John Bengtson's Blog, page 16

Keaton’s “What No Beer?” Barrel Avalanche

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Buster chased by barrels in What No Beer?

As Jim Kline writes in The Complete Films of Buster Keaton, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer had already drafted Keaton’s termination letter by the time filming of What No Beer? completed in January 1933. For better or worse, this movie marks the pinnacle of Keaton’s success, who would never again appear as an A list star in a major Hollywood production.

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Looking west up Court Street – the steep hill is only one block long.

Although Kline writes What No Beer? was a box-office smash, setting attendance records at New York’s Capitol Theater, Keaton’s unexcused absences during the production, including one where he flew to Mexico and returned home married to his sobriety nurse Mae Scribbens, sealed his fate with the studio boss.

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Looking south down Mountain View, as Buster’s beer truck prepares to turns left onto Court Street. The corner lot, vacant at the time, is covered by a billboard advertising MGM’s Grand Hotel. The early morning sun casts the shadow of the grocery store set in front of the truck.

While much has been written about Keaton’s loss of control working for MGM, What No Beer? contains a pure, elaborately staged “Keatonesque” moment, when Buster struggles with a truck load of beer barrels on a steep hill, recalling the avalanche scenes from his silent feature Seven Chances (1925). The costly scene included a full grocery store set, constructed at the bottom of the hill, so a car could smash into it punctuating the final joke of the segment.

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Turning the corner from Mountain View onto Court Street. The ovals match the back windows of a vintage apartment facing Alvarado Street.

It’s wonderful Keaton was permitted to sneak in one last grand cinematic moment before he would begin facing years of adversity – it truly feels like an homage to his prior work. Whatever his state of mind was back then, he must have relished the planning, stunt-work, and camera angles required to pull off this complicated scene. Yet with the hindsight that comes from knowing his life story, the visual metaphor of Buster skidding downhill chased by barrels of booze is almost too painful to watch.

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The truck struggles past 2027 Court Street, with the side of 308 N. Mountain View visible at back.

As a locations buff, I’ve been intrigued with this scene ever since I first saw it featured in Kevin Brownlow’s 1987 Keaton documentary A Hard Act to Follow. I knew it had to have been filmed somewhere, but it didn’t seem possible it could ever be found. When TCM broadcast it recently, I marveled at the clear, beautiful print, and noticed one clue during the sequence. As Buster’s truck turns the corner uphill, a vertical street sign reading “2000 BLK” appears for a moment at the far right edge of the screen.

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Click to enlarge – looking east down Court Street – the grocery store was a set, not part of a “T” intersection. Notice the Grand Hotel billboard to the right.

Studying all of the shots, the side streets, and the angles of the sun, I mapped out my sense of how the setting was configured, and determined it was likely offset from a true north-south orientation. While I had long assumed the street was some type of “T” intersection, because the print was so clear I could see that the grocery store was actually a set built in the middle of the street. As I often do when stuck for an idea, I emailed my friend Paul Ayers, who has found many significant Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd locations. He replied, correctly, that from the age of the buildings and the layout of the hill, he sensed the scene was likely staged somewhere east of Vermont Avenue and north of Venice Boulevard.

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Buster runs past 2027 Court Street.

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Looking towards Mountain View, one bungalow at back still stands.

[image error]By coincidence, I stumbled upon the topographical option with Google Maps, allowing you to see hills instead of featureless streets. With this function turned on I could clearly see candidate hills in the region Paul suggested. I noticed one spot where the streets matched my sense of how Buster’s shot was configured, and without even using the “2000 BLK” clue it proved to be the correct spot – the intersection of N. Mountain View Avenue and the 2000 block of Court Street. (Note: the beginning of Court Street, above the Hill Street tunnel, is where the Bradbury Mansion once stood – it was where Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach began their careers, and where Lloyd filmed many early stunt climbing scenes above the tunnel). Having wondered about this scene for 30 years, it was very gratifying to finally see it “in person,” still recognizable, and with so many original buildings still in place.

[image error]Inexplicably, the film’s celebratory conclusion showing folks returning to work after the repeal of Prohibition includes office scenes cannibalized from the classic King Vidor drama The Crowd (1928), [image error]considered by Kevin Brownlow to be America’s finest silent film, including this iconic overhead shot of endless rows of office workers at their desks. By then silent films were considered so obsolete that their only apparent value was as a cheap source of stock footage. These [image error]repurposed scenes were not returned to the original master, so that decades later when Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions restored The Crowd they had to replace the missing footage using elements from a complete 16mm print Eastman House had made for King Vidor. Other New York scenes from The Crowd must have been used elsewhere, as they too are missing except in the 16mm print. Brief office scenes from The Crowd also appear in the previous MGM Keaton vehicle Speak Easily (1932).

What No Beer? © 1933 Turner Entertainment Co. Color images (C) 2017 Google.

Google Street View of Mountain View Avenue and Court Street.

Filed under: Buster Keaton Tagged: Buster Keaton, Keaton Locations, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, then and now, What No Beer?

Arbuckle – Keaton at the Bronx Biograph Studio

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The glass stage Arbuckle used in His Wedding Night. At right, the end of the stage behind Roscoe in Oh Doctor!

