San Gabriel Mission Playhouse and Laurel and Hardy

San Gabriel Mission Playhouse

dedicated 1927

Going back through my photos I realized so much has happened, and I have done a lot of things and taken photos of places I've been and haven't posted! Back on Superbowl Sunday I skipped the the ballgame and opted for a screening of a few Laurel and Hardy shorts, at a theater I'd never had the chance to see!

Los Angeles is blessed in the old theater and movie palace department. We have so many old theaters that were built in the 1920s, it's pretty incredible. I've posted about the El Capitan, The Million Dollar Theater and others, but as I said, this was my first visit to this theater and my first time seeing Stan and Ollie on the big screen!

My Grandma knew Stan Laurel and his wife Ruth (whom he married more than once!) because my Great Grandmother was good friends with Ruth, so I feel this kind of ... lovely distant connection. Plus, I've tried on and had my picture taken in a couple of Ruth's dresses!

Stan and Ollie! I wonder if they had any idea that we'd still be watching almost a century later!

The foyer ...

The movies that afternoon were Double Whoopee (1929) where they are hired as a footman and doorman at a swanky hotel, You're Darn Tootin (1928) where they play musicians who lose their jobs in a band, and Liberty (1929) as prison escapees. 

I had seen a famous clip from that last one, where the two end up on the skeleton of a high-rise that is being built ... the audience was screaming and my palms were even sweating! Some movies always hold up and it's so fun to see comedy with a great audience that's howling with laughter!

Here it is, if you want to see why!

And yes, there was an incredible live, in person, organist Lance Luce who played the completely refurbished old Wurlizer organ from the 1920s. It was great because he explained about the organ and how it uses air to operate all the various musical instruments that are hidden behind the fancy screens on either side of the stage. When you hear a horn or drum, that instrument is actually back there, but being "played" by the organist! I had no idea!

Between movies there was an intermission and we checked out the outside area ...

The theater was built for an epic "Mission Play" by John Steven McGroarty that told the story of the founding of the California Missions by the Franciscan Friars under Father Junipero Serra. How accurate it was, I'm guessing is up for debate. In any case the depression happened, it became a movie theater and apparently during WWII the dressing rooms were used as apartments.

The city of San Gabriel acquired the playhouse in 1945 and it became the "San Gabriel Civic Auditorium" but eventually 2007 rolled around and they went back to the original name.

More photos of the incredible interior ...

Beautiful, no?

We went for a tea across across the street and by the time we were done chatting it was too late to visit the San Gabriel Mission (below) which is just around the block basically, but I'll have to save that for another time and another post!

The San Gabriel Mission

Here I am in one of Ruth Laurel's dresses that my grandma ended up with. Sadly the dress is very fragile now but it worked for the photo shoot (2003?) the tiny embellishments on the bodice are rhinestones.  The silk crepe chiffon was so light it was like wearing a cloud! 

And below, my sister and I in Bangkok, in 1987. On the right, I'm in a dress of Ruth's in which she danced with Clark Gable!  The one I was wearing was a champagne colored crepe, if I recall correctly! My mom had a seamstress take a pattern off of another of her dresses when we were living over there. My sister, looking ridiculously gorgeous on the left, is wearing that dress. It was emerald green Thai silk.

Yep, the ham genes run deep. ;)

To read more about the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse click here

I'm busy researching my trip to Scotland and Venice at the end of summer! Can't wait to share that! In the mean time I have a few other posts I'll try to get together, from around here! Plus the kids have been doing amazing work in the studio! 

I'm getting a new pair of glasses for the computer so that will help with the blogging! As of now, I'm killing my neck, tilting my head back to see out of the bottom of my progressive lenses. 

Blessings and light to you all!

The Kid ~ Charlie Chaplin

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

~Charlie Chaplin

When my friend Erin came to town last spring, with her daughter, we watched one of my all time favorite films ...

