Paramount on Location, Pt. 2

In 1935, the Paramount film “Coronado” was filmed on Coronado Island in San Diego, using the famous Hotel del Coronado for many of the exterior locations, including the opening titles. The film starred Johnny Downs, Betty Burgess, Jack Haley, Andy Devine, Leon Errol, and Alice White.



Above is a production still that used the hotel’s pool. The detail image shows Betty Burgess with either a blurred Johnny Downs or his stand-in. In the finished film, his hair is more tousled.



A synopsis of the film edited from the Turner Classic Movies site:

Wealthy Walter and Gloria Marvin (Berton Churchill and Nella Walker) and their troublesome son Johnny (Johnny Downs) come to stay at the Hotel Coronado in southern California. To keep Johnny out of mischief, the manager asks house bandleader Eddie (Eddy Duchin) to give Johnny a part in the band, and asks singer June Wray (Betty Burgess) to perform a song that Johnny wrote. June lives with her poor father Otto (Leon Errol), who intensely dislikes her sister Violet's (Alice White) new sailor husband, Chuck Hornbostel (Jack Haley), because he was too poor to buy her a ring. Believing Johnny to be poor and starving, June befriends him, buys him a meal, and takes him dancing with Chuck and Vi. Johnny inadvertently wins a talent contest but uses the prize to buy a bracelet for Vi in Chuck's name. After June pleads with the manager Carlton to give Johnny a job in the band, she discovers he is actually from a wealthy family and thinks she has been deceived. Walter visits with Otto and they agree to try to keep their unsuitably paired children apart by exaggerating their differences.

You’ll have to watch the film to see how it ends. Another production still showing the hotel’s pool:





The vintage postcard image below shows the location of the pool in proximity to the hotel:



Another vintage postcard image showing the pool:



How the pool looked in July 1962:



…in March 2008:



…and December 2012:



A few more production shots from the movie, taken on Coronado Island:



This detailed view shows Johnny Downs on the right:



…and Betty Burgess on the right:



One last production shot of the Island:



Tent City? That’s right!



From 1900 until 1938, the Hotel del Coronado’s Tent City was a popular camp-style destination for travelers who couldn’t afford to stay in the hotel. Designed like a small city, its grid of dirt streets eventually became well-worn thoroughfares, lined with mature trees. An early getaway brochure described the accommodations: “A furnished tent comprises electric lights, matting on boarded floor, comfortable beds and cots, bedding, wash-stand, mirror, tables, chairs, rockers, camp-chairs and stools, necessary cooking utensils, clean linen, daily care of tent, and laundry service of tent linen.” Tent City also featured restaurants, a soda fountain, library, grocery store, shops, a small hotel (the Arcade), theatre, bandstand, dance pavilion, merry-go-round, shooting gallery, swimming floats (one with a high-diving board), its own police department, and daily newspaper.



See…I couldn’t make this stuff up. TENT CITY!

Want to see the whole flick? It’s embedded below, courtesy of archive.org:



See more Classic Movie & TV photos at my main website.

Traces of Gold Gulch

So often, the most interesting things in life are right under our noses but we aren’t even aware of them. That was the case when I discovered my newest obsession thanks to Ken of Stack’s Liberty Ranch a few weeks ago. The two of us were catching up over lunch in Balboa Park. Before departing, Ken said he wanted to check out the trail to Gold Gulch. The trail to what? He told me that during the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition held in Balboa Park that one of the attractions was a Ghost Town called Gold Gulch. Once the Expo was over in 1936, it was removed. I stared at him in total disbelief. How had I never heard of this? As we walked over to the area now known as Zoro Garden, he told me that guests could ride a stagecoach along the path that spilled out onto the very vibrant Ghost Town of Gold Gulch. While it may not have been the yellow brick road, to me, it was the next best thing.



It was easy to imagine myself riding in a stagecoach, passing the oak trees and other sites along the way. According to Ken, there was also a replica of the Mark Twain cabin where the author spent the winter and wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Below is a vintage shot of the “original” replica, located in Sonora, California.



Can’t you just picture it nestled right here?



All I could keep thinking was, “How do we get this attraction back?” I purchased a souvenir guide for the 1935 Expo, hoping to glean more information.



Inside was a photo of Gold Gulch. Ken told me that both Walts, Knott and Disney, visited this attraction and were inspired when they built their own theme parks. Anyone who has been to Ghost Town at Knott’s Berry Farm can see the living proof of this.