Noted biographer James Curtis contacted me with an intriguing observation. Did a scene from the 1917 Arbuckle-Keaton short Oh Doctor! reveal the large glass rooftop shooting stage of the former Biograph Studio, located at 807 E 175th St in the Bronx? A little digging not only confirmed he was right, but that 100 years later many Bronx locations from that film remain recognizable today. [Note: Arbuckle ended his career filming Vitaphone comedy shorts in Brooklyn – discussed in great detail HERE].

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Click to enlarge – a 1921 Biograph map, keyed to 11 locations – NYPL. The row of buildings along the top are all lost to the Cross Brooklyn Expressway.

Wearing a borrowed police uniform, Roscoe chases jewel thief Al St. John across a vintage rooftop. Triangulating from the Biograph site, and traveling the streets using Google Street View, I was excited to see that two apartment buildings on Marmion Street are still standing today.

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(11) – Roscoe scales the roof, with Crotona Park and 1783 Marmion at back.

Because Roscoe’s roof (11) had an unobstructed view, and the maps from 1915, 1921, 1938, and 2017 reveal when different buildings were constructed, and demolished, my best guess is Roscoe filmed (11) on the former 5 story apartment at 864 E 175th, now replaced with a smaller building.

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(11) – looking along E 175th St towards 1801 Marmion (left) and the Biograph office and glass stage.

Once I had confirmed site (11), I contacted New York pop culture locations expert Bob Egan (PopSpotNYC.com), who had just identified Buster Keaton’s Manhattan apartment from The Cameraman in this prior post. Bob replied with a fascinating clue – that the opening credits to the early 60’s sitcom Car 54 Where Are You? reveal a view of the Biograph Studio where the show was filmed (see below).

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(11) – the south Biograph office on E 175th (left) and (6) – the north Biograph laboratory building on E 176th (right).

The Car 54 view (6) down E 176th St provided a view of the segmented light and dark brick wall standing east of the Biograph laboratory building, a wall that appears frequently in Oh Doctor!

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View (6) and view (4) – the segmented wall next to the laboratory building. The two apartments behind the word “CAR” are now demolished – a vacant lot.

I should have done this first, but after searching the New York Public Library online digital collection I found an exact match to view (4) from Oh Doctor!

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(4) – the segmented wall standing east of the laboratory building. NYPL.

It turns out that Oh Doctor! and the subsequent Arbuckle – Keaton short Coney Island (1917 – see further below) both feature scenes filmed on E 176th in front of the Biograph laboratory building.

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(5) – Roscoe calls for his car to return to him – the existing home on 812 E 176th still appears at back.

[image error]One challenge to investigating this site is that the northern side of E 176th St was demolished to make way for the Cross Brooklyn Expressway. One casualty is this [image error]drug store (left) that once stood at the NW corner of E 176th and Marmion. The same store appears at back in view (8) (right), as Roscoe drags Buster (dressed in drag to do a stunt fall for Roscoe’s wife) west along E 176th towards Marmion – the building to their right was lost to the expressway. In the next scene (7) below, Roscoe’s wife confronts him standing at the same corner, only looking east down E 176th, at the surviving south side of the street.

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(7) looking east from Marmion down the surviving south side of E 176th, towards tall buildings on the corners of Mohegan and Waterloo Streets.

(7) above looks east down E 176th from Marmion towards the extant Waterloo Apartments, both left of Roscoe, and the narrower apartment on the corner of Mohegan just to the right of Roscoe.

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(9) and (10) – two views of the NE corner of Marmion and E 175th.

I believe views (9) and (10) above and below both depict the same corner apartment building that once stood at the NE corner of Marmion and E 175th. As shown below, two homes once stood next to the Biograph office across the street from the apartment.

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View (9) left and view (10) right – these homes on E 175th once stood due east of the Biograph office. Buster stands on the cross street Marmion looking down E 175th. Al at back is standing between the two wings of the apartment.

While I have no direct photographic confirmation for (9) and (10) above, this is the only corner in the vicinity of the studio that had homes on the left side of the street and a large apartment on the [image error]right. The two scenes match the various maps and street slopes, and I’m confident this is correct. Both corners are vastly different now.

The Biograph laboratory building on E 176th also portrayed the police station in the next Arbuckle – Keaton short Coney Island. During the concluding scene, view (3), Roscoe and Al St. John leave the station after locking the police and Roscoe’s wife in a cell. No sooner do they vow to forsake all women when an enchantress walks by, prompting Al to proclaim “Every man for himself.”

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Coney Island – view (2) – Al escorts his new female companion from the Biograph laboratory entrance. The home at 812 E 176th still stands at back.

In a racially insensitive final “joke” that was commonly employed by comedians at the time, Roscoe too notices the back of a woman pass by, and approaches her to say hello. But when she turns around to meet his greeting, revealing herself to be African-American, Roscoe gasps and flees in shock as the movie fades to a close. Apparently this scene was excised from most prints of the film, but for historical completeness is presented a bonus feature on the latest home video release of these films.

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Coney Island – view 1 – Roscoe flees west towards the PS No. 44 building still standing on the SW corner of Prospect and E 176th.

A final location from Oh Doctor! depicts the characters arriving and departing a race track by parking their cars beside a rare conspicuous street sign at the corner of W 246th and Fieldston, see below.

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Oh Doctor! again – at W 246th St and Fieldston.

