Presented by
Hollywood Entertainment Museum
3200 Wilshire Blvd. -- Suite 1680, South Tower –  Los Angeles, CA 90010
T (323) 465-7900 – F (323) 469-9576 – www.hollywoodmuseum.com 

TOUR OVERVIEW
A special tour opportunity for those interested in seeing actual filming sites from current and past films and television series in the Los Angeles area will be offered this year. Six films were chosen for the tours that show some principle film locations that are also historic Los Angeles area sites. The six tours include sites from the films; The Prestige, Chinatown, Geisha Tour: Memoirs of a Geisha and Sayonara, Entourage TV series, LA Confidential and Dreamgirls. The tours which run approximately 2-5 hours will transport guests in a luxury motor vehicle to different areas around the Los Angeles area. Led by film and television historians Marc Wanamaker, Karie Bible, and Harry Medved the tours focus on a particular film and some of its principle filming locations. A running commentary about the film, the locations and the historic sites of Los Angeles will be the focus of the tours. Tours will begin in Hollywood and cover various areas of Los Angeles county.

THE PRESTIGE TOUR
The Prestige is film of great mystery and suspense all revolving around the art of magic and magicians. The story takes place in Victorian London where other great stories and characters live on in our imagination such as the Sherlock Holmes stories. The principal characters of The Prestige are two rival magicians (Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale) trying to find out each other’s secrets. This rivalry turns into a battle of wills. The interesting fact about this film is that it was entirely shot in the United States and mostly in and around Los Angeles. A portion of the film was shot on the back lot at Universal Studios. The tour begins in downtown Los Angeles with several of the movie palaces that doubled for London theaters. The Tower, The Palace and Los Angeles Theaters on Broadway and the Belasco on Hill were principal theater locations for the film. The tour will get an inside look at some of Los Angeles’ most historic ‘prestigious’ theaters, as well as some of their historic alleyways (also seen in the movie). Lunch will be at the famed Clifton’s Cafeteria, a Los Angeles landmark in its own right. A look at the former Bank of America building where the film’s restaurant scenes were shot and the Park Plaza Hotel on MacArthur Park where ornate interiors were staged, and finally a view of Mt. Wilson, site of David Bowie’s secret lab in the movie.

CHINATOWN TOUR
Los Angeles and the film Chinatown became ‘classic’ in a motion picture that brought back the style of the late 1930s.The film’s local color and history was brought about using locations that are to this day still representative of the Los Angeles and its historical sites. The tour of Chinatown begins with a look at Echo Park where we see Jack Nicholson rowing a boat while spying on Mulwray. Nearby downtown Los Angeles and Los Angeles City Hall is featured, along with the Los Angeles River in scenes from the film. The backgrounds of Los Angeles Chinatown at Ord and Spring Streets are where several night scenes were shot at the finale of the film. San Pedro is also a major background for scenes, and we’ll stop by Walker’s Café and the Sunken City cliffs, where Nicholson sees water released into the ocean during a drought. While in downtown Los Angeles, lunch will take place at the famous Clifton’s Cafeteria, a Los Angeles landmark on Broadway.

GEISHA TOUR
The Geisha Tour is a combined tour of locations for the films Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and locations for other films with Japanese settings like the Marlon Brando drama Sayonara (1957). We’ll reveal the secret sites of many films that are based in Japan, but were filmed in part in Southern California. The tour begins at the foremost important site, The Yamashiro Restaurant. This is the location for the Kyoto Tea House where Ziyi Zhang makes her debut in Memoirs of a Geisha, a hotel-officers club for American soldiers stationed in Japan in Sayonara and Dr. Klahn’s mountain palace in the 1977 comedy classic Kentucky Fried Movie. The original building was built in 1914 as an authentic Japanese palace by the Bernheimer brothers, importers of Oriental goods. It became one of Hollywood’s most enduring landmarks where tourists from around the world patronize to this day. It was also used as a film location since it was built which leads us to its use as an authentic Japanese background on the tour. Another major Japanese location site is the Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge in the hills northwest of Pasadena. Descanso Gardens has an authentic Japanese garden and hot springs where scenes of Okinawa hot-springs were shot for Memoirs of a Geisha. Lunch will be held at the café at Descanso Gardens, which is also a location in Legally Blonde with Reese Witherspoon and Luke Wilson.
   
ENTOURAGE  TOUR
The television series Entourage debuted in 2004 as a comedy series show that is literally based on locations in the Los Angeles area. The show takes a look at a young actor in Hollywood trying to get into the business and his friends that surround him in his daily life. The production shoots around the Los Angeles area using locations such as; Downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Malibu, Sunset Strip and the San Fernando Valley. The Entourage Tour starts in the Hollywood area, stopping by Entourage locations like the Roosevelt Hotel, Lucky Strikes bowling alley and the Arclight Cinemas and takes us to the Sunset Strip where one finds the Chateau Marmont, The Standard, Sunset Plaza, Book Soup, Hamburger Hamlet and the Dialog Coffee. The tour continues through West Hollywood, passing by such notable Entourage landmarks as Jerry’s Famous Deli, the Urth Café, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Beverly, Koi and Real Food Daily on La Cienega.

LA CONFIDENTIAL TOUR
One of Hollywood’s great contemporary ‘film noirs’ starring Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Oscar winner Kim Basinger, LA Confidential is one of those films that re-visits the late 1940s/early 1950s Los Angeles as a backdrop for the story of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze all wrapped up in a shooting investigation. The tour begins in Hollywood at the Lovell House (Neutra designed house in the hills of Los Feliz) This is actor David Strathairn’s house where his character Pierce Morehouse Patchett lives. On Gramercy Place just a few steps from Hollywood Boulevard is a house where scandal rag publisher Danny DeVito gleefully captures the “movie premiere pot bust.” On Hollywood Boulevard in the Pantages Theater building is the Frolic Room where Kevin Spacey leaves a $50 tip. The tour continues to the Crossroads of the World, a fantasy-style office complex on Sunset Boulevard and onto the Formosa Café where the police question the film’s Lana Turner and boyfriend Johnny Stompanano characters. The tour ends at the Baldwin Hills in Kenneth Hahn Park near the location where scenes in the oil fields were shot.

DREAMGIRLS TOUR
Dreamgirls is a stylish look at a Detroit girl-group very much like ‘The Supremes’ and the famed Motown sound of the 1960s. Based on the Broadway production, the film won an Oscar for Jennifer Hudson as Best Supporting Actress, but downtown Los Angeles perhaps should have won an award for its supporting role in providing most of the locations for the movie. The tour begins at the Palace Theater which doubled as an old Vaudeville theater where Eddie Murphy first performs with the ‘Dreamettes’ and is also used for scenes of the farewell performance. The Tower Theater is also used as an old theater as well as the Orpheum on Broadway. Following the theatres is the  Alexandria Hotel exterior and the penthouse of the Los Angeles Times Building of which interiors were used in as the headquarters for Rainbow Records chief Jamie Foxx.

• All locations are subject to change based on availability

Additional tour themes and film titles may be requested for special tour itineraries.

Tour operators are welcome to select tour of choice, day of the week and date when booking 20+ guests.  Each tour includes customized materials and the option of adding a stop for lunch at a historical location.

To inquire about fees and to make reservations, please contact Stephanie Surabian, Director of Administration at 323-960-4803, ext 803.

Book your private tour today!

This special tour series has been made possible through the generosity of

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