The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - Film Locations

Theatrical Poster

There are so many movies about war, but not nearly as many that show life after war. One of the few classics on the post-war subject is the 1946 film, The Best Years of Our Lives. This Academy Award winning film tells the story of three veterans returning home from World War II and the challenges each one faces. 

Fredric March plays Al Stephenson, an Army Sergeant who returns to his loving wife Milly (Myrna Loy) and their family. He was a successful bank executive before the war and when Al returns, he is promoted to Vice President. All seems good, except that Al is having trouble adapting back to civilian life and is now struggling with alcoholism. 

Dana Andrews plays good looking Fred Derry, a soda jerk before the war and during the war an Air Force bombardier. After the war, Fred expects to get a better job upon returning home, but finds that he faces tough competition from other returning vets and that he lacks the necessary civilian skills. To make matters worse, Fred's wife has moved on to other men while Fred was away at war. 

Harold Russell plays Homer Parrish, the quarterback of his football team before the war, who married his sweetheart Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) before leaving to fight. Homer, a sailor in the war, lost both of his hands. When he returns home to his fiance and family, he has trouble adjusting to life with his disability. What troubles Homer most of all is that he feels that he will be a burden on his fiance, so he pushes her away, trying to give her a way out of their relationship. 

The home that Fredric March's character returns to is an apartment building located at the corner of Beverly Boulevard and N. Sycamore Avenue in Los Angeles. It's a pretty nice building about a block from La Brea Avenue that looks like the kind of fancy place where a bank executive might live. Below is a screenshot of the building from the film and an image of the building as it appears today.

Fredric March's apartment building.

Fredric March's apartment on Beverly Blvd (c) 2011 Google

Looking east down Beverly Blvd.

Looking east down Beverly Blvd (c) 2011 Google

Fredric March returns home with Dana Andrews in the car.

The Best Years of Our Lives won seven Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director for William Wyler, and a Best Actor award for Fredric March. This film is currently available on DVD and it sounds like a blu-ray release is still TBA.

Ronald Reagan's Hollywood Office

Hollywood Professional Building

Long before Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States of America, the Warner Bros. contract player would hold the position of president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Reagan attended his first SAG Board meeting on August 11, 1941. By 1946, he was elected 3rd Vice-President and in another six months he would be nominated for president. The 1940s were tumultuous times for the movie studio unions and Reagan impressed many on the SAG Board with his handling of the violent studio union strikes. Fellow actor Gene Kelly would nominate Reagan for SAG president, a position Reagan won and would hold for seven terms.

Reagan's SAG office was located on the eighth floor of the Hollywood Professional Building at 7046 Hollywood Boulevard, near the Roosevelt Hotel and the Chinese Theatre. The building has now been converted into a high-end apartment complex, appropriately called SEVENTY46.

Gotham Restaurant in Hollywood (demolished)

Former Site of Gotham Delicatessen

Across the street from the Hollywood Professional Building was Gotham, a popular delicatessen and bar. The Gotham Delicatessen was a favorite spot for New York transplants ever since it opened in 1924. During the 1940s, when radio networks were located all throughout Hollywood, many of the radio stars would drop in for dinner. After late-night sessions at the Guild headquarters, Reagan and other board members would often walk over to Gotham to eat and drink and discuss Guild business.

William Holden, Ronald Reagan, Dana Andrews

In Bob Thomas's biography on William Holden, actor Dana Andrews recalled one occasion when he joined Holden and Reagan for dinner at Gotham. "After a meeting, Bill, Ronnie and I went to the Gotham to continue our discussion. All three of us ordered drinks, and after we had talked for a while, the waiter came to the table and Bill and I ordered another round. Ronnie said with surprise, 'Why do you want another drink? You just had one.' See what happened: Bill and I became alcoholics and Ronnie became President of the United States."