I’ve documented 4 dozen instances of Keaton filming pickup shots from his various films in front of, or across the street from, his small studio in Hollywood. A perfectly practical thing to do. So it’s not surprising, but also fun to see, that Arbuckle did the same thing, staging so many shots conveniently close to home. Be sure to read about Arbuckle’s numerous Vitaphone Brooklyn locations HERE.

It wasn’t too long ago that Oh Doctor! was considered a lost film! We fans are all so fortunate that these films have been so lovingly restored by Lobster Films.

Oh Doctor! and Coney Island images from Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917 – 1923 (C) 2016 Kino-Lorber, Lobster Films.

View (7) of the apartments on Mohegan and Waterloo.

Filed under: Buster Keaton, Manhattan, Roscoe Arbuckle Tagged: Biograph Studio, Buster Keaton, Coney Island, His Wedding Night, Oh Doctor!, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Roscoe Arbuckle, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, the Bronx, then and now

Buster’s Manhattan Apartment – The Cameraman Part III

In a prior post, Bob Egan flexed his Manhattan research skills to locate Marceline Day’s now lost apartment in Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman, 20 West 58th Street. Now Bob has located Buster’s midtown apartment as well, 201 East 52nd Street.

As I spell out in my book Silent Echoes, when Marceline calls Buster to tell him her prior commitment has changed and she is now available to meet him, Buster is so eager that he bolts out the door while she is still talking on the phone, and races down many city blocks, including 5th Avenue, and beside Bergdorf-Goodman (see post) to her place. When she realizes he is no longer on the line, she hangs up in frustration, and turns around to find Buster already standing behind her – “I hope I’m not late.”

[image error]When TCM recently broadcast The Cameraman (I now receive TCM in high definition), I was stunned by how beautiful the print looked, and made a point to study Buster’s apartment scene, and the Apartments for Rent sign behind Buster’s entryway. Watching it back and forth in slo-[image error]mo the sign looked like it read “Samuel J Weinberg ?59 3rd Ave Cor 52 St.”

I immediately contacted Bob, as he had investigated Buster’s apartment before, although based on my misunderstanding at the time that the name was “Weisberg” not “Weinberg.” Bob quickly reported that the 1929 Manhattan Address Directory had a listing for a “Saml J Weinberg rl est” at 859 3rd Ave, at the SE corner of East 52nd. This phonebook entry clearly matched the sign, explaining why Sam was advertising apartments for rent. Since Second Avenue had elevated train tracks at the time, standing at the corner of 3rd and 52nd, looking east, you would see tracks in the background.

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Click to enlarge – Buster’s doorway was at 201 East 52nd, near the left corner.

Bob also sent a vintage map of the block. Knowing that Sam’s office was on the corner of 3rd, if Buster exited the E 52nd St side of Sam’s building, then per the map we’d expect to see a one story building immediately behind Buster, flush with a several story building immediately behind the one story building, with a sidewalk fire plug in front of the flush buildings, then a long row of multi-story buildings all set back further from the sidewalk, then a 5 story building further back that again projects flush to the sidewalk, and then elevated tracks. These elements match exactly both in the movie frame and on the map. Although a modern glass high-rise stands there today, we now know the humble entranceway to 201 E 52nd St once portrayed Buster’s Manhattan apartment.

With this post I now have a dozen postings about Keaton filming The Cameraman and Harold Lloyd filming Speedy in New York. Here’s an INDEX of these other posts.

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The 5 story building at 247 E 52nd street (oval) appears in both images.

Thank you Bob for more incredible detective work. Bob’s popular and highly recommended website PopSpotNYC.com explores the visual archeology of “where interesting events in the history of Pop Culture took place; like album cover shots, places where movies and tv shows were filmed, and sites on which paintings were based.”

The Cameraman images (C) 1928 Turner Entertainment Co. Below, looking east from 3rd down E 52nd.

Filed under: Manhattan, The Cameraman Tagged: Buster Keaton, Keaton Locations, Manhattan, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, then and now

Arbuckle – Keaton – the Good Night Nurse Hot Springs

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Click to enlarge. 1907 – the Arrowhead Hot Springs resort beneath the natural arrowhead rock formation. LOC.

[image error]Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, and Buster Keaton must have had special fun making their Comique film Good Night Nurse (1918), leaving their Long Beach studio behind to film certain scenes at the Arrowhead Hot Springs resort 75 miles to the east. Nestled in the foothills north of San Bernardino, beneath the giant arrowhead-shaped outcropping lending the region its name, the resort was a popular tourist attraction with long ties to Hollywood. The naturally occurring hot springs were promoted for their curative effects, and the hotel complex appearing in the film was built there in 1905.

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Al’s missing teeth

[image error]Roscoe portrays a drunken husband, dragged by his frustrated wife to dry out at the No Hope Sanitarium. Buster plays Roscoe’s doctor, while Al portrays one of the orderlies, and, as confirmed by renowned silent comedy expert and author Steve Massa, this fully “cured” discharge patient (right) with missing teeth. Eager to escape, Roscoe dresses in drag with a wig and stolen nurse’s outfit, only to run into a suddenly love-struck Keaton, who smiles and flirts shamelessly with Roscoe.

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Roscoe (above) approaches the resort back entrance. USC Digital Library.

Below, the “cured” patient hobbles beside the curved bay of the hotel dining room on the west end of the complex.

