In a recent post I showed how Buster Keaton staged his daring waterfall rescue from Our Hospitality (1923).  In honor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s presentation of Our Hospitality this June 8 at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, here is another circa 1920s view of the “T” shaped pool on the former Brunton Studio backlot, now part of Paramount, where Buster filmed this amazing stunt.

Click to enlarge – San Diego Air and Space Museum

On the fence

The above view looks east – the red box marks the “T” shaped plunge near Melrose Avenue running along the far right.  The yellow oval above marks a “Y”-shaped urban set that Buster used for a famous stunt on top of a fence (at left) in his 1922 short comedy Cops.  Below, another view of the plunge (red box) and urban set (yellow oval), this time looking north from Melrose along the bottom towards the Hollywood Forever Cemetery at the top.

Click to enlarge hollywoodphotographs.com

Early in the movie Cops, Buster mistakenly believes he has purchased a horse and wagon from a street bum for $5.00.  Behind them is a “MONEY TO LOAN” pawn shop set.  This same set appears during Buster’s fence stunt.

Zooming in on the above northern looking aerial view, we get a direct view of where Buster filmed these scenes from Cops.

Click to enlarge.  The directional arrow matches the arrow in the top-most aerial view.

Buster also filmed scenes from his later comedy short Day Dreams (1922) at the same urban street set on the former Brunton backlot (see below).

Both from Day Dreams. The view to the left looks south along the Brunton Studio “Y”-shaped street set – the Cops fence location is out of view around the corner to the left.  The “MONEY TO LOAN” sign appearing behind Big Joe Roberts at the right is marked with a yellow oval on the left.

The views above show how Buster used the “Y”-shaped street set for Day Dreams. Below, we can see portions of the Cops set as it appears in Day Dreams.

Click to enlarge.  The same entrance cornice (red box) and policeman’s call box (yellow oval) appear in both Cops to the left and Day Dreams to the right.

The matching views above show how the elements from the Cops fence set appear in Buster’s later film Day Dreams.  Buster used the same “Y”-shaped set further in Day Dreams for the failed-thespian sequence where Buster is physically kicked out of a theater.  As a discreet homage to his two sisters-in-law, the famous actresses Norma and Constance Talmadge, Buster placed movie posters from their films on the theater wall.  This poster (left) from Norma’s 1922 feature Smilin’ Through can be seen in the right movie frame above, just to the left of the yellow oval.  Also featured is a poster for Constance Talmadge’s 1921 rom-com Woman’s Place.

I explain on bonus features of the Kino-Lorber Keaton Short Films collection, and hope to write here in future posts, how Buster also filmed scenes from Cops on the backlots of the former Metro Studio, directly across the street from his own small studio in Hollywood, and at the Goldwyn Studio in Culver City.

PS – as I write HERE, the 1925 crime-busting newspaper drama The Last Edition, that re-premiered at the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, provided the visual link to show that Charlie Chaplin filmed The Kid, Buster Keaton filmed Cops, and Harold Lloyd filmed Safety Last! all at the same alley in Hollywood.  As shown below, the drama also filmed a racing firetruck at the Brunton Studio where Buster filmed the fence stunt in Cops.

Buster early in 1922 – The Last Edition in 1925 – you can still read the 439 address at back.

Cops, Day Dreams, and Our Hospitality licensed by Douris UK, Ltd.