Hollywoodland! (pt.6)

CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA
The Lot of Fun : Hal Roach Studios

Home of Laurel & Hardy and The Little Rascals

Hal Roach Studios stood on the corner of
Washington Blvd and National Blvd in Culver City from 1919 to 1963.

Stan Laurel, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, and Oliver Hardy.
Genius quartet

Alfalfa, Spanky, Stan and Ollie. 
Hal Roach's million dollar quartet

When I visited Hollywood, I stayed at a motel in Culver City. As it turns out, there's just as much movie history in Culver City as there is in Hollywood. Nowadays they film Wheel of Fortune in Culver City, and Sony Pictures Studios is smack dab in the middle of town, but, as usual, what I loved about Culver City was the stuff that's not there any more! Hal Roach Studios was torn down in 1963 when I was one year old. Had I known, I would've signed a petition to stop its demolition so I could go see it someday when I grew up!

Hal Roach made short (10-20 minute) comedies in the 20's, 30's and 40's. His movies were shown in theaters before the main feature. Back then, before TV, going to the movies was an entertainment-packed experience: You usually got a ten minute newsreel (there was no Nightly News back then), a six minute cartoon made by one of the Hollywood Studios that had an animation department, such as MGM (Tom & Jerry), Walt Disney Studios (Mickey Mouse), or Warner Brothers (Porky Pig). Then you would watch a twenty minute comedy short (usually a Hal Roach Production, or The Three Stooges or The Keystone Cops), and then your main feature: Ben Hur or Gone With The Wind, or The Wizard of Oz.

Hal Roach movies were often released through MGM which was literally a few blocks down the street from Roach Studios on Washington Avenue in Culver City. This poster celebrates his 20 year association with MGM.

Because Hal Roach specialized in comedy, his studio was known as "The Lot of Fun!" At first, his biggest stars were his littlest stars, The Little Rascals, also known as Our Gang. Then came his bigger biggest stars of all time, Laurel and Hardy, who worked there from 1926 till about 1940, when they started making full-length (60-90 minute) feature films for MGM and 20th Century Fox. But their hey-day was at the Roach Studios in the 20s and 30s. 

Today there stands but a couple of trees and a concrete plaque where was once The Lot of Fun...

These trees and a small patch of grass are on the northeast corner of what used to be Hal Roach's property. It's hard to see, but there's chain link fence directly behind the trees and the construction of an elevated commuter railway which goes into the city of Los Angeles. No remnants of the studio exist here.

"Laugh Factory to the World" states a commemorative plaque placed on the corner of what used to be Roach Studios. This plaque was placed here by the International Laurel and Hardy Fan Club known as The Sons of the Desert in 1980.

Here's Hal Roach at the dedication ceremony for the commemorative plaque honoring him and his studio in Culver City, circa 1980. I believe Spanky and some of the grown up Little Rascals that were still alive were present at this ceremony, too... No, I did not take this picture.

Filming in Culver City

Whenever Laurel and Hardy filmed exterior shots, they did so in and around Culver City, so even though the studio may be gone, many of the filming locations still exist. One of my favorite L&H comedies (and that's not fair to say because I have so many) was County Hospital, filmed in 1932.

The above video is not the full movie County Hospital, but just a few seconds of the opening exterior shot. It was filmed in 1932 in front of the Culver City Hall (not really a hospital at all.) But they "propped-it-up" by posting a sign out front that says QUIET - HOSPITAL ZONE and making a special sign above the door that says COUNTY HOSPITAL which the prop team at Hal Roach Studios carved out of wood and painted gray to look like the granite facade of the building.

Stan's car backfires so loudly in the "quiet zone" it lifts off the road.Movie Magic Hal Roach-style

In the eighty years that have passed since this movie was made, the Culver City Hall has been torn down and rebuilt beyond (almost) all recognition. Luckily, for trivia geeks like me, they retained the original front of the building as a kind of open-air archway into the courtyard of the new building. Compare the 1932 photo (above) with the 2012 photo (below) and you can clearly see the portions that were retained:

The "columnated ruins" of the old Culver City Hall still stand to this day -- 2012 -- as a reminder
of where Laurel and Hardy filmed the exterior scenes of 1932s County Hospital.

A different camera angle, looking West on Culver Boulevard.

Stan, in the above photo, is parking his car on Culver Boulevard, right in front of the City Hall / County Hospital building. Culver City Hall -- in reality -- is located just "catty-corner" across the street from the old MGM Studios (currently Sony Pictures). You can see the MGM water tower behind Stan in the photo above.