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Matching views, east and west, of the curved dining room bay. USC Digital Library

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The east doorway – tennis court at back

The hot springs were well known to the Native Americans, and Spanish missionaries, leading to the first modest resort that opened here in the 1860s.  The 1906 Sanborn fire insurance map for the resort shows a large bath house for men, complete with a barber shop, adjoining a smaller separate bath house for women, [image error]both covered, standing north of the hotel, accessible by an open bridged walkway beside the main entrance. A tennis court adjoined the bath houses to the east, its fence appears behind Roscoe (left). Standing apart from [image error]the hotel, further back, was an oval-shaped “Hot Lake,” likely the concrete pool appearing in the film (right), with nearby quarters and dining room for the servants and staff. As a history buff, it’s frustrating to see how little use Arbuckle as director made of the locale. A tight shot of the back entrance porch, a scene played out at the east end of the hotel, nothing on

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USC Digital Library

screen suggests that it was filmed at such a grand and remote locale. While we’re fortunate vintage photos of the hotel are available for study, they were all taken from quite a distance. Thus, a century later, the only detailed views available to us are the brief glimpses appearing in the movie.

Already well-established when the Comique crew came to film, the resort grew in popularity through the years, providing Hollywood types a place to relax and play and get away from it all. By 1938 a group including Joseph M. Schenck, Constance Bennett, Al Jolson, [image error]Darryl Zanuck, and Claudette Colbert were reported to have purchased the resort, only to have the hotel burn to the ground the same year. Famed African-American architect Paul R. Williams designed plans for a new six-story resort, opening in 1939, that continued to attract golden-era stars for many years. Esther Williams was a frequent guest, and Humphrey Bogart filmed High Sierra here in 1941. Elizabeth Taylor spent part of her honeymoon (the first one!) here in 1950 – at the time her father-in-law Conrad Hilton owned the place. But as jet travel made far-flung getaways more appealing, the resort lost favor, eventually shutting down in the 1950s. The hotel was purchased by the Campus Crusade for Christ in 1962. Long shuttered, recent accounts say the property is now available for sale.

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Click to enlarge. Arbuckle’s crew likely arrived by train. This 1926 railroad map shows the route from the studio in Long Beach, lower left, to the Arrowhead Resort, upper right. It seems like a long way to go for such simple scenes. David Rumsey.

I want to thank Lea Stans, whose informative series of posts about the Arbuckle-Keaton Comique films, including Good Night Nurse, tipped me off about the Arrowhead Resort in the first place. Her Silent-ology blog is dangerous to Google, but always entertaining.

For a full story about the resort, read Ruth Nolan’s article for KCET “The Arrow Rises Again: San Bernardino’s Famed and Forgottern Architectural Wonder.”

Good Night Nurse: Buster Keaton – The Shorts Collection, from Kino and Lobster Films.

If you drag this Google view photo down a bit, you’ll see the arrowhead, blocked by the message box.

 

 

Filed under: Buster Keaton, Roscoe Arbuckle Tagged: Arrowhead Hot Springs, Arrowhead resort, Buster Keaton, Good Night Nurse, Keaton Locations, Roscoe Arbuckle, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, then and now

Chaplin’s San Jose Day Making A Night Out

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Charlie beside Chick’s Saloon, with enhanced contrast

Do you know the way to San Jose? It turns out Charlie Chaplin did. Thanks to the Blu-ray clarity of Charlie’s restored Essanay comedies, and the tenacious research by Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum historian David Kiehn, we now know Chaplin and crew filmed saloon [image error]scenes from A Night Out (1915) in San Jose beside the Alcantara Building (1903), still standing on the NW corner of Post and Market Streets.

Charlie began fulfilling his one-year Essanay contract at the studio’s primary Chicago facility early in 1915. But after making only one movie there, His New Job, Chaplin fled the frigid Windy City and started his first northern California production, A Night Out, soon after arriving at the Essanay Studio in Niles on January 18. While researching his definitive history book “Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company,” David found a local newspaper account from Thursday, January 28, 1915, describing five players from Essanay filming saloon scenes that day on Post Street for a comedy called A Night Out. (Interestingly the story missed the lead – that soon to be world-famous Chaplin was leading the crew.)

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The Alcantara Building (1903) still standing at Post (left) and Market (right). Charlie likely filmed on Post just steps from the corner. (C) 2017 Google.

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The Market Street face of the Alcantara Building appears at back (center) in this vintage photo.

While capturing some movie frame images to assist the Museum prepare decorations for its upcoming Charlie Chaplin Days festival July 21-23, I noticed what appeared to be the word “CHICKS” (enhanced above and at right) [image error]barely visible on the sidewalk during the A Night Out saloon scenes, and mentioned this to David. He responded that a notorious liquor racketeer Clarence “Chick” Leddy once ran a saloon at 107 Post Street. More astounding, as revealed

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A 1914 map of downtown – Chick’s Saloon at 107 Post Street stood at the corner of Market.

on Google Street View, the vintage saloon building is still standing, with high tech company Electric Cloud as a tenant. Once an eyesore threatened with demolition, the now upscale building was renovated with numerous picture windows along the ground floor on Post Street.

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Chick’s Saloon stood at 107 Post, likely near the corner. The words on the doors read “Ridgemore Whiskey,” sold by the Alexander Company of San Jose (see below).

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Advertised on the saloon doors above, Ridgemore Whiskey was a local brand.

To be thorough, I checked the 1912 San Jose City Directory and the 1915 Sanborn fire insurance maps. Both sources revealed eight candidate saloons that could have been used for filming. But unless one of these seven other saloon owners also went by the name “Chick” the likely candidate has to be 107 Post Street.

