Keaton and W.C. Fields Cross Paths Again Near Buster’s Studio
Buster Keaton filmed The Chemist (1936) and W.C. Fields filmed Running Wild (1927) beside the same apartment building still standing across the street from the Astoria studios where both movies were made in Queens, New York. (Links to detailed posts HERE and HERE).
Click to enlarge – Keaton – The Chemist and Fields – Running Wild beside the SW corner of 35th Ave. and 35th St. in Queens. The Astoria studios where they both worked stands across the street.
Yet another landmark building, still standing in Hollywood, also appears in their films. Further, these movies shed light on the history of the Keaton Studio itself.
A scene from The Balloonatic (1923) filmed due east of the Keaton Studio (above) reveals a six-story storage facility, built in 1922, standing at 6372 Santa Monica Blvd. on the SE corner of Cahuenga. Notice the extant clock tower – click to enlarge. The building is larger in the color view because a six-story expansion was added in 1924. Looking north from Romaine east of Lillian Way, this scene also reveals the Keaton Studio dressing room windows, and the back of the studio sign (see front of sign inset).
The fully expanded warehouse appears next during a scene in Keaton’s 1925 feature Go West as firemen prepare to hose down a cattle stampede running amok on city streets. The view looks east down Santa Monica Blvd. In the movie frame you can read most of the Cahuenga street sign and part of the facility’s “Hollywood 3569” phone number.
Jumping now to W.C. Fields, the 1932 anthology film If I Had A Million (now on Blu-ray) depicts how people’s lives change when a stranger gifts them $1M out of the blue. Some stories are comedic, some uplifting, and some tragic. For comedy Fields and his partner Alison Skipworth use the money to take revenge on road hogs. They purchase a fleet of cheap used cars, and hire a team of drivers to follow with them driving in formation. Whenever some road hog cuts Bill off, Bill runs the offender off the road, ruining both of their cars. Bill then hops into the next car in their fleet, vigilant for the next road hog victim. Bill and Allison spend a perfect day 
ruining about a dozen cars in all. They arrive at the Jack Frost Ford dealer at 750 S La Brea (left, now lost), with the dwellings and two-car garage along 5282 W 8th Street appearing behind them (above). Other scenes were staged near Silver Lake Blvd. and Bellevue, filmed from different angles, and a block further north along Vendome at Marathon, just a block south from the steps where Laurel & Hardy filmed The Music Box (1932). Perhaps we’ll cover these in a later post.
Here’s where Buster fits in. This frame with Bill and Alison being cut off looks north up Cahuenga from Willoughby (notice the street sign) toward the same storage building on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. What’s striking is the Keaton Studio is already demolished, replaced in part by the white KMTR radio station building (now also demolished), while the pitched roof of the old Metro Studio headquarters stands behind a “VOC” billboard. Buster recorded an interview at this station many years later.
Click to enlarge – matching the 1932 movie frame annotated with a 1938 aerial view both looking north. The Keaton Studio stood between Cahuenga and Lillian Way (blue lines) and Eleanor and Romaine. KMTR sits on the west side of the studio site, the east side is a vacant lot. The former headquarters building for the Metro Studios below Keaton’s studio, which shut down in 1924 to join M-G-M in Culver City, is still standing in 1938.
It wasn’t feasible to upgrade Buster’s small studio to make talking pictures, so after Keaton moved to M-G-M in 1928 his studio sat vacant until it was demolished in 1931. For comparison this photo above also looks north at the storage building clock tower (upper left) and the pitched roof of the back of the former Metro headquarters before KMTR was built. The large, dark, barn-like structure near the center is the Keaton Studio enclosed filming stage, shortly before it was demolished. HollywoodPhotographs.com.
Here’s a 1938 view of KMTR where Buster’s studio once stood. The photo archive misidentifies the address as “La Brea”, but you can see the storage building to the left, and the series of buildings here match the profile in the 1938 aerial view above. LAPL.
Studying vintage movie exteriors always reveals new surprises. A recent post about Keaton’s Seven Chances (1924) shows Buster fled from a mob of angry jilted brides by running north up Vine Street, revealing the front corner of his studio in the background (above) as he crosses Eleanor (link to detailed post HERE).
This circa 1930 aerial view above looking NW shows Buster’s path up Vine crossing Eleanor (arrow) and the Keaton Studio between Cahuenga and Lillian Way (blue lines). Notice the large barn-like filming stage, and the clock tower of the storage building. See Seven Chances post HERE for more details.
Compare this similar view, circa 1931, also showing Buster’s path north up Vine (arrow), and the corner of Willoughby and Cahuenga where Fields filmed (X). The Keaton Studio and large filming stage once standing between the blue lines are fully demolished, with the small KMTR buildings now standing on the west side of the lot.
Another startling view, this 1923 photo looking SE shows the Keaton Studio between the blue lines, and Bill’s car on the corner of Willoughby (X). Not only was the Keaton Studio demolished when Fields filmed in 1932, but all of the Metro Studio buildings and exterior sets between the red lines were demolished as well. HollywoodPhotographs.com.
Taken from the storage building, a modern view south of the Keaton Studio site between the blue lines running north from Romaine to Eleanor, and Bill’s corner of Willoughby and Cahuenga (X).
Please check out my YouTube channel, including new visual discoveries showing how Buster Keaton made The General. I wrote its musical score, the Paddlewheel Rag, back in 1975, and employed the Musescore app to record it for the video.
Google Maps link to Willoughby at Cahuenga HERE
