L.A.’s silent film stars live on 100 years later
By SOLVEJ SCHOU February 17, 2012 4:00PM
A bike rider passes an image of silent film legend Charlie Chaplin at the entrance to the Jim Henson Company Lot in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012. The lot, initially built in 1918 for Charlie Chaplin Studios, is where many of Chaplin's movies were filmed. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
IF YOU GO
SILENT ERA MOVIE LOCATIONS: Detailed information on books, tours and history from film historian John Bengtson at silentlocations.wordpress.com
CHARLIE CHAPLIN: char
liechaplin.com/ Charlie Chaplin Studios is now the Jim Henson Company Lot, 1416 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood, leasing.hen
son.com/history.html
Chaplin’s “The Kid” was filmed partly at the Olvera Street marketplace, olvera-street.com
BUSTER KEATON: Keaton’s “Hard Luck” included a scene by the statue of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis in MacArthur Park; busterkeaton.com
HAROLD LLOYD: Building at 908 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles was filmed in Lloyd’s 1923 “Safety Last!” movie; haroldlloyd.com
LAUREL AND HARDY: Music Box Steps, next to 923-935 Vendome St., near the intersection of Del Monte, in L.A.’s Silver Lake area, figured in the Laurel and Hardy movie “The Music Box”; laurel-and-hardy.com
Article Extras
Updated: March 20, 2012 8:13AM
LOS ANGELES — From around 1910 to the late 1920s, the silent film industry dominated Los Angeles. The movies were filmed everywhere, from Hollywood to bustling downtown to what was then a nearly barren valley area, on the other side of the Hollywood Hills. Without permits, unions or worries about sound, filmmakers could just grab a camera and shoot scenes on the spot, transforming various L.A. locales into any place the script called for. Hollywood was truly the Wild West, infinitely more accessible than now.
“The Artist,” a Golden Globe winner and Oscar contender that hearkens back to the lost art of telling a story in black and white, without talking, has renewed interest in that early genre. Many of the locations where exteriors were filmed during the silent film era still exist today, and you can find them hidden around the city like historic gems.
“Southern California was perfectly situated” as a backdrop for all types of movie settings, said film historian John Bengtson . “There was a diversity of geological features, the beach, desert. There were rough terrains for the Westerns. There were mountains. There were lakes. Downtown Los Angeles was a thriving city, so you got your urban shots. It was just ideal.”
Bengtson started researching then-and-now locations from scenes in the films of silent comedy stars more than 15 years ago. He’s since identified dozens of locations, and has conducted various silent film walking tours.
One famous image from that era that lives on shows Harold Lloyd clumsily climbing up the side of a building in downtown Los Angeles to escape a police officer in the 1923 romantic comedy “Safety Last!” Lloyd, in his signature straw hat and round horn-rimmed glasses, then grasps onto a large clock on the building. He hangs on for dear life. AP
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