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The saloon bar appears visible through the doors.

Per David’s newspaper accounts the San Jose Liquor License Committee recommended granting Mr. Leddy a saloon license for 107 Post Street on March 30, 1909. Yet by 1918 the Civic Council revoked Chick Leddy’s soft drink business license because he had sold $150 of whiskey from the premises. By 1928 Chick Leddy was convicted of murder, with help from his bartender, for beating a salesman to death, apparently for winning too much slot machine money at Chick’s Prohibition-era roadhouse. Despite receiving a life sentence, David reports Chick later bribed his way out of San Quentin, and died in San Jose in 1950.

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Click to enlarge – the San Jose skyline circa 1935, looking south. The Alcantara Building (arrow) facing Market Street to the far right, with the dome of St. Joseph’s close by. San Jose State University Gordon Panoramic Collection.

[image error]While researching his book, David discovered Charlie also filmed scenes for A Night Out in Oakland beside the Peralta Apartments at 184 13th Street, and the Sierra Apartments at 1502 Alice Street, both still standing near Lake Merritt.

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Charlie and fellow comic Ben Turpin beside the Peralta Apartments 184 13th Street in Oakland.

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Charlie takes a spill beside the Sierra Apartments at 1502 Alice Street in Oakland.

[image error]The Alcantara Building stands just a block north of the historic Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph (completed in 1885), and the neighboring historic post office building (completed in 1895), now anchor for the San Jose Museum of Art. You can read more about Chaplin filming A Night Out, and locations from all of his other movies, in my book Silent Traces.

Chaplin made five movies at Niles before returning to Hollywood in May 1915, filming a few exterior scenes in San Francisco and Oakland. But we now know Chaplin once made his way to San Jose too.

[image error]I want to especially recommend Dan Kamin’s unique Funny Bones performance at the festival on July 22 at 7:30. A gifted comic, author, and renowned Chaplin authority, Dan coached Robert Downey, Jr. in his Oscar-nominated turn in the movie “Chaplin”(which Dan will introduce at the festival July 21) and coached Johnny Depp for the movie “Benny and Joon.” Using film clips and live demonstrations, Dan deconstructs Chaplin’s unique physical comedy and body language, showing how and why Charlie moved the way he moved. Dan’s show is absolutely fascinating, and you’ll leave feeling you’ve seen Charlie in a whole new light. Dan is also performing Funny Bones at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on July 20.

Filed under: Charlie Chaplin Tagged: A Night Out, Alcantara Building, Chaplin Locations, Chaplin Tour, Charlie Chaplin, Niles, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Post Street, San Jose, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, then and now

Buster Keaton’s Haunted House

[image error]My friend architectural writer Steve Vaught made this amazing discovery – the “haunted” mansion appearing in Buster Keaton’s 1921 short film The Haunted House was the former Bonebrake Mansion, once standing on the corner of Adams and Figueroa. Steve noticed the

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The Bonebrake Mansion – look how much the palm tree grew by 1921. LAPL

2619 street address appearing on the gate, and that the style of architecture seemed to pre-date 1900. Checking a 1900-era Los Angeles map, Steve found few streets at the time were lengthy enough to have had addresses as high as 2600. Next, by combing through the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Steve eliminated nearly every lengthy street but Figueroa. The Sanborn map footprint for the Bonebrake Mansion at 2619 South Figueroa matched the Keaton house exactly, which these Los Angeles Public Library online photos confirm. As it turned out, the house was torn down later in 1921 to make way for the “new” Auto (AAA) Club Headquarters still standing on that spot. This would explain the home’s rundown condition and availability for use as a movie set.

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Villainous Big Joe Roberts at the 2619 gate

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Looking north. LAPL.

The house belonged to George H. Bonebrake, co-founder of the Semi-Tropic Land and Water Co., Los Angeles, founded in 1887, according to the company minutes, “to purchase, improve, hold, and sell real estate, water and water rights and privileges; build reservoirs and ditches and lay pipes; distribute water and collect rates therefore; issue bonds and borrow and loan money, etc.”

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A third view of the former home. LAPL.

Fewer and fewer Hollywood ghosts remain, but Steve’s brilliant solution for this over 95 year old mystery would make Sherlock Jr. proud.

Steve is the author of books about architect Gordon B. Kaufman, the Willows historic Palm Springs Inn, and magnificent Hollywood-era homes (Historic Hollywood), and writes about vintage Hollywood homes and apartments at the wildly popular Paradise Leased blog.

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The house at Adams and S. Figueroa in 1914. Historic Mapworks.

[image error]Note: This post was based on a story I wrote several years ago for The Keaton Chronicle, the publication of the Damfinos, the International Buster Keaton Society. I write a story for the Chronicle each quarter, covering new discoveries not yet revealed in my blog. So join the Damfinos and learn Keaton discoveries before they are published here.

The “new” 1922 Auto Club headquarters on S. Figueroa.

Filed under: Buster Keaton Tagged: Buster Keaton, Georger Bonebrake, Keaton Locations, Los Angeles Historic Core, Silent Comedians, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, The Haunted House, then and now

Chaplin – Pavlova – Lois Weber – at the Castle Sans Souci

[image error]One highlight of the recently concluded San Francisco Silent Film Festival was the Library of Congress restored presentation of pioneering director Lois Weber’s powerful historic epic, The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916), starring world-acclaimed dancer Anna Pavlova in her only film role. Anna portrays a speechless fisher-girl seduced and abandoned by a Spanish nobleman in a tale set during the 17th century peasant uprising against Hapsburg’s occupation of Naples.

