The Terrible Catsafterme

Wednesday, July 15, 2009, was a mostly leisurely day in southern California – at least relative to the weekend we had spent in Vegas and the upcoming final three days of my California trip. I even slept in a little bit and let Bob go down and grab his continental breakfast in the Culver Hotel before I followed. We posed for our pictures hanging out the windows of the famous hotel seen in several silent Laurel and Hardy films (detailed more here) and then headed out to see the Holy Cross Cemetery elsewhere in Culver City.

The view from our window. Down this alley, Oliver Hardy laid in the gutter in We Faw Down

Hanging out (literally) at the Culver Hotel

On the way to the cemetery, we made a brief stop at the Sony Pictures Plaza for a quick picture. This was the location used as the Wolfram & Hart building in Angel, the spin-off to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. More on Buffy later.

The Sony Pictures Plaza doubled as Wolfram & Hart in Angel

One reason for our visit was that Bob was arranging to have a plaque placed on silent screen actress Edna Marion’s grave. A benefactor and fellow Son of the Desert from Copenhagen was paying for this. So I got to help pick out the stone color that would be used for her grave (it was eventually put in place about a month later). We also browsed the many famous graves here, which are featured here.

We left Holy Cross about 11am, which gave us time to stop by the Culver City City Hall, site of the original building seen in Laurel and Hardy’s County Hospital. I saw the original building when I was at Hollywood ’80 and again in 1988 and 1992, but it was leveled in 1995 and replaced with a more modern building. The courtyard to the new structure is where the original building stood, with a facade in front of it that was constructed from materials of the original City Hall.

In front of the facade of the Culver City City Hall

We also walked down Main Street again, which is always a magical place the evokes not only personal memories of my previous visits but also the ghosts of those who had stood on these streets in the 1920’s filming many of the classic silent comedies of the Hal Roach Studios.

On Main Street, Culver City (not actually posing with the garbage intentionally)

It was close to noon, and as I headed back to the hotel I spotted my pals Randy Skretvedt and Rick Greene. They were meeting us for the weekly Culver Hotel lunch, that would also included Bob, Dick Bann, and Mike Nemeth. Dick and a variety of his friends had been meeting here on Wednesdays for the last year or two.

So for two hours, we sat around over lunch looking over historical photos of the hotel, perusing autographs that Mike had brought along, and discussing the fate and future of Laurel and Hardy films and DVDs. It was a nice time with some high-caliber Sons. And the Culver Club sandwich wasn’t bad either.

Sons of the Desert power lunch

Bob, Dick, Randy, Rick, and me: we all joined the Sons as kids

The Culver Hotel plaque featuring Laurel and Hardy silhouettes

The skinny side of the hotel

Bob had to take off around 2pm, so he pulled the car up with my luggage and passed me off to Jimmy, who met me at the hotel after lunch, until Saturday. I’m such a vagabond when in California. Jimmy stayed and chatted with everyone for a bit and then we said our goodbyes to our great Sons pals and headed out.

We first went back to the Holy Cross cemetery to see if we might be able find a few additional graves which I had found on the internet when Bob and I got back to the hotel. In particular I was looking for Laurel and Hardy director Leo McCarey. Unfortunately, we had absolutely no luck finding him – or anyone else – so I decided we needed to press on and save these additional graves for another day.

Jimmy had only one thing on his agenda that he wanted to show me and that was the banana stand location seen in one of my favorite sitcoms Arrested Development. This was located in the Fisherman’s Village in Marina del Rey. Although the banana stand itself wasn’t ever real, so obviously was no longer there, the surrounding area was virtually unchanged. It was a nice place to walk around and browse the area overlooking the waterfront. I only bought one thing…a frozen banana naturally.

The banana stand as seen in Arrested Development

Enjoying a frozen banana (at least I hope that’s what that is) on the site of the banana stand

Overlooking the waterfront of Marina del Rey, still chomping the banana

I too had just one thing on my agenda, and that was to swing by the house used as the Summers home in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Exteriors of the house along with some first-floor interiors during the first season were filmed here. This had truly been a mini- ‘Buffy’ week with the encounter with Buffy’s wax figure – and there would be one more Buffy encounter before the end of the week. The house was located in Torrance, not far from the high school also used in the show, which unfortunately we didn’t see.

The home of Buffy Summers as seen in the show

Exuding that basic vampire sexiness in front of Buffy’s house

It was about 5pm by this time, so he headed to Jimmy’s house in San Pedro, where I again unloaded my stuff for the final time during the trip. We would be on the road a lot, but I’d spend the next four nights here. Jimmy and I watched some Better Off Ted and I enjoyed my color commemorative guide.

Jimmy’s parents came over and we headed out for a late dinner at The Original Red Onion, a great Mexican restaurant in Palos Verdes. I had a fabulous and filling chorizo and egg burrito. We got back to Jimmy’s that night and the two of us watched some Newhart and Seinfeld episodes whilst eating a few goldfish crackers. I could barely keep my eyes open and that was just as well. I would need some energy for Disney’s California Adventure the next day.

Enjoying some Mexican with the American Wileys

California will continue…

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 6:24 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Film Locations, Laurel and Hardy, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.