Want to buy the home of legendary Paramount filmmaker Cecile B. Demille? Well, you can! It's for sale at the recently reduced price of $18.95 million. What a bargain right? When Demille purchased the home in 1916 it was priced at $27,893. The home is located in a private community in the Los Angeles neighborhood Los Feliz. Check out the blog Curbed LA which has photos of both the exterior and interior of the home from the real estate listing.
One of my favorite Laurel & Hardy comedy shorts is The Music Box, in which the boys are hired to deliver a piano to a house located at the top of a long flight of stairs. The boys struggle to push the piano up the stairs, becoming trampled by the piano in the process. Not until they reach the top do they realize there was a driveway that lead to the top! The film won an Academy Award for best short comedy subject at the 1931-1932 awards.
932-935 Vendome Street "Music Box" Stairs
The stairs that were used in The Music Box are still standing, located between 932-935 Vendome Street, just south of Sunset Boulevard in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Above is a picture of how the stairs look today. Not only were the stairs used in The Music Box but they are featured in an earlier Laurel & Hardy film from 1927, Hats Off. In this film the boys were delivering vacuum cleaners.
Plaque located at base of The Music Box stairs.
At the base of the stairs you will find a plaque ackowledging the significance of these steps. The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board has made this location a cultural landmark. Not only is their plague but there is now also a street sign for this particular location.
Here is a wonderful video that shows The Music Box stairs as they appear today and also, if you watch through to the end, you will see clips from the short itself. The video does a good job of showing the steps from different angles and comparing to footage from the film.
Of the top three silent comedians this is what comes to mind: when I think of Chaplin I think "finesse." When I think of Lloyd I think "Sporty." When I think of Buster Keaton I think "daring." Keaton devised some of the most elaborate and dangerous stunts of any of the silent film actors. Not only did he do all of his own stunts he often played the role of stunt double for his fellow supporting actors. Many times Keaton would injure himself but that rarely kept him from continuing his work and I believe this, along with his well developed gags, made him one of the greatest.
Many of Keaton's most memorable films including Steamboat Bill, Our Hospitality, and The General to name a few, were made at the Buster Keaton Studio in Hollywood, CA. The main entrance to the studio was located at 1325 Eleanor Ave but the structures of this studio are long gone. In the vintage photo at the top you can see part of the Keaton Studios which eventually became the Metro studios. In the two photos below you can see the studio site as it appears today.
Note* There used to be a Buster Keaton statue that stood at this location but it has been removed. If you go to where the Eleanor street sign is and look at the ground you can see a plaque where the statue used to stand. I need to go back with a towel and clean it off though in order for a photo of it to show up.
Why does it seem that so many movie projects come in pairs? Armageddon vs. Deep Impact, Capote vs. Infamous, recently Paul Blart: Mall Cop vs. Observe and Report and I could go on. Now there is two biographical pics in the works on the legendary actor, the "King of Cool," Steve McQueen!
Producer and former McQueen publicist David Foster is working on a film based on the memoir written by Neile McQueen Toffel, McQueens first wife, titled "My Husband, My Friend." The second project has Jesse Wigutow set to write a screenplay based on Marshall Terrill's biography "Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel." No stars have been named for the projects.
One question for you guys and girls:
Who do you think should play the role of Steve McQueen?
You've probably already heard that Warner Bros. is offering a new manufacturing on demand service (MOD) where consumers will be able to select from 115 different classic films never before released on DVD for a made-to-order DVD. The system places a DVD in a plastic case with custom artwork and ships the final product within 5 days. The Warner library includes not only Warner Bros. titles but also MGM and RKO, so there are many great classics to choose from. The price of a DVD is $19.95 or for only $14.95 you can opt for a digital download.
Check out the Warner Archive Collection at www.WarnerArchive.com to see all the films that are available. Each month Warners will be adding 20 new titles for a total of 300 films available by years end. You can even go to the website and vote for the titles you would like to see available next.
