THEN and NOW: 14 Famous Movie Locations

There are movies we’ve watched that we never forget and usually those movies accompany certain scenes in real locations in which we relate those movies to, for example Marty McFly’s house from “Back to the Future” or that famous scene in “Pretty Woman” of Richard Gere going up the fire escape of a building to declare his love for Julia Roberts. Those were real scenes. But how have those scenes/locations changed over time? Some apparently have aged well, while others – not so good. I’ve tried to include videos where possible of some of the actual scenes/locations from the original movies.

So how many of these movie classic scenes do you remember?



1. The historic Golden Nugget casino, featured in the James Bond film ‘Diamonds Are Forever‘ in 1971, underwent a $100 million renovation.

The famous scene can be seen about 1:18 secs into the video below.



2. And The Mint, a casino also seen in the film, was sold in 1988 and is now part of Binion’s Horseshoe Casino



3. Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction transformed a Glendale, California, 44-lane bowling alley into Jack Rabbit Slim’s. The location, famous for John Travolta and Uma Thurman’s twist dance, has since been shuttered.






4. The fire escape that Richard Gere’s character climbed in Pretty Woman to declare his love for Julia Robert’s prostitute with a heart of gold remains intact at the Las Palmas Hotel on 1738 Las Palmas Ave in Hollywood.







5. The New York streets (pictured is 7th Ave and 43rd) have modernized to include a Walgreens and advertisements.




6. Schwab’s Pharmacy, featured in 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard, was a real drug store where many movie actors and industry executives hung out. It was demolished in 1983 and a shopping complex featuring a Starbucks stands in its place.




7. Although the stores next to New York’s Carnegie Delicatessen featured in Woody Allen’s ‘Broadway Danny Rose‘ may have come and gone, the deli on 7th Ave is still standing strong.



The actual scene of the delicatessen can be see around 3:34 secs into the video.




8. And fans hoping to see the McFly residence from Back To The Future will be happy to know little has changed at the Arleta, California home.



House can be seen about 2 mins into the video





9. The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, on 145 West 46th Street in New York, was used to film the exteriors for the high school in 1980’s ‘Fame‘.






10. The Martini family’s home from ‘It’s A Wonderful Life‘ also remains unchanged, 67 years after the Christmas classic was filmed.


Scene of the house can be seen about 1:05 secs into the video but you might want to view the entire video to see the neighbourhood first!




11. But the movie’s neighborhood doesn’t look exactly the same. A sign reading ‘Welcome to Bailey Park’ has been removed, and now large trees hide the houses that could once be seen dotting the street.



12. Some houses lining the San Francisco streets used in the 1968 Steve McQueen crime film ‘Bullitt‘ haven’t even changed their paint job.






13. But the same can’t be said for the once fire engine-red building seen in Al Pacino’s ‘Serpico‘ in 1973.


14. The police station in 1948 noir ‘Naked City‘ is West 20th Street has also been preserved in the Big Apple, where it remains a NYPD precinct.


The police station can be seen briefly almost at the end of this video – around 6:28 secs into the video.


1 comment:

  1. This place really looks amazing dear. Do you also know some best Hollywood venues that I can hire for a private party? It will be just a small party with few close friends and relatives.

    ReplyDelete