To kick off the festivities, my friend and I took a visit to Hollywood for a free TCM Movie Locations Tour with Starline Tours last week. Posters for the film festival were already on display at the Hollywood and Highland Center near the Dolby Theater. And Hollywood Boulevard was bustling with tourists. After checking in for the tour, there was some down time to take in the sights and sounds...but particularly the sights. Looking at the stars and handprints/footprints outside the Chinese Theater was really an experience! It was fun to read the messages to Sid (Sid Grauman) from Clark Gable, John Wayne, Abbott and Costello, Jimmy Durante and others written out on the concrete and imagine them making those prints so many decades ago. These physical prints are no doubt metaphorical representations of the huge prints these artists made on film, as an art and an industry.
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| Bud Abbot and Lou Costello write "To our pal Sid" with their prints made on December 8th 1941 |
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| Roy Rogers writes "To Sid" and "Many-Happy-Trails" Roy's prints and Trigger's horseshoe prints + his handgun print made on April 21st 1949 |
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| October 31st 1945: "Sid-Dis is my Schnozzle" and "Wish I had a million of em" One handprint and a nose-print? (I can't make it out) compliments of Jimmy Durante |
After snapping a few more pictures of the famous prints, we started on the tour... Almost 3 hours long, the tour took us all over Los Angeles and featured numerous clips from different films, as well as video of Ben Mankiewicz talking about the different parts of L.A. and their connections to movie history. During the first half of the tour, we saw the old RKO studio (which was bought by Paramount, and is now part of their lot), Paramount Studios and the entrance filmed for a famous Sunset Boulevard scene, Charlie Chaplin's old studio (now Jim Henson's studio), and "The Lot". Formerly the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio, "The Lot" would become the Samuel Goldwyn Studios and later, the Warner Hollywood Studio. More about its interesting history here: The Lot (this will take you to another site).
Later, the tour took us through downtown's Bunker Hill, where many film noir movies were made. The area has changed dramatically, as most of the Victorian style residences have been replaced by monumental buildings and hotels. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the old downtown theaters, like the Orpheum. Some are still running (booking stage productions or music shows), and others are reminders of the past. The old Warner Brothers Downtown Theater Building, for instance, is now a diamond wholesale retail center.
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| Before |
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| Today |
During the tour of downtown, we also had the chance to get off the bus and visit the Bradbury building, where a few scenes of The Artist were filmed. The building was absolutely beautiful, with brick walls, ornate elevators, marble steps leading up multiple flights of stairs, and well-kept wood and cast-iron railings. It really is something to see!
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| From the second floor of the Bradbury Building, Downtown |
Our second hop-off site was at Union Station. My friend and I opted to walk around the nearby Olvera Street instead. It is a California historical site with an authentic Hispanic feel, which stems from its early history as a Spanish settlement. Some of the scenes from Charlie Chaplin's film The Kid, from 1921, were filmed there.
It is impossible to recap all the locations that this tour took us to, but I've tried to mention whichever ones I thought were the highlights. There were so many more that I could have mentioned, but I would recommend taking the tour yourself if you can get tickets! *I strongly recommend the tour if you are a fan of the film L.A. Confidential! (The tour takes you to see a lot of the on-location spots seen in that film specifically.)