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Dr. Schloesser posing before his second, larger, castle home. Photo – Dr. Lisa Stein Haven.

Much of the lavish production was filmed on giant sets built at the once rural Universal Studios backlot, where the Monte Carlo casino set from Foolish Wives (1922) and the cathedral set from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) would later stand. But other scenes staged at the nobleman’s palace had a familiar look. It turns [image error]out Charlie Chaplin and Marie Dressler had filmed there two years earlier in Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914), Hollywood’s first feature length comedy, when they quickly marry after incorrectly assuming Marie has inherited her uncle’s fabulous estate. Note the prominent marble lions (above) discussed below.

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The trellis garden at left above appears in the background of this scene from TDGOP, while Charlie and Marie revel at the entrance gate to the right. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

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Mary Kornman at the Sans Souci front door in the Our Gang short Mary Queen of Tots (1925).

The home featured in both films was Castle Sans Souci, owned by Dr. A.G.R. Schloesser, formerly located at 1901 Argyle in Hollywood. Set in the foothills on a former lemon grove, the castle commanded a breathtaking view, especially from its six-story tower.

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Marie and Charlie – note the marble lions far left

Designed by architects Dennis & Farwell, the castle incorporated elements from ancient structures at Oxford, the Castle Glengarry in Scotland, and the Neurenberg Castle in Germany. The castle doorway (above) was an exact copy of the entrance to the city hall in Bremen, Germany, while the entrance was guarded by two Carrara marble lions, prominently visible in both films, which once stood guard over the Palace of the Doges in Venice for nearly 150 years before being shipped to Hollywood. The baronial entrance hall measured 50 x 25 feet, and was finished in oak, with a heavily beamed ceiling 25 feet above the floor, a massive stone fireplace, and a row of niches housing suits of armor. The elaborate grounds were designed by Nils Emitslof, the former landscape artist for the Czar of Russia.

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Castle Glengarry – USC Digital Library.

Once a practicing physician, Dr. Schloesser made his fortune in mining and real estate investments, becoming a prominent Hollywood booster, capitalist, and art connoisseur. Traveling the world, Dr. Schloesser collected a gallery of medieval paintings, tapestries, and statuary. Before building Castle Sans Souci in 1912, Dr. Schloesser built a similarly styled castle home four years earlier across the street at 1904 Argyle, known locally as Castle Glengarry, that would later become home to noted silent film star Sessue Hiyakawa. Responding to anti-German sentiment during the First World War, Dr. Schloesser, whose name means “castle” in English, legally changed his name to Dr. Castles, a fitting self tribute to his heritage and to two of Hollywood’s greatest now-lost landmarks.

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A closer view of the Sans Souci gate – Photo Tommy Dangcil.

Remarkably, Scottish comedian Billie Ritchie, who also played a tramp-like film character, shot Almost a Scandal (1915) at Castle Sans Souci, after Chaplin, but before Lois Weber. These scenes below show the back of the entrance gate at left, and another view north of the porch with one of the marble lions. A link to Ritchie’s film appears at the end of this post.

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Billie Ritchie in Almost a Scandal – EYE Filmmuseum.

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Click to enlarge – looking north – Castle Sans Souci and Castle Glengarry on Argyle, with Charlie and Marie beside the Sans Souci gate. The dotted line marks the trolley line, left to right, up Vine, across Yucca, up Argyle, and across Franklin, where Harold Lloyd filmed his Girl Shy trolley stunts.

[image error]The nearby “S”-shaped Pacific Electric rail line curves (see dotted line above), running west on Franklin, south on Argyle, west on Ivar, and then south on Vine, was the setting for Harold Lloyd’s trolley stunt scenes in Girl Shy (1923), discussed in this post HERE.

[image error]Thanks to Dennis Doros and Milestone Films for the frame grabs from The Dumb Girl of Portici, slated to be released this fall. Tillie’s Punctured Romance is available as part of the Chaplin at Keystone DVD collection from Flicker Alley. You can read more about Charlie filming at Castle Sans Souci in my Chaplin film location book Silent Traces.

Castle Sans Souci was demolished in 1928 to make way for the aptly named Castle Argyle Apartments, still standing now perilously close to the later Hollywood freeway, while Castle Glengarry held on until 1956, replaced by the Capitol Gardens Apartments, both shown today on Google Street View below.

The EYE Film Institute of the Netherlands has posted Almost a Scandal (1915) on YouTube, with the Castle Sans Souci scenes starting at 11:20. The opening scenes at 0:25 are filmed at the former Hollywood Bank at the SW corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga, the same corner also appearing in Tillie’s Punctured Romance.

Filed under: Charlie Chaplin Tagged: Anna Pavlova, Argyle, Castle Glengarry, Castle Sans Souci, Charlie Chaplin, Hollywood, Lois Weber, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, The Dumb Girl of Portici, then and now, Tillie's Punctured Romance

Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman leads the San Francisco Silent Film Festival

[image error]The San Francisco Silent Film Festival kicks off another exciting season with a June 1 screening of Harold Lloyd’s 1925 campus comedy The Freshman at the Castro Theater, accompanied by the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra. The Freshman was Lloyd’s greatest hit, the third biggest release of 1925, and the second most successful comedy of the entire silent film era.

