Illinois street once stood in for Mayfield on Leave it to Beaver.  Although that episode has no connection to silent movies, I was surprised to see that the Season 5, Episode 21 installment “Beaver’s Fear” does.  During the show older brother Wally and his cool older friends allow young Theodore to tag along on their trip to the “Bell Port” amusement park in order to qualify for a group discount.  Shaken by Eddie Haskell’s constant teasing, Beaver has doubts about withstanding the roller coaster, but in the end Beaver has a great time, while Eddie freaks out, and must be carried bodily from the coach at the end of the ride.

The former Cyclone twin-track racing roller coaster at the Long Beach Pike (1915-1968) stood in for the Bell Port attraction.  Although the rear projection footage is about as convincing as Ken Osmond’s acting during the scene (see both above), it nonetheless provides a fascinating photographic record of the long lost coaster, the last twin-track (or racing) coaster in the country at the time of its demise.

Click to enlarge. The Loff Hippodrome tower, housing the Pike Carousel, appears behind Harold Lloyd during a scene from Number Please? (1920) to the left, and in the Beaver episode to the right.

USC Digital Library

The twin racing coaster was originally called the Jackrabbit Racer at the time Harold Lloyd filmed Number Please? there in 1920, but was renamed The Cyclone in 1930 after it was upgraded with higher peaks and longer drops.  The Loff Hippodrome shown above and to the right housed a distinctive carousel that appeared both in Number Please? and in Buster Keaton’s 1920 comedy The High Sign.

Lloyd was not the first comedian to feature the Pike’s star attraction in an early film.  Below, the Roscoe Arbuckle – Buster Keaton – Al St. John comedy The Cook (1918) also included many scenes shot on the twin-track coaster.

Click to enlarge.  At left from The Cook, Al St. John streaks uphill between the twin tracks – to the right a matching shot from the Beaver episode.  The curved roof of the Majestic Ballroom (and skating rink) appears at back to the right in both images.

A view of The Cyclone racing roller coaster.  The tower to the Loff Hippodrome appears due north of the coaster.  LAPL 00074673

Curt Gibbs (ExperienceLA):www.flickr.com/photos/experiencela/98771917

In one of my earliest posts, I write about the Long Beach Goatland attraction that appears during the Arbuckle-Keaton-St. John comedy The Cook, and how the surviving Loff Hippodrome roof and cupola tower (right) sits in a nearby parking lot.  Sadly, a check on Google Street View shows that the cupola is no longer sitting in the parking lot.  I have not been able to determine whether it has been safely relocated or has finally been demolished.  The Pike and Silver Spray Pier were torn down long ago, although the Rainbow Harbor entertainment center that stands there today (see below) has a Ferris Wheel.

HAROLD LLOYD images and the names of Mr. Lloyd’s films are all trademarks and/or service marks of Harold Lloyd Entertainment Inc. Images and movie frame images reproduced courtesy of The Harold Lloyd Trust and Harold Lloyd Entertainment Inc.

Leave it to Beaver – (C) 1962 Revue Studios.

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How Charlie Chaplin filmed The Kid

In an early post I uploaded a PowerPoint presentation highlighting some of the historic settings in Chinatown and the Plaza de Los Angeles where Chaplin filmed his early masterpiece The Kid (1921).  You can download the 60 MB file here.   In honor of TCM screening The Kid on June 16, 2013, I am presenting a few static images from this presentation.  You can read about all of the locations, many not covered here, in my book Silent Traces.

Here is a post about The Artist being filmed at the Pickford Mansion and The Kid mansion.

Here is a full post about Chaplin filming The Kid on Olvera Street

All images from Chaplin films made from 1918 onwards, copyright © Roy Export Company Establishment. CHARLES CHAPLIN, CHAPLIN, and the LITTLE TRAMP, photographs from and the names of Mr. Chaplin’s films are trademarks and/or service marks of Bubbles Incorporated SA and/or Roy Export Company Establishment. Used with permission.

