Flights, camera, action: Set-jetting in LA
Is there any city that has starred in as many movies and TV shows as Los Angeles? Ahead of this month’s Emmys, we round up some stellar spots to see (and be seen in)
It’s home to the film and TV industries, so it’s no surprise that countless big- and small-screen hits have been set in and around Los Angeles, from Santa Monica and Venice to Downtown and, naturally, Hollywood itself. A multitude of real homes have been used as locations and can be viewed (at a respectful distance) with the help of the famous street-corner maps or on a Hollywood tour.
But there are also plenty of restaurants, parks, hotels, and public buildings that have been made famous (or infamous) through the camera’s lens. As Los Angeles gets set to host the Emmys on September 15, join our tour of some of this town’s most iconic productions…
Downtown drama in Beverly Hills Cop
One of the most famous locations in Beverly Hills Cop—and in the new, fourth installment on Netflix, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F—is the Beverly Palm Hotel. Search for that, though, and you won’t find it: It’s actually played by the Millennium Biltmore Hotel which you’ll find in Downtown LA. More scenes were filmed in the hotel’s dining space Rendezvous Court; and look out for Beverly Gardens Park and Beverly Hills City Hall—Axel F sees a helicopter landing in front of the building after flying down Rodeo Drive.
After all that excitement, refuel at NORMS, a 24-hour diner on La Cienega Boulevard, which also features in the new movie.
Fall in love with La La Land
Dance like no one’s watching as you re-enact La La Land’s most iconic musical scene at Cathy’s Corner in Griffith Park. Enjoy views of the Hollywood Sign and a planetarium show at the Griffith Observatory (also in Rebel Without a Cause), then take a tour of the nearby Warner Bros. Studios to celebrate movie history (just like they did in La La Land), before crossing the street to The Smoke House (Lipton’s restaurant in the movie)—an industry fave since the 1940s.
Date like Seb and Mia on the Angels Flight funicular, the world’s shortest railway, then grab a bite from Sarita’s Pupuseria, a Salvadorean spot in Grand Central Market. Afterwards, choose from three more of the film’s locations: Jar for steaks and upscale comfort food; The Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach (Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie performed here); or The Blind Donkey in Long Beach, which starred as Seb’s club (and is, in reality, less about jazz and more about whiskey).
A cultural guide to Los Angeles
Once Upon a Time… in Tarantino’s Hollywood
All good movie fans must head to Melody Ranch, an old Western setting and motion picture studio in Santa Clarita, just north of LA. It’s the home of the fake documentary introducing Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt’s characters at the start of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood—and has also appeared in everything from The Lone Ranger to Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Be sure to visit the prop-packed museum and take a tour of the set.
Back in the city, order the famous martinis and steak at another Once Upon a Time… location, The Musso & Frank Grill. Old-school Hollywood at its finest, the mahogany-paneled bar was a regular haunt of Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin (he loved the lamb kidneys, still on the menu today). Further along Hollywood Boulevard, have a nightcap at another location, the Frolic Room, a longtime dive bar that also starred in LA Confidential.
Not so Confidential locations
You’ll be kept mighty busy on the trail of LA Confidential’s detectives—even the police station was three locations: Los Angeles City Hall for the exterior; the defunct art-deco Old Venice Police Station for the lobby and front desk; and the disused Lincoln Heights Jail for cell scenes. Standing in as Danny DeVito’s magazine HQ is the Sunset landmark Crossroads of the World, built in the 1930s in the guise of an ocean liner as the world’s first outdoor shopping mall.
For a post-sightseeing pick-me-up, try the pot stickers and gua bao in location Formosa Cafe, a restaurant partly housed in a red trolley car across the street from the former Goldwyn studios (and once frequented by Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart), or check out Boardner’s bar in West Hollywood, which also appeared in I Love Lucy and Ed Wood.
See the Pretty Woman sets
Want the fairy tale? The Beverly Wilshire hotel has been the stuff of legend since its appearance in Pretty Woman. The Four Seasons hotel is the site of daily fan pilgrimages, but while the lobby and exterior are featured in the movie, the rooms were built on a Disney lot. It is, as you’d imagine, near Rodeo Drive, where Julia Roberts’ shopping scene was filmed in Boulmiche boutique (now Christian Louboutin).
A rather less opulent location was Las Palmas Hotel, the setting of Roberts’ character’s apartment, which is still operating as a budget option in a non-budget location, right up the street from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hungry? Head to Cicada (Voltaire, when the movie was filmed) for Italian classics.
Check out Chinatown
Let’s start at the end, with Chinatown’s namesake, as the final, dark scenes were shot in LA’s Chinatown on Spring Street (which has since been much redeveloped). Production also took the cast and crew to nearby Koreatown and The Prince bar as well as Catalina Island, accessible by ferry from Long Beach and famed for its scuba diving, large herd of bison, and wealth of other wildlife.
Back on the mainland, other locations include the Eastern Star retirement home (now the Archer School for Girls) on Sunset Boulevard, and the rowing lake in hipster Echo Park.
David Chang’s guide to Koreatown, LA
It’s a Barbie world
Incongruously, Barbie was mostly filmed in the English county of Hertfordshire, home to the Warner Bros. Studios lot. When she did stick a rollerblade out into the real world, it was, of course, on Californian soil, namely Venice Beach skate park on Windward Plaza, where she and Ken stop at the Lucky Venice Store to change into those inconspicuous cowgirl/cowboy outfits.
Nearby Santa Monica City Hall poses as the jail where the duo are held. It’s not far from here where a bus stop was built, filmed, and taken down in record time for one pivotal scene. The real Mattel headquarters are in El Segundo, but the crew chose the imposing downtown Bank of America building to stand in for it, as well as filming outside the headquarters of Creative Artists Agency in Century City.
Skating through Los Angeles
Lara Kilner is a lifestyle journalist who has contributed to The Times, The Telegraph, and more. She has traveled extensively through five continents, but her most memorable trip was the one on which she met her Malaysian husband.