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Early USC play at the Colesium –USC Digital Library

College enrollment soared after World War I, nearly doubling during the 1920s, while a new style of red‐blooded sports journalism, and the advent of radio, and live-game broadcasts, turned college football into a national obsession. With his winning personality, leading man looks, and team of clever gag writers, Lloyd was the perfect comedy star to bring the college craze to the big screen.

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Looking east (l) and north (r) at the former Ontario City Hall and decorative cannon.

[image error]Los Angeles County is so large and varied that Lloyd rarely traveled anywhere else to shoot. So it was unusual that Lloyd would travel to remote Ontario, then a small farming town in San Bernardino County, to film his character arriving at school beside the Southern Pacific depot. The former Ontario City Hall, and its Civil War-era cannon once standing on the corner of Euclid and Emporia due west of the train station, appear early in the film.

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The former State Exposition Building (Bowen Hall) at Exposition Park, with the sunken rose garden at back. Harold has unwittingly agreed to buy the gang ice cream (l), while Buster strolls near by in College. LAPL.

The USC campus was still rather small in 1925, and the UCLA campus in Westwood would not be established for another five years. So Lloyd filmed the campus scenes at Exposition Park instead, even though USC was just across the street. Buster Keaton would film scenes from his later 1927 campus comedy College at the same corner. You can read more about Harold and Buster filming at Exposition Park at this earlier post.

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The ‘new’ 1923 USC locker rooms at Bovard Field, in The Freshman (l) and in College (r).

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The USC bleachers at Bovard Field.

The USC football team originally played home games at modest Bovard Field, behind the USC Old College Building, equipped with wooden bleachers that seated only a few thousand people. Out‐manned during the early years, the press dubbed the USC team the “Trojans” for fighting on despite overwhelming odds against better‐equipped opponents. Lloyd filmed all of the football practice scenes at this field, used also for Keaton’s baseball scenes in College, and for the football scenes in Keaton’s Three Ages (1923).

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Filming at the Rose Bowl – horseshoe-shaped until the south end was closed over in 1928.

Fueled by the college football craze, California witnessed of the construction of four major stadiums during the early 1920s; Stanford Stadium opened in Palo Alto in 1921, followed by the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in 1922, and both the California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in

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Harold – with extras filling the view – at the Colesium

1923. Lloyd created The Freshman by blending footage shot at three of the four stadiums; most playing field sequences were staged at the Rose Bowl, medium views of Harold on the bench, with extras filling in the bleachers behind him, at the Coliseum, and wide full stadium views up at Berkeley.

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White shirt in the movie (l) – dark shirt in the production stills (r).

Lloyd began filming The Freshman by jumping straight to the climatic football game sequence, staged at the empty Rose Bowl. But Lloyd soon realized it was a mistake ‐ without understanding his character’s motivation, the sequence just didn’t work. So Lloyd scrapped the early scenes, and filmed the movie in sequential order instead. Lloyd wore a white shirt when he filmed the game sequence for the second time, so his character would stand out from the other players wearing black. In a nod to efficiency, Lloyd kept the production stills taken when he was also wearing black. Thus, there are moments were Lloyd wears a white shirt in the movie, and a black shirt in the matching photographs.

[image error][image error]Lloyd filmed the wide stadium view scenes at Cal during the November 22, 1924 Big Game between the University of California and Stanford University. Harold and his crew witnessed an exciting match, as Stanford overcame a 14 point deficit in the final minutes to reach a 20‐20 tie, capping an

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Some of Harold’s 90,000 extras at Cal stadium

undefeated season for both teams. Unlike Chaplin and Keaton, who early on filmed several times in San Francisco and near Truckee, filming The Freshman at Berkeley is apparently the first time Harold Lloyd ever left Southern California to shoot. Lloyd quickly shot key scenes on the field during half-time, later joking that he employed 90,000 extras to appear in his film.[image error]

Jobyna’s love note to Harold was scribbled on an authentic football program. Holley Adams, pictured here (click to enlarge), played center for USC.

The Freshman is available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection. This post is condensed from my visual essay on the disc.

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.

Filed under: Harold Lloyd Tagged: California Memorial Stadium, Harold Lloyd, Los Angeles Colesium, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, The Big Game, The Freshman, The Rose Bowl, then and now, USC

Hollywood’s Silent Echoes – 2017 FIAF/FLC Tour

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Late in 1921 a mob of angry police chased Buster Keaton down a narrow Hollywood alley towards Cahuenga Boulevard. Entering the street Buster saw to his right a corner where “America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford filmed a scene in 1918 beside what is now an adult book store. To his left Buster saw the former Hollywood fire/police station where he would shoot five different films. All seems lost when Buster boldly stops and turns to face his pursuers – then suddenly, grabbing a passing car one-handed, he flies out of frame to safety. This breathtaking stunt, appearing in Keaton’s most famous short film Cops (1922), was filmed on Cahuenga just south of Hollywood Boulevard.

Unburdened by union rules and truckloads of sound equipment, the silent movie filmmakers roamed freely seeking the best locations to shoot. In the process they created a vast photographic record of early Hollywood and Los Angeles, capturing historic streets and settings that often no longer exist. But as fleeting images projected on a screen, this record remained hidden in plain sight for decades until digital technology allowed us the time to freeze these moments and take a closer look.

