Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and therefore I will have to wake up all too soon and the whole damn thing happens all too soon. But first, a small divertissement. The fellow who puts up those YouTube L.A. driving videos, converting them to 60 frames-per-second, put up a new one yesterday, saying it was from the 1930s. Before I got there, someone had pointed out the obvious – that there was a clearly visible billboard that said 1941 as plain as day (he’s since amended his title), and someone had identified the street as going south on Western, but not saying where on Western. That was, of course, a big help. Once you start watching these things, it becomes a big ol’ mystery adventure, trying to identify things that might be searchable, and that’s the fun of it. So, I began watching. The distance to the Hollywood Hills told me that we were somewhere around Melrose or thereabouts, and that proved to be correct in just a couple of minutes. The camera reveals on the right an apartment building called the St. Charles Apartments. I Googled that and it’s still there and, as a matter of fact, has apartments for rent – probably a little higher than they were in 1941. So, we knew that was located at 248 South Western (near Second Street) – north Western begins a few blocks north of there. It travels a few more blocks south before cutting to a new shot. Obviously, no street was named, but something right at the beginning of the shot, just as it cut, seemed familiar to me. About a minute or so later we see on the left the Mayan Hotel. I found a postcard on Google from the Mayan, located at 3049 Eighth Street. Say what? I went back to the beginning of the shot and realized instantly why it looked familiar – it’s the building on the right, which was the southwest corner – it became drugstore later, one I frequented quite often because if this shot had started just five seconds earlier, you would have seen my father’s restaurant, the Kiru, which was located at 3474 West Eighth, between Serrano and Hobart. The shot starts JUST before Hobart – I couldn’t believe it – just five seconds earlier. Wouldn’t that have been something? The building as you pass Hobart, on the southeast corner is still there. So, that was more than fun, but frustrating that it didn’t start just five seconds earlier.
After we get to about Normandie, it cuts again. Although not located, I’m pretty sure it’s the buildings on the west side of Western in the general area of the first shot. Then it cuts again, to the other side of the street, going north on Western, starting at about Third Street. The camera is moving pretty quickly, but I was able to freeze frame what is a McDonnell’s Drive-In (undergoing renovation). It took quite a while, but I finally found a menu that had all the locations and voila – the northeast corner of Western and Beverly Blvd. now a lovely strip mall, of course. We continue north – there were still residences on both sides of Western, which was interesting. But at that point in my viewing, I didn’t KNOW that it was Western – that took over an hour to figure out and once I’d figured it out, then everything else became easy. As the camera zooms by storefronts and whatnot, there’s a movie theater on the right – it goes by VERY quickly, but I freeze-framed and got the double bill right away – Chad Hanna and Love Thy Neighbor. Having that information, I was able to go to newspapers.com and narrow down the date to March/April of 1941. None of the theaters I found seemed right, though, and it was driving me crazy not to be able to identify it. Had I been smart and gone back and watched the first two minutes of the video, there it was on the right – it was hard to see it. I wouldn’t have even had to look it up, because just south of Melrose on the east side was the Clinton Theater. But I found it the hard way – just kept searching and finally found the Clinton on newspapers.com, which narrowed down perfectly the week this film was shot – the movie opened there on April 16, 1941 and played just the one week. I’m a really good detective for these things, and I’ve garnered some fans in the comments because of it. So, a real snapshot of that era. Had they just gone a little further south in the original opening shot, we would have had the Wiltern Theater. Here is the link to the video.
Wasn’t that amazingly amazing? Oh, and the Mayan Hotel BUILDING is still there – just not called that anymore. I needed a little Bond break, so I watched a nice documentary about Rose Marie. It’s mostly her, with some other folks like Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, and like that. The only downside to it were the “reenactments” – I just find that completely unnecessary and frankly ridiculous. And about halfway through, they just abandon it. They mention so much of what she’d done, especially post The Dick Van Dyke Show, and yet nary a mention of the short-lived ABC late-night series, Honeymoon Suite – worth a mention, I should think, as the regulars were her and Morey Amsterdam. Of course, I appeared in an episode, so had they mentioned it that would have been fun. And now, I’m still going through the symphonies of Arnold Bax, currently on number six, having previously heard the first, second, third, and fifth, all on Lyrita CDs. The rest are from another conductor and aren’t as good as these performances. Bax was a fine composer, and also wrote several wonderful film scores, including David Lean’s film of Oliver Twist. Especially notable are his wonderful tone poems.
Yesterday was a completely screwy day. I initially got two hours of sleep, then another four, but that wasn’t enough. I’d intended to go back to bed at eleven but then I saw the driving video and suddenly it was one o’clock. So, I got back into bed, fell asleep, and woke up at three-thirty – so eight and a half hours of on again, off again sleep. Once up again, I answered a bunch of e-mails, then headed over to the nearby Panda Express for some nearby food for my nearby tummy. Now, four o’clock is not busy hour ANYWHERE, food-wise, and as I walked by heading toward the front door, that proved to be the case – other than a couple of diners at tables, there was no one in line. As I approached the door, two rather obnoxious women saw that and sprinted to get in before me. And, just as you’d expect, they were ordering five meals, had to call people to see what they wanted, took all of the string bean chicken and almost decimated the orange chicken. They were slow as molasses and really annoying. Someone finally saw how irritated I was and came and took my order. Since they were out of the string bean chicken and I didn’t feel like waiting for ten minutes, I had the almond chicken and two helpings of the orange chicken – just enough left to do two helpings, thanks to the idiot women. And as I turned to leave, I saw that there were six people in line, waiting. At four o’clock. Go know.
I came right home and ate it all up – I suspect I got shorted a bit on the orange chicken, but it was all fine and I’m still full from it. After that, I did a few things on the computer, then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the Rose Marie thing.
After that, I began the Bax continuation and that was that.
Today, I’ll be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine. I’m not sure I’ll do Uncle Bernie’s this time – it’s quite a drive and I have other choices much closer – we shall see. Then I have to find some Amazon Fresh store on Lankershim to do my return – why I couldn’t just do as I always do and take it to my mail place is anyone’s guess, but they would only allow certain locations for free. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages and important envelopes, after which I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I can sleep in a bit, and then we have a rehearsal for the play reading, and while we don’t have a full cast, I think we’ll have enough to at least run the majority of the scenes and transitions. I’m not sure it’ll take all three hours, but we’ll see how far along we are. Then I’ll eat and do the usual. Monday, we’ll convene at five-thirty and run all the transitions in and out of scenes, block the little ending I have in mind and a brief curtain call and then we do the thing. And the next day we start the whole process again.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine, have a light breakfast, go to an Amazon Fresh store and return an item, hopefully pick up packages and important envelopes, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could have this fellow who posts the driving videos (not just LA, by the way), what would be the driving video you’d most want to see – the year and location? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a small divertissement.