Guinness "slide" starring OBD

Many downtown neighbors will spot old bank district locations in this fun Guinness ad filmed at 4th & Main in early October...

The office scene was filmed in the Historic San Fernando Building..

* video is embedded from youtube user "scottmkaplan"

OBD movie star..

Hotel Barclay as seen from 4th Street in the film End of Days (1999)

Woke up and went to turn on the news.. The TV was tuned to the StarzHD channel where End of Days (1999) had recently started. I've never seen this movie (not a big Schwarzenegger fan honestly) but what caught my eye of course was the locations. The film supposdely takes place in NYC, but of course LA is the star of many locations including Broadway's Tower Theatre and what I think was a re-dressed Bar 107. What really played a role in the early scenes is a helicopter chase that ends at 4th & Main..

Old Bank District..


Helicopter flying past the Continental Bldg at 4th & Spring.

At some point the helicopter lands on 4th Street and one of the 'bad guys' falls through a fake overhang on the 4th Street entrance to the Hellman Bldg.. The Hellman Bldg doesn't actually have any glass overhangs.. one can surmise it was built especially for the film.. The Hallman is about 100 years old, you know. ;P


Helicopter landing on 4th (in the larger image you can make out the San Fernando Bldg and the Farmers & Merchants Bank & part of the Hellman Annex (4th St facades) on the right.

The Barclay Hotel is on the left.. guessing they used special effects to put the other buildings into the image.. they just aren't there. In 1999 the corner of 4th & Main across from Barclay was a parking lot and the construction on the Medallion project was many years away.

Old Bank District buildings star in many many movies.. (most recently last summer's Eagle Eye) As an example, one can easily point out the Hotel Barclay in many films, tv spots and primetime tv shows. On one hand it's kind of fun pointing out familiar places (I love "location spotting" when I'm watching CSI and can see where they filmed downtown or in the Arts District) but if it's easy for me, I wonder if some locations are being over-used?? What about the residents who live there (me being one of them I stay away from the filming and have been fortunate not to have bright lights shining in my bedroom from an all night film shoot.. some of my neighbors have not been so lucky).

This movie was shot in 1999 (or maybe 1998?) and so the Old Bank District Lofts hadn't been completely developed yet (the San Fernando Bldg at 4th & Main was the first.. then the Hellman across the street, and last the Continental at 4th & Spring) but people do (and did at that time) live downtown. The film industry was using downtown LA as its own backlot for years, nevermind what people living there had to say about it. As downtown LA becomes more populated, one wonders if landing a helicopter on Main Street is so easily done these days. =)

Still, I like spotting my neighborhood. I hope they continue using downtown and the OBD as a star location, as long as they respect the businesses and people who are inconvenienced by all the disruption. It's fun seeing OBD in movies.. even the bad ones. =)

LA History: Cross Roads of the World

LAist has a history expose on architectural original "Cross Roads of the World" (one of the first LA shopping malls). This Art Deco Icon still stands in Hollywood, one of few originals to LA that hasn't been torn down or remodeled into condos.

What I found interesting is how,(as reported by Lindsay Williams-Ross of LAist), the Cross Roads came into being from a murderous past:


"While the Cross Roads was a spectacular shopping complex and tourist attraction, how it came to be is very curious. Mrs. Crawford was the widow of an infamous man named Charles Crawford, known as anything from a prominent West Coast brothel and casino operator nicknamed "Goodtime Charlie", to "the Gray Wolf of Spring Street," to a prominent local politician, to an organized crime boss, or as the "model for some of Raymond Chandler's juicier villains" (Rasmussen). According to a detailed articled about Crawford by Cecilia Rasmussen published in 1999 in the LA Times, "[Charles Crawford's] notorious viciousness and cunning helped take public corruption to a new level in Los Angeles city government in the 1920s." Crawford, however, became most well known in 1931 as a corpse; he and newspaper man Herbert Spencer were shot and killed by former Deputy District Attorney David Clark. The incident took place in Crawford's real estate office, which just happened to be located at 6665 Sunset Boulevard."

READ THE WHOLE LAist ARTICLE

Art Deco LA

One of the things noted while away in Florida is the plethora of art deco and neon prevalent at the Disney Studios in Orlando. So much neon and architecture of the earlier part of the 20th century. So beloved that they're planning to use the scheme yet again when they refurbish (or re-imagineer if you will) the 2nd gate of Disneyland, "Disney's California Adventure" (DCA).



So much of LA seems to be a tear it down & rebuild it into something else sort of culture. It really is a shame. The fact is that so much of what LA used to be is honored and memorialized in kitch-y Disney fashion because it is beloved, and in many cases, no longer exists: the Brown Derby, the Crossroads (ok that's sort of still there) and the Pan-Pacific Auditorium.. which being relatively new to California (and LA especially) I wasn't aware what it was or that it burned down.

What about that LA architecture? The fact is if it weren't for the historic tours such as the neon bus or the Conservancy tours, these lost treasures would be just that.. completely lost.

I'm so grateful that while living in LA, I have the opportunity to make my home in a place that makes an attempt at keeping old LA alive and well, not just gentrifying a place but re-purposing the structure, keeping as much of the original intact. The fact is we need to keep these places as original and pristine as possible. Places have meaning for us because they have history and a story behind them. We care for the things we love and they will stay with us, and not become just another place to be honored in an amusement park, or books about recalling the past that no longer exists.

Life imitates Art.. CSI style

One of my favorite shows on the magic picture box is CSI (Las Vegas) and after having just seen this latest season finale, one wonders if there's a chance it'll be a cliff-hanger.

Is it possible that Gary Dourdan, the actor who plays a lead CSI on the show will make it back after his Avoiding jail time as he undergoes 30hrs of Diversion Therapy? The gentleman was arrested for possession, so perhaps 30 hours is more than enough therapy.

They off'ed the guy's character possibly because of his drug bust but who knows? This isn't the first time an actor on a popular program like CSI has had a real-life run-in with drugs or alcohol related trouble.

Previously the people who handle things like this let it get worked out then decide I have read. I don't know anything about the people involved, but it could also be a case of burnout and stress. The show just finished up its eighth season and could possibly keep going like Law & Order, but hopefully not run into the ground with bad stories and acting.
***


On a more upbeat note, I loved this same last episode of CSI where they found a DB (that's CSI speak for 'dead body') in the Arts District not too far from the Toy Lofts. I love identifying stuff like that. They film in LA all the time,(that's not uncommon) but that one, I didn't expect.