HOLLYWOOD’S BACKYARD
On location in the Central Coast
L ike the archeologists who uncovered the buried treasures of ancient Egypt, researchers recently rediscovered one of Hollywood’s ancient treasures — a life-sized sphinx erected for the 1923 version of “The Ten Commandments” — buried beneath the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes near Pismo Beach.
Director Cecil B. DeMille built an entire “City of the Pharaohs” near Guadalupe to shoot his silentfilm epic. The dunes’ visitor center displays the head of the five-ton sphinx, along with vintage photos and other artifacts from the massive cinematic production.
From Rudolph Valentino galloping across the sands in “The Sheik” (1921) and Marlene Dietrich getting swept off her feet by French Legionnaire Gary Cooper in “Morocco” (1930) to “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (2006), scenes from nearly two dozen movies have been shot at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes.
For nearly 100 years, the region has served as a huge backlot for Hollywood studios. The bucolic landscapes and small towns have appeared as themselves — and sometimes as very exotic places — in a variety of box office hits and Oscar winners.
The critically acclaimed comedy “Sideways” (2004) was filmed at numerous locations in and around the wine-rich Santa Ynez Valley. Arroyo Grande was the small town where peewee football coaches played by Rick Moranis and Ed O’Neill waged war in “Little Giants” (1994). Wacky mobster Vinnie (Steve Martin) blazes a comedy trail through Atascadero in “My Blue Heaven” (1990).
But it’s not all fun and games. Hollywood discovered early on that the region’s tiny coastal towns were perfect backdrops for horror movies. Point Conception Lighthouse near Lompoc is where “The Monster of Piedras Blancas” (1959) emerged from the sea, and nearby Cayucos is the small town that it terrorized. Normally mildmannered Cambria was invaded by hordes of celluloid spiders for the tongue-in-cheek-yet-still-creepy “Arachnophobia” (1990).
You didn’t have to be a showbiz insider to know that the “Xanadu” manse in “Citizen Kane” (1941) was inspired by Hearst Castle or that the movie’s Charles Foster Kane was a thinly veiled take on reallife newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Given Hearst’s obsession with Hollywood stars — whom he often hosted at San Simeon home — it comes as no surprise that movies were sometimes shot on the sprawling ranch that surrounds the hilltop home. Foremost of these was the 1939 version of the Steinbeck classic “Of Mice and Men,” starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr.
Many of these Central Coast classics, as well as brand-new movies, are screened during the annual San Luis Obispo International Film Festival each March ( w ww.slofilmfest.org ).