Location?
Does anyone know the city and neighborhood where this was filmed?
shareI believe at least some of the scenes were filled in Pacific Palisades.
shareThanks. It seemed too flat, though....I thought for sure in the Valley.
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In the filming locaton section on the main page it states it was filmed in Pacific Palisades. I wanted to know because for some reason I like the style of houses in the movies. A style you never see in the northeast.
shareI am using all of my knowledge of Southern California to determine the locations in this movie. This type of home was built in many locations in So Cal in the 50's. If you notice, the homes in the movie were not new at the time (1957). They have grown shrubbery and tall palms. Also, many have covered carports instead of garages. I would say these were built in 1954 and 1955.
Someone mentioned Pacific Palisades. I'm betting that was the location of Herm's store, the city council, and Troy's gas station. I did catch an address on the "Sunrise Hills City Council." It was 15474 or something. This address coincides with Sunset Boulevard in downtown Pacific Palsades. This could be it.
As far as the subdividion location, I am stumped. It's a large flat area, with hills in the background and a church in the middle. There are small old homes in P.P., but I don't think they are this unique style. I couldn't catch a single landmark. Could be Whittier, La Puente, Granada Hills, Mission Hills, tough call!
I enjoyed the intro with the new home billboards. These had directions such as "Highway 39 to Lincoln" or "Right on La Palma." These would be arround Anaheim.
If you go to the main page of the movie to the left side of the screen it states filming location and that will tell you it was filmed in Pacific Palisades. I never been to California but I was interested in the houses, which you never see here. I wonder how much they go for now. What was strange it looked like the front doors in some of the houses were the kitchen door. Something that you see in Levittown houses on LI which are mostly Capes. The houses in the movie were probably built around the same time the Levit houses were built as most developments during the 50's, right after the War to accomadate the Vets with GI Loans.
shareThese homes were/are very small, and rather cheaply made. These were the first to have slab floors instead of raised foundations. Often, the kitchen is just to the side when you walk in. This is so you can have the living room face the back yard, allowing the use of those cool sliding glass doors to the patio.
As to how much they go for? (Just so happens I'm a real estate appraiser!) It depends entirely on their location. They are no more or no less than any other style of home, similar in size. A pretty nice neighborood would be Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley. Lots of variations of this type of home. They start at arround $500,000 (!)
These homes were/are very small, and rather cheaply made. These were the first to have slab floors instead of raised foundations. Often, the kitchen is just to the side when you walk in. This is so you can have the living room face the back yard, allowing the use of those cool sliding glass doors to the patio.
Remember how I said that they were like some Levitt houses out here on Long Island because where the kitchen door was. Well it looks like they resemble each other in other ways too. The Levitt houses can always be identified because they had no basements, and were built on slabs too. On Long Island mostly all houses have basements so you can notice it right away. They go a pretty penny too, not as much as most of the houses out here, but a lot. I wonder if the Pacific Palisade homes were Levitt houses too? They just sound too similer.
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Well, I did it. I tracked them down. I noticed an address above the door of the Martin's house. 6501. And the Boone's house next door: 6507. Based on this and a few other factors, I found the two homes: 6501 and 6507 Jumilla Avenue, Woodland Hills, CA. The Martins' house now has a second-story addition over the garage, the Boones' house looks mostly original from the front, except for a gated front yard. They both now have pools...perfect for those wild Martini and Steak BBQ parties!
The business district appears to be Pacific Palisades, also, I believe the church is Pacific Palisades as well.
OK, I've watched the movie enough now!
Wow! So good work you done. Are they in nice neighborhoods? I live in NY so I have no idea. There is a Palisades in Jersey right across the Hudson on the Hudson. There use to be a big Amusment Park there but they knocked it down and now there is a bunch of apt buildings. It is a ok neighborhood and expensive like most things in northern Jersey. So I vision Pacific Palisades as a place where a lot of apartments are. Is Woodland Hills in Pacific Palisades? Are they 3 bedrooms houses? I was wondering.
shareHaven't seen the movie yet, but I used to live in the area, so I can tell you this... Woodland Hills is in the San Fernando Valley, which is on the north side of the Santa Monica Mountains. Pacific Palisades is on the south side of the SM Mountains and is just south of Malibu on the Santa Monica Bay. The Palisades is mainly a bedroom community with a small downtown area along Sunset Blvd. Nearly every home is over a million dollars, and that's for a starter home. Many movie stars live in the Palisades as it's fairly easy to get to, but it's still got a nice small town atmosphere. Too bad it's so pricey. Just type in the ZIP code "90272" into your favorite map site to get a good overview of where it's located. Note that the Palisades is part of the city of Los Angeles, unlike Santa Monica and Malibu, which have both been incorporated as separate cities within Los Angeles county.
shareOne of these days I going to go to LA. Because I am really confused I didn't know Pacific Palisades was actually part of the city of LA. Now in NYC there are bouroughs. Queens, Kings, Richmond, Brooklyn and Bronx, but in the city of NY there is no bedroom commuity with houses. Only apartment buildings or townhouses, but not the kind of townhouses most people think of. So when I hear that there are actual bedroom communities that looks like Pacific Palisades actually being part of a city it is hard to visualize because I think urban, when it comes to cities not suburbs. But I am really confused because you say that Pacific Palisades has a small downtown area, now wouldn't downtown be downtown LA if it is part of the city?
