Highway Dragnet (1954) - Film Locations

Last week the blog Paradise Leased provided an update on the status of Apple Valley, California's famous Hilltop House, a once gorgeous modern home that unfortunately has been left to deteriorate over the years. Today, this house built for one of Apple Valley's co-founders, Newton T. Bass, is just a skeleton of the structure it used to be, but the house is now for sale and hopefully some buyer can return the home to its original beauty. You can read and see photos of the home on the Paradised Leased blog here.

The update on the Hilltop House reminded me of the film Highway Dragnet (1954), which was partly filmed in Apple Valley, at another area landmark, the Apple Valley Inn located in the valley just below the Hilltop House. Highway Dragnet stars Richard Conte, Joan Bennett and Wanda Hendrix. It tells the story of a Korean War vet, played by Conte, who is wrongly accused of killing a woman he was seen with earlier inside a Las Vegas bar. Conte must go on the lam until he can clear his name. He gets out of town by hitching a ride with a female photographer (Bennett) and her model (Hendrix). Although the story has a few holes in the plot, it is still entertaining to watch, particularly for all the excellent location filming.

The film starts with scenes in Las Vegas, including a shot of the Golden Nugget and Binion's Horseshoe casinos on Fremont street.

Looking down Fremont Street in Las Vegas.

Fremont Street today. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

One major change to Fremont Street since the time Highway Dragnet was made is the addition of the Fremont Street Experience, a canopy that produces a colored light show above several blocks of the street.

The Horseshoe casino as seen in Highway Dragnet.

Binion's Gambling Hall formerly The Horseshoe.

After the Vegas scenes, the film shows Conte hitching a ride with Bennett and Hendrix in the desert. The threesome eventually pull over and get a room at the Apple Valley Inn.  The Apple Valley Inn was a hotel developed by Newton T. Bass to help attract land buyers to housing development he created out in the middle of the California desert. During the 1940s and until the 1960s, it was a popular place for many Hollywood celebrities, including Bob Hope, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck.

Police set up a barricade in front of the Apple Valley Inn.

The entrance of the Apple Valley Inn as it appears now.

Highway 18 leading up to the Apple Valley Inn driveway.

Looking down Highway 18 from the Apple Valley Inn driveway.

Conte in front of the Apple Valley Inn.

The Apple Valley Inn. Photo from mysewsweetstudio.blogspot.com

Historic postcard view of the Apple Valley Inn.

Conte, Bennett and Hendrix inside a room at Apple Valley Inn.

An agent stands in front of the Apple Valley Inn pool.

Hendrix sits on the pool's diving board.

Bennett stands by the Apple Valley Inn pool.

The Macdonald Carey family visits the pool at Apple Valley Inn. Photo from Paradise Leased.

When it's revealed that Conte, who police believe to be the killer is hiding out at the Apple Valley Inn, he races out of the place, driving a car right through a police barricade.

Conte drives through a police barricade at Apple Valley Inn.

Exiting the driveway at Apple Valley Inn.

The final scenes take place at the Salton Sea. According to the site Lost Resorts, the Salton Sea was once known as the Riviera of the West or "Palm Springs by the Sea." It is the largest lake in California and used to be a major destination in the 1950s and 1960s for tourist and celebrities. The sea was created by accident. In 1900, developers created a series of canals and dikes to divert water from the Colorado River to turn the arid desert into farming land. In 1905 heavy rains caused the Colorado River to rise, a dike was then broken and the Imperial Valley filled with water, becoming the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea as seen in Highway Dragnet.

A present day view of the Salton Sea. Photo from Lost Resorts.

Documentary video of the Salton Sea.

Above is a short video clip showing scenes of the Salton Sea and the people that live in the area. Today the area is almost a flooded ghost town. Water levels would continue to rise, flooding buisnesses that surrounded the lake. Salt and fertilizers from run-off accumulated and killed off most of the fish. Now what was a bustling resort area is filled with dead fish, decaying boats and buildings drowning in water.

For more on the Apple Valley Inn read this wonderful post from Paradise Leased.

