The CB1100 Community Forum

The sun came out after work! Here's Johnie's Coffee Shop, which is located across the street from the Petersen. For years, it served as one of the best examples of Googie Architecture in the city. It closed for business in 2000, but being between the old Petersen Publishing office and the museum, I had countless lunches there. Due to it's fairly generic coffee shop interior, it has continued to serve as a filming location even after its closure, and more recently was Bernie Sanders' West Coast campain headquarters. It is historically protected, and with the current expansion of L.A.'s subway system, there has been extensive construction on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, where an underground subway station will be located. I am curious to see how they will incorporate the restaurant in the design of the stations, as the back of the place is blocked off with huge construction fences.

Johnie's was featured in movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Big Lebowski, but one of my favorite recent videos is this dance scene with Sam Rockwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH5L4qTVsTk


The aforementioned La Brea Tar Pits is a few blocks East on Wilshire. In Volcano, the tar pits are revealed to be a dormant volcano, which erupts, sending the city into chaos.


MacArthur Park is further East along Wilshire, toward Downtown L.A. It has featured in many films and TV shows, but going back to Volcano, this is where the scientist played by Anne Heche discovered that temperature in the park's lake was rising, leading to the discovery of the volcano. Sadly, these days, the park is mostly occupied by homeless people and weirdos. I initially stopped and got off of my bike to take a better photo, but a couple of guys walked up to me assuming that I wanted to buy drugs, so I didn't get the best photo of the park...

(06-19-2023, 03:03 AM)Gone in 60_imp Wrote: [ -> ]The sun came out after work! Here's Johnie's Coffee Shop, which is located across the street from the Petersen. For years, it served as one of the best examples of Googie Architecture in the city. It closed for business in 2000, but being between the old Petersen Publishing office and the museum, I had countless lunches there. Due to it's fairly generic coffee shop interior, it has continued to serve as a filming location even after its closure, and more recently was Bernie Sanders' West Coast campain headquarters. It is historically protected, and with the current expansion of L.A.'s subway system, there has been extensive construction on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, where an underground subway station will be located. I am curious to see how they will incorporate the restaurant in the design of the stations, as the back of the place is blocked off with huge construction fences.

Johnie's was featured in movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Big Lebowski, but one of my favorite recent videos is this dance scene with Sam Rockwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH5L4qTVsTk


The aforementioned La Brea Tar Pits is a few blocks East on Wilshire. In Volcano, the tar pits are revealed to be a dormant volcano, which erupts, sending the city into chaos.


MacArthur Park is further East along Wilshire, toward Downtown L.A. It has featured in many films and TV shows, but going back to Volcano, this is where the scientist played by Anne Heche discovered that temperature in the park's lake was rising, leading to the discovery of the volcano. Sadly, these days, the park is mostly occupied by homeless people and weirdos. I initially stopped and got off of my bike to take a better photo, but a couple of guys walked up to me assuming that I wanted to buy drugs, so I didn't get the best photo of the park...

so funny and sad at the same time

Moving back downtown on my way home, I passed the Bonaventure Hotel, which has been a filming mecca since it opened. Countless movies have used it, but my favorite is Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich's final scenes in In the Line of Fire.


Finally, I have shown and described L.A.'s newly rebuilt Sixth Street Bridge in detail in earlier posts, and it has already shown in several TV shows and car commercials. But two blocks to the North, the Fourth Street Bridge is just as famous, featuring in many car chase films and car commercials. This view is from the West side looking East. My favorite movie using the bridge is Lee Marvin's Point Blank, where a sniper uses one of the bridge's vertical cupolas to conceal himself as he shoots a key character below in the L.A. river.

(06-19-2023, 03:27 AM)The ferret_imp Wrote: [ -> ]

(06-19-2023, 03:03 AM)Gone in 60_imp Wrote: [ -> ]The sun came out after work! Here's Johnie's Coffee Shop, which is located across the street from the Petersen. For years, it served as one of the best examples of Googie Architecture in the city. It closed for business in 2000, but being between the old Petersen Publishing office and the museum, I had countless lunches there. Due to it's fairly generic coffee shop interior, it has continued to serve as a filming location even after its closure, and more recently was Bernie Sanders' West Coast campain headquarters. It is historically protected, and with the current expansion of L.A.'s subway system, there has been extensive construction on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, where an underground subway station will be located. I am curious to see how they will incorporate the restaurant in the design of the stations, as the back of the place is blocked off with huge construction fences.