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As noted in an early posting, the houses shown in the film were located in Woodland Hills, which is NOT a bad neighborhood, in the San Fernando Valley. Most homes were small in the 1950s, unless they were being built for the ultra-wealthy.
shareI just have one addition...I believe the church that was used for the filming is in Anaheim (Orange County, near Disneyland). I have been to that church numerous times and have had friends married there. Also the neighborhood is the spitting image of the homes in the Anaheim area. Not wanting to contradict anyone just another thought.
shareSince developers tended to use the same cookie cutter designs on several properties, I wouldn't be suprised if the same church design was used in multiple locations.
shareThe church being in Anaheim rings true to me too. I wouldn't be able to place it exactly as I don't know Anaheim as well as I do Woodland Hills and Pacific Palisades. The new home billboards in the intro of the movie all point to the Anaheim area. I paused it several times to try to read the sign in front of the church, but no luck!
shareDuring the opening credits, they are driving southbound on the Interstate 5 freeway. I think the freeway had been extended down to Anaheim in 1954 or 1956, so there was a lot of new development. Anaheim was one of the fastest growing cities in the country during this time. Most of the signs point to west Anaheim, which was being converted from farmland and orange groves to residential.
Hwy 39 is the Beach Blvd exit. They appear to be actual signs, with the exception of Sunrise Hills. One of the exits is for Harbor Blvd, which is where Disneyland is located. Fairview Ranchos is an actual development off of Fairview Rd. Grand Ave. is about 2 miles further down the freeway, in Santa Ana. There are a number of homes on Lincoln that are similar to the one on the Dutch Haven billboard.
Yes, I was thinking the houses in this film had a distinct Orange County look...Garden Grove, Tustin, Stanton, etc.
share___These A frame type ranch homes were built all over the country after WWII. I see these a lot in Lexington and Louisville, KY. probably built in the early to mid 50's. Along with 60's split level homes they are pretty old school, but can still be attractive in a nostalgic way with up to date grounds. Somehow they would look best with Dick Van Dyke furniture and a '59 Chevy under the carport.
shareThe actual Boroughs are Queens,Brooklyn(which is Kings County),Manhatten,The Bronx and Staten Island....I'm residing in both Ny and Cal. presently
shareThe Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area is so sprawling and spread out that the traditional concept of a central "downtown" and outlying "suburbs" doesn't really apply. Basically, L.A. is a swarm of suburbs in search of a city.
"All the universe or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?"
Scottpens,
Are you a transplant to Los Angeles? I'm a native Angeleno. While the metropolitan area of Los Angeles (encompassing the suburbs) may well be the largest, in square mileage, of any metropolitan area of the United States, Los Angeles definitely developed out of a downtown that saw suburbanization and white flight occur, on a scale similar to that of NYC/Long Island/Poughkeepsie and that of Philadelphia/South N. J. Because the majority of people that moved out to Los Angeles during much of the 19th and 20th centuries came from the Midwest, there was a definite "Mexico Meets the Midwest" sensibility established in Los Angeles that is has weakened considerably since the 1980's.
Time and time again, the movers and shakers of Los Angeles fought against a high-rise haven like New York. The Midwestern-influenced politicians and businessmen saw Los Angeles as utopia from what they saw as the ills of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Within that mindset was also the racism that equated the narrow confines of a New York with disease, racial tensions, dirt, and a generally unhealthy, vice-ridden way of life. That mindset and lots of available land made the sprawl of Greater Los Angeles possible. The land developer has always been king in L. A. and continues to be. Google "Eli Broad" and "Rick Caruso" and you will see what I mean. Those two are following the time-honored L. A. tradition of leaving no undeveloped plot of land unbuilt.
My point is that, while Los Angeles might appear to not fit the general east-of-the-Mississippi pattern of city development, it did, just spread on a grander scale than most. Also, the small towns that had started as farm communities (San Dimas, Azusa, Burbank, etc.) also developed and merged with the Los Angeles sprawl. One last note: in the new housing developments built in the post-WW II period, developers encouraged the use of and built shopping districts so that people who were miles from Downtown Los Angeles could shop in their neighborhoods, hence the birth of malls and strip malls.
To answer your question, I was born and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. I currently reside in West Los Angeles near the junction of the 405 and 10 freeways -- which is actually one of L.A.'s older suburban neighborhoods, having originally been developed in the 1920s.
"All the universe or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?"
Thank you,Scotpens!