Highway Dragnet is available for streaming on Netflix and can also be seen on YouTube here.

College Coach (1933) - Film Locations

College Coach (1933)

What is college football without a few scandals? It seems like every football season a few more scandals pop up. Just this year eight players for the University of Miami are in trouble for accepting illegal gifts. But this is nothing new. Illegal gifts, phony entrance exams, dirty money and other illegal affairs have long been a part of college sports and this was even the premise for the 1933 film, College Coach.

In College Coach, Pat O'Brien plays the title character, a shady coach willing to do anything to win, even if it means buying players for his team and getting them into classes they can pass. This is a far stretch from the real life coach, Knute Rockne, that O'Brien would play a few years later. As coach Gore, O'Brien is hired by Calvert University,  a school looking to turn their football team into a winning team in order to attract more money for their school. 

The film doesn't mention where the story takes place, but the film was made in and around Los Angeles. Here are a few of the filming locations from College Coach.

For the fictional Calvert University, filming was done at Millspaugh Hall which was once located at 855 N. Vermont Ave. Millspaugh Hall was built in 1914 and was the main administration building for the University of California, Southern Branch which would eventually come to be known as University of California, Los Angeles or UCLA. By 1929, UCLA moved to their new campus in Westwood. Millspaugh Hall has since been demolished.

Calvert University as seen in College Coach (1933)

Millspaugh Hall, 855 N. Vermont Ave

Photo Credit: Los Angeles Public Library

855 N. Vermont Ave. Now the site of Los Angeles City College.

In one scene, after Pat O'Brien has accepted the job at Calvert University, he goes to meet his wife at the train station. O'Brien's wife, played by the attractive Ann Dvorak, is coming to join her husband in the new town where he will be coaching. The train station that was used in the film was the former Santa Fe Depot in South Pasadena. In the film we get a glimpse of the depot as well as the Graham and Mohr Opera House, another historic building that has since been demolished.

O'Brien standing across from the Graham and Mohr Opera House

El Centro Street, South Pasadena

The Graham and Mohr Opera House (demolished)

Photo Credit: South Pasadena Library

Santa Fe Depot on Left. Opera House on Right

El Centro Street, South Pasadena

Photo Credit: "South Pasadena" by Rick Thomas

El Centro Street, South Pasadena as it appears today.

In another scene we see the Calvert University football team arriving in town for a game. Signs welcome the arrival of the Calvert players. The street that we see the team driving down is Broadway and we get a glimpse of the historic United Artists movie palace on the left hand side. The United Artists theatre was built in 1927, just six years prior to the filming of College Coach.

Broadway, Los Angeles as seen in College Coach

933 S. Broadway, United Artists Theatre on left.

Revised December 12, 2013 - I previously posted that the football scenes were filmed at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but thanks to a tip from silent locations expert John Bengtson, I've learned that the Rose Bowl in Pasadena was also used for the football scenes. In the screenshot below of fans entering the football stadium, that is the entrance to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The screenshots showing the inside of a football stadium are actually of the Rose Bowl stadium.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as seen in College Coach.

Bing Bird's Eye view of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum entrance.

Calvert University plays at the Rose Bowl.

An inside look of the Rose Bowl from the January 1, 2013 Rose Bowl game. Source.

Lyle Talbot, Dick Powell race on to the field to see O'Brien.

 

Another view inside the Rose Bowl looking towards the gate that Talbot and Powell would have run out from. Undated image from the Los Angeles Public Library photo collection.

A closeup aerial view of the Rose Bowl's South East gate from 1930. The yellow rectangle marks the shrubbery seen along the wall which is also visible in the screenshot with O'Brien and his team.

Hugh Herbert, Ann Dvorak, Pat O'Brien

College Coach also stars Lyle Talbot, Dick Powell and Nat Pendleton as three of the football players for Calvert University. And if you watch closely, you get a glimpse of a very young John Wayne, as one of the Calvert students.

College Coach is available on home video through the Warner Archive Collection.

