The Alex Theatre's neon tower stands blocks from the Americana at Brand and the Glendale Galleria.
What Downtown Glendale looks like
Brand Boulevard runs through Downtown Glendale, and the stands at 216 North Brand Boulevard. Its tower is a hundred foot column of neon tubing topped by a starburst sphere, in the Streamline Moderne style of 1940. The marquee runs the width of the sidewalk below it, with palm trees on both sides of the entrance.
South Brand Boulevard, across from the theatre, holds the inside a former pharmacy building. Its collection includes signage from the Brown Derby and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and a paseo runs through the site to Glendale's Central Park and library.
Farther south, the and the sit across the street from each other. The Americana is a grid of outdoor streets around a two acre park, built in 2008 with brick facades in an industrial style and a trolley circling the property. The Galleria is a three story mall from 1976, with a barrel vaulted skylight over its atrium and a Bloomingdale's storefront on Broadway in gold and silver checkerboard tile.
Office towers line Brand Boulevard toward the district's north end. 's headquarters rises in glass and stone directly behind the Galleria's parking garage sign. Seen from a distance, the towers stand against the San Gabriel Mountains, with houses filling the blocks below them.
Shot in Downtown Glendale
Crime Wave filmed the side of the Alex Theatre in 1954, where a rooftop sign called it the place to go. God Bless America ends onstage inside the theatre in 2012, and the following year Lovelace used the Alex as the venue for an invitational screening of Deep Throat. Glee, Criminal Minds, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veronica Mars have also filmed at the theatre.
You
The marquee on Brand
The Netflix series You filmed a scene from its fifth episode at the Alex Theatre. The scene uses the theatre's Brand Boulevard exterior, under the marquee and neon tower.
Billie Eilish, "Therefore I Am", 2020
Inside the Galleria
Billie Eilish filmed the video for "Therefore I Am" inside the Glendale Galleria in 2020. The mall was closed to the public under COVID-19 for the shoot, and the video shows no bystanders.
What Downtown Glendale can double for
The Tower District in Fresno, California
S. Charles Lee designed the Alex Theatre's 1940 tower. The year before, he designed Fresno's Tower Theatre at North Wishon and East Olive Avenues in the same Streamline Moderne style. Both towers are concrete columns covered in neon tube lighting and topped by an illuminated orb, a starburst sphere at the Alex and a pronged orb at the Tower Theatre. Both are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Alex since 1996 and the Tower Theatre since 1992. Fresno's tower is 80 feet tall against the Alex's 100 feet. Its auditorium also sits at a 45 degree angle to the street corner rather than square to the boulevard, so a straight on match needs a different camera position than Brand Boulevard's flat frontage. The blocks around it are one and two storeys tall, shorter than the buildings around the Alex, so a wide shot that pulls back would not match. Try searching 1940s neon theatre tower now.
The Pomona Arts Colony in Pomona, California
The Fox Theater Pomona is a freestanding single screen movie palace with its own tower over the entrance, at 114 West Third Street in what is now the Pomona Arts Colony. Hollywood studios used the building for real sneak previews of upcoming films, testing audience reactions before a wide release, the same role Disney gave the Alex for its cartoons in the 1930s and 1940s. Both buildings are used for concerts and live events now, in a small arts district rather than a shopping street. The Pomona Arts Colony around the Fox has contemporary gallery signage, murals and restaurant patios that would need to stay out of frame for an earlier period. The theater's own marquee is lit with its current name and event listings, which would need to be dressed or shot from an angle that avoids it. Try searching single screen movie palace now.
Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio
Easton Town Center is a grid of streets closed into a continuous loop, with contiguous storefronts of different heights and no single building enclosing them. The Americana at Brand follows a similar layout, its own grid of streets around a two acre park with brick facades in an industrial style. Both replaced an enclosed shopping mall format with outdoor blocks that a camera can shoot as a real street rather than a store interior. Both centers have national chain storefronts that would need swapping out or staying out of frame for a specific double. Easton's central plaza has a large model train display and seasonal decorations that the Americana's own park and trolley do not share, so an establishing shot of either plaza would give away which one it actually is. Try searching outdoor town center storefronts now.
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