The theatre seen in the opening shot, looks completely real, but could have been on a backlot. We know the theatre exterior seen in Funny Lady IS on the Warner backlot, and all the backstage & production scenes could be built on a soundstage, but what real theatres did they use?
shareThe theater used in the film was the Warner Brothers Theater (Warrens, Pantages)on Hill Street in Los Angeles. It is now a jewelry center but much of the theater is intact.
shareThe actual New Amsterdam theatre in NYC was almost demolished because of the disrepair. Disney bought it and completely refurbished it for "The Lion King."
It is the only Art Deco theatre still in existence in NYC. I don't know if this is still done but on Mondays, when the theatre had no shows, guided tours of the re-done theatre were available. I took it once and could not believe how beautiful it is. And they actually allow the visitors to go on stage. You can stand exactly where the real Fanny Brice sang "My Man" not to mention where so many stars performed in the early 20th century. For anyone who appreciates architecture, a tour of the New Amsterdam is a must!
You can stand exactly where the real Fanny Brice sang "My Man"That's a very powerful image. Unfortunately, Fanny Brice introduced "My Man" in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921, which played the Globe Theater (now the Lunt-Fontanne). The Jerome Kern musical Sally (which Ziegfeld produced) occupied the New Amsterdam throughout 1921.
Small correction: the theater is Art Nouveau, not Deco. It *is* beautifully renovated.
shareYes the real original New Amsterdam theatre is very easy to find right there on 42nd st where it's always been.
But back to the original question here which is what was used in THE MOVIE? It's been said elsewhere that the old Warner Theatre on Hill and Bway in Downtown LA (with its huge corner marquee now heralding a jewelry store) was where the INTERIORS of the new Amsterdam in Funny Girl were shot (though the big production number in the film was done on a soundstage).
Where then was the EXTERIOR of the theatre seen in the movie?
The exteriors were done on the backlot.
shareWell, no, not for Funny Girl. Columbia had no backlot in 67, only the ranch. There wasn't a theatre like this on any backlot. The one in Funny Lady is definitely the one at Warners' NY st. Still there.
shareBacklot was a broad interpretation on my part. Soundstage is more likely. Columbia had several very large soundstages at the time. There were only two exterior theatre shots in Funny Girl and neither one was elaborate...just a marquee. The one of the back of Keeney's doesn't count.
I like the idea that, after all these years, people are still talking about this film. They really don't make them like this any more.
The theatre we see in Funny Girl is more than just a marquee, it includes a second story, the long alley to the stage door, a street in front, and a building next to it. The former Columbia lot (now known as Sunset-Gower) still exists, and I have been there many times. It's actually pretty small, contained within a single city block, and has no soundstages big enough to contain those facades. Not long after Funny Girl wrapped, Columbia moved into Warner's Burbank lot, (renamed The Burbank Studios) which does have huge soundstages and a considerable backlot, and that's where they shot Funny Lady.
Warner's studio backlot has lost maybe a third of its acreage to office buildings, (including the castle/lamasery used in the musicals of Camelot and Lost Horizon and the Kung Fu TV series) but I think it has more facade buildings that have survived through the years than any other studio. (Universal may be bigger, but so much of it has been moved around several times and burned up more than once)
I imagine they could have built Funny Girl's New Amsterdam on the Columbia Ranch, (now owned by Warner) where only about half of the backlot remains (and I've been there enough times to scope it out) but I doubt it. A row of old city town houses used in The Happiest Millionaire, Summer Magic and Friends (including the park and fountain) is still there, (not far from the Partridge Family and Bewitched houses) and I'm told there was another line of city facades built behind it, but I've seen much written about this lot's history, (including that the corner now occupied by a strip mall was once part of Capra's Lost Horizon) so a high profile movie like Funny Girl seems unlikely to be forgotten by someone writing about that period.
So while I do not claim to be an expert, I have been to these places, and there is still no convincing or definitive proof of where those New Amsterdam Theatre shots were done.
I doubt that anyone really cares about details, but Columbia is larger than a city block. As for the theatre, the only time anything resembling a second story is seen, it's from the upper balcony of the interior. Go back and look at the exterior shots. They could easily have been constructed on the Columbia lot...either inside a soundstage or outside. There is proof that the New Amsterdam was never reproduced in any form. The theatre that was used (Warrens) looked nothing like the New Amsterdam but who really cares? For that matter, the alley could just as easily been outside the same theatre.
