Tag Archives: movies

Dream Machines

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Petersen Automotive Museum
March 7, 2020
Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles

We went to the Petersen auto museum to see the special exhibition Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Dozens of vehicles from science fiction themed movies and television shows are on display.  The exhibition was curated in collaboration with the San Diego-based Comic-Con Museum.  It runs through May 2020.

There are science fiction vehicles displayed around the lobby and even a couple in the parking garage.  The first car to meet us as we entered the main gallery on the ground floor was the familiar DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies.  We particularly enjoyed the numerous Batman related vehicles, not only the Batmobiles, but also Batman motorcycles, Joker cars, and models and images of the Batmobile over the years.

Meredith and her sister were taken by the Star Wars speeder on display. We rolled our eyes at the exhibit tag, though.  For all three of us the 1977 movie will always be Star Wars, and not The New Hope.

We also enjoyed seeing other non-Hollywood classic cars.  The Petersen has an extensive collection, which it rotates from time to time. Although we have been there before, there were many vehicles on display that we had not seen before, including the 1886 Benz Motorwagen pictured above.  The Motorwagen had 0.75 horsepower and could achieve a top speed of 10 miles per hour.  Although not the very first automobile, it may be the first practical one.

On our three prior visits, we went with Meredith‘s mother Margaret. Our most recent prior visit was to see the grand reopening in 2015.  Shortly before that the museum had remodeled its exterior; our blog post about that visit, including the architecture, can be seen here.  The year before that we went to the Petersen to see the Mustang exhibit, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ford’s release of the first Mustangs.

The museum’s collection is extensive, and not all cars it owns can be displayed at any one time.  The Petersen, for an extra charge, offers tours of its vault.  We have never seen the vault but think it might be worth doing someday.

We noticed the same deficits in accessibility that struck us when we last visited, with Margaret in her wheelchair.  Although there are no steps to climb inside the museum, the internal doors are heavy and do not have push button openers, and the parking garage lacks an elevator.

Parking is expensive, a flat $17 for the day, but that reflects the Wilshire location.  Other parking options in the area are in the same cost range.

We are thinking that our next Los Angeles museum venture will probably be to the Skirball in May, to see the Star Trek exhibition, which will open on April 30.

Speed!

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San Diego Air and Space Museum
Balboa Park
November 12, 2018

We took advantage of the Veterans Day Monday holiday, which Bob had off work, to visit the special exhibition at the Air and Space Museum, Speed: Science in Motion. We had been alerted by a Union Tribune article to the fact that the original Bullitt Mustang would be on display there, just from November 4-19. Meredith is an avid Mustang fan, so this was a “must see” for us.

Two different Mustangs were used in filming the 1968 Steve McQueen movie. The one used in the stunt jumps was damaged in filming and sent to a salvage yard. The “hero” Mustang used in other scenes was purchased by a private party and only recently rediscovered. We found a bonus when we arrived at the museum. Next to the Bullitt Mustang was displayed a beautifully restored Dodge Charger of the same vintage as the one seen in the movie’s chase scene. We had not actually seen Bullitt until that weekend; we made a point of streaming the movie a few days before our visit, so we would appreciate what we saw.

Although Steve McQueen’s Mustang has moved on and is no longer on display at the museum, the Speed exhibit remains. It is displays what the museum describes as “an exciting lineup of the fastest planes, jets, rockets, cars, motorcycles, boats, bicycles in the world.” We saw the land speed record setting bicycle ridden by Denise Mueller-Korenek behind a pace car to a world record of 183.9 miles per hour, and a Formula One race car, among other high speed vehicles. There are hands-on displays, such as a model differential, a video timing reflexes, and model cars that can be sent down tracks. The school kids who were enjoying the day off were entranced by the hands-on activities and could not have cared less about the Bullitt car.

After leaving the Speed exhibit, we walked through the rest of the museum. The PSA area brought back memories for Meredith, who used to fly PSA between the Bay Area and Los Angeles in the 1970’s.

We were wearing our memorial Veterans Day poppies, as we had been for several days. When we were in Canada for Remembrance Day four years ago we were struck by how poppies were everywhere, on every lapel. Since then we have tried to do our bit to revive the poppy wearing custom in our country, distributing Buddy Poppies obtained from the VFW to our friends and acquaintances.

We lingered in the World War I area, reading about the primitive planes used in that war and the men that flew them, then moved on to the World War II displays.

