Street Scene : Downtown L.A. Area Popular With Film Companies for Its ‘New York’ Look

The Christmas episode of “Cagney & Lacey” unfolded against the splendor of a 5th Avenue department store, decorated for the holiday with blinking fairy lights and animated reindeer, and flanked by wide-eyed children watching from a snow-covered sidewalk.

But it was all an illusion--part of the magic that film crews perform regularly in downtown Los Angeles, using the beautiful old buildings in one of the few parts of this city that can be used to simulate the “big city” look of Manhattan.

In this case, the 5th Avenue store masquerading as Macy’s was really the old, empty Rowan Building at the corner of 5th and Spring streets in downtown Los Angeles. And because it was really filmed in August, police stood sweltering in 100-degree heat, on guard to keep away the area’s ever-present drunks and derelicts.

The area along Spring Street, between 4th and 8th streets, has become a favorite location with film makers, with its elegant but neglected office buildings, erected years ago by rich men intent on establishing it as the “Wall Street of the West.”

But while the filming brings money to an area badly in need, it is so frequent that it also provokes controversy among those doing business downtown over whether the benefits are worth the traffic and parking problems that filming creates.

On many days along Spring Street, film trucks choke the scarce parking lots and cameramen and stars--surrounded by gawkers--disrupt traffic so badly that it can take 20 minutes to drive two blocks.

Businessmen find themselves blocked from their offices and customers shopping for watches or radios give up trying to reach the little shops lining the street. Out-of-town visitors are confused when signs for 7th Street are temporarily covered by others reading “5th Avenue” or even signs in Chinese.

Downtown Los Angeles is “the only part of Los Angeles that can be made to resemble Manhattan in architecture, atmosphere, ethnicity--even decrepitude, the dirt, if you like,” said television producer Barney Rosenzweig.

“We all think of New York as an older city and the glitzy, palm tree-lined parts of Los Angeles are the antithesis of what we need.”

But Alexander Vari, who buys and remodels old downtown buildings, fumes when he is blocked from entering one of his buildings so he won’t ruin a scene. “Somewhere in downtown L.A. this situation hits me almost every day. I object to police blocking my way into my own buildings and telling me ‘you can’t walk across here.’ ”

Most people who work downtown, though, seem ready to put up with the inconvenience to keep an industry that creates thousands of jobs and brings the area millions of dollars.

“I’d rather see them filming here, even if it does cause problems, than have them move to New York,” said Domenic Saraceno, manager of a shoe store at Broadway and 7th Street. “It hits the little shops around here, but film companies pay them compensation.”

It’s not just money and jobs, though: It’s the pride in a fascinating industry that people consider Los Angeles’ very own and the aura of glamour it adds to gritty downtown locales.

“Film crews are some of the finest people we ever see on this street,” said the owner of a Spring Street radio repair shop who didn’t want to give his name. “Look around you--bums, drunks, druggies. Los Angeles east of Broadway is dead, but film people are polite and they pay. If you lose business, they give you $200, $300 a day, and they don’t bother anyone.”

Income for City

There are 20 to 30 “shoots” a day on the streets of Los Angeles and the city issues more than 5,000 film permits a year for commercials, television shows and feature films, says Edward Avila, commissioner of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, which controls the city’s Movie Permit Office. “A permit costs $115, so the city earns $500,000 a year just in permits, and it goes up every year,” he said. “Sure, there’s inconvenience. There’s no other city in the world that has as many shoots. We shoot 10, 20 times as many films as anywhere else. This means we’re likely to have 10 or 20 times as many problems.

“Some complaints are pretty vehement, but we get only three or four a year from downtown.”

Even those who don’t officially complain, though, cite parking problems as the worst headache that downtown filming creates.

Bob Franklin, marketing director of the Metro Medical Center, next door to Vari’s office on Spring Street, says filming cuts down on the center’s patients. “People can’t park because film crews bring these giant 18-wheelers,” he said. “They take up whole parking lots. There are very few lots anyway, and they are small.”

Customers at the nearby Security Pacific National Bank at 6th and Spring streets also complain when filming plugs up streets and parking lots, said bank manager James C. DeBie. “It’s taken me 45 minutes to move four blocks when traffic’s bad,” he said. But he doesn’t blame the film companies.

