Filming in the NoHo Arts District, North Hollywood
Small theaters and storefronts line Lankershim Boulevard, next to the Metro's B Line terminus.
What the NoHo Arts District looks like
Lankershim Boulevard runs through the district as its commercial spine, lined with palm trees and low buildings with marquees and small storefronts at street level. Newer apartment towers rise up behind them near the Metro terminus at the north end.
's Spanish Renaissance Revival facade dates from 1926, with a neon marquee over the sidewalk and cast stone relief work between the upper windows. A few blocks south, the is a 1939 Streamline Moderne building in pale green glass block, its old box office window still built into the front wall.
On Tujunga Avenue, the has a white stucco front banded in blue tile, with a stepped pyramid over the entrance modeled on the temples at Palenque. Fluted columns and geometric hieroglyph patterns frame the recessed doorway beneath it.
The Metro's B Line ends at a station plaza at the north end of Lankershim, across from the restored , a wood frame building from 1896 painted yellow with brown trim. The platform below curves under a wide column between the tracks, with signs pointing riders back toward Union Station.
Shot in the NoHo Arts District
The corner of has its own screen credit, and El Portal Theatre a few blocks north has several. Sarah Silverman, RuPaul's Drag Race and Licorice Pizza have all used the theater's stage or marquee.
Erin Brockovich, 2000
Magnolia and Lankershim
Erin's car accident was filmed here, with Julia Roberts traveling east on Magnolia Boulevard when she is hit at the Lankershim intersection. The shot just before it, of her walking to her car after putting out a cigarette, was filmed a short distance away near Magnolia and Klump Avenue.
Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, 2005
El Portal Theatre
Liam Lynch directed this documentary record of Sarah Silverman's stand-up act, filmed live inside the theater. Cutaways to sketches featuring Brian Posehn and Bob Odenkirk are cut between segments of the performance. Street View
RuPaul's Drag Race, 2012 and 2013
The Logo TV series taped its 2012 and 2013 reunion and finale episodes on the theater's MainStage. Season 4, the 2012 credit, aired from January 30 to April 30 that year.
Licorice Pizza, 2021
Played 1973
Paul Thomas Anderson used the marquee for the film's final scene, where Alana and Gary reunite. The exterior was dressed to look like its 1973 self, with Live and Let Die on the marquee.
What the NoHo Arts District can double for
Old Town Pasadena in Pasadena, California
Colorado Boulevard's blocks are largely Period Revival storefronts from the 1920s, low brick and stucco fronts under cast stone trim, close in scale to Lankershim's own theater block. Restored marquees over several storefronts give the street a similar rhythm. The boulevard runs wider and busier than Lankershim, with more national chain signage that needs dressing out for a period frame. Try searching 1920s storefront block now.
The Culver Hotel is a six story Renaissance Revival corner from 1924 over a block of low storefronts, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre's Streamline Moderne marquee sits a few doors down. Both blocks are a small downtown built around one theater, the way Lankershim is. The Culver Hotel rises well above anything on Lankershim, so keep it out of wide shots that need to match NoHo's low skyline. Try searching small downtown theater block now.
Uptown Whittier in Whittier, California
The Wardman Theatre's 1932 marquee sits mid block on Greenleaf Avenue, with eight ground floor storefronts built in around it, close to how El Portal's marquee sits among Lankershim's shops. The theater is still running as a multiplex today, so its front is kept up rather than frozen. The auditorium behind the facade was divided into eight screens after a 1990s renovation, so only the street frontage holds the period. Try searching 1930s theater marquee block now.
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