Stan and Ollie waiting to shoot a scene in front of Culver City Hall, 1932. They were done filming by the time I got there. Missed 'em by 80 years!

Notice the exaggerated cast on Ollie's foot, resting against the windshield, in the behind-the-scenes photo above. One can imagine how many times Stan accidently slams the car door on it. (Six.) It looks like, in this photo, there are trolley tracks behind them along Culver Boulevard. There probably was, but there was no sign of them when I was there in 2012, though much of Culver City still looks the way it did when Laurel and Hardy were tooling around in their Model T.

Culver Boulevard and Washington Boulevard converge here at the site of The Culver Hotel.

The Culver Hotel remains pretty much unchanged from the way it was in the 1930s. It's still in business. I inquired online about staying here when I was planning my Hollywood trip, but it's way more expensive than my Travelodge. But the Culver is an historic place. Laurel and Hardy filmed here quite a bit too. Below is a still from a 1928 silent movie called Leave 'Em Laughing. I'll admit, I have never seen a Laurel and Hardy silent movie. (I don't think they're available on DVD.)

Laurel and Hardy in front of the Culver Hotel, 1928

But the real claim to fame of the historic Culver Hotel is the fact that The Munchkins stayed here in 1938 during the filming of The Wizard of Oz! MGM Studios, after all, was (is) just a block or two down the street. Legend has it that during their stay The Munchkins made quite a ruckus at the hotel. I don't know how exaggerated that story is, but there was movie made about it in 1981 called Under The Rainbow. Much of it was filmed here at The Culver Hotel. I haven't seen it since it played in the theater when it first came out, so I don't remember much about it except that a young Chevy Chase was in it. And a young Carrie Fisher. I'd kinda like to see it now that I've been to Culver City and kinda know the story of the rowdy Munchkins.

The surviving Munchkins of 1997 reunite at The Culver Hotel where they were guests six decades earlier during the filming of The Wizard of Oz down the street at MGM. The two taller gentlemen represent The Lollipop Guild (tee-hee).

Meinhardt Raabe as Little Oscar

6/124ths of the Munchkins reunited at The Culver Hotel in 1997. (There were 124 little people who appeared in the movie; by 1997 only six survived. That's where I got my figure.) I believe as of 2012, there are no more Munchkins walking the planet with us. What's a world without Munchkins? (Y'know, I bet if someone researched it enough, they'd find out that all this crap going on in the world started the day the last Munchkin died...) One person I don't see in the reunion photo is Meinhardt Raabe. He took part in the 2007 reunion when the Munchkins got their star on The Walk of Fame, but apparently couldn't make it to the Culver Hotel in '97. My interest in Mr Raabe specifically out of all the Munchkins is because he was a 'Sconnie Farm Boy who grew up about twenty miles from where I'm currently sitting, near Johnson Creek Wisconsin. He worked in Madison as an accountant for the Oscar Mayer Co. for 29 years. In 1937 Oscar Mayer introduced an advertising character named Little Oscar, The World's Smallest Chef. Well guess who got to get out of the office for awhile and tour the country in the Weinermobile dressed as Little Oscar? Meinhardt Raabe, that's who. Oscar Mayer must've been a great company to work for, because the following year they let him take a leave of absence to come to Culver City to be in The Wizard of Oz. For the record, he was the Munchkin Coroner in Oz. I'll go look for a YouTube clip. You keep reading...

I must aver, Meinhardt Raabe died in 2010 and is buried near his hometown in Farmington Wisconsin. R.I.P.

MGM Studios in the 1930s on Washington Boulevard in Culver City. 
Just a yellow brick's throw from the Culver Hotel where The Munchkins stayed.

Formerly MGM Studios, currently Sony Pictures Studios, 2012. 
Sony Pictures covers about ten city blocks in downtown Culver City.

Here's another boring story...

("Ooh, I hope it's as good as the Munchkin one!" ~You, sarcastically.)

When I first arrived at my motel in Culver City, on the corner of Washington Place and Sepulveda, I parked my car, dropped my stuff off in my room, and went for a walk after sitting in an airplane all morning. I have no idea how far I walked. I knew The Wizard of Oz was filmed about five or six blocks from where I was staying, so I headed that way (East down Washington Boulevard.) I could see the Sony water tower in the distance and said to myself, "That don't look too far..." (I was talking to myself so I didn't have to be grammatically correct.)