Our Balboa Park Explorer passes were sufficient for museum admission, but we had to pay an extra $5 for admission to the Speed exhibit.

Woolsey Fire

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Paramount Ranch
Santa Monica Mountains
November 11, 2018

Once again Santa Ana winds are driving devastating wildfires in California. The Woolsey Fire started in Thousand Oaks, jumped the 101, and spread south and east, all the way to Malibu and West Hills. Meredith’s alma mater, Taft High School in Woodland Hills, is being used as an evacuation center. Friday brought the news that a place we had been with Margaret — Paramount Ranch’s Western Town, in the Santa Monica Mountain Nature Reserve — was destroyed.

Many films and television shows have been filmed in the area from the 1920’s on, not only on the Paramount Ranch property but also in nearby areas once owned by other studios. Films shot at least in part on the Paramount Ranch included numerous Westerns, especially in the 1920’s and 30’s, the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers (1932), Beau Geste (1939), The Love Bug (1968) and its sequels, and more recently American Sniper (2014). The Western Town part of the ranch included about 20 wooden structures built as a movie set in the 1950’s. That set was used for various productions for several decades, including the current HBO series Westworld and the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in the 1990’s.

We took Meredith’s mother Margaret there in 2015. It was a little challenging pushing her wheelchair on the uneven ground, but fun to walk through the “town” and see the set buildings up close. Our earlier post can be seen here.

The destruction of some movie sets, however historic, is trivial compared to the loss of lives and homes, still to be tallied up, but it makes the fire’s effect more real somehow, to know that a place we visited has been obliterated.

Hurray for Hollywood

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Hollywood Museum
Hollywood
September 2, 2018

We drove up to Hollywood and met up with Meredith‘s sister to tour the Hollywood Museum. We have been there twice before, both times with Margaret, but had not visited in several years.

The building itself is a wonderful thing to explore. The museum is located in the old Max Factor building in the heart of Hollywood, on Highland Avenue at Hollywood Boulevard. The ground floor still sports the beautiful marble lobby with the four parlors in which Max met with his celebrity clients. Each is painted a different color. There are separate rooms for blondes, redheads, brunettes, and “brownettes” (Factor’s term for actresses with light brown hair). The wall color in each room is designed to go with the skin tone which best matched the client’s hair. Since many actresses dyed their hair, Factor would adjust the make up for each, to get the right color to have the complexion match her hair.

The back portion of the building was where the Max Factor cosmetics were manufactured and packaged. Nowadays it is used as museum exhibit space.

The entire museum, which covers four floors, is jam packed with artifacts. There are many costumes from movies and television series, numerous props of various kinds, and many photos. The museum collection spans a century of movie and television production. There are several thematic areas, but the museum as a whole is not overly organized. Display cases are crammed full of things, and the visitor is constantly stumbling across artifacts from an old favorite movie or show.

We went this weekend to see the Batman 66 special exhibition, a collection of costumes and props from the old Batman television show of the 1960’s starring Adam West and Burt Ward. It was fun seeing the old villain costumes and a replica of the Batmobile. We learned that it was built on the frame of a Lincoln Futura concept car, complete with the bubble windshield. Several video screens were running clips from the old show. We were particularly struck by a sequence that had Batman and the Joker surfing side-by-side, apparently in some sort of competition, with board shorts worn over their regular costumes. Several display cases featured related collectible memorabilia from the time: action figures, trading cards, board games, buttons, and a variety of toys.

The old Batman TV show debuted when we were in kindergarten, and it was a sensation. Meredith remembers a “Bat Party” her mother hosted for her and her classmates, to which most of the children wore capes. Party games were Batman themed and prizes and favors were Batman items, like a 45 record with the Batman theme song.

After the museum visit we had lunch next-door at Mel’s Diner. Then Kathleen left, and the two of us walked over to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, to look at the celebrity footprints and handprints in the cement.

Adult admission to the Hollywood Museum is $15, and visitors should plan to pay cash in addition to park nearby in Hollywood. There is a small lot next to the museum and other parking nearby on the weekend at Hollywood High School.