On the Fence – Keaton’s stunts in Cops and Our Hospitality

In a recent post I showed how Buster Keaton staged his daring waterfall rescue from Our Hospitality (1923).  In honor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s presentation of Our Hospitality this June 8 at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, here is another circa 1920s view of the “T” shaped pool on the former Brunton Studio backlot, now part of Paramount, where Buster filmed this amazing stunt. 

Click to enlarge – San Diego Air and Space Museum

On the fence

The above view looks east – the red box marks the “T” shaped plunge near Melrose Avenue running along the far right.  The yellow oval above marks a “Y”-shaped urban set that Buster used for a famous stunt on top of a fence (at left) in his 1922 short comedy Cops.  Below, another view of the plunge (red box) and urban set (yellow oval), this time looking north from Melrose along the bottom towards the Hollywood Forever Cemetery at the top.

Click to enlarge hollywoodphotographs.com

Early in the movie Cops, Buster mistakenly believes he has purchased a horse and wagon from a street bum for $5.00.  Behind them is a “MONEY TO LOAN” pawn shop set.  This same set appears during Buster’s fence stunt.

Zooming in on the above northern looking aerial view, we get a direct view of where Buster filmed these scenes from Cops.

Click to enlarge.  The directional arrow matches the arrow in the top-most aerial view.

Buster also filmed scenes from his later comedy short Day Dreams (1922) at the same urban street set on the former Brunton backlot (see below).

Both from Day Dreams. The view to the left looks south along the Brunton Studio “Y”-shaped street set – the Cops fence location is out of view around the corner to the left.  The “MONEY TO LOAN” sign appearing behind Big Joe Roberts at the right is marked with a yellow oval on the left.

The views above show how Buster used the “Y”-shaped street set for Day Dreams. Below, we can see portions of the Cops set as it appears in Day Dreams.

Click to enlarge.  The same entrance cornice (red box) and policeman’s call box (yellow oval) appear in both Cops to the left and Day Dreams to the right.

The matching views above show how the elements from the Cops fence set appear in Buster’s later film Day Dreams.  Buster used the same “Y”-shaped set further in Day Dreams for the failed-thespian sequence where Buster is physically kicked out of a theater.  As a discreet homage to his two sisters-in-law, the famous actresses Norma and Constance Talmadge, Buster placed movie posters from their films on the theater wall.  This poster (left) from Norma’s 1922 feature Smilin’ Through can be seen in the right movie frame above, just to the left of the yellow oval.  Also featured is a poster for Constance Talmadge’s 1921 rom-com Woman’s Place.

I explain on bonus features of the Kino-Lorber Keaton Short Films collection, and hope to write here in future posts, how Buster also filmed scenes from Cops on the backlots of the former Metro Studio, directly across the street from his own small studio in Hollywood, and at the Goldwyn Studio in Culver City.

Cops, Day Dreams, and Our Hospitality licensed by Douris UK, Ltd.

The blue square in the Google aerial view below is the current Paramount Studios pool/parking lot.  The Brunton plunge stood to the lower right of the corner of Windsor Blvd. and Valentino Pl.

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Keaton location to be demolished – photo help?

I just discovered where Keaton filmed a scene from Cops (1922), as Big Joe Roberts retrieves his wallet from Buster (but not its cash contents) by leaning out to grab it from a passing taxi.  The scene was filmed at the corner of Sunset and Detroit, a block diagonally from the Chaplin Studio.

One apartment appearing in the scene is (momentarily) still standing, but I found online that a demolition permit for the building was issued just last week, on May 24, 2013.  The view looks east down Sunset from Detroit. The yellow oval marks the trees along Sunset in front of the mansion, north of the Chaplin Studio on La Brea, where Charlie’s brother Syd resided.

Click to enlarge. The red box and yellow oval match the above movie frame. The blue oval is a small real estate office, see below.  The Chaplin Studio backlot shows a tent built for Chaplin’s 1928 feature The Circus

Buster rides off with Joe’s taxi and cash.  Notice the little girl watching, sitting on the corner, and the telephone lineman above her. The corner real estate office (blue oval) appears in the aerial view above.

The apartment at 7130 W. Sunset Blvd. will not be standing much longer, but perhaps some Keaton fan in the Hollywood area could dash over and take some photos before it disappears.

