Quote:
Originally Posted by gsjansen
Finchley's single double hung window has always gotten me riled. the sunshine nor the hillcrest definitely never had a dogleg section that would have afforded the view out Finchley's window. Only the astoria could have provided the view looking due east at the back of the belmont. and there is a small dogleg section, just below the tower of the astoria that would provide the view
Also, the view out Finchley's window is remarkably similar to this shot from The indestructible man, taken behind the astoria.
|
Little did they realize sixty-one years ago that a) we'd have the internet on our giant ENIACS or b) there'd be a post devoted to "Finchley's Window."
Now that I'm sold on the concept of rear projection for the Sunshine, I'm wondering if that isn't the case here too.
The only Astoria window they could have shot from would have been from that backside of the first dogleg. For reasons I go into below, I say, no.
My theory is that they took their camera -- probably some giant Mitchell BNC or whatever -- and shot the "out-the-window shot" from the top of the stairs, the stairs at Olive between the Astoria and the Hillcrest (as seen in
Indestructible Man).
I mean, look how far down the bay windows go on the Astoria (here, in a shot post-'61 demo of its onetime neighbor, the Hillcrest):
Hylen-Cal State Library
Now, here's a shot (below) of the bottom of the bays. Take a look at the height of the back of the Belmont. Compare to the Finchley window shot above.
LAPL
This then is a shot taken on the stairs, I'm saying. Roughly comparable. Even the roof height of the Sunshine matches up.
Some
Indestructible Man shots taken at the top of the stairs:
-- so compare these shots to Finchley's window. The back end of the Belmont tops out in between the Astoria's first and second bays from the bottom -- in his window and in the images shot from the top of the stairs. And to have captured the full unobstructed stairwells at the back of the Belmont, you would have had to have been standing at the top of the stairs -- a window in the dogleg would have had more of the side of the Astoria and looked less like looking down the stairs.
So, here's what I believe: from Finchley's window you're seeing the bottom of the back dogleg, here:
Which is lower than the shots from
Indestructible Man, because they shot it from the landing just around the back (where, I believe, that shot from the LAPL [above] came from). Of course, the shots from
IM were pretty high up -- look how they tower over the cop car.
The landing around the back, at the base of the first dogleg (I'd say it was shot through this window, but this window is too wide and squat to be Finchley's tall slender double-hung):
Ok. That's my theory.