Six blocks of 1920s movie palace fronts and neon marquees around the Bradbury Building's skylit atrium.
What Broadway looks like
South Broadway runs six straight blocks between 3rd and 9th Streets, lined with movie palaces built between 1910 and 1931. Neon marquees project out over brick and terracotta storefronts the length of the strip, and the buildings behind them range from three storey shops up to office blocks of a dozen storeys or more.
The 's five storeys of brown brick, sandstone and terracotta date from 1893, built around a skylit central court behind its arched sidewalk entrance. Open cage elevators and marble stairs climb through the court, with iron grillwork at each landing.
occupies the ground floor of the Beaux-Arts Homer Laughlin Building, on the opposite side of the street from the Bradbury Building. Stalls and counters run the length of a single indoor aisle under the market's own arched entrance.
Near Sixth Street, the 's French Baroque front holds a vertical marquee over the sidewalk, with roughly two thousand seats behind it. Two blocks south at Eighth Street, the 's Beaux Arts facade holds a matching marquee. Its auditorium still keeps a 1928 Wurlitzer organ. The Eastern Columbia Building stands at Ninth Street, thirteen storeys of glossy turquoise and deep blue terracotta trimmed in Art Deco sunburst and zigzag patterns.
Shot on Broadway
The Bradbury Building at 304 South Broadway plays itself across three very different films, shot between 1974 and 2009. Chinatown used the real building in 1974, and (500) Days of Summer and Blade Runner both use its skylit ground floor court behind the same brown brick and terracotta corner.
Chinatown, 1974
The Bradbury Building
Chinatown used the real Bradbury Building in 1974, the same building that still stands at 304 South Broadway with its entrance and ground floor court open to the public. The building has appeared in films dating back to the 1940s.
(500) Days of Summer, 2009
The job interview scene in (500) Days of Summer was shot in the Bradbury Building's ground floor court, with the cage elevators and tiled floor visible behind the actors. The same court appears again in Blade Runner, shot three decades earlier.
Blade Runner, 1982
The skylit court doubled as J.F. Sebastian's apartment and the site of the climactic confrontation between Deckard and Roy Batty. The cage elevators and marble stairs climbing past the ironwork are the same ones visible from the ground floor today.
What Broadway can double for
Uptown Oakland in Oakland, California
Uptown Oakland keeps its own run of terracotta movie palace fronts from the 1920s, built around the restored Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue. The marquees project over the sidewalk the same way Broadway's do, and the blocks around the Fox Theater carry the same mix of storefronts under a single theater tower. Oakland's blocks are shorter than Broadway's, so a continuous six block run is hard to match there. Tighter single block or corner framing works better. Try searching Fox Theater Oakland block now.
North State Street in Chicago, Illinois
North State Street in Chicago's Loop keeps its own row of 1920s movie palaces in patterned terracotta, with vertical marquees projecting over a similarly dense sidewalk. The Chicago Theatre and the Oriental Theatre hold the same scale of storefront beneath a single theater tower that Broadway's blocks do. Chicago's blocks run wider than Broadway's. The elevated train a block over gives the city away in a raised or wide shot, so a street level frame close to the facades holds the match best. Try searching State Street movie palaces now.
Grand Circus Park in Detroit, Michigan
Grand Circus Park in Detroit is ringed by its own terracotta movie palace fronts from the 1920s, including the Fox Theatre and the United Artists Theatre, built in the same decade as Broadway's run. Nobody has shot a production using Detroit's theaters to stand in for this stretch of Broadway. Detroit's theaters sit in pairs around a park rather than down one straight run. Newer towers behind them show in a wide shot, so the match only holds in a tight frame on a single facade. Try searching Grand Circus Park theaters now.
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