Going Hollywood : More Valley Cities Are Seeking Starring Roles as Locations for Movies, TV Shows

The Rose City Diner in Pasadena doubles as the Peach Pit on “Beverly Hills 90210,” Dave’s White House was in Arcadia, and downtown Monrovia is having its 15 seconds of fame in “Wayne’s World 2.”

The San Gabriel Valley’s all-American-looking cities have played a supporting role in Hollywood productions since D.W. Griffith filmed in Pasadena in 1912.

Now a handful of cities are going out of their way to lure movies, TV shows and commercials to the San Gabriel Valley. Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Monrovia have hired film liaisons to bring more film companies to town. In Altadena and other unincorporated areas, the Los Angeles County Film Office cuts through red tape to entice productions.

Although filming has dropped by more than 12% in the movie industry’s favorite location--Los Angeles--in the last two years, productions have increased in San Gabriel Valley areas. Since Pasadena hired a film liaison in 1985, the annual number of productions has more than doubled, with 470 film permits issued last year.

Likewise in the smaller communities of Altadena, Monrovia and Sierra Madre, with their picturesque, homey Midwest looks, the number of permits has risen steadily since they began to encourage filming. Last year, each issued 50 to 65 permits. This year Monrovia became the latest San Gabriel Valley city to hire a liaison after the city began doubling as Rome, Wisc., on the CBS television show “Picket Fences.”

“More cities are seeing the potential for economic development through filming,” said Pamela A. Powell, deputy director of the California Film Commission, which promotes the industry in California.

In addition to the money cities make from filming permits, hotels and local businesses get a boost, and so do residents who rent their homes to film companies. And then there’s the intangible benefit of the free publicity garnered when a city makes a cameo appearance.

Powell said the San Gabriel Valley is popular with film companies in part because all cities except San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont and Pomona sit within a vital 30-mile zone, where 70% of movies are made. Beyond this zone, union crews are paid more, which increases production costs.

The dominant player in the movie location business in the San Gabriel Valley is Pasadena, where scenes from “Gone With The Wind,” “The Sting” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” were filmed. In 1993, filming was worth $5 million to Pasadena’s economy. Filming fees brought the city $700,000, far more than all other San Gabriel Valley cities combined, said Ariel Penn, the city’s film liaison.

After Penn was hired in 1991, she helped the city draw up regulations and set permit fees to attract more filming. And in two years, filming in Pasadena has shot up 29%. She helps film crews arrange street closures, obtain police and fire backup, even find a better location--all in the blink of an eye.

“There was a time when Pasadena had a really bad rap, but that has all changed since Ariel,” location manager Antoinette Levine said of the city’s new eagerness to please. Penn helped Levine turn Old Pasadena’s Dayton Street into Venice’s Market Street for Columbia Pictures’ soon-to-be released “I’ll Do Anything,” starring Nick Nolte.

The $5-million boost to Pasadena’s local economy comes from fees to property owners ranging from $500 to $12,000 a day, and from film company spending on hotel rooms, food, equipment and other services, Penn said.

The city charges $480.84 daily for permits on private property and $612.45 for filming on city property. Crews can spend up to six days every three months at one residence and longer if neighbors approve.

Last year, Michael Keaton in “My Life” lived in a 20,000-square-foot Arden Road home once used for “Dynasty” and the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup.” “Addams Family Values” haunted a Manford Avenue home and “The Beverly Hillbillies” camped out in an Oaklawn Avenue estate. Crews from “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Murder, She Wrote” were regulars. And the Civic Center became the backdrop for “Love Affair” with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.

Sharp-eyed television watchers can see the city in everything from Lexus ads to McDonald’s commercials. The city in June played an East Coast town for Bell Atlantic and a month later, the Midwest for Michigan Bank.

Penn’s daily challenge is to overcome a unique regional malady: location burnout. For example, residents of South San Rafael Road, where homes sell for $2 million and up, are regularly inundated by quarter-mile-long lines of movie trucks and trailers. Last month, the “Lois and Clark” TV show and the seventh “Nightmare on Elm Street” film joined the list of productions that have used the street, including the “Batman” TV series and the film “Dead Again.”

To minimize complaints by neighbors, Penn promotes less well-known areas such as North Pasadena and has put together a book of 157 film locations whose owners want filming. Still, not all residents are pleased.

“The film liaison is a movie industry representative,” said Betty Keatinge, a San Rafael homeowner who led a neighborhood rebellion in 1991 against Paramount Pictures’ plan to use helicopters to fly in sets for “Dead Again.” She complained to the City Council, which refused to grant the studio an exemption from city filming rules without residents’ approval, and the sets were trucked in instead.

Penn said complaints are rare, perhaps in part because 14,000 of the city’s 131,500 residents work in film production and related industries, according to the 1990 U.S. Census.

In nearby Sierra Madre, Ruth and Jim Harmon were contracted eight years ago as liaisons after many residents began complaining of location burnout. The city, where the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was shot, is now more appealing to the movie industry, city officials said, and complaints are dealt with quickly.

“I get residents’ authorization for filming and stay on the location to make sure the neighbors aren’t bothered,” Ruth Harmon said.

