Santa Rosa, California - McDonald Avenue Film Locations

Robby and Hazel in front of the Santa Rosa home used for Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

This past Fourth of July weekend my wife and daughter and I decided to go on a family road trip up to Northern California. We spent time in three different NoCal cities. Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some of the film related stops we visited. One of the locations I was most excited to visit was McDonald Avenue in Santa Rosa.

McDonald Avenue, a quiet tree lined street with many attractive Victorian homes, has appeared several times on film, at least as early as 1943. Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first, if not the first, to capture McDonald Avenue on film when he decided to use one of the homes as the primary location for his classic thriller, Shadow of Doubt (1943). At the time Hitchcock made Shadow of Doubt, the country was in the middle of World War II and many supplies used for film sets were being rationed. Instead of building many elaborate sets, Hitchcock chose to shoot his film on location.

Click images to see larger.

904 McDonald Avenue. Shadow of Doubt (1943)

904 McDonald Avenue as it appears as of July 2013.

It's been well documented that the home Hitchcock used for Shadow of a Doubt was a house located at 904 McDonald Ave. It is at this home that Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) visits his sister's family when he needs to hide out from the police. The film stars Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, and Hume Cronyn. Other than some landscaping changes, the exterior of the home looks very much the same. 

Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten on the steps of 904 McDonald Ave.

Across the street from the house used by Hitchcock is the home used in the made for television remake of Shadow of Doubt (1991), located at 815 McDonald Avenue. The remake starred Mark Harmon and Margaret Welsh in the lead roles and Hitchcock star Tippi Hedren had a part as Mrs. Mathewson.

Shadow of a Doubt (1991) house. 815 McDonald Avenue.

One house south from Hitchcock's Shadow of Doubt home is a house used in the Wes Craven thriller, Scream (1996). The house located at 824 McDonald Avenue was the home of Rose McGowan's character, Tatum. In the screenshot below McGowan can be seen talking with Neve Campbell on the home's porch. According to a San Francisco Chronicle article from 2002, Hitchcock would sit on the same porch at 824 McDonald Avenue and have cocktails with then owner, Judge Donald Geary. Judge Geary's son Bill, who was 13 when Hitchcock came to town for Shadow of a Doubt, said, "He [Hitchcock] used to come over and visit and have a drink with my dad. But Joseph Cotten was a kind of a stuffy guy. He'd have people come light cigarettes for him."

Rose McGowan and Neve Campbell in Scream (1996).

824 McDonald Avenue. Home used in Scream (1996), All My Sons (1948), and where Hitchcock had cocktails with Judge Geary between filming Shadow of a Doubt.

Campbell and McGowan on the porch at 824 McDonald Ave.

Burt Lancaster and Louisa Horton in All My Sons (1948). 824 McDonald Ave in background.

Another film that was made on McDonald Avenue is All My Sons (1948) starring Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Mady Christians, Louisa Horton, and Howard Duff. The film also includes a young Harry Morgan (famous later for his role in the television show M*A*S*H) who I will bring up again later in this post. IMDB.com and other sources mention that a home was filmed on McDonald Avenue but no source I found mentioned which home. 

Using screenshots as reference while walking down McDonald Avenue, I discovered three homes that can be clearly seen in the film. The first home is the house at 824 McDonald Ave. See the screenshot above with Lancaster and Horton. Yes, this is the same house from Scream and that porch is the one that Hitchcock sat at while having cocktails with Judge Geary while filming Shadow of a Doubt.

825 McDonald Ave. All My Sons (1948).

825 McDonald Ave. as it appears July 2013.

The second home that can be seen in All My Sons is the house located at 825 McDonald Ave. See the comparison above and the screenshot with Edward G. Robinson below.

Edward G. Robinson in All My Sons. 825 McDonald Ave.

The third home that can be seen in All My Sons is the home located at 815 McDonald Ave. See the comparison below.

Horton and Lancaster in front of 815 McDonald Ave.

815 McDonald Ave. home used in All My Sons (1948).

815 McDonald Ave. as seen in All My Sons (1948).

The most prestigious home on McDonald Avenue is the McDonald Mansion (a.k.a. Mableton Mansion) that was built in 1877 as a summer home for the McDonald Family. This beautiful mansion located at 1015 McDonald Avenue was used as Aunt Polly's house in Disney's Pollyanna (1960). The film stars Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Agnes Moorehead, Adolphe Menjou, Richard Egan, Karl Malden, Kevin Corcoran, Nancy Olson, and James Drury. One thing noticeable right away is that the home used in the film is much taller than the actual house. This is because Disney artists used a matte painting to create the illusion that there were two additional floors. See a comparison of the Pollyanna house below.

