Los Angeles Comes Full Circle
A Century of Depictions on Film, From Real City to Stand-In and Back Again
In the Silent Era Los Angeles appeared as itself, rather a stand-in for some other city. The early studios, with their open air sets and natural lighting, were downtown, and Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy all made good use of its impressive buildings and busy streets. In “Safety Last”, Harold Lloyd hangs from a clock above Broadway, then as now the longest street of theaters in the country. By wagon and on foot, Buster Keaton travels from New High Street to Olympic Blvd. in “Cops”.
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