We've visited Hollywood Blvd. (during WWII) several times lately and in looking for something
else I came across this 1941 photo. Well, it's a screengrab from the film "1941" of one of the
miniatures of Hollywood Blvd.
Warner backlot of Hollywood Blvd.:
Though movie recreations are often meant to be general rather than historically accurate, I wondered
if anyone had ever seen Hollywood Blvd. decorated with anything other than Christmas Trees along
the street, rather than the Santa Claus option chosen by the art director of this film?
If anyone doesn't know, this film is loosely based on several Los Angeles and Los Angeles area events
from the time period including the shelling of an oil tank by a Japanese submarine near Santa Barbara,
the Zoot Suit riots, and the February 1942 panic attack when people thought we were being raided
by the Japanese--or by UFO's according to some "Alien Files" program I saw recently.
The film used other miniatures as well, like an aerial view of the city with the HOLLYWOODLAND sign featured
so that one character can shoot off the "LAND" part, and a miniature of the amusment park (Ocean Park) pier
in Santa Monica.
I enjoy many of the quirks of this film, but as a whole it can give you a headache. To me it's more like
a wind-up toy that spurts and sputters and entertains you for a bit before you move on. On revisiting
it awhile ago it was nice to see a film with all of the special effects done in camera and not one obvious
CGI moment to interrupt it.