"What a neat book! Ever since my wife and I moved to Los Angeles, we’ve been fascinated with the movie connections all around us. Harry Medved has produced a guidebook to Southern California that’s equal parts history, roadmap, restaurant guide, and pop culture catalogue. If you want to know which movies were made on each particular beach and cove in Santa Monica and Malibu, the history of Venice Beach and Catalina Island, a capsule guide to Bronson Canyon (including the famous Bronson Cave), seen in everything from Gene Autry’s Phantom Empire serial to John Ford’s The Searchers, this is the book for you. Quotes from producers, directors, local historians, and location scouts are sprinkled throughout the lively text, along with photos and useful maps. Most of all, Hollywood Escapes is fun to browse, whether you’re planning day trips or just want to experience the Southern California’s multitudinous movie locations vicariously from your armchair." --Leonard Maltin, author of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide and The Great American Broadcast “A perfect blend of show biz lore and wanderlust…as an ultra-engaging mix of film and the great outdoors, Hollywood Escapes allows us to re-experience, in the flesh, the great escapism that movies provide.”
- Brad Schreiber, Entertainment Today “Immensely readable… Hollywood Escapes encourages us to leave the couch or the theater or even the city behind in search of parks and piers, lakes and reservoirs, islands and canyons, cafes and hotels we've previously only encountered on film.”
-Anthony Miller, City Beat ("Real. Best. L.A." issue) “A travel guide built around visits to the locations for dozens of classic films… the book serves as an interactive movie history of the area.” - Gregg Kilday, The Hollywood Reporter "We are all over the new book Hollywood Escapes ... an awesomely comprehensive movie lover's guide to famous (and mostly hitherto unknown) outdoor filming locations in Southern California " - Los Angeles Magazine "A movie buff's guide to film locations that range from Baja California to California's highest mountain, with beach and desert scenes in between... this solidly packed guide presents a different way to vacation in Southern California, turning Tinseltown and its environs into pure gold." - Library Journal “One has to wonder why a comprehensive guide to recognizable movie locations in Southern California hasn't been published before… Medved and Akiyama hit gold with the thoroughly researched, well-constructed Hollywood Escapes… as useful on the road as it is for thumbing through while watching a DVD at home.”
- Janet Fullwood, Sacramento Bee
“Hollywood Escapes is jam-packed with tidbits, trivia and insider information about literally thousands of movies, old and new. Highly recommended, the perfect paperback ... to always have in your car glove compartment.” - Boyd Magers, Western Clippings “Discover the ultimate guide to your favorite movie picture or television program locations. Easily accessible for all types of travelers, recreate the scene starring ... you!” - Mary Ellen Bowman, DAILY PILOT
"(A) must-have book...Harry Medved interviewed dozens of production designers, location managers, and actors to pinpoint filming sites from Malibu to Mammoth, Lone Pine to La Jolla, for his book. Where was the Kill Bill desert chapel? Or Dr. Evil's compound? Or the Star Wars sand dunes? Find out."
- Los Angeles Magazine's "Movie Lover's Guide"
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Movie Beaches
There's nothing like the beach early in the morning, quiet and peaceful and mysterious.
---Annette Funicello in Beach Party (1963), the first of many Malibu-based fun-in-the-sun musical comedies
The Malibu Coast: Drive the Wild Surf
The freeway is faster, but it lacks a certain majesty ...
---Peter Fonda, explaining why he prefers the Pacific Coast Highway, in The Limey
Major Roles: How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Alex in Wonderland, True Romance
Behind the Scenery
The origins of Malibu's world-famous route along Pacific Coast Highway (also known as PCH) date back to the late nineteenth century. Frederick Rindge, a wealthy landowner from Marblehead, Massachusetts, and his wife purchased the sprawling Rancho Malibu in 1891. For several decades, the Rindge clan held on to twenty-four miles of spectacular coastline from Las Flores Canyon to the Ventura County line.
After Mr. Rindge died in 1905, his wife May followed his wish to protect their vast wilderness from intruders. Dubbed the Queen of the Malibu by the local press, May Rindge fought against completion of a coastal highway through her property. According to a brochure from the Marblehead Land Company, which represented her interests in the late 1920s, Mrs. Rindge endured "the longest, bitterest and most dramatic contest in California history to prevent the dismemberment of her estate." But California won the battle for coastal access in 1925 and opened the entire road four years later. Initially named after Theodore Roosevelt, the late outdoorsman/naturalist and U.S. president, the Roosevelt Highway was later rechristened Pacific Coast Highway.