Johnie's was featured in movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Big Lebowski, but one of my favorite recent videos is this dance scene with Sam Rockwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH5L4qTVsTk


The aforementioned La Brea Tar Pits is a few blocks East on Wilshire. In Volcano, the tar pits are revealed to be a dormant volcano, which erupts, sending the city into chaos.


MacArthur Park is further East along Wilshire, toward Downtown L.A. It has featured in many films and TV shows, but going back to Volcano, this is where the scientist played by Anne Heche discovered that temperature in the park's lake was rising, leading to the discovery of the volcano. Sadly, these days, the park is mostly occupied by homeless people and weirdos. I initially stopped and got off of my bike to take a better photo, but a couple of guys walked up to me assuming that I wanted to buy drugs, so I didn't get the best photo of the park...

so funny and sad at the same time

Ugh, yeah, it's pretty sad. There are parts of L.A. that you just ride through as quickly as you can, and Wilshire Blvd near this park is one of them. In my photo, you can see a woman in a yellow skirt, no doubt a volunteer for an art council or something like that. She was scrubbing graffiti off of a tiled art piece in the park. I have to give her a lot of credit for doing so.

Speaking of the Fourth Street Bridge, if you watch the scene I describe in Point Blank, the vertical columns you see on the bridge are hollow inside, forming viewing points for pedestrians crossing the bridge. Mrs. Gone and I traversed the bridge about a year ago on a city hike, and each of the columns was occupied as makeshift campsites, with tarps over the openings.

When my wife and I visited San Franciso a couple years ago we stayed at a hotel downtown. We wanted to go ride a cable car and asked the clerk the best way to get there. He said walk 2 blocks north, then two blocks west, then 2 blocks south. I thought about it a minute drawing it out in my head and asked why don't I just walk 2 blocks west? and he said because the homeless camp out on that street and it's a real hassle to walk thru them.

Yeah, I was up in San Francisco two weeks ago visiting a cousin, and spent a full day hiking around the city. It's otherworldly, even compared to L.A.
Cousin does an Air BNB with part of her house, and says business is down, mostly due to San Francisco not looking too appealing as a tourist destination these days.

However, I did visit some really cool motorcycle shops in the city!

(06-19-2023, 01:47 AM)Gone in 60_imp Wrote: [ -> ]

(06-18-2023, 11:44 PM)1973cb750_imp Wrote: [ -> ]

(06-14-2023, 02:26 AM)Gone in 60_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Just got back home from being out of town for the past few weeks, other than a quick stop for a day at home to dump my dirty clothes, repack and head out of town again.

Had to get lots of errands done yesterday to catch up, so I took the CB and snapped some pics in my neighborhood. This weekend, I'm working at the museum, so I should be able to get some photos of a few movie locations in L.A. Proper.

The first photo is one of the entrances to Main Place Mall. Just a generic indoor shopping mall built in the '80s. But, it has some unique interior features, and when Arnold strode through it in the opening scenes of Kindergarten Cop in 1990, I recognized it instantly. It was also used in Timecop in '94.

My city, Orange, was once, as the name implies, a hub of citrus orchards. The central "Old Town" area featured fruit packing houses, warehouses, rail lines and many houses for the orchard owners, foremen and workers. The center of old town features a large, round park with a big fountain in the middle. It's surrounded by a traffic circle connecting Chapman and Glassell streets which form four spokes featuring many shops and restaurants built from the early 1900s through the '40s. For years, the area was left in very original condition, giving it an "Anytown USA" look, and making it a very popular filming destination.

It was not uncommon for Mrs. G and I to be walking through the neighborhood and stumble on a film set. Once, walking up to our favorite Italian joint, it had been converted into a diner, and was surrounded by muddy early '70s cars. Apparently it was a scene from a TV show set in the south just after a flood. On another stroll, in October, the streets were covered in fake snow and Christmas decorations. A camera car was driving along with a brand new Chrysler rolling slowly down the street - no doubt a commercial for "End of year specials at your local Chrysler dealer".

Chapman College, two blocks to the north, has been growing like wildfire through the neighborhood. This has caused Old Town Orange to become overrun with students, and many of the old shops and restaurants have gentrified into chic eateries. Thankfully, many have been careful to retain the original look of the neighborhood, but a few have not, erasing much of the old town flavor.

