Champagne For Caesar (1950) - Film Locations

In Champagne For Caesar (1950), Vincent Price, the "Master of Horror," shows that not only can he be sinister, but uproariously funny as well. I'm actually quite surprised that after this film that Price didn't do more comedies than he did. He nearly steals every scene in which he appears. But seeing Price in a perfect comedic part is just one of the delightful reasons that make Caesar a fun film to watch.

The story centers on Beauregard Bottomley, a genius (naturally played by Ronald Coleman) who goes on a television quiz show. While Coleman is on the show, he keeps getting all the questions correct and wins more and more money. The show's sponsor, the Milady Soap Co., headed by Price, wants to stop Coleman from winning. His solution is to send the seductive Celeste Holm after Coleman as a distraction. Coleman must resist Holm if he wants to continue winning on the show.

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CBS Columbia Square as seen in Champagne For Caesar.

CBS Columbia Square, 6121 Sunset Boulevard.

The quiz show takes place at CBS Columbia Square, located at 6121 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. See the comparison above showing how the building appears in the film compared to how the building appears today. This building served as CBS's radio and television operations for the West Coast from 1938 to 2007. Many popular radio programs originated here, including shows for Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Donald O. Connor, Burns and Allen, and Steve Allen. When television arrived, shows such as The Ed Wynn Show and the pilot episode for I Love Lucy were produced here. According to the book, James Dean: Dream As If You'll Live Forever, author Karen Clemens Warrick mentions that James Dean was an usher at CBS. She writes of Dean's experience that "Dean enjoyed watching the shows, but he did not like being told what to do and what to wear. He called the uniform a 'monkey suit.' He was fired at the end of the first week."

Art Linkletter and Ronald Colman at CBS.

Art Linkletter stars in the film as the quiz show host. In real life Linkletter was a popular radio and television host including the popular CBS program House Party, which ran for 25 years.

Vincent Price and Celeste Holm.

Red Studios Hollywood located at 846 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood was the location used for the Milady Soap Co. headquarters. The independent studio lot, first built in 1915, has had many previous tenants over the years and has been known at various times as the Metro Pictures Back Lot #3,  Motion Picture Center Studios, DesiLu Cahuenga Studios, Television Center Studios, and Ren-Mar Studios. Although the main entrance to the studio is on Cahuenga, for Champagne For Caesar the back entrance to the studio located on Lillian Way was used to film the entrance to the Milady Soap Co. Although the studio has been drastically remodeled, there are some details that are still the same, like the power source on the side of the building in the red circle and the sliding wire fence.

Red Studios Hollywood used for the "Milady Soap Co."

The back entrance to Red Studios located on Lillian Way.

During one part in the film we see Celeste Holm take Ronald Colman on a wild ride through Hollywood. They mainly drive down Hollywood Boulevard and then make a turn from Hollywood on to Vine Street heading south. They pass such landmarks as the Egyptian Theatre, the Vogue Theatre, and in the distance of one shot we see radio towers that stand on top of the Warner Hollywood Theatre.

Hollywood Boulevard approaching Las Palmas Ave.

Hollywood Blvd looking towards Las Palmas Ave.

In the comparison above we can see that the Egyptian Theatre is still standing on the right, the Vogue Theatre is still on the left, and in the distance the radio towers are still standing on top of what was formerly the Warner Hollywood Theatre.

Hollywood Boulevard and Cherokee Avenue.

Hollywood Boulevard at Cherokee Avenue.

In the next scene Holm and Colman turn from Hollywood Boulevard on to Vine Street heading south. In the background we get a glimpse of the Melody Lane Restaurant located on the northwest corner of Hollywood and Vine. Before this building was the Melody Lane Restaurant it was Carl Laemmle's Coco Tree Cafe. Laemmle (yes, the Universal Studios mogul) had hired architect Richard Neutra in 1932 to design a modern and fancy lunch spot, but with the idea that there would be billboards above the restaurant advertising Universal pictures. The Coco Tree Cafe was a success but when Carl Laemmle died in 1939, the Pig 'n' Whistle manager Sidney Hoedemaker took over the location and completely remodeled the building, turning it into the Melody Lane Restaurant. After Melody Lane the building would have several other tenants including Hody's, Howard Johnson's,  and most recently Basque Nightclub, until a fire destroyed the place in 2008. Today the corner is an empty lot.

Colman and Holm pass the Melody Lane restaurant at Hollywood and Vine.

Looking north on Vine Street across Hollywood Blvd. Vintage postcard view.

The same intersection of Hollywood and Vine as it appears now.

The final round of the quiz show takes place at another Hollywood landmark, the Hollywood Bowl. In the next two comparisons we first see cars arriving at the entrance to the Hollywood Bowl located on Highland Avenue and in the second the interior of the Hollywood Bowl. The Hollywood Bowl, an outdoor amphitheater primarily used for summer concerts, has long been a popular filming location. Other films that feature the Hollywood Bowl include A Star is Born (1937), Hollywood or Bust (1956), Moonlight Murder (1936), Two On A Guillotine (1965), It's A Good Feeling (1949), Anchors Aweigh (1945), and Double Indemnity (1944).

The Hollywood Bowl entrance as seen in the film.

The Hollywood Bowl entrance.

The quiz show moves inside the Hollywood Bowl.

