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Los Angeles Time file photo |
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[Update: This is what my friends in Orange County used to call “the condo made of stone-a” (look it up, young people) next to the Santa Ana Freeway in City of Commerce. At the time this picture was taken, the old Uniroyal tire plant had been abandoned and was known as this bizarre building next to the freeway, but it has been redeveloped and today people know it as the Citadel mall.]
If you don’t live in Southern California, you may not appreciate the humor of this photograph.
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[Update: Unfortunately, there’s no information as to what movie this might be. All we know is the date the photo was taken: March 26, 1979. I can’t even find the published photo in the online clips, so there’s a chance it was subbed out in a later edition.]
Here’s our mystery camera…
… our mystery chariots with mystery palm trees…
… and mystery telephone poles.
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No idea but is this that actually shot outside that Egyptian-style factory (tires?) on east side of freeway south of LA? Looks like it was built in Twenties?
Posted by: Dewey Webb | February 10, 2011 at 08:32 AM
It's the Citadel on the 5, don't know the movie yet.
Posted by: Mary mallory | February 10, 2011 at 08:33 AM
Palms look like Coconut Palms rather than Date Palms. Tropical Vs Desert.
Posted by: Sam Flowers | February 10, 2011 at 08:38 AM
Looks like the old Samson Uniroyal Tire Factory designed and built around 1930. Location? Off of I-5.
The joke is that the design is that of an Assyrian Palace, but the shot is either from Ben Hur (1959) or The Ten Commandments (1956)
Posted by: Steven Moshlak | February 10, 2011 at 08:48 AM
Looking at the style of clothing and shoes on the crew I'd place the filming more in the '70s or '80s
Posted by: Mark Heimback-Nielsen | February 10, 2011 at 09:03 AM
I agree with former Uniroyal tire factory (I think it's a mall outlet now?) I'm in Portland or I'd drive by!
Posted by: BarryOB | February 10, 2011 at 09:16 AM
Kinda like the Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline, Backlot, Tire & Stormdoor Company.
Posted by: Arye Michael Bender | February 10, 2011 at 09:25 AM
uniroyal building filming ben hur
Posted by: herb nichols | February 10, 2011 at 09:25 AM
NOTORIOUS CLEOPATRA?
Posted by: Mary Mallory | February 10, 2011 at 11:29 AM
ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA (1981)?
Posted by: Mary Mallory | February 10, 2011 at 12:49 PM
Escape From BF Egypt?
Posted by: Dewey Webb | February 10, 2011 at 01:35 PM
Molly says its the filming of a reality show about a typical day in the Assyrian Army but I suspect it's a camera crew working just off the old Santa Ana Freeway. The flicker? Hummmm.
Posted by: Fibber McGee | February 10, 2011 at 01:57 PM
I don't know the film, but the location is now The Citadel outlet mall, originally built in 1929 as the Samson Tire and Rubber Company. More here: http://www.molineux.com/gallery/info/SamsonTire.asp
Posted by: Randy Skretvedt | February 10, 2011 at 10:13 PM
Total guess (and probably incorrect): Mel Brooks' "History of the World: Part 1"
Posted by: JT | February 11, 2011 at 09:13 AM
Could this be from that dreadful movie Wholly Moses! from 1980 with Dudley Moore? Maybe they shot some of it there in Commerce?
Posted by: LC | February 11, 2011 at 02:03 PM