It's all an illusion anyway. There's a scene in L.A. Confidential that has what looks like a real movie theatre. It's actually a dressed façade of a billiard hall on Hollywood Blvd between Wilton Place and the Hollywood freeway. I've had people ask me where the theatre is...it was that convincing.
Okay. I'm outta here. Thanks for the exchange.
Obviously I care about the details, or else I wouldn't have posted the question.
I also know enough of the details not to accept your claims, which unfortunately have no basis in anything that can be verified. I have to wonder how many times you have been in any of these places. How long have you lived and worked in LA at these studios? First you say it's on a stage, then you say it's a backlot - there is a BIG difference, and clearly you don't know either way. There is nothing wrong with not knowing, there are TONS of things I don't know, but your claims, without any factual basis, are just not convincing.
Of course Illusion in filmmaking is a given. Any resemblance to the real New Amsterdam in NY was never the question, and we are not talking about interiors. You said "They could easily have been constructed on the Columbia lot...either inside a soundstage or outside." Have you ever actually been there?
You said "the only time anything resembling a second story is seen, it's from the upper balcony of the interior. Go back and look at the exterior shots." If you go back and look more closely at the exterior shots, you'll see a theatre with tall windows above the marquee, and buildings on both sides. The building on the right has three levels of windows above the street, meaning it's supposed to be four stories tall. It can't be a matte shot because the camera moves, changing the perspective on the upper floors as it passes the marquee into the alley.
At the end of the credits, panning from the marquee and following her through the alley to the stage door THIS IS ONE CONTINUOUS SHOT. There is no way she can suddenly be in an alley at the real Warners/Pantages theatre in Downtown LA. The second time we see the theatre (in a wider shot) we see her car pull out of what is obviously the same alley past the same theatre. Even if they had used forced perspective, that is still too big to be built on one of Columbia's stages or outside on that small Hollywood lot.
The former Columbia lot is indeed contained within in a single block. Unlike, say, Paramount, which combines two former studios (3 if you count KCAL, even more if you count the old studios pre-Paramount) and has now enclosed some little blocks in front of the original Paramount admin building and gates. Blocks in LA and NY can be fairly large, but the Columbia/Sunset-Gower lot is not unusually so. I've actually walked around it while working there. It's one of the smallest lots in town, (although large for an indie) and it really didn't change much between 67 and 07. There hasn't been room there for much of a backlot, which is why they had the ranch property in Burbank. THAT is where Columbia shot exteriors.
Being that the New Amsterdam exterior shots are fairly tight on the theatre, with just the two buildings on either side, it COULD conceivably have been facades on the Columbia ranch, but there is no evidence yet that it was. I haven't seen that same facade show up in anything else that I know of.
After a further search, I have found some proof that this theatre exterior was neither on a soundstage nor on Columbia's Hollywood studio property. See the next post for the answer.
Okay here is the answer.
The building that appears as The New Amsterdam Theatre in Funny Girl was neither on a soundstage nor anywhere outside on Columbia's Hollywood lot. Nor was it, as some have claimed on other sites, contained on the property formerly known as The Burbank Studios (which was originally and is now Warner Brothers main lot.)
As I suspected, it was on the facility in Burbank known then as The Columbia Ranch, now called The Warner Ranch. The proof is more than just a mention by someone, there is also a picture of the building looking almost exactly as it does in the movie but it is NOT dressed for Funny Girl (no signage).
http://barbramemories.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-amsterdam-theater.html
Interesting details: Taking a closer look at Funny Lady, I counted I think at least three different theatre interiors and three different exteriors. One exterior is a small entrance that is not easy to place, but it's likely at Warners. The one we see identified as the New Amsterdam (with posters that say 5th month) is the one on Warner's main backlot that's been used on other movies like At Long Last, Love and The Artist. The alley and stage door entrance for that theatre is to the Right of the marquee. I've been in that one.
But the most interesting thing is, the first exterior theatre we see in Funny Lady is - and the lights around the marquee are the giveaway - the same theatre facade from the opening shot of Funny Girl. In Funny Lady it is called the Casino, where they have the disastrous first night of "Crazy Quilt" but the marquee itself is nearly identical, the structural separations between the front lobby doors are identical, and the alley on the Left is only slightly different. So though that theatre facade is long gone, apparently it lasted at least until 1973 and Barbra filmed there twice.