This is a screen-grab from a British short called “Round About Hollywood” which travels around Hollywood in 1931 in a two-color process known as Cinecolor. As the camera approaches the Hollywood and Vine intersection, it passes that building on the left. In 1932, it became the Richard Neutra designed CoCo Tree Café, but before that, it was owned by Universal Pictures’s Carl Laemmle, who put up billboards to advertise his latest films. On the far right, we can see “The Bad Sister” which is significant in that it was Bette Davis’s film debut, as well as the first (of seven) times she appeared in a movie with Humphrey Bogart.
Hi Martin, When I was a boy, growing up in Burbank, we lived just a few blocks from Warner’s and Disney Studios. Also, I noticed that you mentioned “Cenicolor” and remembered that thrir lab was on Olive Ave. just across from where my street, Catalian Ave, met Olive. Us kids used to pick up discarded film scraps from their trash in back and make “Stink bombs” by rolling it up tight in a piece of news paper and lighting it on fire, as in those days thenitrate filmre was still some of the old nitrate film in the trash there. It burnrd quickly and smelled really bad. I understand that many valuable od films were lost because if theis type of film.I don’t know when they went out of business, but I remember this well.
This is a screen-grab from a British short called “Round About Hollywood” which travels around Hollywood in 1931 in a two-color process known as Cinecolor. As the camera approaches the Hollywood and Vine intersection, it passes that building on the left. In 1932, it became the Richard Neutra designed CoCo Tree Café, but before that, it was owned by Universal Pictures’s Carl Laemmle, who put up billboards to advertise his latest films. On the far right, we can see “The Bad Sister” which is significant in that it was Bette Davis’s film debut, as well as the first (of seven) times she appeared in a movie with Humphrey Bogart.
Thanks for the link. It was fun!
Hi Martin, When I was a boy, growing up in Burbank, we lived just a few blocks from Warner’s and Disney Studios. Also, I noticed that you mentioned “Cenicolor” and remembered that thrir lab was on Olive Ave. just across from where my street, Catalian Ave, met Olive. Us kids used to pick up discarded film scraps from their trash in back and make “Stink bombs” by rolling it up tight in a piece of news paper and lighting it on fire, as in those days thenitrate filmre was still some of the old nitrate film in the trash there. It burnrd quickly and smelled really bad. I understand that many valuable od films were lost because if theis type of film.I don’t know when they went out of business, but I remember this well.
Hey Richard, thanks for sharing those memories with us! And what childhood would be complete without stinkbombs?
The aerial photo in your link to 1931 shows the parking lot hidden behind the billboards on this site just prior to construction of the building.