I know there's been some "models" of Los Angeles posted on Noirish L.A. before like one of the downtown area of over 100 years ago, some downtown buildings and Martin Turnbull's semi-recent photos he posted of "The Garden of Allah."
I don't think the Hollywood Miniatures have been mentioned before, though. I first heard about them on a segment Leonard Maltin did way back in the mid-80's on Entertainment Tonight.
The “Hollywood in Miniature” idea was the brainchild of Joe Pellkofer, owner of a Hollywood Cabinet Company. Originally the project was backed by some Hollywood business men with Leon Bayard de Volo and Dino S. Alessi as supervising directors of the construction. To keep his master craftsmen busy in 1936 slack periods (or 1940 according to a 2nd source), Joe Pellkofer had them re-create detailed street scenes of Hollywood with its landmark theaters, churches, billboards, businesses and neighborhoods. It shows 45 main blocks in Hollywood, including 450 buildings, all built to scale. Surrounding the entire city is a painted cyclorama mural of the Hollywood Hills and surrounding areas.
The miniature measures 125" x 137" in total which consists of 3 panels 125" x 40" ~ 125" x 47" ~ 125" x 50".
Below is a section of it that I can point out a couple things. The street toward the top right is Sunset Blvd. On the right is Carpenter‘s Drive In and the light blue colored building is Earl Carroll’s nightclub. Across the street (Sunset Blvd.) on the right is NBC then the Hollywood Palladium and then CBS.
From the time Pellkofer began the miniature projects in 1940, it took 25 artists and craftsmen four years to complete all of them.
Originally, there were six: Hollywood, the Malibu film colony, a composite of the film studios of the day, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl and the Brown Derby, at a total cost of $250,000.
A section of The Malibu Film Colony Miniature is a very detailed composite of the Seaside Homes of the Stars, how the Colony once appeared in the late 1930's and early 1940's…
…and it also includes the one million dollar Rindge Castle with 54 Rooms which was built by the family who Founded Malibu. It alone cost $6,500 to duplicate.
After being completed in late 1945, the six miniatures made their debut in January of 1946 in Hollywood. By June, they were on a national tour, first at Macy’s in New York City before travelling across the country.
When in Oregon the entire exhibit was stolen while it was being shown for a police department. It was finally located at a police department in South Carolina.
The Brown Derby (on Wilshire) miniature was smashed during the tour and was never redone.
After sitting in Mr, Pellkofer’s barn since 1948, the miniatures were refurbished in 1986 at “Hollywood On Location” a new 40’s style soda fountain and gift shop that opened and showcased the miniatures.
For an admission fee you entered a room to first see the miniature of Hollywood. The model had fiber optic lighting installed in the buildings and the street lamps as part of the refurbishing.
An electrical cycle takes the city from dawn to dusk, when lights glow in buildings, with street lamps and automobiles of the era.
You then moved on to the others. (I frankly do not remember the Chinese theatre being there, but the articles say it was.) The Malibu Colony was also lit as the city was, complete with painted rollers that simulated the ocean waves and music to underscore the scene. (Pellkofer explained: "We had people out in Malibu with stopwatches to time the waves. There are about a dozen hand-carved rolls of wood with steel rods through them that turn to show the waves rolling. That was tricky.") It seems to me there was also a bit of narration involved. I saw the models several times when they were there.
When Disney bought the Paramount Theater and restored it to the El Capitan, at some point they took over On Location Hollywood and made it a Disney store.
I don’t recall when the models were removed, nor what happened to them after that.
Several of the above photos of the miniatures were taken from an auction site from 2010 that indicates the highest bids were not accepted.
There’s no mention of the Chinese Theatre model anywhere that I could find, but I found this old photograph:
Caption: Leon Bayard de Volo shows his miniature of Grauman's Chinese Theatre to actresses Jane Greer and Myrna Dell.
Info about the miniatures from these sources/links:
http://www.icollector.com/Miniature-...ywood_i9385255
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-03-...hollywood-bowl
http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=6909,5177579