To help pay her legal bills, May Rindge leased and eventually sold her Malibu real estate to movie folk like Clara Bow, Ronald Colman, studio chief Jack Warner, and silent screen star Anna Q. Nillson who helped form the Malibu Beach Motion Picture Colony in 1926. To this day the enclave, known as The Colony, still thrives as an exclusive parcel of Hollywood history near Pacific Coast Highway and has been home to such diverse personalities as Pamela Anderson, Sting, and former Malibu mayor Larry Hagman. One-time Malibu resident Robert Altman poked fun at The Colony's security gates and armed patrols in his adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye: in several funny scenes Elliott Gould (as Philip Marlowe) deals with a goofy movie-mad Colony gate guard who can't resist imitating Walter Brennan and Barbara Stanwyck.
The Sand and Sea at A.I.P.
The Malibu Coast was memorably captured on film in the popular and inane Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello Beach Party series produced by American International Pictures (AIP), the most successful independent film company of its time. Although the films are remembered today for their camp value, they also provide a remarkable cinematic record of the Malibu landscape of the early sixties.
In a climatic chase scene in Pajama Party, you can see how the Malibu Colony Plaza and Civic Center looked more than forty years ago and how little it has changed.
Other films in the series include Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Beach Blanket Bingo, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Similar AIP fun-in-the-sun spin-offs include Ski Party, Fireball 500, and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine.
"Tourists still arrive in Malibu expecting to see Frankie and Annette dancing around in the sand," notes beach party film historian Michael Marshall. "The musically romanticized imagery of girls, surfers and cars in these movies defined the coastline, and that 'endless summer' aura remains to this day."
Driving the Malibu Coast
The following driving tour begins on the Santa Monica stretch of Pacific Coast Highway and affords plenty of stopovers where you can soak in the view, stretch your legs, or throw your own beach party (see also MALIBU PIER, PARADISE COVE, ZUMA and LEO CARRILLO chapters 2, 3, and 5). Set your odometer at zero as you start your trip at the Santa Monica Pier. All mileage counts are approximate distances from the pier or the McClure Tunnel at the Western end of the 10 Freeway.
Back on the Beach (1.3 miles north of the pier)
This unique cafe in the sand is based in an old Santa Monica beach location that appeared in Ski Party, starring Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Yvonne Craig, and Dick Miller. To the immediate north is an empty shell of a white building which was part of a massive estate built in 1928, by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst for his mistress (and favorite actress) Marion Davies, hostess of legendary Hollywood beach parties. All that remains of the expansive complex are the guest and servants' quarters, site of a proposed public beach facility. A block south of the cafe is the former Peter Lawford home where President Kennedy allegedly rendezvoused with Marilyn Monroe. 445 Palisades Beach Rd.; 310-393-8282.
Patrick's Roadhouse (1.7 miles)
This eccentric and cozy fifteen-table local favorite is known for its pancakes, waffles, and banana cream pie.
Full of nautical memorablilia, this was a house of ill repute in the twenties. Today it attracts celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Bruce Willis and Sean Penn. 106 Entrada Drive; 310-459-4544.
A short block north of Patrick's is the Santa Monica Canyon intersection of Chautauqua Blvd., W. Channel Road and Pacific Coast Highway, glimpsed in two different crime dramas shot in 1950: In a Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart and Quicksand with Mickey Rooney.
The Original California Beach Girl
Pinups of bikini-clad California girls were popular way before the Baywatch era. During World War II, one of the most sought-after poster girls (after Betty Grable) was Noel Neill in her classic shot reclining against the coastal rocks. Later to play Lois Lane in the original Superman TV series, Neill remembers the beach as a volleyball mecca and 1940s hangout for up-and-coming actors waiting for their big break. "All of our agents would contact us at the beach's pay phone in front of the old bath house," recalls Neill. "When that phone would ring, we all waited with bated breath and burst into applause when someone got a part." Still a beach local after all these years, Neill calls nearby Santa Monica Canyon her home and still holds court at Patrick's Roadhouse.
Copyright © 2006 by Harry Medved
