Any L.A. Dopers who are interested in local history should check out this link. If you go to “The Kid I”, you’ll see a famous scene where Charlie is holding Jackie Coogan in front of a brick building with arched windows.
And you’ll also discover the somewhat astonishing fact that this shot was taken in Olvera Street, years before its conversion into a kitschy tourist attraction, when it was just considered a dingy alley hardly worthy of a street name. Another scene from the movie shows Charlie running south, approaching what would shortly become the La Golondria restaurant. When I saw the “now” picture in the link I didn’t even recognize it, thinking it must be some place in Old Pasadena.
I don’t live in LA, but I’ve seen the Chaplin Locations site and will happily give your thread some love. It’s remarkable to see how Hollywood/LA has changed since Chaplin’s day, when it was mostly dirt roads and orange groves. (Although the building on Olvera Street has hardly changed at all–even the window grates look the same.)
Well, the central area (say a four-mile radius around Olvera Street) was pretty well built up even in Chaplin’s day, but a tremendous amount of history has been lost due to the freeways, earthquakes, and misguided redevelopment projects. Other outlying centers such as Hollywood were also somewhat built up, but there was indeed a lot of open space in between.
Best. Flautas. Ever. You are right to be envious. I don’t do that nearly often enough. Unfortunately, taking the DASH over there during the lunch hour is a dangerous proposition for anyone trying to keep lunches under two hours.
Gee, a lot of L.A. and Hollywood was so rural and pretty back then. I just saw the short “A Day Out” (I think it was called), and was wondering about that intersection showing an obviously newly-built house in the opening scene. It’s amazing that the house is still there.