Actually, Erin fell asleep after our long day in Little Tokyo, (also seeing the Hello Kitty exhibition) but McKenna and I stayed up and watched the whole movie. 

McKenna is 9 and wasn't too sure about watching an old, black and white, silent movie, but she's a cool kid rolled with it. When I looked over while we were watching the movie, I saw her laughing, and paying close attention, especially in some of the more serious parts. She stayed awake and in the end told me it was really good and that she really like the movie.  :)

I told McKenna that at some point someone would mention Charlie Chaplin or she'd see a photo of him or something and she'd be able to say she knew who he was and had seen one of his films. When I went down to San Diego a couple months later it had already happened. She'd told me she'd been in the car going down El Cajon Blvd, looked out the window and saw a big statue. "You were right, I saw him! I saw a big statue of him and knew who it was! Charles Chaplin!!

This is the full film. If you haven't seen it, or haven't seen it in a long time (It had been maybe 8 years since I'd sat down and watched the whole movie) you should watch it! It might be in my all time top 10 list of favorite films! 

I remain just one thing, 

and one thing only, and that is a clown.

It places me on a far higher plane than 

any politician.

~Charlie Chaplin

Here is a really interesting documentary about the making of The Kid. There's information about Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, and the establishment of United Artists with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, as well as an Iranian filmmakers take on the film.

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world -

not even our troubles.

~Charlie Chaplin

The Paramount Ranch

 

A bank is a place that will lend you money

if you can prove that you don't need it.

~Bob Hope 

Last month, my pastel group planned to meet at the Gillette Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, which is run, in part, by the National Parks. One of the Rangers told me that the Paramount Ranch, was just 10 minutes up the Road! I knew I was too close, not to go. so, after I packed up my plein air art supplies, I headed over. I'm so glad I did, and it was the perfect time of day. Just before magic hour!

I had heard about the place, for years, and that movies and television shows had been shot there since the late1920s, when Paramount Pictures bought 2,700 acres of the old Rancho Las Virgenes. 

The Paramount Ranch

"For 25 years, a veritable who's who of Hollywood practiced their craft at Paramount Ranch, including director Cecil B. Demille, and actors Bob Hope, Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert. The diverse landscape was the real star of the show. It offered film makers the freedom to create distant locales such as colonial Massachusetts in The Maid of Salem, ancient China in The Adventures of Marco Polo, a South Seas island in Ebb Tide (1937) and numbers western locations including San Francisco in Wells Fargo. The art of illusion was mastered on the landscape."

From 1957 to 1980, the ranch changed hands several times, but the shooting continued. In 1980, the National Park Service took over a portion of the ranch property and it's run by them today. And yes, it's still used by various studios and production companies today. 

A couple of tidbits ... from 1992 to 1997, Paramount Ranch was used for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. And, apparently Warren Beatty used it in one of my favorite films, Reds. (1981)

I like a man who can run faster than I can.

~Jane Russell

There'll always be an England.

Even if it's in Hollywood.

~Bob Hope 

 

I mostly photographed around the other visitors, that were there. No film was being shot, that day. Well, no movies or T.V. shows. There were several still photographers there with families. I am pretty sure they were taking family Christmas photos.

Here's Roy Rodgers in "Son of Paleface" shot on the Paramount Ranch ...

I remember watching these movies on the weekend afternoons. I loved Jane Russell and Bob Hope. Here's a trailer from The Paleface (1948) shot on the Paramount Ranch.

Publicity can be terrible.

But only if you don't have any.

~Jane Russell

In moments, the afternoon light was glorious. This all is in Los Angeles, by the way.

Heading east toward home on Mullhulland Drive. I pulled over to take a couple of photos.

Official site of the National Park Service Paramount Ranch

When we recall the past,

we usually find that it is the simplest things, 

not the great occasions, that in retrospect

give off the great glow of happiness.

~Bob Hope

Hope you are enjoying a beautiful December!

Blessings and light