Portions of the Paramount film, “The Magnificent Fraud” (1939), where shot in San Diego’s own Balboa Park. The plot summary according to the imdb website:
In this lively programmer, a con man hires a character actor (Akim Tamiroff) to masquerade as the recently assassinated dictator of a tiny Latin American country so he can bilk an arriving American ambassador out of his fortune.
In the detailed view below, you can see director Robert Florey on the right just above the camera, in a hat and smoking a pipe. Also in the cast were Lloyd Nolan, Mary Boland, and Patricia Morrison.
In the 1935 aerial shot below, you can see the same area where the above scene took place. Missing today is the large archway in the center of the frame and the structure with multiple arches in the background.
The structure in the background:
Today, there is nothing between the fountain and Park Boulevard.
I found these other three shots taken in Balboa Park on the csfd.cz website:
The same view, circa December 2000:
Below are Patricia Morrison and Lloyd Nolan embracing in the Alcazar Garden section of Balboa Park:
Today, the perfect place for a prom shoot!
Below, Mary Boland waves to onlookers as her car passes the Casa del Prado building:
The Casa del Prado today:
See more Balboa Park in San Diego photos at my main website.
4 comments:
That building at the far end of the photo with all of the arches was the San Diego Electric Railway Streetcar Station. Scott
Thanks for the info, Scott! Any idea what year it was removed?
Scott beat me to it. For reasons too long to go into, I had to take a crash course on Balboa Park history to converse with someone about a year ago. We drove around looking for the former international street behind the Aerospace museum and other things, but this railway station was a favorite topic as well. I know it was one of John Spreckles projects from roughly 1892. The exact date of discontinuation is unknown but its safe to say 1948 to 1949. The new owners ( of all SD transit ) renamed it SDTS which was the same basic organization that MTDB is today. Needless to say they replaced all rail with buses, same as L.A.
Hi Dave, The last 3 routes served by the SDERy street cars were switched over to buses mid April 1948. The Balboa park Depot was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. I reached out to a friend that is a local railroad historian about when the depot was torn down...he said the main portion of the depot was torn down sometime around the late 50's but the portion with all of the arches lasted until about 1969 or 1970.
Take Care, Scott
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