Rodeo Drive's flagship boutiques and palm trees, with the cobblestone loop of Two Rodeo Drive at the south end.
What The Golden Triangle looks like
Rodeo Drive runs through the Golden Triangle, framed by Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard and Canon Drive. Palm trees line a landscaped median down the street, and clipped hedges front the boutiques on both sidewalks.
Storefronts on Rodeo Drive sit low, one to two storeys. Cream stone, stucco and glass fronts stand under striped awnings and hanging flower baskets. Frank Lloyd Wright's , from 1952, has a zigzag ramp climbing around a central spire in a chevron pattern. Farther south, an ornate cream stone building has an arched window over a curved stone staircase.
, the curved cobblestone alley off the main street, dates from 1990. VIA RODEO is spelled out in gold letters over its stone entrance. A clipped cypress stands at the center of its court, brick storefronts under yellow awnings around it.
The Beverly Wilshire's corner at Wilshire Boulevard has striped awnings over its entrances, flags out front and palm trees at the curb. Beverly Gardens Park, with its Beverly Hills sign over a lily pond, sits along Santa Monica Boulevard at the district's edge.
Shot in The Golden Triangle
Pretty Woman's Rodeo Drive scenes were shot on the real street, at real stores. Only the Beverly Wilshire's rooms were somewhere else. American Gigolo used a real open air cafe on the street too, opposite the Polo Ralph Lauren store at 444 North Rodeo Drive.
Pretty Woman, 1990
Played a Rodeo Drive boutique that snubs Vivian
Vivian is snubbed at Boulmiche, on the corner of Rodeo Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard, then returns later with shopping bags to prove the staff wrong. Both scenes were filmed at the real store, which closed for a full day. The production borrowed Boulmiche's own bags to dress the extras outside. The successful shopping trip in between was filmed a few doors up, at a then at 408 North Rodeo Drive. Boulmiche later moved a few blocks over to Beverly Drive. Chanel owns the old Valentino building now.
Pretty Woman, 1990
Played Edward Lewis's hotel
The Beverly Wilshire is the real hotel in the film, but only from outside. The production asked to film in its rooms and was turned down, so the etiquette dinner and Edward's suite were built somewhere else. The film's production designer, Albert Brenner, has said those interiors went up inside the recently closed Ambassador Hotel. Other accounts say the rooms were built on a soundstage at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank instead. The two versions do not agree.
Beverly Hills Cop, 1984
Beverly Hills Cop opens Axel Foley's arrival in the city with a driving montage down North Rodeo Drive, between Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard. The storefronts in the shot are real, the same ones a driver passes on the street today.
What The Golden Triangle can double for
El Paseo in Palm Desert, California
The straight run of Rodeo Drive north of Two Rodeo Drive is a low boutique strip of one and two storey buildings, with palm trees down both sidewalks and hanging flower baskets on the lampposts. El Paseo has the same low palm lined boutique strip profile. Some of the same stores are there too, including a Ralph Lauren under its own awning. El Paseo sits under open desert sky with the San Jacinto foothills in view. Any wide shot that shows Beverly Hills' taller buildings or its palm canopy overhead would need to be avoided, along with the multiple stories around the Rodeo Collection. Try searching palm lined boutique strip now.
Puerto Banus was built in 1970 as a purpose built luxury shopping district of low, whitewashed Andalusian buildings around a yacht harbour, the same way Two Rodeo Drive was built in 1990 as a purpose built European style alley with limestone and terra cotta facades. Puerto Banus has had storefronts for Chanel, Gucci and Versace, the same names found along Rodeo Drive. Puerto Banus is built around its marina, so any shot that includes the water or the moored boats gives it away. Spanish signage and right hand traffic markings would also need control wherever a storefront sign or a curb enters the frame. Try searching whitewashed Andalusian buildings now.
Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
One of Rodeo Drive's boutique buildings is cut in cream stone, with an arched window over a curved stone staircase. Las Olas Boulevard is lined with Mediterranean Revival buildings that use the same arched doorways and terra cotta roofs, now holding galleries and boutiques instead of their original storefronts. Las Olas mixes its Mediterranean Revival buildings with plain modern storefronts and glass towers near the Intracoastal end, so an unbroken run of period facades is hard to find there. Keep Two Rodeo Drive's cobblestone and anything as tall as the Rodeo Collection out of frame, since Las Olas stays low. Try searching arched doorways terra cotta now.
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