Some of the old elements remain, however. The Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do was filmed extensively in Orange, depicting Erie, PA in the late 50s/early 60s. In one scene, when the band first hears their hit song on the radio, one character runs out of the Army Navy store, while another one listens to the song in Mr. C's Record Shop. Both are still there today.

One of the key film locations was Watson's Drug Store, where the band sat at the soda fountain counter and mulled over names for their new band, settling on the "One-ders". After filming, Watson's left many of the filming elements in place, and had posters from the movie proudly on display. Very sadly, within the past few years, Watson's has closed, and was converted into a rather generic Mexican restaurant, that, so far, has not proven to be very popular. I had dinner there recently, and we were the only people in the place. Oh well.

More to come!

id like to see the railroad crossing from back to the future are you taking request ?? i think youre close https://www.google.com/maps/place/34%C2%...?entry=ttu

also i am a big fan of gone in sixty original and nick cage version very cool to see the VT bridge have you watched gone in 60 part 2 that was cut short by toby';s death ? deadline to autotheft i think its called

id like to see the railroad crossing from back to the future are you taking request ?? i think youre close https://www.google.com/maps/place/34%C2%...?entry=ttu

also i am a big fan of gone in sixty original and nick cage version very cool to see the VT bridge have you watched gone in 60 part 2 that was cut short by toby';s death ? deadline to autotheft i think its called
Yeah, clearly I'm a Gone in 60 fan. In my earlier years, I was an insurance fraud investigator, and actually did a case where someone stole a car from LAX and swapped the VIN with a matching wrecked car, just like the opening to the '74 movie. However, this car was an Olds Cutlass, not a Challenger like the movie.

I have the collection of Halicki films on DVD, and have a friend who claims to have known him quite well. On Saturday's ride, one of my thoughts was to stop along the shoulder of the 110 Freeway somewhere around where he lost control of the Mustang, caught a light pole and violently spun the car, badly injuring himself. But, stopping on the freeway on a Saturday afternoon when traffic is going 80 can be problematic.

Funny you mention the train crossing... I get "Hey, do you know where they filmed XYZ" requests from my friends in ohter parts of the country. I actually dig that, since I'm a California film location buff, and I usually end up finding out new places I hadn't known about. As for the train crossing, I found it the last time Mrs. G and I were up in the Channel Islands area for a whale watching cruise.

But, shoulda asked me in April when I was riding up the 101 to Portland! I was a few miles away from it.
Sunday morning, Mother Nature must have tripped the circuit breaker that gave us a sunny summer Saturday, and we were back to June Gloom and mist. No problem, I don't mind a cool ride to work at the museum. And what a busy day it was going to be! Father's Day is always the biggest day of the year at a car museum.

I figured I'd snap some more movie location pics along the way to and from work. First stop was L.A. City Hall, built in 1928. And, for many years, it was by city ordinance the tallest building in the city. Even today, the surrounding civic and court buildings aren't as tall, honoring it. The main cluster of downtown skyscrapers is off to the Southwest a bit. This building is unmistakable in any L.A. classic crime or police movie or TV show. My favorites are Dragnet and L.A. Confidential.


Next up is the Bradbury Building located on Broadway. This building's interiors feature wrought iron catwaks and staircases, exposed elevators, and lots of other neat details. It figures big in dystopian future movies. In particular, it was the location of Harrison Ford's office in the original Bladerunner. (We've got his car from the film in the Petersen too.)


The Petersen Museum is a gimmee... I work there, so not much of a challenge. It unerwent a massive renovation during 2014-2015, and the stainless ribbon installed around it immediately made it the most controversial piece of architecture in the city. It wasn't long before car companies started using it as a background in advertising.
Afterwards, I would tell my guests "Mark my words, the next time they make an L.A. Disaster film, this place is going to get blown up first." A few years ago, a guest replied "Then you gotta check out the new show La Brea!" I watched, and sure enough, ten minutes into the pilot episode, the Petersen gets sucked into a huge sinkhole.

