5 Deja Vu Movie Sites
Marc Porter Zasada, KCRW Host.
John Marshall High School, 3939 Tracy Street, Los Angeles
The façade of this classic school showed up in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Mask, Wonder Years, Rebel Without a Cause, Grease, The Fisher King, Naked Gun, Reservoir Dogs, Space Jam…well, you’re certain to get that funny feeling.
1300 Block of Carroll Avenue
This little street of lovingly-restored Victorian homes in Angelino Heights appears constantly onscreen. A short list: The Thorn Birds, Earthquake, Salem’s Lot, Nickelodeon, Of Mice and Men, Deuce Bigelow, and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
The Carousel on Santa Monica Pier
Near the beginning of The Sting, Robert Redford finds Paul Newman hiding out in a brothel housed in a carousel in 1930s Chicago: really, of course, it’s our carousel with a little makeup. In the movie, Redford quizzes the madam as she sweeps the white staircase on the west side. Many other flicks have been shot here: you feel ghosts in every corner.
Echo Park Lake
Dozens of great films have been shot here. Jack Nicholson rows the lake near the beginning of Chinatown. It also appears in L.A. Confidential, Pulp Fiction, True Confessions, the Grifters, and of course, Echo Park.
Security Bank Building, 6381-6385 Hollywood Boulevard
Okay, not a movie set, but Raymond Chandler’s iconic L.A. detective Philip Marlowe had his fictional office on the sixth floor of this classic granite building. Marlowe appeared in, among other films, The Big Sleep, Lady in the Lake, The Long goodbye, and Farewell My Lovely. Gives me chills to pass it.
Two books to carry: Hollywood Escapes by Harry Medved & Bruce Akiyama and Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide by Richard Alleman. Both used for sources on the above.
Tags: los angeles, movies, sightseeing
