PIRU : 2-Story ‘Bulldog’ Watches Movie Set
Hollywood movie companies continue to turn rural Ventura County into their back lot, this time by constructing a 24-foot-tall bulldog crouching beside a road near Piru.
Walt Disney Pictures has re-created a 1930s eatery--complete with bulldog clenching a barrel pipe in its jaws and a sign that says, “Bulldog Cafe--Eats.”
The building at Newhall Ranch is a set for “The Rocketeer,” a movie about a young aviator. The picture, starring Bill Campbell, is scheduled to be released next summer.
Production designer Jim Bissell said the studio came to Piru because it lacked space on its lot. The ranch’s vegetation made it a perfect location for the set, he said.
Bissell said the set re-creates a street scene in the San Fernando Valley during the 1930s, and the cafe is a replica of one once located at 1153 W. Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles.
“It’s very much in keeping with the kind of nuttiness that was L.A. in the ‘30s,” Bissell said.
The recently completed structure is composed of a durable foam material formed over chicken wire and plywood.
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