All screenshots (c) Warner Bros. Entertainment. Aerial Views: Hall Pictometry Bird's Eye, 2010 (c), 2010 Pictometry International Corp (c) 2011 Microsoft Corporation (c) and (c) 2010 NAVTEQ 

Spencer Tracy Arrives in Hollywood

Spencer Tracy

By 1930, Spencer Tracy was starting to get noticed on Broadway. Just a year earlier talking pictures were the big news out of Hollywood and many of Tracy's fellow Broadway actors were leaving the east coast for the west coast - ditching the stage for the screen. Tracy, who had heard the rumors of the money to be made in movies didn't totally rule out the idea of heading to Hollywood himself, although, not being the most handsome of men, he wasn't the typical image of a leading man of the screen, he had some uncertainties.

While performing in the Broadway show The Last Mile, the legendary director John Ford, took notice of Tracy. Ford has said, "More than anything else I was tantalized by his movements. I don't think many people were ever conscious of Spence's bodily discipline. After seeing the play twice I still didn't have a good impression of what he looked like, and aside from knowing that he had a fairly good voice it failed to register for me in terms of its quality. But his catlike agility was something extraordinary. He made every movement sharp and meaningful, and didn't waste a single turn."

After the show, Ford met Tracy backstage at his dressing room. The two men hit it off and Tracy suggested that they go to the Lambs Club for a nightcap. Ford was surprised to see so many Irishmen there. "Bill Frawley was there, and Allen Jenkins. And that was the night I met Pat O'Brien. Pat got to telling Irish stories - he was spinning the yarns even then, and nobody else is really in his class."

Later Ford arranged for Tracy to meet Fox executives in their New York office. They offered him $800 a week - more money than what Tracy was used to making up to that point. Pressing his luck, Tracy asked for a $1,000 and got it!

Tracy was soon on a train from New York to Hollywood to join the cast of Ford's film, Up the River. After a six day train ride Tracy arrived in Los Angeles in late June. He was picked up at the station by two young men from Fox who drove him to the Hollywood Hotel where he would stay while making the picture.

Below is a postcard image of the Hollywood Hotel which used to stand at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. It was the place to stay when you came to Hollywood, however, by the 1950s the hotel got run down and was eventually demolished. Today the site is home to the Hollywood and Highland Complex, filled with shops, restaurants, and the Kodak Theater, the current home of the Oscar ceremony.

Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood Blvd & Highland Ave

Hollywood & Highland

Once Tracy got settled at the hotel he was taken to the old Fox studio on Western Avenue. At the studio Tracy met the general manager, Ed Butcher, who informed him that his costar was to be another unknown actor from the east, Humphrey Bogart. Tracy got a tour of the lot and saw the mill, the workmen and all the film equipment.

Because of problems with the script, that first week Tracy had nothing to do, so he would spend his days roaming around the studio lot, questioning technicians and watching films being made on the lot. Tracy started meeting other people at Fox, including Raoul Walsh who would later direct him and Marion Morrison who was making his first film, as John Wayne.

Another actor Tracy met was the huge star Will Rogers. Rogers, who still followed what was happening on Broadway was already familiar with Spencer Tracy. The legendary actor invited Tracy to his table at the Fox commissary and the two became fast friends. Rogers even invited Tracy to the Riviera Country Club to watch the polo matches. Eventually, Tracy would become an avid polo player himself.

Fox Studios at Western Ave and Fernwood, Hollywood

Looking North on Western Ave. at Fernwood today

The Fox lot in Hollywood is no longer.

After a month had passed work had finally begun on Up the River. One of the notable moments about making this film is that Spencer Tracy would call his co-star, Humphrey Bogart, by the name "Bogie." The nickname would stick well after the picture.

The film was shot in a few days, edited in a week and previewed in September, in San Bernardino. The film was released nationally on October 30, 1930.

Tracy had to return to New York to complete his commitment to The Last Mile. On January 18, 1931, Fox Films announced they were signing Tracy to a 5 year contract. Tracy would soon be back in Hollywood for good, this time with his family.