Former MGM gate where I imagine Judy Garland's 1938 Deusenberg Limo dropped her off for work every morning when she was here filming The Wizard of Oz.

I walked for blocks down Washington Boulevard and saw nothing but a giant white wall which stretched for seemingly miles, behind which were the Sony Pictures Studios. I saw no gates of any kind, just a three story high white wall, as far as the eye could see... "You know what?" I said to myself (a lot of people in Hollywood walk down the street talking to themselves. I met one by Charlie Chaplin's Studio.) "I'll bet this is the backside..." So I backtracked a few blocks and found a side street that took me over to Culver Boulevard, and sure enough, there was a much more interesting view of the old MGM Studios.

As I mentioned earlier, as if anybody's really reading this, I didn't take any studio tours in Hollywood. I just looked through a lot of gates. I had read on the internet (so it has to be true) that the Sony Pictures Tour has really nothing to show for the fact that Oz was filmed there. It was indeed shot on Stage 27 but the tour doesn't go INTO Stage 27. They just kinda point it out and say, "To your left you'll see Stage 27 where the Wizard of Oz was filmed in 19-blah-de-blah..." They say there's a section of the Yellow Brick Road on display inside, but as I said, the tour doesn't go inside. So. There's that.

Culver Studios. I had no idea...

After seeing the City Hall and Culver Hotel where Culver Blvd merges with Washington Blvd, my plan was to walk to the former site of The Hal Roach Studios. I had no idea how much farther that was up Washington Boulevard. (Had I been driving I could've used a GPS, but even if I was driving, I was too cheap to pay the $19.95 additional fee for the GPS when they offered it to me at the rental place!) I walked for awhile but saw no evidence of the old Hal Roach Studio, so I thought I'd turn around an go back. Maybe I'd check out the address online and drive to it another day. 

Well, the last thing I saw on my walk before I turned around and headed back to my motel was Culver Studios. I'd never heard of it so I walked on by. (Note too that I was in a hurry to catch the next Hollywood Tour bus at 3:00 at Santa Monica Pier). I had time, but it was a long walk back past that 10 block boring white wall at Sony Pictures.

But I later found out that Culver Studios used to be Desilu Studios, owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz from 1957 to 1967 (I think?) (Don't quote me on that!) But Desilu was famous. (DESI and LUcy, get it?) They filmed The Andy Griffith Show there, Hogan's Heroes, Star Trek and of course I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show. And lots and lots of others. In fact, speaking of lots, Desilu used to be RKO Pictures Studios in the 1930s and 1940s and they were famous for their 40 acre movie lot. Did you ever hear the phrase, "Scattered over a 40 acre lot!" Well, that's where that phrase came from. The old RKO Studios.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz outside their empire, late 1950s

I stand corrected yet again! I later found out that Lucy and Desi had three Desilu locations throughout the Los Angeles area, so I'm not sure where all those shows were filmed. I know Andy Griffith was filmed at "the 40 acre lot" so that was indeed filmed in Culver City, but I'm not sure about Star Trek and the others. Lucy and Desi also had locations on Cahuenga Boulevard and Gower Street in L.A. Lucy and Desi divorced in 1960 (or was it 1962?) and Lucy became sole owner of Desilu, but then she sold it in 1967. I KNOW A LOT OF WORTHLESS STUFF DON'T I???

For anyone interested -- of my two readers, one of whom is me, the other of whom is assumed -- to give you an idea of the proximity of the places I visited in Culver City, here's a little photo I took from my satellite, marking some of my favorite sites. Click to enlarge if you really wanna.

Click to Enlarge. 
If you really wanna.

What say we wrap this blog up, shall we?!

("What? You mean it's still going? I stopped reading it ten hours ago!" ~You)

So, the final night that I spent in Hollywood I was thinking to myself, "Hey... when am I ever gonna be this close to the Pacific Ocean with a car again? Before I have to go to the airport tomorrow afternoon and return my rental car, I'm gonna drive up U.S. Highway #1!" A.K.A The Pacific Coast Highway. I didn't know how far Malibu was, but I figured I'd start at Santa Monica Pier and drive north until either (a) I reached Malibu, or (b) ran out of time before I had to return my car and be at the airport.