This is the first time in 15 years that I have become aware of a location at the same time its demolition was imminent.

Thank you for any help -
John Bengtson

PS – no matter what, I love the fact that Buster filmed this scene around the corner from the Chaplin Studio!  Some how knowing this makes me appreciate Cops, Charlie, and Buster all the more.

Cops licensed by Douris UK, Ltd.

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How Harold Lloyd Filmed Safety Last (the parts on the ground)

Click to enlarge – Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga – circa 1922

The alleys at the SE corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga are certainly the most historically significant silent film locations in town.  The yellow arrow above marks the alley entrance from which Buster Keaton grabs a passing car one-handed in Cops (1922).  But the back of the same alley portrayed the employee entrance of the De Vore Department Store (red box above), where Harold Lloyd’s character works in Safety Last! (1923).  I explain how Harold filmed the hanging-from-the-clock stunt in Safety Last! at this post, and how Cosmos Street, the alley connected to the alley shown here, also appears in Safety Last! and Cops at this post.  But we’ll focus now on how two of the most iconic silent film comedies were filmed at the same spot.

To begin, in Safety Last! go-getter Harold always arrives early for work, but finds himself, after a moment’s distraction, locked in the back of a laundry wagon, with a deaf teamster at the wheel unable to hear Harold’s cries for help.  As shown above, the wagon turns south from the “Cops” alley onto Cosmo Street.  The Markham building to the left has been re-modeled over the years (in fact the upper floor has been removed), but the Palmer Building at back (once home to the Hollywood Daily Citizen newspaper) confirms the location.

Later in the film, Harold formulates a plan to sneak into work late, by posing as a store mannequin.  The red boxes show matching elements of the Palmer Building.

You can see matching window elements on the Palmer Building in this view from Cops.  As evident, the building was still under construction when Buster filmed here early in 1922, but was completed by the time Harold filmed late that same year.  The building on the left side of the alley was rebuilt in the 1930s, causing the alley to become a bit more narrow.

In Safety Last! Harold convinces his room-mate Bill Strother to play rough-house with a policeman who was Harold’s friend back home.  Bill knocks down the wrong cop, played by Noah Young, who ends up chasing Bill for the remainder of the film.  This establishing shot above of Harold’s policeman friend was filmed looking north up Cosmo Street at the SW corner of the Palmer Building.  It matches the yellow oval on the top aerial view.

This shot of Noah Young knocked to the ground looks west down the Cops alley (arrow), the same point of view Buster saw when he ran down the alley preparing for his amazing stunt.  Note: time does not stand still.  The alleyway marked with the arrow has recently been closed to vehicles to make room for outdoor dining, and the driveway on Cahuenga leading into the Cops alley is now blocked to traffic with a raised curb and pedestrian sidewalk.

Safety Last! also contains a number of early scenes filmed on Cahuenga.  At the left, a man giving Harold a lift back to work is ticketed for parking in front of a fire plug.  The buildings behind Harold stand on Cahuenga a bit south of the Cops alley, while the arrow corresponds to the aerial view above.  The fire plug stood in front of the former joint fire/police station once located at 1625-1929 Cahuenga, that appeared in Buster Keaton’s feature films Three Ages (1923) and The Cameraman (1928).  You can read more about the former fire/police station at this post.

The movie frame at the right, from Harold Lloyd’s Hot Water (1924), shows the front of the fire station, and the same fire plug (red oval) that appears in the Safety Last! frame above.

Aerial photographs from HollywoodPhotographs.com.

HAROLD LLOYD images and the names of Mr. Lloyd’s films are all trademarks and/or service marks of Harold Lloyd Entertainment Inc. Images and movie frame images reproduced courtesy of The Harold Lloyd Trust and Harold Lloyd Entertainment Inc.  Cops licensed by Douris UK, Ltd.

A view west down the Cops alley from Cosmo Street.

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Douglas Fairbanks, Edge of Doom, and Film Noir

Click to enlarge. Looking east down 1st Street towards Broadway from the former City Jail (at right)

Farley Granger in Edge of Doom.  The twin bay windows to his left appear in the center, above.  The “modern” Los Angeles Times Building, that opened in 1935, stands tall in the far background.