G.I. Film Festival (Upcoming)

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G.I. Film Festival
September 14-18, 2016
San Diego

This film festival is scheduled for September 14th through 18th. The organizers promise us that the festival “brings the stories of America’s military to life through film.” The festival will feature screenings of over two dozen movies, including local films. There will also be panel discussions, a family movie night, and an awards ceremony. Tickets for all screenings and events are now for sale on line. Most screenings are priced at $10 per ticket, with discounts available for active duty military and veterans.

We plan to see the documentary USS Indianapolis, at the Ultra Star theater in Mission Valley. The festival describes it as follows: “World War II heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis sank as a result of a devastating torpedo attack. After 5 days stranded in the Pacific, surviving members of the crew were rescued and their stories are told through a series of interviews.” We don’t vouch for the historical accuracy of the account given in the movie Jaws (1975) — this upcoming documentary will give us the facts — but we cannot forget Robert Shaw’s powerful monologue about his (fictional) character’s survival of the wreck of the Indianapolis, and the shark attacks in the days that followed, until the crew was rescued.

The film festival includes several other historical documentaries, like the Indianapolis film. There are also films touching on the experiences of current service members and recent veterans.

Autry Revisited

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Autry Museum of the American West
Griffith Park
April 30, 2016

We took Margaret to the Autry Museum in Griffith Park, one of our favorite museums. Its large collection explores the history and image of the American West from several perspectives. Downstairs, where we spent most of our time today, is devoted to the historical West. Several exhibits have been revamped since we last explored that section. We thought the Cowboy Gallery — a display about the cattle industry and cowboys — was particularly well done, and the full size chuck wagon displayed in that gallery was interesting to look at. Farther on in the historical section, Margaret enjoyed seeing both the well restored stagecoach and also the bison display.

We went on from the historical section to the movie section. This gallery has artifacts from Western movies and movie stars, all the way from the silent era to the present. We enjoyed seeing the short video with clips of singing cowboys, including Gene Autry of course. There is a larger video screen at one entrance to the gallery. Today it was showing a loop of clips from Autry movies, which Margaret very much enjoyed.

Autry_4302016

Upstairs there is a large gallery devoted to Western themed art. We did not spend a lot of time in it today, but we did make a point of seeing a special exhibition we had read about, California Impressionism: The Gardena High School Collection. From 1919 through 1956, the senior classes at Gardena High School each bought a work of art to donate to the school. The students made selecting the works a class project. In the process they acquired some very good works by artists who were young and upcoming at the time, many of whom are well-regarded now.

We ate lunch at the museum café, which serves excellent food. The menu is simple – burgers, sandwiches, salads, and several hot dishes. Margaret was in the mood for something Mexican, so she ordered the chicken street tacos, which Meredith had as well. Bob enjoyed the chili and half sandwich combo, and we all enjoyed the order of cornbread we shared. Prices are quite reasonable for a museum café.

The Autry is perhaps the most accessible museum for wheelchair patrons of all the places that we have visited. There are no interior doors separating galleries, which can be awkward at other museums, and it offers an impressive number of handicap parking spaces.

Adult admission is $10; there are discounts for seniors, students, and children. Active duty military get in free. The museum participates in the Bank of America Museums on Us program and also offers a discount to AAA members. Parking is free.

After the visit we took Margaret back to her board and care residence. Meredith’s sister Kathleen met us there, and the four of us sat outside in the garden for a while, visiting and catching up. It is increasingly difficult for Margaret to make the transfers from wheelchair to car and back, so we are trying to make just one stop when we go out, rather than multiple stops for lunch or coffee separate from the museum or other outing.

National Parks Movie

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National Parks Adventure
IMAX Theater
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
Balboa Park, San Diego
February 25, 2016

Fleet_theater

We went to see the new IMAX movie, National Parks Adventure, at the Fleet and loved it. The movie has stunning footage of various national parks throughout the U.S. We cannot begin to do justice to the photography; check out the movie’s website for a trailer and still photos of some of the sites in the film.

The film is narrated by Robert Redford, and its release was timed as part of this year’s centennial celebration of the park system. It runs less than an hour, following a trio of climbing buddies and then filling us in on John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, and the history of the park system’s foundation.

Our outing was a special preview offered to REI members. The film opens to the general public on March 18, and we recommend it highly.

While waiting for the theater to open, we explored the lobby of the Fleet Center. The current exhibit features microbes and we had fun looking at the various stations and doing some of the hands-on activities.

