CB1100 Monthly Photo Challenge

[Gone in 60]

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.