“Parking’s bad all over downtown. . . . Banning film companies is not the answer. We have to build parking structures. “

The president of the Spring Street Assn. of businesses, Leonard Glickman, agrees that filming interferes with traffic, but said the industry’s contribution to downtown’s economy far outweighs the inconvenience.

“No one likes being stuck in traffic. We moan and groan. But most people want the movie industry to stay in California.”

Vari, whose office in the 600 block of Spring Street--one of the most popular filming sites because it faces an old Bank of America building--said the crews’ practice of covering street signs is especially troublesome.

“Not long ago, a business associate from Venezuela visited me,” Vari recalled. “I told him how to get to my office. Hours later he called me, frustrated. He said he’d looked for 7th and Spring Street but ‘there’s no 7th and Spring Street in that area. They’re all Chinese names.’

“I went out to look, thinking ‘this guy’s crazy’ and I saw the signs had been covered with temporary names of Chinese streets.”

Vari also accuses film makers of blackening the area’s already poor image, just as he and other real estate agents are trying to help save the area from economic blight.

“They depict downtown on films and television as the seamier side of life,” he said. “I never see a picture showing the beauty of old art deco buildings. I see only stories of gang warfare. There is no gang warfare here, but you can’t convince people of that once they’ve seen it on film.”

Producer Annoyed

Complaints about filming anger Barney Rosenzweig, a television producer whose show “Cagney & Lacey” has shot more than 100 episodes in downtown Los Angeles in the last couple of years. “The television series I do spends $25 million a year in this city,” Rosenzweig said .

“It’s unconscionable that people who make their living in this community fail to acknowledge the major contribution the motion picture and television industry brings L.A. Their complaints give new meaning to the word ingratitude .”

For Los Angeles, filming is a multibillion-dollar business, said Charles M. Weisenberg, director of Motion Picture/Television Affairs for the city.

“That’s as close as we can get in estimating its worth because there’s no central coordinating office to give you statistics on the activities of the industry,” he said.

However, Weisenberg estimated that in recent years California has lost $1 billion a year in economic activity to other locations because film makers are going elsewhere.

“Seventy to 75% of that loss is felt in the Los Angeles area,” he said. “We’re talking money . . . but we’re also talking very much about jobs. There are about 70,000 people directly employed in the film and television industry in the Los Angeles area. And it’s estimated that for every $1 spent on production in Southern California there may be as much as $3 to $4 of ripple economic effect in the community.”

While downtown Los Angeles has its attractions for film makers, it also has its problems.

“Police are one of our best insurances,” said Steve Dawson, “Cagney & Lacey” location manager. “There are huge security problems downtown. I’ve seen robberies, knifings, murders, found dead bodies while we’ve been filming. It’s rough. We hire an awful lot of police.”

Dawson said film makers try to disrupt life as little as possible. But normal movement has to be controlled sometimes. “If you’re filming a winter scene you can’t have a guy walking through it in shorts and a T-shirt,” he explained.

Dawson’s crew often uses the largely empty Bank of America building at the corner of 7th and Spring streets to build sets and provide backdrop.

“We made the seventh floor the Kennedy International Airport customs area,” he said. “It’s been a district attorney’s office. You look out the windows and see tall buildings and right away you think it’s New York. We created a police shooting range there. We used the old board room as an embassy.”

In the 500 block of Spring Street is Irwin’s restaurant, a favorite with film crews. “In films and on television, Irwin’s has been a lot of restaurants,” Dawson said. “We’ve used it as a place where an actress meets her boyfriend. We use it as a cop hangout and call it ‘Flannery’s Bar.’ ”

Edward Velasquez, manager of Irwin’s Theatre Grill, says film crews are good business. “Sometimes a crew takes over the restaurant and pays us thousands of dollars,” he said. “Occasionally, customers complain because they can’t park or get a table. But most of them love the filming. They sit and gawk at people like Madonna, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless, Stacy Keach, Anthony Geary, Leslie Charleson. They’ve all been here. . . .”

“I have no beef at all about film people. Last week an East Coast crew was shooting here because the weather was bad in New York.”

Velasquez nods and smiles. “That’s what I love to hear!”