Mansion from Disney's Pollyanna (1960).

The McDonald Mansion used for Pollyanna. 1015 McDonald Ave.

Me and my little Pollyanna at the gate of the McDonald Mansion.

This last film location is my personal favorite. It's from a little known film called Happy Land (1943) starring Don Ameche, Frances Dee and Harry Carey. The cast also includes Ann Rutherford, Dickie Moore, a young Harry Morgan and Natalie Wood in her film debut.

IMDB.com and other sources mention that this film was shot in Santa Rosa, but nowhere could I find where any scenes were filmed, not even any streets. I figured if Hitchcock, Disney, and others all made films on McDonald Avenue that maybe there was a good chance that Happy Land was also filmed on McDonald Ave. Fortunately, my instinct was correct! Before I visited McDonald Avenue, I had used Google Street View to look up and down the street to see if I could find a home that matched the below screenshot. The home of Don Ameche's and Frances Dee's characters is located at 1127 McDonald Ave. I've also found many of the other film locations used in Happy Land that have not been reported anywhere which I will include in a larger post on this movie later.

Don Ameche and Harry Carey in Happy Land (1943)

1127 McDonald Ave. Home used in Happy Land (1943).

A couple interesting facts:

• Both Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt and the Don Ameche film Happy Land were filmed in 1943 within a couple blocks of each other on McDonald Avenue. 
• In 1943 actor Harry Morgan was in the film Happy Land and then in 1948 he appeared in the film All My Sons which both filmed on McDonald Avenue.
• Joseph Cotten was originally considered for Happy Land, but instead appeared in that other 1943 film, Shadow of a Doubt.

Wifey and Hazel admire the flowers on McDonald Avenue.

Santa Rosa's McDonald Avenue is a beautiful residential street with gorgeous homes. Even if it were not for all the film related connections, this street would be a nice place to go for a stroll. The film history just makes it that much more fun for movie lovers.

Check back the next couple weeks for more highlights from our Fourth of July weekend trip.

Bachelor in Paradise (1961) - Film Locations

Bob Hope as "A.J. Niles"

Ask and you shall receive! A few months back I wrote a post about three movies I wished were on blu-ray or dvd. There are many films that I wish had some kind of a home video release, but I just chose three for the post - and you know what - the Warner Archive Collection recently made available one of those titles from my list!

The 1961 film Bachelor in Paradise is a favorite of mine for two reasons. First, I love Bob Hope in the role of A.J. Niles, an author of a series of books on the sexual lives of people in foreign countries. Hope has one hilarious quip after another and he is perfect as the smooth, cunning, ladies man. Second, to anyone who appreciates mid-century (20th century) fashion and design, the look of this film is stunning. The mid-century tract homes, an early suburban grocery store, bowling alley, tiki bar, cars, drive-in restaurant, clothes - everything in this film is a colorful step back in time. To celebrate the release of Bachelor in Paradise I decided to do a film locations post to show some of these colorful images.

In the film, Hope finds himself in trouble with the I.R.S. for back taxes. In order to pay back the I.R.S. Hope's publisher convinces him to write a new book about the developing American suburbs. Hope, using a false identity, relocates to the new California development of Paradise Village, and begins secretly compiling data for his book. Being the only bachelor in Paradise Village, Hope becomes popular with the bored housewives and not so popular with the husbands in the community. The film also stars Lana Turner, Janis Paige, Don Porter, Paula Prentiss, Jim Hutton, and in a cameo appearance, Agnes Moorehead.

Below is an image of Hope and Turner arriving at the home in Paradise Village that Hope will be staying while conducting his research. As Turner says in the film, that house, "It's not pink, its 'California coral.'" Paradise Village is a fictional suburb and even the street signs seen in the film are fake, so you can't go by those to find the locations. Hope's home is located in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, at address 22931 Brenford Street.

Hope & Turner, 22931 Brenford Street

22931 Brenford Street, Woodland Hills

As you can see in the photo above the home is no longer "California coral."

Hope & Turner at 22931 Brenford Street

Above is an image of Hope and Turner parked in the driveway at the Brenford Street home. In the photo below you can see how this view looks today, along with a modern car in the driveway.

