Introduction
For this month we take a tour of filming locations in the Los Angeles area courtesy of four comedy movies from the late silent movie era right up through the early 1930s sound era.
The sound short comedy movie His Silent Racket (1933) starring Charley Chase gets things rolling with some great views of the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles, including a popular intersection used in many of the Our Gang / The Little Rascals movies. Next, it's an Our Gang / The Little Rascals silent movie, Noisy Noises (1929) which gives us a great view of one of the Pacific Electric Railway passenger trains that used to connect neighborhoods all over the Los Angeles area in the first half of the 20th century.
Max Davidson, an excellent comic actor who starred in his own series in the mid and late 1920s, takes us to the beautiful Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles in his 1927 movie Why Girls Say No. We wrap up our movie locations tour this month with a trip to downtown Culver City, California in 1932 courtesy of The Taxi Boys movie Hot Spot.
Charley Chase - His Silent Racket (1933)
The Plot
Charley discovers the laundry delivery truck he is driving has a bomb in it!
Charley Chase - Versatile Comic Actor And Filmmaker
Charley Chase was an accomplished comic actor, director and writer of comedy short films. He starred in his own series of shorts in the 1920s and 1930s for both the Hal Roach Studios and Columbia Pictures, Chase is probably best remembered for his supporting actor appearance in the 1933 Laurel and Hardy feature film Sons of the Desert. After leaving Hal Roach Studios in 1936, he went on to Columbia Pictures where he starred in his own series of comedy shorts and also directed several of late 1930s The Three Stooges comedies.
The Three Stooges 1938 short comedy movie Mutts To You is an excellent example of his work with The Stooges. Click the link below to watch a Quick Preview filming locations video of Mutts To You.
The Three Stooges - Mutts To You - Filming Locations Quick Preview Video
A Filming Locations Visit To The Westside Of Los Angeles
This movie, His Silent Racket, filmed on location on the Westside of Los Angeles in the Palms neighborhood. This Quick Preview Video gives us a look at three neighborhood landmarks which appeared in dozens of movies and TV episodes since the 1920s, from Our Gang / The Little Rascals to Charlie's Angels:
- First is the old Bacon Pharmacy building on the corner of Motor Avenue and Tabor Street which stood for almost 100 years before being demolished just a few years ago. A large apartment building occupies the site today.
- Second, it's the beautiful house directly across the street at 3563 Motor Avenue. This house was one of the first to be built in the neighborhood, dating back to the very early 1900s. The Tabor family owned the house for the entire time it stood on the lot, but unfortunately it was torn down several years ago and yet another large apartment building is currently being built on the lot.
- The third Palms neighborhood landmark appears at the end of this Quick Preview Video - the intersection of Motor Avenue and Woodbine Street. This filming location appeared in many of the Our Gang / Little Rascals movies in the 1920s and early 1930s and if you've been watching the Our Gang / The Little Rascals filming locations videos here on the website, you'll immediately recognize it.
Watch the Quick Preview Video of filming locations for His Silent Racket here:
Charley Chase - His Silent Racket - Filming Locations - Quick Preview Video
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Charley Chase - His Silent Racket - Filming Locations Then and Now - Complete Documentary Video
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Our Gang / The Little Rascals - Noisy Noises (1929)
The Plot
This Our Gang / The Little Rascals comedy short focuses in on the relationship between Joe Cobb and his baby brother Rupert, who is constantly crying due to all the noise in the neighborhood. The movie shows us the different ways Joe tries to get Rupert to stop crying and go to sleep.
Towards the end of the movie, somehow Rupert's baby carriage - with Rupert in it - gets away from Joe and rolls down a busy neighborhood street narrowly dodging the traffic whizzing by. And, at one point during the journey, a monkey jumps into the baby carriage and joins Rupert!
Filming Locations On The Westside Of Los Angeles
Noisy Noises was one of the last silent Our Gang / The Little Rascals films and was filmed on location near downtown Culver City, California and in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Palms. There's a great view of a Pacific Electric Railway passenger train pulling out of the station that was located on Venice Blvd near Main Street / Bagley Avenue that served Culver City and the nearby Los Angeles neighborhood of Palms.
The film's final scenes give us great views of Motor Avenue just north of MGM (now Sony Pictures) studios in the Palms neighborhood.
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Our Gang / The Little Rascals - Noisy Noises - Filming Locations - Quick Preview Video
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The Little Rascals - Noisy Noises - Complete Filming Locations Video
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Max Davidson - Why Girls Say No (1927)
The Plot
Papa Whisselberg - played by comic actor Max Davidson - disapproves of who his daughter wants to date.
The Larchmont Neighborhood In Los Angeles As Filming Location
A fast-paced and quite funny comedy short from comic actor Max Davidson, Why Girls Say No was filmed on location in the Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles. All the buildings on the block used as a filming location are still standing, with the main difference being all the trees that have been planted along the sidewalk over the decades.
Interestingly, this part of North Larchmont Blvd was a popular filming location with The Three Stooges. Several of their movies filmed on this same block, including this one:
The Three Stooges - Hoi Polloi - Quick Preview Video Of Filming Locations
Watch The Quick Preview Filming Location Video Now
Click the link below to watch a quick excerpt from the full Filming Locations Then and Now documentary video:
Max Davidson - Why Girls Say No - Filming Locations - Quick Preview Video
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Max Davidson - Why Girls Say No - Filming Locations Then and Now - Complete Documentary Video
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The Taxi Boys - Hot Spot (1932)
The Plot
Taxi driver Ben Blue tries to help his customer Muriel Evans clean up her dress after he accidently gets it soaked in motor oil, but he ends up making a shambles of it. Now, he's got a half-naked woman in his taxi and his friend Billy Gilbert
A Connection To The Three Stooges
The Taxi Boys series of short comedy movies were made in the early 1930s by the Hal Roach Studios - the same studio that brought the world Laurel and Hardy and the Our Gang / The Little Rascals series. Hot Spot was directed by Del Lord, who would go on to direct many of the best shorts of The Three Stooges starting in the mid-1930s.
The Filming Locations
The Taxi Boys series featured quite a bit of on location outdoor filming. While far from being the funniest movies ever made, the films in this series serve as a fascinating time capsule of the Los Angeles area as it looked in the early 1930s.
Hot Spot was filmed on location in downtown Culver City, California, with most of the action taking place at the corner of Washington Blvd and Van Buren Place, across from the landmark Culver Hotel.
Watch The Quick Preview Filming Location Video Now
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The Taxi Boys - Hot Spot - Filming Locations - Quick Preview Video
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The Taxi Boys - Hot Spot - Filming Locations Then and Now - Complete Documentary Video
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In case you missed it: My March 2026 featured filming locations then and now videos blog entry.
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