Katharine Hepburn's Hiking Spot

 Hepburn hiking country road during break from filming in London.

Katharine Hepburn was always athletic. At an early age, while growing up in Hartford, Connecticut, Hepburn's father, a doctor, encouraged his kids to swim, play tennis, ride horses and golf. Swimming was an activity that Hepburn was particularly fond of and she would continue to swim regularly even into her 80s. Another activity that Hepburn enjoyed doing for exercise was hiking and during her time living in Los Angeles, one of her favorite hiking spots was by the Franklin Canyon Reservoir.

 Franklin Canyon Lake at Franklin Canyon Reservoir. Source.

Located just below Mulholland Drive, west of Coldwater Canyon and near Beverly Hills and Studio City, Franklin Canyon Reservoir feels like an escape from the city. No wonder why Hepburn, someone who enjoyed her privacy, liked hiking this spot. Without ever having visited the canyon, you may recognize the location from numerous appearances on film and television. Shows like Bonanza, The Waltons, Lassie, Murder She Wrote and Combat have filmed scenes here. During the opening credits of each episode of The Andy Griffith Show one can see Griffith and little Ron Howard walking around the 3-acre lake. The films It Happened One Night (1934), The Lady Escapes (1937), I Met My Love Again (1938) and even the Hepburn film On Golden Pond (1981) have filmed scenes at Franklin Canyon Reservoir.

The Andy Griffith Show filmed at Franklin Canyon Reservoir. Source.

During Hepburn's years with Spencer Tracy, she would urge him to join her for walks around Franklin Canyon Reservoir. In early 1964, a few months after Tracy had started to recover from a major health scare, Hepburn purchased a police dog named Lobo to encourage Tracy to go on walks at the reservoir.

 Spencer Tracy, Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin, Katharine Hepburn

Hepburn's friend, the writer Garson Kanin, in his memoir on Hepburn and Tracy recounts a story in which Hepburn played hero in the rescue of a kidnapped boy during one of her hikes at the reservoir. In 1969, the teenage son of Dr. Simon Ramo, a wealthy aerospace executive living in Beverly Hills, was kidnapped. During Hepburn's hike she heard some yelling. She was then approached by a police officer who had been called out by the reservoir keeper. Kate pointed the officer in the direction of the keeper's house and later the boy was recovered unharmed. One can imagine that Hepburn's involvement was probably played up for dramatic effect.

On a side note, during the early 1960s Hepburn's frequent co-star, Cary Grant, participated in supervised medical LSD experiments. Grant was a proponent of LSD "therapy" and claimed that it helped to control his drinking and to come to terms with unresolved conflicts he had about his parents. While praising the benefits of LSD Grant mentioned, "Just a few healthy magnums of LSD in the Beverly Hills reservoir..." So while Hepburn hiked the reservoir Grant found relaxation in the reservoir in his own way.

Address for the trailhead: Lake Drive & Franklin Canyon Drive, Franklin Canyon Park, CA 90210

This post is part of The Great Katharine Hepburn Blogathon hosted by blogger Margaret Perry.

Cary Grant Walks His Siamese Cat

Cary Grant with his Siamese Cat. Beverly Hills 1955.

Film scholar and writer Farran Nehme, a.k.a. the "Self-Styled Siren," posted the above picture taken in 1955 of Cary Grant walking his Siamese cat through Beverly Hills to her Twitter page. I couldn't resist looking up this corner of Beverly Hills to see if the location has changed. Below is a Google Street View screenshot showing the same corner. 

Click image to enlarge.

Southeast corner of Charleville Blvd and Swall Dr. Beverly Hills.

 (c) Google 2014

The location is the southeast corner of Charleville Blvd and Swall Dr in a residential part of Beverly Hills just a couple blocks from the high-end retailers and medical offices on Wilshire Boulevard. Unfortunately, the house that Grant passes now appears to be blocked by tall bushes, however, you can see part of the roof and the small chimney in the back.

Brainstorm (1965) - Film Locations

Many times I've watched movies where the story is dull, or the film is ridiculous, but because of some interesting film locations, I'll continue watching. That's not the case with Brainstorm (1965) starring Jeffrey Hunter, Dana Andrews, Anne Francis, and Viveca Lindfors. This film, in addition to having some wonderful real world film locations, is a thrilling story, well acted, with beautiful black and white cinematography. This is a movie I could watch multiple times and I'm delighted that the Warner Archive has made this underrated noir available as part of their MOD releases.

