Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

A few visuals from Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar (including the Hippopotomai-tai in a souvenir Tiki Mug) at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. 

Twin Pines Mall: Back to the Future Location

Located in City of Industry, California, the Puente Hills Mall served as the location for the Twin Pines Mall (and Lone Pine Mall) in the 1985 film, Back to the Future. This is the parking lot where Doc Brown first performs the time travel experiments with his custom DeLorean. As such, the mall has long been a popular site for fans of the iconic trilogy.

We visited before news broke about the sale of the mall and its intended closure. The full plans are yet to be revealed, but with much of the Puente Hills Mall already vacant it's expected that the site will be completely redeveloped, likely destroying the lot where the movie was filmed.

One of the few remaining attractions here was a replica of the Twin Pines Mall sign located inside. A small collector's shop was also the perfect spot to pick up a few Back to the Future souvenirs. I'm just glad we had the opportunity to see it before it disappeared for good.

 

Searching For Hollywood's Oldest Cinema

With the film festival tour for my documentary, "Your Cinema Needs You" and some of my travel shoots overlapping this year, I've made a point of searching out old cinemas in a lot of the different places that I've been going.

In Los Angeles, a city full of incredible theatres, I thought it would be interesting to find the oldest cinema in Hollywood. This lead me down a bit of rabbit hole.

For starters, until Hollywood was incorporated into Los Angeles in 1910, the town had regulations specifying no theatres. Once incorporated, this changed quickly. The first cinema built in Hollywood in 1910 was called the Idyl Hour, which was later renamed the Iris Theatre, however the location changed several times in just a few short years. A very familiar story.

With only a few images and an old fire map to go on, the theatre would've been located on prime real estate on Hollywood Boulevard. Unfortunately, when I went to see what was there today this is what I found - an empty lot with a direct view of the Hollywood sign.

The cinema had been defunct since the 1920s and the name moved again, but I was curious if the building had been repurposed or modified. What makes this location special is just how many incredible cinemas are still in the area.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre (now the TCL Chinese Theatre) is just a few blocks away and in addition to still hosting movie premieres to this day, it's endured as one of the most famous movie palaces in the world. Quite the contrast from where the Iris began over a century ago.

Each of these detours makes me further appreciate what was uncovered in making the documentary about Medicine Hat's Monarch Theatre. It's a fascination about how much has changed, what's been left to find, and that through it all that little cinema back in Medicine Hat has survived when so many others didn't.

I Funko'd Myself in Hollywood (Again)

My strict rules for purchasing any Funko Pops aside, I took the bait at the Hollywood Boulevard store in in Los Angeles, California and created myself in miniature vinyl form once more.

As was the issue last year, a blonde dude in a hoodie doesn't look personalized. Then I saw the popcorn and trophy accessories and it clicked. In keeping with this year's over-extended theme I made the Monarch Theatre premiere / film festival version of myself to compliment last year's mini-me Funko travel photographer. 

In short, this became another brilliantly kitschy souvenir from the latest Hollywood travel shoots ... and, let's be honest, one more opportunity to name-drop "Your Cinema Needs You" as the international festival tour rolls on through 2024. 

Inside Hollywood's Iconic Chinese Theatre

The iconic TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California attracts plenty of attention along Hollywood Boulevard, however the interior of this movie palace is even more impressive. With painted murals and embellished Chinese decor, the lobby of Grauman's Chinese Theatre is completed with classic movie memorabilia and programs from some of the Hollywood premieres that have been hosted at this landmark over nearly a century.