This angle, showing the intersection of Wilshire and Fairfax is where Tommy Lee Jones coordinated several sections of concrete barrier to stop the flow of lava down the street from nearby La Brea Tar Pits, which was found to be an active volcano in the movie Vocano in 1997. The museum, which was only a few years old at the time, is shown on fire, with cars inside melting.

id like to see the railroad crossing from back to the future are you taking request ?? i think youre close https://www.google.com/maps/place/34%C2%...?entry=ttu

also i am a big fan of gone in sixty original and nick cage version very cool to see the VT bridge have you watched gone in 60 part 2 that was cut short by toby';s death ? deadline to autotheft i think its called
Yeah, clearly I'm a Gone in 60 fan. In my earlier years, I was an insurance fraud investigator, and actually did a case where someone stole a car from LAX and swapped the VIN with a matching wrecked car, just like the opening to the '74 movie. However, this car was an Olds Cutlass, not a Challenger like the movie.

I have the collection of Halicki films on DVD, and have a friend who claims to have known him quite well. On Saturday's ride, one of my thoughts was to stop along the shoulder of the 110 Freeway somewhere around where he lost control of the Mustang, caught a light pole and violently spun the car, badly injuring himself. But, stopping on the freeway on a Saturday afternoon when traffic is going 80 can be problematic.

Funny you mention the train crossing... I get "Hey, do you know where they filmed XYZ" requests from my friends in ohter parts of the country. I actually dig that, since I'm a California film location buff, and I usually end up finding out new places I hadn't known about. As for the train crossing, I found it the last time Mrs. G and I were up in the Channel Islands area for a whale watching cruise.

But, shoulda asked me in April when I was riding up the 101 to Portland! I was a few miles away from it.
Sunday morning, Mother Nature must have tripped the circuit breaker that gave us a sunny summer Saturday, and we were back to June Gloom and mist. No problem, I don't mind a cool ride to work at the museum. And what a busy day it was going to be! Father's Day is always the biggest day of the year at a car museum.

I figured I'd snap some more movie location pics along the way to and from work. First stop was L.A. City Hall, built in 1928. And, for many years, it was by city ordinance the tallest building in the city. Even today, the surrounding civic and court buildings aren't as tall, honoring it. The main cluster of downtown skyscrapers is off to the Southwest a bit. This building is unmistakable in any L.A. classic crime or police movie or TV show. My favorites are Dragnet and L.A. Confidential.


Next up is the Bradbury Building located on Broadway. This building's interiors feature wrought iron catwaks and staircases, exposed elevators, and lots of other neat details. It figures big in dystopian future movies. In particular, it was the location of Harrison Ford's office in the original Bladerunner. (We've got his car from the film in the Petersen too.)


The Petersen Museum is a gimmee... I work there, so not much of a challenge. It unerwent a massive renovation during 2014-2015, and the stainless ribbon installed around it immediately made it the most controversial piece of architecture in the city. It wasn't long before car companies started using it as a background in advertising.
Afterwards, I would tell my guests "Mark my words, the next time they make an L.A. Disaster film, this place is going to get blown up first." A few years ago, a guest replied "Then you gotta check out the new show La Brea!" I watched, and sure enough, ten minutes into the pilot episode, the Petersen gets sucked into a huge sinkhole.

This angle, showing the intersection of Wilshire and Fairfax is where Tommy Lee Jones coordinated several sections of concrete barrier to stop the flow of lava down the street from nearby La Brea Tar Pits, which was found to be an active volcano in the movie Vocano in 1997. The museum, which was only a few years old at the time, is shown on fire, with cars inside melting. gone i have some questions about the batmobile at the petersen can u email me or pm me im curious out the number of the car
my favorite car films

Those are all very cool! I just watched Corvette Summer a few weeks ago.

I'll send a PM about the Batmobile.

Not a movie location, per se, but I saw this yesterday and thought it was really cool.

The Petersen Museum's recently reopened restaurant is called the Manx Cafe, themed to the Meyers Manx dune buggy.


They reserve a parking space close to the entrance for a Meyers Manx buggy, and they rotate through them regularly, best I can figure is they offer the spot to local people who have cool buggies.

The one parked there yesterday was a very accurate replica of Steve McQueen's buggy from The Thomas Crown Affair, complete with wraparound windscreen, luggage rack and chrome-accented Corvair six-cylinder.

That is interesting, Gone.

i was gona go up to a spot where twister was filmed we 2 spots but we found out my daughter is type 1 diabetic and friday im getting my tonsils removed so gona be off the bike for a moment