A modern view inside the Hollywood Bowl.

Champagne For Caesar can be rented through ClassicFlix. The film includes a great cast with superb comedic performances. Add this to your queue the next time you're looking for a few laughs or are interested in seeing a few Hollywood landmarks.

Vincent Price's "Little Gallery"

Vincent Price 1940s

Vincent Price is most famous for being an actor, particularly of sinister characters which he so often portrayed in his later acting career, but Price was nearly as well known as a connoisseur of art. Price always had a fascination with art. As a twelve-year-old in St. Louis, Price purchased his first Rembrandt, a small etching entitled Two Nude Models, One Standing. The piece of art captivated Price so much that he saved his allowance for a year and worked odd jobs to purchase the etching. This was the beginning of Price's long association of art.

Price would go on to study art at Yale and then later at the University of London. He continued to study art by visiting museums and collecting. By the 1960s, Price had become so synonymous with art that the Sears department store approached him to be a spokesperson for a new art department they were creating. In the position, Price travelled the world buying and selecting quality pieces of art that Sears would then sell in their stores to their customers. The line of art would be known as the Vincent Price Collection for Sears. Price was essentially bringing fine art to the masses. 

A couple decades earlier, in the 1940s, Price, along with friend and fellow actor George Macready, opened an art gallery in Beverly Hills. Both Price and Macready had been stage actors in New York, where there were many museums and great collections of art, but when the two came to Hollywood, they quickly realized Los Angeles lacked a strong art community. Despite all the affluent people and the large size of Los Angeles, there wasn't that many great collections of art, galleries, or even a community supportive of fine art. Price and Macready sought to change that.

The Little Gallery

9461 Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills

In 1943, the two actors opened "The Little Gallery," located at 9461 Santa Monica Boulevard, in Beverly Hills, near the famous Rodeo Drive. I found the address for the gallery by looking in a Beverly Hills City Directory from 1943.  Above is a photo of the Little Gallery location. I'm not sure if this is the original building that housed the gallery, only remodeled, or if the building was torn down and a new structure erected in its place? If you know the answer to that please comment.

According to Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography, by Victoria Price, the rent for the small shop was $65 a month. The gallery was filled mainly with paintings and drawings that Price and Macready had purchased from their days in New York, pieces from their own collection, and works by California artists. 

Victoria Price wrote the following about the opening night of the gallery in her book: "They launched the opening show with vodka martinis dripped out of a silver-plated porcelain-lined urn that Vincent's mother had given him for serving iced tea. As he recalled, 'Most of our friends liked martinis, especially free ones, and we drew an overflow crowd who hadn't the slightest intention of buying anything. A few idle pricing passes were made, but no purchases; but the main joy was that we were launched and art was back in our lives."

The Little Gallery was a success. California artists and visiting artists were always coming in, as well as a crowd from a nearby bar. Even big celebrities of the time would come in to buy art, including Charles Laughton, Otto Preminger, Greta Garbo, and Katherine Hepburn to name a few. Unfortunately, Price and Mcready did not have the time for both their movie careers and for running a gallery, so the store closed in 1944, after about two years in operation.

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The House on Haunted Hill - Film Location

Welcome to my new blog Dear Old Hollywood! This first blog entry was previously seen on another version of Dear Old Hollywood but I thought it was interesting enough to bring over to the new version of the site. In the next couple of weeks I will be posting many more stories and videos so please do check back. -

On May 8th, 2007, a great fire engulfed 817 acres of the 4,210 acre Griffith Park, a park situated on the eastern portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, located in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. Although, Dante’s View and Captain’s Roost were destroyed, many of the parks attractions such as the Greek Theatre, Griffith Observatory, and the LA Zoo were fortunately not damaged by the fire. Another attraction that movie buffs will be relieved to hear was unharmed by the Griffith fire is the Ennis Brown House.

The home, a Mayan themed concrete block building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1927, has been used multiple times in both film and television. Because of the buildings unique design and lustrous views of Los Angeles, it has always been an attractive location for filmmakers. The building’s most famous role was as the title role in the 1959 horror film, The House on Haunted Hill. It is in this mansion that Frederick Loren, played by the always eerie B-movie star Vincent Price, invites his guests to spend the night, locked inside.

Looking at the south side of the home you can see that although the house was unharmed by the Griffith Fire, the structure is still in great danger of becoming extinct. The building is structurally instable and many of the concrete walls and blocks have either cracked or completely fallen out. The house is on the National Trust For Historic Preservation’s list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Below is a photo of the home’s north view. You can see how scorched the whole mountain top is.



If you didn’t see the footage of the fire then take a look at this YouTube video that a spectator has captured. You see that white building at the top? That’s another popular filming location, the Griffith Observatory.



In addition to House on Haunted Hill, the building was also the mansion to Claude Estee, in the 1974 film, The Day of the Locust, as Harrison Ford’s pad in the 1982 film Blade Runner, and more recently as the home of the character Angel on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There are numerous other projects that have also used the Ennis Brown House.

Hopefully, this amazing building will be able to be restored so that future generations can view the unique Frank Lloyd Wright building. And, for Hollywood’s sake, to be able to continue using a gem of a film location. If you would like to learn more about the preservation process or general information about the the Ennis-Brown House, you can visit the official website here.

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Robby Cress