Remarkably, the great silent film comedians Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd filmed more frequently on the block of Cahuenga south of Hollywood Boulevard than at any other spot in town. It’s easy to speculate why. All three stars had studios close by (the Keaton Studio was just six blocks to the south), and with its numerous alleys and generic commercial buildings, filming on this “urban” street saved them from making trips to downtown Los Angeles to shoot. More remarkably, each star filmed an iconic masterpiece, The Kid, Cops, and Safety Last!, respectively, at the same Cahuenga alley.

This April 28-30 weekend I was honored to lead a series of Hollywood walking tours for the 2017 FIAF Congress and Film Librarians Conference hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The remainder of this post is a brochure I created for the tour, which can also be downloaded HERE.

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Filed under: Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Hollywood Tour Tagged: FIAF, Hollywood, Hollywood Tour, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, then and now

Keaton’s The Goat – the geography of a gag

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Buster standing on Lillian Way near the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. – one block from his studio.

Particular yet pragmatic, Buster Keaton would travel hundreds of miles to find just the right setting for a joke, while also filming dozens of mundane scenes within steps of his small studio in Hollywood. This post breaks down the geography of one gag from The Goat (1921), revealing how Keaton cleverly and methodically pieced together the diverse backdrops available to him close to home.

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(1) the cops race along the studio fence and (2) into a moving van.

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Buster crafted this scene using the few backdrops available close to his studio, the lower left square block.

As I explain in my book Silent Echoes, early in The Goat a trio of cops chase Buster around downtown Los Angeles near the Plaza de Los Angeles (inset below). The next shot (1) above shows the trio running south down Cahuenga alongside the Keaton Studio fence. Buster lures [image error]the cops into a moving van (2), beside the brick building Bell & Howell built in 1920, still standing at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Lillian Way, one block north of the studio site. Buster quickly escapes from the van and ties the back door shut, smugly watching the van drive away with his tormentors.

I made this discovery thanks to Marc Wanamaker of Bison Archives providing me with a wonderful 1921 photo looking NE towards the Keaton Studio from the former Metro Studio (below).

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Click to enlarge – the Keaton Studio – (1) the cops run along the fence, (2) the brick Bell & Howell building appears at back. (3) points to the corner of Santa Monica and Vine (see corner turret), partially obscured. Bison Archives.

Next, Buster sees an aggressive man harass Virginia Fox and her dog (3), filmed looking east along Santa Monica Blvd. from the corner of Vine, and (4) decides to take action. Virginia’s scene was staged only one block north and east from Buster’s studio.

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(3) looking east along Santa Monica at Vine and (4) Buster beside the Bell & Howell building on Lillian Way.

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Now the home to the Sacred Fools Theater Company, some windows have been walled shut.

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(5) Buster defends Virginia, attracting the attention of a cop (6), sending Buster fleeing off camera.

Ever efficient, Buster staged the reaction shot of the cop (6) at the same Bell & Howell building, only looking north towards the corner of Santa Monica. A vacant lot still stood across the street in 1921.

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(6) the building originally had a large picture window near the corner, now closed over and sporting a sign for the theater.

[image error]Concluding this breathless sequence, Buster enjoys a moment of calm strolling beside the former Metro Studio stages along Cole Avenue, a block south from his studio, only to have the moving van dump the trio of cops at his feet (7). Buster runs off to the left, and in the next scene boards a train at the Inglewood train station about ten miles away, the same station where he staged the finale to One Week.

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Click to enlarge – the aerial view of the Metro Studio stages looks SE, while Buster’s shot (7) looks north up Cole. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

[image error]Scene (7) was staged a block SW from the Keaton Studio (see map at left). For good measure, Buster filmed later scenes from The Goat where he lures Big Joe Roberts under a dump truck full of rocks (A) along Lillian Way, just north of his studio, looking west toward the Cahuenga Valley Lemon Growers warehouse. The warehouse sign peeks through the trees at back (see below). Buster’s scenes [image error](2), (4), and (6) were filmed on the other side of the street as scene (A), only looking east. By 1922, as documented during a scene from The Balloonatic, the lemon warehouse was torn down to make way for a towering storage warehouse that still stands at Santa Monica and Cahuenga. This warehouse appears during a fire hose scene (inset right) in Keaton’s Go West (1925).

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Looking west (A) at the former Cahuenga Valley Lemon Growers warehouse, across the street to the north from Keaton’s studio, and directly across the street from scenes (2), (4), and (6) above. The warehouse sign appears at back.

A final overlap – Buster’s scenes (3) and (5) in The Goat provide a view east towards the same market (B) appearing in Keaton’s The Playhouse (1921). See below, and larger view map above.

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The same market appearing in The Goat (5) and The Playhouse (B). Hydro Pura was a popular water softener.

The more I learn about Buster Keaton, the more I marvel at his precision and directorial skills. As shown here, Buster seamlessly weaved seven different settings, all adjacent to his studio, into a brief and hilarious sequence. Below, a modern view north towards the Bell & Howell building, with its southern (right) slightly taller extension that was added in 1925.

Filed under: Buster Keaton, Keaton Studio, The Goat Tagged: Buster Keaton, Hollywood, Keaton Locations, Keaton Studio, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, The Goat, then and now