San-Berdoo-01 from The Day of the Locust
I know I'm a nerd, but I've been looking for the apartment building from this movie for years. Today I went to the Margaret Herrick Film Library and found the answer:
-From John Schlesinger, By Gene D. Phillips, pg. 96-97
The day on which I watched the unit shooting out-of-doors was bright and sunny but there was a chill in the air which even the California sun would not dispel. It's harsh glare served only to illuminate the seedy houses on a side street in Hollywood. The most prominent residence on the block was a ramshackle bungalow complex, complete with a shabby courtyard, whose cracked faded sign identified it as "The San Bernadino Arms," known affectionately to it's inmates as the San Berdoo. Although one can find run down rooming houses like this one all over Los Angeles, this particular edifice happened to have been built on the back lot at Paramount and was designed to resemble the Pa-Va-Sed, an apartment hotel on North Ivar street, one of the fleabags that West stayed in while working in Hollywood. Asked why he had had the San Berdoo built on the lot, Schlesinger replied, "I am leaning more and more toward doing as much of a film in the studio as I possibly can, because that way you can get total concentration and not worry about stopping traffic, keeping an obviously contemporary building out of the shot, and so on. So we built a Los Angeles street on the Paramount back lot, even though we happen to be working in L.A." The San Berdoo set had been erected on jacks over the site of the studio tank which is flooded for the filming of sea scenes, and in which nearly two decades earlier Cecil B. DeMille had parted the Red Sea for The Ten Commandments.
So, now I can stop my search since it's gone and start looking for the building on Ivar on which it was modeled. If anyone has heard of the Pa-Va-Sed building, let me know.
I found one other reference to the building which I don't put as much confidence since the author of the first quote was actually on the set during filming. Plus, this is stucco and not brick. Also, I doubt there still would have been a place like this on Sunset Blvd. during the 70's to use as a reference. I've also found other evidence that Nathanael West actually lived in the Pa-Va-Sed on Ivar when he was down-and-out during the 30's. Here's the other reference:
from: Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger, by William J. Mann pg. 405-406
MacDonald's set of the San Berdoo was particularly satisfying for John. On Sunset Boulevard, they had found exactly the kind of complex they wanted--only to copy it, nearly brick for brick, on the Paramount lot. "Miraculously, every detail is there," John said, "down to the marks that the rain gutters make when the rain drips down the sides of the buildings." The set was dressed by one of Hollywood's ancient decorators, George James Hopkins, who'd starred with Theda Bara in 1916.
San-Berdoo-01 from The Day of the Locust
I know I'm a nerd, but I've been looking for the apartment building from this movie for years. Today I went to the Margaret Herrick Film Library and found the answer:
-From John Schlesinger, By Gene D. Phillips, pg. 96-97
The day on which I watched the unit shooting out-of-doors was bright and sunny but there was a chill in the air which even the California sun would not dispel. It's harsh glare served only to illuminate the seedy houses on a side street in Hollywood. The most prominent residence on the block was a ramshackle bungalow complex, complete with a shabby courtyard, whose cracked faded sign identified it as "The San Bernadino Arms," known affectionately to it's inmates as the San Berdoo. Although one can find run down rooming houses like this one all over Los Angeles, this particular edifice happened to have been built on the back lot at Paramount and was designed to resemble the Pa-Va-Sed, an apartment hotel on North Ivar street, one of the fleabags that West stayed in while working in Hollywood. Asked why he had had the San Berdoo built on the lot, Schlesinger replied, "I am leaning more and more toward doing as much of a film in the studio as I possibly can, because that way you can get total concentration and not worry about stopping traffic, keeping an obviously contemporary building out of the shot, and so on. So we built a Los Angeles street on the Paramount back lot, even though we happen to be working in L.A." The San Berdoo set had been erected on jacks over the site of the studio tank which is flooded for the filming of sea scenes, and in which nearly two decades earlier Cecil B. DeMille had parted the Red Sea for The Ten Commandments.
So, now I can stop my search since it's gone and start looking for the building on Ivar on which it was modeled. If anyone has heard of the Pa-Va-Sed building, let me know.
I found one other reference to the building which I don't put as much confidence since the author of the first quote was actually on the set during filming. Plus, this is stucco and not brick. Also, I doubt there still would have been a place like this on Sunset Blvd. during the 70's to use as a reference. I've also found other evidence that Nathanael West actually lived in the Pa-Va-Sed on Ivar when he was down-and-out during the 30's. Here's the other reference:
from: Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger, by William J. Mann pg. 405-406
MacDonald's set of the San Berdoo was particularly satisfying for John. On Sunset Boulevard, they had found exactly the kind of complex they wanted--only to copy it, nearly brick for brick, on the Paramount lot. "Miraculously, every detail is there," John said, "down to the marks that the rain gutters make when the rain drips down the sides of the buildings." The set was dressed by one of Hollywood's ancient decorators, George James Hopkins, who'd starred with Theda Bara in 1916.