Westlake/MacArthur Park

Factual Questions
1

I’m watching Wings For The Eagle (1942) and there is a scene of a people puttering around in boats in Westlake Park. Westlake Park was renamed after General MacArthur in May 1942, so I wonder if the film was made before the change, the dialogue was from the script that must have existed before the change, or if it was an intentional reference to indicate that the film takes place before it was renamed.

Anyway, the boats. I assume there was a boat rental concession? When did boating on the lake stop? I’ve flown over MacArthur Park, and it’s not that big. Maybe the boats were made up for the film?

2

Lots of boats in these historical postcards from the park:

http://www.image-archeology.com/west_lake_park_Los_Angeles.htm

3

Good find.

Any idea when boating stopped?

4

Ref’d Photo showing boats and rental rates in 1947

So boating stopped sometime after that.

5

There wasn’t any boating by the late 1970s when I was regularly in the area.

So we’ve got it bracketed to sometime in 1947-1979.

6

IMDB says it was released in July 1942, so the scene may have been shot before the name change, or the name change just may not have been generally accepted yet.

I was more impressed with the scenes of Dennis Morgan’s character sexually assaulting his best friend’s *wife *(and her actually going on a date with him), the day after they had an argument, without getting his ass kicked. Things have changed, things have changed …

7

I posted the OP right after the scene at Westlake Park. Having finished watching the film I think that calling it Westlake Park may have been an intentional reference to set the time. There was really no reason to mention the park by name. And I agree about the love triangle.