Hunter plays a young and intelligent computer scientist who saves a beautiful woman (Francis) from attempting suicide. He returns the woman to her husband who turns out to be his wealthy enterprising boss (Andrews). Hunter and Francis become romantically involved and the two plot to kill Andrews. Hunter has a complex plan that involves killing Andrews, faking insanity to avoid the murder rap, and then waiting to be released from a sanitarium once he can prove he is safe to reenter society. However, do things ever go according to plan?

Here are some of the filming locations from this suspenseful noir.

Click images to see larger.

Greystone Mansion as seen in Brainstorm (1965).

Looking up at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.

The home of Hunter's boss, Cort Benson, is the Greystone Mansion, located at 905 Loma Vista Drive, in Beverly Hills, California. Many films have used the Greystone Mansion as a filming location and the Friends of Greystone website lists a few of these, including some of my favorites, The Disorderly Orderly (1964), Death Becomes Her (1992), and There Will Be Blood (2007). However, the website does not list Brainstorm, so perhaps it can now be added to the list. Above is a comparison view of the rear side of the mansion and below is a comparison of the entrance courtyard.

Greystone Mansion entrance courtyard.

Greystone Mansion courtyard entrance. Photo: mark6mauno flickr

The next location below is what was then known as the Lockheed Air Terminal and today is known as Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. The airport has grown and been completely remodeled since the time Brainstorm was filmed. In the comparison below you can match up the screenshot with the contemporary view by looking at the mountain range in the background. I've used a green square to highlight a piece of the mountain range and if you look from left to right you can see how the ridge lines up.

Dana Andrews at was then known as Lockheed Air Terminal.

The Lockheed Air Terminal, now known as Bob Hope Airport.

Hunter works at Benson Industries, headed by Cort Benson (Andrews). Benson Industries was really the site of Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. a then high tech computer company located on a large campus-like environment in Canoga Park, California. I recognized the office building seen in this film when I came across a brochure from 1962 promoting Canoga Park as a great place to live and a great place for business. The brochure can be seen in the California State University Northridge Oviatt Library Digital Collections. The Rocketdyne Archives website is another great source of information on this site where many high tech companies were located.

In the screenshot below we see Hunter leaving the Benson Industries office building. The following image is an aerial view from the brochure showing the site of the Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. site. Using a yellow oval I've marked where the Benson Industries building was located (now demolished). The next image is a contemporary Bird's Eye view and again I've used a yellow oval marking the spot of the Benson Industries building.

Jeffrey Hunter leaving "Benson Industries."

Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. Canoga Park, CA 1962

A Bing "Bird's Eye" view of the site today.

The yellow oval marks the building used as Benson Industries.

Hunter leaving Benson Industries. 

The next comparison shows the gate at the entrance to the Benson Industries campus. The entrance was located on Fallbrook Avenue, just a few blocks up from Roscoe Boulevard.

Hunter at the Benson Industries gate.

The gate was located on Fallbrook Ave a few blocks north of Roscoe Blvd.

Below, Hunter walks in front of his apartment building, the "Blair Arms." This building is actually the main administration building on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. This building has been remodeled dramatically several times over the years, but I was able to identify this location from the door handles that were once attached to the front doors. In the next three images I've used a yellow square to highlight these door handles. In the first image we see Hunter walking past the apartment building. The second image shows the Warner Bros. main administration building as it appeared in 1976 and you can see that the same door handles were still in place at that time. In the third image, a photograph I took just a couple weeks ago, you can see that not only have the door handles been changed, but the entire facade has been completely remodeled. You can still see that the windows on the sides look mostly the same.

Hunter passes the Blair Arms apartment building.

The Warner Bros. Main Administration Building 1976. 

The Warner Bros. Main Administration Building August 2013.

Hunter at the Blair Arms apartment - really the WB Admin building.

The Warner Bros. Administration Building, August 2013.

Later in the film Hunter plans to assassinate Andrews while he is giving a speech at the International Hotel, which today is the Radisson Hotel located at 6225 West Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, right next to the LAX airport.

International Hotel, 6225 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles.

The Radisson Hotel near LAX airport, previously International Hotel.

The International Hotel entrance.

The hotel entrance as it appears today.

Hunter walks the hotel stairs from the main lobby.

A contemporary view of the hotel stairs.

At the end of the film Hunter is taken to the State Mental Hospital which in reality is the site of the Veterans West Los Angeles Health Care campus. About five years ago I attended a theatre performance put on by the Reprise Theater Company led by actor Jason Alexander (sadly I just learned the Reprise Theatre Company recently ceased operations) which was held at a building on this large veterans campus. It was my first time on the campus and actually the last time I was on the campus, but the appearance of the location has always stayed in my mind. My first instinct was to search the VA grounds and when I started looking at the sprawling campus using Bing Bird's Eye I was immediately able to pin point the area used in the film.