During Douglas Fairbanks’ 1916 short comedy The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, a police van races from HQ down a quaint, post Victorian era Los Angeles street.  Thirty-four years later, the same setting appears in the bleak film noir drama Edge of Doom, the same film, as I explain in this prior post, that shares a common setting on Witmer Street with both Harold Lloyd’s 1928 comedy feature Speedy, and the popular contemporary television sit-com The Office.  As shown here, both the 1916 Fairbanks movie and the 1950 drama contain scenes filmed at the former Los Angeles City Jail (1897-1954) that once stood at 320-330 1st Street between Hill and Broadway.

Click to enlarge.  The City Jail (cut off from bottom) stood on 1st Street between Hill Street to the left  (note the early landmark twin-bore Hill Street Tunnel) and Broadway, at the center of the photo.  The arrow points east down 1st Street starting from Broadway towards the Wilson Building (oval) at 1st and Spring.  LAPL Photo 00044288

Click to enlarge. Both images show the distinctive dome tower of the Wilson Building that once stood at 1st and Spring. Tagging this unique dome was the key to solving this location mystery.  The third Los Angeles Times Building (1912-1934) at 1st and Broadway appears to the far left of the movie frame.  It was here that Charlie Chaplin filmed his first movie Making A Living in 1914.  The tall building at the far left background was lost to create City Hall Park.  Photo LAPL 00018907

Click to enlarge.  The jail vehicle entrance appears at the far left edge in this Edge of Doom movie frame, and is marked with an arrow showing the path of the police wagon in the 1916 Fairbanks movie frames above.  Notice the triangular parapet that once stood atop the jail.  Photo LAPL 00037446

Harold Lloyd in Never Weaken.  The oval marks the jail parapet visible in the above right photo

Because the City Jail was located near Hill Street, it frequently appeared in the background of the various stunt and thrill comedies filmed above the Hill Street Tunnel overlooking 1st Street.  This scene to the left from Harold Lloyd’s third stunt climbing comedy Never Weaken (1921) shows the jail in the background (oval).  You can read more about how Lloyd filmed stunt comedies above the Hill Street Tunnel at this post HERE.

This view matches the Farley Granger movie frame above.  The arrow matches the police wagon route, above.  By this point the City Jail’s distinctive triangular parapet had been removed.  USC Digital Archive CHS-33276

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish is an odd film, known for Fairbanks’ comic portrayal of a manic, drug-addled detective named Coke Ennyday.  Whenever he needs a boost to defeat the villains, Doug injects himself with a fresh syringe, and like Popeye after eating his spinach, quickly dispatches the crooks.  It is also a historically rich film, containing many scenes filmed near the Long Beach Pike, and beside Chinatown’s Ferguson Alley.  I hope someday to discuss these other locations in a future post.  But as shown here, Fairbanks now joins his brethren Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd, in filming at the classic downtown street corners that would later appear in film noir.

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)—Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer Collection (David Shepard, Film Preservation Associates, Jeffrey Masino, Flicker Alley LLC).  Edge of Doom Copyright 1950 The Samuel Goldwyn Company.  HAROLD LLOYD images and the names of Mr. Lloyd’s films are all trademarks and/or service marks of Harold Lloyd Entertainment Inc. Images and movie frame images reproduced courtesy of The Harold Lloyd Trust and Harold Lloyd Entertainment Inc.

Below, only the 1935 Los Angeles Times Building remains in this 2011 view.

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Buster’s Paramount Backlot Plunge

Buster’s Our Hospitality waterfall stunt

Now that Buster’s complete silent film oeuvre is available from Kino on Blu-ray, and more historic Hollywood photos become available for study, we continue to learn more and more about how Buster crafted his amazing comedies.  One fun discovery is learning how Buster filmed scenes from Cops (1922) on both the original Metro Studios backlot in Hollywood (across the street from his small studio) and at the Goldwyn Studios backlot in Culver City, two years before Metro would relocate to Culver City to join with Goldwyn to form M-G-M in 1924.

