Babylon on Sixth Street
You would have thought someone had turned back the clock outside the Warner Grand Theater on Monday morning, Oct. 18, as Paramount Pictures turned 6th Street into a bygone era of Hollywood. Hundreds of extras lined the sidewalk in costumes and the shops were decked out in fashions from the silent movie era.
Fittingly, all were sworn to silence regarding the title of this feature film and exactly who its stars are. There was even a dastardly subplot — this was the day that IASTE (The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States) was threatening to go on strike. But the day was saved and a shutdown avoided when a settlement was proposed at the last minute.
Both the FilmLA monitor and the Los Angeles Fire Department fire marshal were left in the dark as the film director had taken out the film permit under the cover title “Crazy Wild Chickens October’’ so the paparazzi didn’t catch wind that Babylon (the real title) starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie was camping out for a few days down by the harbor. Secrecy seems to be a plot with Hollywood during filming, but after the movie’s release come December of 2022 its title will be blasted all over the place — with no mention of it being partly filmed here.
As many long-time locals know, there are hundreds of film and TV shoots in San Pedro annually, most of them trying to make this place look like somewhere else. We’ve been made up to look like San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and in this case, Hollywood of the late 1920s or ’30s.
They often come with a degree of realworld disruption to local businesses and without much compensation for using our streets as the “backlot.” This time, however, 6th Street merchants appear to have been duly compensated, and there was hardly a peep and nary a gripe about Paramount taking over the entire 400 block on a Monday, when many shops are closed. The sign outside the arcade building advertised “Free Osterizer with any purchase” in a faux appliance store, which made me think of going in to purchase a vintage refrigerator. They had an exquisite collection of retro objects that would have made any of our second-hand shops envious.
Babylon is a period drama written and directed by Damien Chazelle, starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in the lead roles. Tobey Maguire serves as an executive producer. Watch for it a year from this Christmas and see if you recognize your own town.