22931 Brenford Street, Woodland Hills

Hope in the driveway at 22931 Brenford Street

Jim Hutton, Hope's neighbor.

Above, Jim Hutton arrives home from work. Hutton and Paula Prentiss live in the home next door to Hope.

22941 Brenford Street, Woodland Hills

22941 Brenford Street, Woodland Hills

It is incredible to see how much this neighborhood has changed since 1961. In the next few images below you can see in the film how sparse the vegetation was. There are only a few trees and they are all quite small still. Today, the neighborhood is filled with trees and bushes and they are all quite large. It's difficult to see the homes or the mountain views which were visible in the film.

Rounding the corner at Brenford St. & Coloma Ave

Brenford St at Coloma Ave

The kids leave for school at Brenford at Coloma.

Brenford at Coloma

School bus drives down Brenford Street.

Looking down Brenford Street.

The photo above is looking down Brenford Street and that white house on the left is the same as the one in the image below with Turner and Prentiss. That house is located across the street from Hope's home.

Prentiss and Turner on Brenford Street

The husbands leave for work. Brenford Street.

The newspaper delivery boy drives down Brenford.

The Brenford St. Home seen above.

In the image below Turner is seen parking in front of Hope's house and you can see the home next door. The following image is a google earth screen capture showing this same location. I hadn't noticed this home at the time I was taking photos. If you look closely, the roof above the front door has changed since the time of the film and I didn't recognize the building. Of course I didn't notice this until I was back home. Besides, after a while, all these homes really start looking the same and it is hard to tell one from the next.

Turner parked in front of Hope's house.

In front of Hope's house. (c) Google

In the film Hope visits a suburban supermarket. That supermarket was the Hughes market located at 14620 Parthenia Street in Panorama City, another Los Angeles suburb. Today the supermarket is now a Hispanic grocery store, "El Super," and has been drastically remodeled. IMDB has the address for the market listed as 8231 Woodman Avenue, Panorama City, but I think that address is incorrect. There is a supermarket at that address, but I don't think it is the one used in the film. Interesting though is the market at 8231 is now a Filipino grocery store, so both markets in this former "whitebread" neighborhood are now two very different ethnic grocery stores.

Hughes Market, 14620 Parthenia Street

El Super, 14620 Parthenia Street

You can see in the background of the parking lot the sign for El Super. The El Super sign sits on the same base that used to hold the Hughes market sign. Below is a close-up of the sign.

El Super Sign.

Hope enters the Hughes Market.

El Super, the former Hughes Market.

Inside the Hughes Market.

The image above and below show how the Hughes Market looked inside. Do you recognize any of the products on display?

Hope & Turner Shop at Hughes Market

Benny's Drive In Restaurant

In one scene in the film Hope goes to a drive in restaurant, "Benny's," which you can see in the photo above and in some of the photos below. The location used for this restaurant is now a catering business called "Michael D's," and the address is 23130 Ventura Boulevard, Woodland Hills. This is very close to the neighborhood where all the homes were filmed. Does anyone remember a Benny's drive in restaurant in Woodland Hills? I'm not sure if for the film the production created a fake sign and then just used the exterior of the building?

Benny's Drive In. 23130 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills

Michael D's, 23130 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills

Woodlake Lanes Bowling Alley

Turner & Hope inside of Woodlake Lanes Bowing Alley

Later in the film there is a scene of Hope and Turner at a bowling alley. I'm guessing this was the Woodlake Lanes bowling alley which is attached to the Michael D's catering business (Benny's in the film) at address 23130 Ventura Boulevard, Woodland Hills. If you look at the screenshot of the Benny's Drive In sign, in the background is a sign for a bowling alley, so even in the film, the restaurant and the bowling alley were right next to each other.

Woodlake Bowl/Michael D's, 23130 Ventura Blvd

At the end of the film, because of all the trouble he stirred up in Paradise Village, Hope needs to go to court. Below is the Los Angeles County Courthouse as seen in the film. The courthouse address is 111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, in downtown LA, but the below image is of the entrance located on Grand Avenue. The three mosaics above the entrance were designed by artist Albert Stewart in 1956. Stewart made his mark as an artist for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the 1930s.

Los Angeles County Courthouse, Grand Avenue Entrance

LA Courthouse, Grand Avenue Entrance

Agnes Moorehead in her cameo as Judge Peterson

Your thoughts?