But Keaton employed another famous studio backlot to film two of the most iconic scenes of his career; the once long-lost high-dive gag from his 1921 short comedy Hard Luck, and the waterfall rescue stunt (above) that climaxes his second feature film Our Hospitality (1923).  As we’ll see, both were filmed at the unique “T” shaped concrete pool (or plunge as they were called back then) that stood on the Robert Brunton Studio backlot just north of Melrose Avenue, now part of the current-day Paramount Studios lot.

Click to enlarge – the Brunton Studio plunge as it appears in Hard Luck, with the left base of the “T” shaped pool covered over.  Many studios had backlot plunges, or pools, from which they could film water scenes, but only the Brunton Studio had a pool shaped like a “T” instead of a rectangle.  Notice the distinctive background barn appearing in both images.  The aerial view looks east down Melrose Avenue.  The upper right corner shows part of the original Douglas Fairbanks Studio, at the SE corner of Bronson Avenue, now the site of Raleigh Studios. aerial photo http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/

Buster and his Chinese family in Hard Luck

During the climax of Hard Luck, Buster climbs a high diving platform, and hoping to impress the bathing beauties assembled to watch, performs a swan dive so far from the tower that he passes the far edge of the pool, and smashes through the brick deck creating a crater.  The women peer deep into the hole, unable to see where he has gone.  In what Buster would later recount as his biggest laugh-getting gag ever, years later Buster climbs back out of the crater, wearing Chinese garb, followed by his Chinese wife and their children.  In many versions of this film, once considered lost, the movie fades out just as Buster attempts his dive.  But in the special version of Hard Luck appearing in the Keaton Plus DVD from Kino, you can see the gag play out fully (see above).  It appears that Buster’s dive to the pool deck was created using animated drawings, as his body travels horizontally in a fashion that defies physics.  I originally thought Buster had performed the stunt for real, as it would have been possible to cover the left base of the “T” shaped pool with paper, painted to look like brick, that Buster could have dived through.

A side view of the Our Hospitality waterfall stunt set, built over the “T” shaped plunge at the Brunton Studios on Melrose.  The miniature hillside set standing to the left appears behind Buster during scenes filmed at the brink of the falls (see below), creating the illusion that he was far up off of the ground.  photo Photoplay Productions Ltd.

The miniature hillside behind Buster is a set, apparent in the prior photo above.

During the climax of Our Hospitality, Buster rescues his girlfriend, played by his first wife Natalie Talmadge, from sweeping over the brink of a waterfall, by swinging like a pendulum from a rope tied to a log jammed in the rocks, grabbing her just as she starts to fall.  Buster’s waterfall stunt set was built astride the special “T” shaped pool that stood at the Brunton Studio, readily apparent in these behind the scenes photos above and further below.  The Brunton Studio plunge was located just north of Melrose, due east of the modern Windsor Boulevard entrance gate to the Paramount Studios.  Buster’s small studio, at Eleanor and Lillian way, stood just a few blocks away.

Buster at the top of the waterfall set and practicing for the stunt – photos Paul Gierucki

The orientation of the “T” shaped water pool, just north of Melrose, between where Windsor Boulevard and Irving Boulevard (neither yet plotted on this 1921 map) would later terminate at Melrose.  The Robertson-Cole Studios and Brunton Studios depicted here are now all part of the modern Paramount Studios.

This view shows the enclosed Keaton Studio stage (oval) relative to the plunge. aerial photo http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/

A front view of the Our Hospitality waterfall stunt set, looking west. photo Photoplay Productions Ltd.

These shots from Our Hospitality of Buster scaling a cliff, left, and nearly falling from a cliff, center, were filmed on the waterfall stunt set, with the camera placed on its side, a technique frequently used during the 1960s Batman TV series, as Batman and Robin “climbed ” the face of an office building.  The true image appears to the right.

The Paramount Studios Melrose Avenue gate across from Windsor Boulevard.  The Brunton Studio plunge once stood on the lot to the right (east) of the modern gate.

Our Hospitality and Hard Luck licensed by Douris UK, Ltd.  Special restored version of  Hard Luck copyright 1987 The Rohauer Collection.

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