Fleet_microbe

California Science Center

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California Science Center
Exposition Park
September 6, 2015

We took Margaret to the California Science Center, to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, on its final weekend there. The Science Center is in Exposition Park, as is the Natural History Museum, near USC and the Coliseum. Exposition Park as at the outer range of as far as we like to drive when we go up to see her, but we had been looking forward to this exhibit for months, and did not begrudge the extra driving.

Science_ctr_deadsea

Admission to the permanent galleries at the Science Center is free, but the center charges for special exhibitions and the IMAX theater. The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit was separately ticketed, as was the companion IMAX movie, Jerusalem 3-D. We had purchased tickets online, and we were glad we did; the Scrolls exhibit was sold out that day.

We arrived early enough to have lunch before the movie. The café has expanded from what it was last time we visited. There is now a grill run by Trimana, and several other food court options as well. Service was quick, and the food was good.

We then went on to the IMAX theater, where Meredith’s sister Kathleen and our youngest daughter and her boyfriend all joined us. The movie had some stunning aerial footage of Jerusalem today, and interesting narration and interior shots of the various holy sites, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. Good production values all around, and the film was narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.

After we saw the movie, we had a gap until our timed entry to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. None of us had seen the retired space shuttle Endeavour, so we went over to the pavilion that houses it. That area is separately ticketed, but it was included with our tickets for the Dead Sea Scrolls so we were able to walk right in. (For visitors who are not purchasing IMAX or special exhibit admission, the museum charges $2 for admission to the Endeavour pavilion and requires timed entry tickets on the weekend, but not on weekdays.) The website gives information about Endeavour reservations. The first area has material about the history of the space shuttle missions generally and Endeavour in particular. There is a simulated Mission Control center with a rotating series of videos. Margaret and Meredith watched the video of the final launch of the Endeavour, while the rest of our group circulated around looking at other parts of the exhibit. We were all intrigued and amused by the zero gravity toilet, displayed in a glass case. There is a very interesting video of the final journey of the newly retired Endeavour, through the streets of Los Angeles to its new home. Then we went on in to see the shuttle itself; it is a quite impressive sight! Bob spoke with a volunteer who had samples of the various materials that make up different areas of the outer surface of the shuttle and was able to touch them. (Visitors are forbidden to touch the shuttle itself.)

From the space shuttle we went on to the third-floor special exhibition space. We still had a little time to spend before we could get in to the Dead Sea Scrolls, so we looked through the transportation exhibits on that floor.

The first part of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit consisted of a timeline, with representative artifacts spanning a broad time period of the history of what is now Israel, from prehistory until the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Next there was a room with a short video describing the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and explaining what the scrolls consist of. We then went into the main room. Fragments of the scrolls were displayed in a circular area in the center of the room under glass, with dim lighting to protect the fragments. Translations and explanations of each fragment were displayed next to the cases. Around the edge of the room were displayed a number of ancient artifacts contemporary to the Scrolls, such as pottery, glass, and mosaics.

Even with the timed entry, the room was crowded. The patrons around the central display moved slowly and made room for newcomers only grudgingly, and then we found that Margaret could not see the scroll fragments from her wheelchair. She was too weak to stand and look down at them as other visitors were doing, so we took turns showing her around the outer area of the main room instead. After that room, we passed through a small room with a stone which had fallen from near the southwestern corner of the Temple when the Romans destroyed it in A.D. 70. We found the experience quite moving, to actually see and touch a stone from the Temple. Paper and pen were there for visitors to write notes and leave them, as visitors do at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Nearby there was a video screen displaying a live feed from the Western Wall. We passed fairly quickly through the final room, which had some hands-on activities.

We finished our visit as we began it, down in the café, this time enjoying some coffee and chatting with the rest of the group before we all headed our separate ways home.

As noted above, admission to most of the science center is free. The permanent galleries include many hands-on activities and are popular with children. Parking is $10 per car and can be in short supply when the Coliseum is being used for a USC football game. Visitors are encouraged to use public transport, and our daughter and her boyfriend used the Metro. The permanent collections of the museum are adequately accessible for wheelchair patrons. We did find some access challenges on this visit though. When we first arrived, the main visitor elevator was out of service, so we had to wait in a long line to use the service elevator in a back hall. Then we found the layout of the Dead Sea scrolls display did not allow for good viewing of the Scrolls themselves from a wheelchair, as noted above. There was limited disability seating in the IMAX theater, and Meredith was only able to get a seat next to Margaret by asking another patron to move.