You are a true Angeleno! Have you seen the current exhibit at the Architecture + Design Museum across LACMA entitled "The Los Angeles That Never Was"? It's fascinating: a history of design plans for public buildings and civic spaces that never came to pass. That exhibit explains the spatial development of Los Angeles.
Cheers, Scotpens!
My Native Angelino Opinion: Downtown LA definitely exists and is framed by Chinatown on the North, Figueroa on the west, Alameda on the East and Olympic on the South. Others have slightly varying opinions.
sharemcb55-I just watched the movie for the first time last night. I enjoyed it.I loved the houses in the movie myself, I like the style. You mentioned tyhe slab on grade, typical of tract houses to reduce cost, I don't think that there was radiant heating in the slab though. I also noticed the post and beam construction very nice.
I have never been out to California, would love to do so in the future, you wouldn't have happened to snapped a couple of pictures of those houses? It would interesting to see them as they look today. Who was the developer of the subdivision?
"Yes Mr. Milton."
Good work. There are actually houses like that all over the valley. The ones that one user speaks of are Eichler homes--the ones with the slab foundations in Granada Hills, etc. But that is not what the homes in the film are. The houses in this film were very common, in fact there is a street very near my house that is full of these homes (when watching the film I thought for certain it was one street over from me). That neighborhood is in Lake Balboa, on the 6000 Block of LaSaine Ave and Hartland Ave, north of Vanowen St. and south of Hart (Zip 91406 if you want to mapquest). A very nice neighborhood and so simliar to that in the movie.
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I live in Anaheim, and have just seen the movie on Fox Movie Channel, for the first time. I was COMPLETELY enthralled. I live in a 1955 ranch house which we have, of course, remodeled, but my interest goes farther than that. I was born in '49 and I recognized SO MANY things in the movie from my childhood. The artwork - sillouettes, the old model T cars - the lamp at the sewing machine, MY MOTHERE'S WALLPAPER in the kitchen! The CARS -- my Dad was a Ford dealer in the 50's and those cars are in my heart forever! I took in every porthole in the Buick, the lines of the Sunliner, oh my GOSH, I was in ecstasy. If you took all those stereotypical families and put them in a blender, I saw my family - my whole neighborhood. Except, we had a lot of Doctors and Inventors (Illinois).
Did anyone notice that there was nothing on the TV but cowboys and indians - LOL!! Did anyone notice that they left the kids unsupervised at their BBQs, and then just went back over to check on them?
I may just have to make a little journey to see THE ACTUAL HOUSE!
" Did anyone notice that they left the kids unsupervised at their BBQs, and then just went back over to check on them?"
That's because parents back then had common sense when it came to raising their children. They weren't like today's "helicopter parents" who imagine that their kids are in all kinds of horrible danger if they let the kids out of their sight for one minute.
"All the universe or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?"
Hello! I just read your post above, 9 years after you left it, and I will confirm exactly what you discovered about the street addresses! I grew up in that neighborhood in East Woodland Hills. My parents paid a mere $19k full price (!) for an almost new 2-year-old house of the exact same design just 2 streets over from Jumilla Avenue in 1956. The development was called "Eastwood Estates", and somewhere I still have the original brochure for the model homes. I was a small child in 1956, but I remember the excitement in the new neighborhood when I heard that several houses were rented by a movie studio and the residents were staying in a motel during the shooting (and presumably were well compensated). Everybody was excited that a movie was being made in our neighborhood, and I remember going with my parents to see the movie at a drive-in theater when it first came out. I was too young to understand a grownup movie - cartoons were more my speed. Indeed, as somebody else described, those houses were on cement slab, very modern design for the era, lots of angular glass windows, with frosted glass pegboard room dividers and slanted pegboard cupboard doors (not as cheesy as that sounds). Today those houses are considered "mid century classic". I always loved that neighborhood. My parents lived there for 17 years, and I was there for about 13 of those years. Incidentally, at around the same time (1956) our whole neighborhood was filmed with 360-degree cameras for showing at Disneyland in Tomorrowland in their circular theater. It was only a 30 or 40 second snippet which also showed us gradeschool kids playing in the playground at our elementary school (Calvert Street School, and I remember the vehicle driving around in our playground with cameras on the roof of the vehicle aimed in all directions). That movie screened at Disneyland for a few years, replaced every few years with updated 360-degree movies. I do know that the Disneyland 360-degree cinema lasted at least until the mid-1960s. I'm sure it's gone now, but I have no idea when it finally closed. I am surprised that my memory from 58 years ago is still so good.
shareThat appears correct. The film's overhead shot must include a matte of the church in the background.
shareThe exterior shots of the homes look like an actual neighborhood, but I wonder about the interior shots of the houses. There is one scene when one of the couples walks into the house, and with the door open I can't tell if what it seen outside is actually outside cause it's kind of focus or if it's out of focus on purpose because they are on a sound stage. Does anyone know for sure of all the interior shots of the house are an actual house?
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To me it's evident all the interior shots including the patios, garage, living rooms and kitchens are all done in the studio at the L.A. location.
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