Category: Real Places
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The Hollywood Canteen
Ollie: “So the next night I headed off to the Canteen by myself… There was a long line of servicemen waiting to get in… it struck me just how young most of us were, and how, -eager and rambunctious, we weren’t much different from a bunch of high schoolers on a field trip, goofing off,…
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Culver City #1
Ollie: It’s in California in a town called Culver City, which is near Los Angeles… This is the first of what will be a number of posts about Culver City, a Southern California town with a rich history and the location for much of TINSEL FRONT’s first season. The city was founded in 1917 by…
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Union Station
Ollie: Dear Bet: A few hours ago we pulled into Union Station in Los Angeles. It’s a big, beautiful building — tall ceilings, impressive wood beams, beautiful Spanish tiles… L.A.’s famous train station — where a newly arrived Ollie takes note of a beautiful girl named Elle — was only three years old in 1942.…
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The Hal Roach Studios
Miller: No, before the war it was the Hal Roach Studios, you know, where Laurel & Hardy and the Our Gang films were made. When the Army took it over, Fort Roach seemed appropriate… The home of the USAAF First Motion Picture Unit during the war, the “Hal Roach Studios was an American motion picture and television production studio. Known…
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Lois’ house: Storybook Architecture
Ollie: I couldn’t tell whether the architect was being serious or ironic. It looked like someplace Hansel and Gretel would have stopped at if they were intentionally looking for the witch… Lois’ “Fairy Tale” house is not based on any specific home, either in the past or present. I came up with it, however, because…
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First Motion Picture Unit
Ollie: There was a stretch of large buildings strangely fronted by a mansion – or what looked like a mansion. Big letters over the front porch read “U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES.” But I gotta tell you, it was not like any base I’d ever seen… “The 18th AAF Base Unit (Motion Picture Unit), originally known as the First…
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Schwab’s Pharmacy
Ronald Reagan: “Who knows, maybe there’s an actor in you. This could be your big break. Beats hanging out at Schwab’s…” This Lt. Reagan reference (which goes completely over Ollie’ head) is to Schwab’s Pharmacy, where, local legend had it, an aspiring actor or actress could be discovered. The following is from Historical Hollywood Photographs,…