The purple circle below marks the spot on the VA health care campus where Jeffrey Hunter is being accosted by the security of the State Mental Hospital. The exact location on the campus is located between Patton Ave and Bonsalle Ave.

Hunter being dragged back to the State Mental Hospital.

Birds Eye view of the State Mental Hospital - really the Veterans Hospital.

Hunter at the State Mental Hospital.

Aerial view of the mental hospital.

Birds Eye view of the mental hospital/VA hospital campus.

Brainstorm (1965) is available on DVD through Warner Archive and is currently available for streaming on Warner Archive Instant. The film can also be rented through ClassicFlix. I highly recommend this film.

Your thoughts?

All screenshots (c) Warner Home Video

Cooper, Rainer and The Beverly Wilshire Hotel

Lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills

Gary Cooper didn't waste any time going from silent film stunt man to the top leading man of the silver screen. With his tall, handsome looks and "aw shucks" attitude, Cooper charmed both women and men alike. He was the kind of guy audiences would pay to see. Cooper, who grew up in wild west Montana but spent a few years living in Bedfordshire, England to attend grammar school, developed qualities that made him believable playing both cowboys and refined urban characters. He would evolve into the image of the ideal American, even playing  a few real life American icons, including Sergeant York and Lou Gehrig. It's no surprise that even off screen Cooper attracted those around him, especially the ladies.

One of those ladies was German actress Luise Rainer. According to Jeffrey Meyers biography Gary Cooper: American Hero, Rainer, after seeing Cooper in the film A Farewell to Arms, was inspired to come to Hollywood. Meyers writes that "when she saw him in the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, she felt weak at the knees and was ready to surrender." Above is a contemporary image of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel lobby, but I much prefer this image below that shows how the lobby would have looked closer to the time Rainer first met Cooper there.

Beverly Wilshire Hotel lobby, probably late 1920s.

Photo: LAPL

The Beverly Wilshire Hotel, located at 9500 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, was built in 1928. It has always been a luxury hotel that appealed to Hollywood's elite. Some classic movie legends have even lived in the hotel at various times, including actors Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, who like Cooper, had their fair share of affairs. The hotel has even been used as a filming location, most famously in Pretty Woman (1990), starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.

Gary Cooper and Luise Rainer

Meyers goes on to quote actor Richard Widmark as saying that Cooper "was catnip to the ladies" and that director Stuart Heisler said, "Coop was probably the greatest cocksman that ever lived. They fell over themselves to get him to take them to bed" - just like Rainer, at the site of Cooper, was ready to "surrender" herself in the  hotel lobby.

Ernest Borgnine Beverly Hills Home For Sale

 

Ernest Borgnine in front of his home in 1969.

The longtime Beverly Hills home of Oscar winning actor Ernest Borgnine is currently for sale at $3.395 million. Borgnine lived in the house for six decades. Pretty impressive when you hear so many other stars constantly buying and selling houses. The home is located at 3055 Lake Glen Drive, in the Beverly Hills Post Office area, on a 1/2 acre lot above Mulholland Drive, and has views of the San Fernando Valley.

The home was designed by architect L.G. Scherer in 1938 with a Country English style. The house has a formal entry hall, large spacious living and family rooms that open up to a swimming pool, a library, office, den, breakfast, room and kitchen. There are six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, plus a one bedroom guesthouse. For more details on the house visit the official real estate listing.

As I've mentioned with other classic Hollywood homes that have gone on the market, I only hope the buyer maintains the integrity of the house. How great would it be to start your day by having breakfast in the same kitchen as a Hollywood icon like Borgnine or doing some reading in the same den?

Click images to enlarge.

The front of Borgnine's home as it appears today.

A view of the swimming pool.

The gated entrance.

The formal entry hall.

Borgnine and wife Tova Traesnaes by the stairwell.

Borgnine with an earlier wife, Donna and their kids:

Sharon, 3, and Cristofer, 3. July 1, 1969.

Borgnine passed away in July at the age of 95. Although it doesn't normally come as a shock if someone dies and they are 95 years old, I was a bit surprised when I heard that Borgnine had died. I had seen him a year earlier at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood when he did a Q&A with TCM host, Ben Mankiewicz, as part of TCM's "Road to Hollywood" series. I have some video clips of Borgnine that day you can see here. Borgnine was so energetic and appeared like one of those guys who still had at least a few more years ahead of him - like a Bob Hope or George Burns. The much younger Mankiewicz even joked that earlier in the day he was having trouble keeping up with Borgnine.

What are your thoughts on Borgnine the man and his home?