The guide book gave this description of Gold Gulch:

Admission free although area contains pay shows
Gold Gulch—down a ravine into 21 acres of raw Western mining town country. Stage-coaches rumbling down the narrow roads. All the thrill and excitement of the rip-roarin’ days of ‘49!. Aside from the fun of it, it’s a faithful “movified” version of the pioneering period by a Hollywood motion picture art director. Ten cents for a burro ride, down past the Shooting Gallery, Blacsmith Shop, Horse-shoe ring punctuated with hitching posts and whiskered miners. Visit the old Stamp mill, assay office, the Pioneer Dance Hall and old-time bar-room. The Old Mill, with a flume of wter to turn the wooden wheel, presses out the best cider you eer drank! And coffee out of a tin cup tastes grand at the Gulch Chuck Wagon—not to mention steam beer by the scupper. The cigar shop has the inevitable Wood Indian out front. The mighty smithy-at-his-forge turns out rings and medals from horse-shoe nails that delight the youngsters. Step right up, gals, and have your pitcher took, at the tin-type gallery! The boy-friend can be photoed with whiskers, six shooter revolver and ten gallon hat—and be leaning against a burron, if necessary. Gold Gulch isn’t just a show. It’s real. It savors of the days of Mark Twain, Bret Hart and John Sutter. You rub shoulders with such characters as Liminatin Lem, Gopher Joe, Screw Bean Benny and the “spattenest tabeccer spatter” in town which you probably remember in Oliver’s “Dessert Rough Cuts.” The heathen chinee and the strange characters from the four corners of the wold will be there—just as in ’49. And you? Well you’ll be one o’ ‘em, stranger.

I also acquired a Five Nugget souvenir bill from the Expo:



Love the artwork on this!



I immediately called my Mother to see if she had any recollection of Expo. She would have been three at the time, so my hope was that HER Mother had either taken her there or talked about it in her later years. By the next morning, I had a photo of a souvenir bracelet that she still had in her possession from the Expo. She wasn’t sure if her Mother had taken her or if the souvenir was a gift from someone else who attended.



And the final “duh” moment for me came when I realized that hanging on my living room wall was another souvenir from the 1935 Expo that had once belonged to my Grandmother. Chock full of images, including a Miner panning for Gold.



I returned a week later to make a video (definitely not ready for Sundance!) to document the pathway that guests once took to view Gold Gulch.



If you want to learn more about Gold Gulch, Ken of Stack’s Liberty Ranch put a great primer on his Facebook Page. Check it out!

Anyone else out there ever heard of this marvel?

See more 1935 California Exposition & Gold Gulch photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley on Canvas

In the 1935 Shirley Temple star vehicle, “Curly Top,” she plays (surprise!) an orphan who charms a wealthy millionaire (another surprise!) played by John Boles. After meeting her, he can’t get the little girl out of his mind. One night in his lavish living room (set photo shown above), Mr. Moneybags plays the piano (he also happens to write songs!) and then imagines the talented moppet in a quartet of famous paintings that just happen to be hanging on his walls. The first one we see is called The Age of Innocence (1785), by Sir Joshua Reynolds. As seen in the movie:



The publicity still that was shot:



…and the Daveland version that melds that actual painting with the publicity shot of Shirley:



The second painting we see is Thomas Gainsborough’s famous Blue Boy (1770):



The publicity version (notice Shirley’s shorter hair):



The publicity shot was doctored for this April 27, 1935 magazine cover:



Expertly fixed by Shirley Temple aficionado Rita Dubas:



The real Blue Boy, which I saw at the Huntington Gallery in Pasadena:



Mr. Moneybags as he admires his painting, Her Second Sermon by Sir J. E. Millais:



A screenshot from the movie:



The Fox Studio publicity machine let the public know all the work that went into bringing these famous works of art to life with the blurb that accompanied the publicity still below:

Here is shown Shirley Temple, five-year-old Fox Film star, posed for a photographic replica of Sir J. E. Millais’ famous painting, “Her Second Sermon.” Every detail of this noted child study was reproduced with extreme care by the motion picture studio artists and attaches. The garments and various accoutrements all were made to order and the deep red and other coloring duplicated exactly. Even the stockings and shoes were especially made to have them correct. The original of this painting hangs in the Guildhall, in London. Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P. R. A., was born at Southhampton, England, but his family came from the Island of Jersey. “Her Second Sermon,” and its companion piece, “Her First Sermon,” both were executed in 1863. The subject for the original was the artist’s little daughter, Effie, and the scene is an old church at Kingston-on-Thames.



The Daveland version:



Mr. Moneybags and The Helping Hand (1881) by Émile Renouf:



For Shirley’s version of The Helping Hand, actor Siegfried Rumann posed alongside Shirley in the rowboat as seen in this screenshot:



The publicity shot:



The Daveland version:



Here’s a YouTube clip of the sequence for your enjoyment!



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.