Until I saw this sign, I had totally forgotten that Route 66 ended in Santa Monica!
TjH Photo 2012

I walked around the Santa Monica Pier and had a hot dog and a root beer. It seemed like I had to. And then I saw the sign, "End of the Trail : Route 66." Wow. I had forgotten Route 66 ended at the Santa Monica Pier! It literally ends. One minute it's paved road, next minute, it's wooden boardwalk. If you took Route 66 to it's literal ending point, you'd fall of the edge of the earth, right into the Pacific Ocean!

So, about Route 66, for those that don't know: U.S. Highway 66 was the first paved cross-country highway in America. Actually, cross country is a bit of an exaggeration, because it STARTED at Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and was the first and only paved route all the way here, to Santa Monica (where, a few feet farther, it became wooden planks.) So it's only really half-cross-country. Route 66 was defunct after they built the Interstate Highway System in the 50s and 60s. In 1977 the Highway Department dismantled Route 66 and today only geeks like me WHO ONLY LIKE STUFF THAT ISN'T THERE ANYMORE care about the old road and in 1999 I drove from Chicago to St Louis taking portions of the old road that still exist (the whole time Interstate 55 was right by my side, but I didn't take it till I came home. (Photo of workmen taking down the now-defunct Route 66 signs at the opposite end of the famous road, at Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, 1977)

Anyway, here are some more pictures from my trip up Highway 1 (starting at the endpoint of Highway 66!) Turns out Malibu was only six miles away! So I drove around Malibu for awhile before I had to get back to LAX Airport...

Santa Monica Pier and two Santa Monica people

Santa Monica City and the Santa Monica Mountains in the background

Santa Monica Beach and the Pacific Ocean 
or as I called it, "The Edge of the Earth"

Highway One heading out of Santa Monica

Long sticks with palm fronds attached to the top along Hwy 1

See that white cloud...

... by the time I got to Malibu, it had become lots of gray clouds...

So... Malibu, as I said, was only six miles away. My plan to drive up Highway 1 basically took six minutes. Thinking I had plenty of time to get to the airport,  I drove around Malibu and looked at millionaire's cliff-side mansions. Then I decided to come back to Santa Monica and snap one more Laurel and Hardy-related picture: Stan had lived the last years of his life in Santa Monica in an apartment building called The Oceana Apartments, over looking the Pacific Ocean...

Stan Laurel, circa 1960s, at his Oceana Apartment
Picture stolen from this excellent website:  http://www.lettersfromstan.com/index.html

Well, not knowing the address, I couldn't find the place. It turns out there are hundreds of apartment buildings along the Pacific Coast Highway, and all I had to go by was the name, Oceana. So I'm looking at all these signs in front of the apartments whilst driving 70 miles an hour. By now the clock was ticking and I thought I better just skip it. I had to fill up my rental car with gas, return it, and get to the airport. 

But hey, I got to see the Pacific Ocean, I got to see Malibu, I got to drive the Pacific Coast Highway and see where Route 66 ended... not to mention the awesome hot dog and root beer!... So what? So what if I couldn't see where Stan Laurel lived? It was a great morning! Besides, I already saw where Stan worked! I even saw one of the cars he drove at The Petersen Auto Museum! It had been crushed by two street cars, but I saw it! I got to see where he and Ollie filmed the exterior scenes for County Hospital. I was satisfied.

So I get on the Santa Monica Freeway (to get to the San Diego Freeway) to head south to LAX. Once I hit the San Diego Freeway, that was it: I COULD MOVE NO FURTHER. Bumper-to-bumper traffic, six lanes, none of them moving, solid cars as far as the eye could see. It took me two hours at a crawl to get to the airport. Luckily I stopped sightseeing when I did or I could've missed my flight. Which I didn't, obviously, and all was well. (I didn't take the picture to the right, but just to give you a feel...) I looked it up online when I got home: I had driven right past Stan Laurel's apartment building when I decided to get on the freeway. Well that's a another fine m--- oh, never mind.

EPILOGUE:

"So what are you gonna do now, Timmy?"

Do? Do?! Hey, I'm doin' what I do... y'know, I've always done what I do... I'm doin' what I do the way I've always done it... the way I'll always do it... oh, I'm doin' what I do... 

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

~George to Kramer when Kramer says all that stuff about doin' what he does

Does it look like these guys are in Griffith Park with me?Naah! Their sign is at a different angle than mine. They appear to be further west than my photo above. Still, Griffith Park is so big, that might just be where they are.

Just one more please...

click to play

And as always: Thank you for blogging at Bleggah!