Harmon said many of the productions are filmed at an Italian villa in the Alverno High School, a private Catholic girls school which has played host to everything from the Guns N’ Roses video “November Rain” to Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood.”

“It brings in money for scholarships,” said Principal Elizabeth Broom, who declined to reveal how much money the school earns from filming.

Last year, the city earned approximately $20,475 from the 49 permits issued for productions, including the movies “The Three Musketeers,” “Man’s Best Friend” and “Beethoven’s 2nd.”

In Monrovia, Old Town merchants and city officials are finding a financial windfall in the city’s Middle America look. In 1993, the city hired a film liaison to oversee productions after “Picket Fences” became a regular part of town life.

In July, the city and merchants closed Myrtle Avenue for two days and turned over Old Town to “Wayne’s World 2” for a scene in which Mike Myers plows a car into a fire hydrant.

David Gayman, president of the city’s Old Town Merchant’s Assn., said he can give the OK to a production in the city center the same day a location manager calls, thanks to an agreement among shop owners.

“Whether we’re selling tools or serving as a movie backdrop, it’s all business,” Gayman said. His Valley Hardware Store was featured as a Western-wear shop in the movie “Son-In-Law” in 1992.

Last year, Monrovia received more than $60,000 in permit fees and property owners received more than $300,000 for locations. Chamber of Commerce officials say productions have boosted the local economy and provided free advertising for the city.

In some cities private groups promote filming. Most of Arcadia’s productions are at the invitation of the Foundation for Los Angeles State and County Arboretum. The foundation has increasingly turned to private fund raising after county budget cuts in the last two years.

The arboretum, with its Queen Anne Cottage built by E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin in 1906, has been the setting for more than 200 films. It was the centerpiece of television’s “Fantasy Island,” the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby hit “The Road to Singapore” and five Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies.

This year, the arboretum, which charges up to $3,900 a day to rent, co-starred in “Dave.” The White House’s Truman Balcony was built on the grounds. Moviegoers also saw Robert Redford charm Demi Moore in “Indecent Proposal.” Arcadia issued 41 film permits in 1993. The city received $13,870 in return.

In an increasingly competitive market, some cities such as San Marino may have priced themselves out of consideration, location managers say. San Marino charges a minimum of $1,000 a day for permits to film on private property. With the recession and the move toward reality-based shows, San Marino has seen its film revenue drop from $45,000 to $25,000 in the last year, city officials said.

Others cities such as La Puente get few productions because they do not have an organized permitting process. La Puente officials say they simply cannot afford a film liaison to encourage filming.

A number of cities, location managers say, may be revitalizing their way out of the location business. “Wayne’s World 2” was filmed in Monrovia partly because Covina’s Citrus Avenue, where the original “Wayne’s World” was shot, was remodeled.

Location manager Levine, who sought out Sierra Madre and Monrovia’s pre-tract housing for the “China Beach” characters’ return from Vietnam, gave this advice to other San Gabriel Valley cities interested in making it in show business: “Don’t tear down your period buildings.”

Lights, Camera, Action!

FILMS, TELEVISION SHOWS AND COMMERCIALS FILMED CITY IN 1993 INCOME Alhambra Six commercials $1,700 in Six commercials permit fees Altadena 50 to 60 productions, $50,000 including plus fees “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place” Arcadia 41 productions, $13,870 in movies including permit fees “Dave” and “Hot Shots II” Azusa Three movies, including not available “The Naked Gun 33 1/3” and an untitled Dolph Lundgren film Baldwin Park Three commercials $500 for Lucky and Vons Bradbury 10 commercials $10,000 approx. Claremont Three productions, $2,000 to $3,000 including “My Girl 2” and “Dave” Covina Five commercials $5,000 Duarte Two or three not available commercials El Monte Five productions, not available including the HBO movie “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” Glendora Four commercials $3,000 City of Industry 20 commercials $60,000 Irwindale Three commercials No fee charged La Canada Flintridge 37 productions, including $26,020 “Addams Family Values,” “Beethoven’s 2nd” and “Murder, She Wrote” La Puente Two commercials No fee charged La Verne Five productions, including $5,000 approx. movie “Wayne’s World II” Monterey Park Nine productions, $3,500 including the movie “Forest Gump” Monrovia 65 productions, $70,000 including TV series “Picket Fences” and movie “Wayne’s World II” Pasadena 465 productions, $700,000 including movies “My Life,” “Lawnmower Man,” “Beverly Hillbillies” and “Addams Family Values,” and TV series “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place” Rosemead Three productions, not available including HBO’s “Class of 2001” San Dimas Eight productions, $2,000 approx. including “Nightmare on Elm Street 7” San Gabriel Five commercials not available San Marino 10 commercials $25,000 Sierra Madre 60 productions, $50,000 to $60,000 including movie “The Three Musketeers” and TV shows “Unsolved Mysteries” and “Wild Palms” South El Monte 10 to 20, not available mostly commercials South Pasadena Less than 50, over $50,000 mainly commercials; Films: “Beethoven’s 2nd”; TV show “Hart to Hart” Temple City Five commercials $750 Walnut Three commercials, including $1,000 Nike ad shot at Mt. SAC West Covina Two commercials $700