Fake Americana With a Topping of Grit: 4 Aces Movie Ranch, Palmdale

4 Aces, located in Palmdale, California, is every Highway Patrol with Broderick Crawford and B-Minus-film noir from 1949 to 1960 wrapped up into one, big, delightful fake. The Diner This is where you take the woman hitchhiking in heels with a suitcase and a shady story about her father, in Chicago, kicking her out of… Continue reading Fake Americana With a Topping of Grit: 4 Aces Movie Ranch, Palmdale

Bars, Nightclubs, and Casinos from Ocean’s 11 (1960)

Sands Hotel and Casino Phone Area from Oceans 11 (1960)

How bad can a movie be yet look fantastic? Ocean’s 11 (1960) is a heist film famous for its slick Rat Pack, mid-century modern trappings, but altogether a heaping, floppy mess. It’s a movie you want to like but can’t. It has no real highs, no lows, no drama, little humor. Interminable parts of the… Continue reading Bars, Nightclubs, and Casinos from Ocean’s 11 (1960)

Tour I Love Lucy’s Fictional Beverly Palms Hotel

It’s the part of the I Love Lucy TV series that stands out in so many viewers’ minds:  Hollywood and the Beverly Palms Hotel.  For three seasons, Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel lived in Manhattan.  There were location changes between apartments, Ricky’s Tropicana Club, various stores, but mainly they stayed within the New York area.  Then… Continue reading Tour I Love Lucy’s Fictional Beverly Palms Hotel

Universal Studios 1972: Scenes from a Studio on a Verge of a Boom

Universal Studios 1972 - Snow Backdrop

With these photos of Universal Studios in 1972, understand the context:  this was the studio at one of its lowest points.  Its big, bustling period of huge stars and directors was well in the past.  Its next boom, the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls period detailed by author Peter Biskind–Jaws, The Sting, American Graffiti–had not yet happened,… Continue reading Universal Studios 1972: Scenes from a Studio on a Verge of a Boom