Inside Out

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Pacific Winnetka Theater
Chatsworth
July 18, 2015

Meredith went up to Los Angeles without Bob, who was back in Massachusetts. She met up with our youngest daughter and her sister Kathleen, and they all took Margaret out to see the movie Inside Out. It proved to be, as we hoped, one of those animated movies with plenty of clever jokes for adults to enjoy, as well as a story line that younger viewers could follow. The group lingered in the coffee shop by the theater afterwards, and Meredith showed photos from our recent trip to Spain. She had also brought Comic-Con goodies, including an artist-signed print of the Inside Out emotion characters and the latest cartoon book by Lonnie Millsap for Margaret, and some Star Wars items for Kathleen.

Gillette & Paramount Ranches

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King Gillette Ranch
Paramount Ranch
Santa Monica Mountains
February 21, 2015

We probably would not have thought of the Santa Monica Mountain nature reserve as a place with historical or cultural resources, if we had not seen the Gillette Ranch listed in the Passport 2 History. We have enjoyed exploring other historical sites we found in that booklet, and decided this time to visit the ranch. As we explored the National Park Service website in preparation for our visit, we read about the nearby Paramount Ranch as well, and decided to see both ranches.

The Gillette mansion was built by architect Wallace Neff in 1928 for King Camp Gillette, founder of the Gillette Safety Razor Company. Hollywood movie director Clarence Brown purchased the property in 1935 and added to it. It had a series of later owners including the Claretian religious order, which ran a seminary there and build a dormitory and some classroom buildings. The property has been part of the public park since 2005. The visitor center is located in what used to be the stables. It features an informative video about the entire Santa Monica Mountain park area and exhibits about the local environment. We went on Oscar weekend, so there was a photo exhibit set up showing still photos from various movies filmed in the surrounding area.

Gillette_Ranch

After we explored the visitor center we walked out and around the Gillette mansion and Claretian dormitory building, then went back to our car. From there we drove several miles over to the Paramount Ranch.

Several film studios once owned extensive acreage in the Santa Monica Mountains, including Paramount Studios. Numerous films and television shows have been filmed in the area from the 1920’s on, either on the Paramount Ranch property that we visited, or in nearby areas owned by other studios. The long list of films we perused on the park website, that were filmed at least in part on the Paramount Ranch, included (to name just a few films), Morocco (1930), several W. C. Fields movies, numerous Westerns in the 1920’s and 30’s, Beau Geste (1939), The Love Bug (1968) and its sequels, and most recently American Sniper (2014). The area we explored was the Western Town. Featuring about 20 wooden structures built as a movie set in the 1950’s, it looks like the stereotypical old western town. That set was used for various productions for several decades, including the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in the 1990’s. It is apparently still used from time to time for film shoots or other professional photography, requiring special permits from the National Park Service. A ranger said that visitors may take photos for personal use, however. (We are not entirely sure if we are allowed to post the photos we took at the Western Town, so will not do so here.)

The Santa Monica Mountains are a beautiful area with many hiking trails. We did not explore them with Margaret, of course, but we saw many other visitors out for walks and several equestrians. At the Gillette Ranch we stayed on paved paths. At the Paramount Ranch we were able to push her wheelchair over the hard packed ground in the Western Town.

There were no dining facilities at either of those stops, but there are a number of communities in and around the Santa Monica Mountain area. We decided to stop in Calabasas on our way, and we ate at the Sagebrush Cantina, a restaurant we know and like. Margaret was not in a decisive mood when it came to ordering lunch, but eventually she settled on the chicken mole enchilada, which she enjoyed very much. We each had carnitas tacos, which were excellent. Margaret was quiet at first, but then opened up to reminisce fondly about her grandmother, after Meredith mentioned a letter she had received recently from Margaret’s cousin Jocelyn. Margaret also remembered an archaeological dig she had been on many years ago in the Wood Ranch area of Simi Valley.

Admission to the two National Park sites we visited was free. However, the surrounding area also includes state and local parks. The ranger staffing the Gillette visitor center explained to another guest that there is a day use/parking charge at the nearby Malibu Creek State Park. The park staff at both sites were very friendly and helpful.

After our visit the Los Angeles Times wrote up the Paramount Ranch site — both the Western Town and surrounding trails — in its recurring “LA Walks” column.