In addition to the Warner Archive Collection, Warner Bros. will be doing an iTunes podcast series, Golden History of Hollywood. The podcast will include archival interviews with stars, radio editions of movies, and other material! Apparently, this podcast is supposed to be available in late March but I haven't seen anything on itunes quite yet.
On Sunday, March 22 the Heritage Square Museum hosted the LA Heritage Day festival. The museum is made up of many beautiful Victorian era homes and buildings that have been uplifted from various parts of Los Angeles. These buildings would have either been demolished or left to detoriate and so were relocated to the museum land in an area three miles north of downtown Los Angeles, off the Arroyo Seco Byway. The museum was the perfect location to host the LA Heritage Day festival which featured over 60 historical and preservation groups in attendance.
The museum is open on the weekends for tours and is certainly worth checking out. Check out the museum website to see some of the special events they have coming up, such as the one next weekend which is a Vintage Fashion Show and Tea party. Here are some pictures and a video slideshow of just a few of the buildings located at Heritage Square.
Note* The Perry House pictured above was featured in the hit film Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon. The house is in the scene where "Elle" shows up to a party dressed as a Playboy bunny after she was told it was a costume party. Of course, if you've seen the film, it wasn't really a costume party.
Inside the Perry House
These two were an adorable husband and wife dressed in Victorian era clothes. They are tour guides who work at the museum and were very fun and informative.
Valley Knudsen Garden Residence
Hale House
A horeseless carriage
On the right are some of the booths with the many historical and preservation groups who were on hand to promote preservation in Los Angeles.
Old fashion tandem bicycle.
John J. Ford House
The John Ford House was one of the smaller buildings on the property but it has many beautiful hand carved deatails. All throughout the home there are hand carved decorative elements.
The Parva Sed Apta Apartments, located at 1817 Ivar Avenue, just a couple blocks north of Hollywood Boulevard was the home to author Nathanael West while he wrote his screenplays and his most famous novel, The Day of the Locust. While living here West got to know the Hollywood neighborhood as it was during the 1930s, including the many different characters that were also part of this community. Some of the people that West met while living in this building are said to have been inspiration for the characters he created in his novel.
1817 N. Ivar Ave. Parva Sed Apta Apartments
When The Day of the Locust came out in 1939 it was not a commercial success. It wasn't until years later that the book would take off in popularity. Unfortunately, West died a year after the book came out in a car crash. West was driving home from a hunting trip and died the day after his good friend and fellow author F. Scott Fitzgerald who had a heart attack.
I've never been inside the apartment building but I've heard the units were originally small one room spaces with a Murphy wall bed and kitchenette. Apparently now the units have been converted into larger one bedroom apartments.
If you're visiting Hollywood Boulevard just walk 2 blocks north up Ivar Ave and you will find this apartment building. Also, neighboring the Parva Sed Apta Apartments are the Alto Nido apartments which can be seen in the film Sunset Boulevard. Check out my previous post on Sunset Boulevard locations here.
Cecile B. Demille
932-935 Vendome Street, Los Angeles
932-935 Vendome Street "Music Box" Stairs
Plaque located at base of The Music Box stairs.
Metro / Buster Keaton Studios, Hollywood, CA
Eleanor Ave & Lillian Way, Hollywood
Site of the former Buster Keaton Studio
Why does it seem that so many movie projects come in pairs? Armageddon vs. Deep Impact, Capote vs. Infamous, recently Paul Blart: Mall Cop vs. Observe and Report and I could go on. Now there is two biographical pics in the works on the legendary actor, the "King of Cool," Steve McQueen!
Perry House, Heritage Square Museum, Los Angeles
Inside the Perry House
These two were an adorable husband and wife dressed in Victorian era clothes. They are tour guides who work at the museum and were very fun and informative.
Valley Knudsen Garden Residence
Hale House
A horeseless carriage
On the right are some of the booths with the many historical and preservation groups who were on hand to promote preservation in Los Angeles.
Old fashion tandem bicycle.
John J. Ford House
Fireplace in the John Ford House
I've never been inside the apartment building but I've heard the units were originally small one room spaces with a Murphy wall bed and kitchenette. Apparently now the units have been converted into larger one bedroom apartments.