Studio Gate 3 from the “Feud” “Hollywood Drive” Promo

It will probably come as a shock to most readers that I don’t know a lot about Old Hollywood.  Sure, I am well-versed in all things Marilyn Monroe and have stalked my fair share of noir locations, but on the whole, I’d say I’m pretty lacking in knowledge about the Tinseltown of yesteryear.  I am always itching to learn more, though.  So I was thrilled when it was announced that the inaugural season of Ryan Murphy’s new anthology series Feud was tackling the decades-long discord between screen legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, a rivalry dating back to the 1930s of which I knew virtually nothing.  (The second season is set to center around Prince Charles and Lady Di.  Um, count me in!)  I avidly watched the show (which ended its eight-episode run last night), eating up details of the actresses’ mutual animosity for one another with a spoon, as well as obsessively researching its locations.  I even went so far as to stalk a spot that only appeared in a brief 31-second promo – a first for me.

In the promo, titled “Hollywood Drive,” Davis and Crawford are shown simultaneously arriving at Gate 3 of an unnamed Hollywood studio and then playing chicken with each other to get in.  (Though Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon portrayed Joan and Bette, respectively, on Feud, the promo made use of unnamed actresses for the roles.)

You can watch the trailer by clicking below.

I recognized the “studio” gate immediately thanks to its appearance in a Season 3 episode of Scandal in which it masked as the front gate of the White House.  (More on that in a bit.)  I logged a ridiculous amount of man-hours looking for the site after seeing it in Scandal (so much so that visions of it are now burned into my brain!) and finally pinpointed it as the entrance to Beth Olam Cemetery-Hollywood, which is part of Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  (More on that in a bit, as well.)  So when the gate popped up in the Feud promo, identifying it was a no-brainer.

Not much of the locale was changed for “Hollywood Drive,” aside from the addition of a few boxed plants and signage reading “Studio Gate 3.”  The structure’s central blue dome was also kept out of frame.

Hollywood Forever was originally established in 1899 as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery.  In the late 1920s, the southwest portion of the then 102-acre property was appropriated for Jewish burials and became known as Beth Olam Cemetery-Hollywood.  Though it has its own gate, it still very much a part of Hollywood Forever.  (Today, Hollywood Forever boasts 62 acres due to the fact that in 1920, 40 acres were sold off to 2 different movie studios to develop what is now collectively Paramount Pictures.)

In 1939, the cemetery was purchased by convicted felon Jack Roth, who had just finished serving 5 years of a suggested 11- to 95-year prison sentence for grand theft and securities fraud.  Jail did not change Roth’s criminal tendencies.  He immediately set about spending the burial ground’s funds on himself, installing a wet bar in his office and purchasing a yacht that he claimed was used to scatter clients’ ashes and was therefore tax deductible.  Not surprisingly, the state of the cemetery began to severely decline under Roth’s tutelage.  As this fabulous 2011 Tablet article states, “In one year, Hollywood Memorial made more money disinterring bodies than interring them—relatives wanted their loved ones moved to better-kept environs.”  When Jack passed away in 1998 (for those wondering, yes, he is buried at Hollywood Forever), the site was sold to brothers Tyler and Brent Cassity, who revitalized and cleaned up the neglected graveyard, renamed it “Hollywood Forever Cemetery,” and began offering tours, as well as hosting the insanely popular Cinespia movie nights.  (I saw Pee-wee’s Big Adventure there back in 2008 and had an absolute blast.)  The duo also eventually wound up facing their own complicated tangles with the law, which are detailed in the Tablet post.

While Hollywood Forever is used in filming all.the.time., for this post, I thought it would be best to focus solely on the Beth Olam gate.

Though a gate at The Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens masked as the White House’s front gate in previous seasons of Scandal, for reasons likely having to do with convenience, the production utilized the Beth Olam gate in Season 3’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.”  The structure appeared twice in the episode.  It first popped up in the scene in which Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) received an ominous phone call from her mother upon arriving at the White House.

Later in the episode, Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) tried to convince Olivia not to abandon her post as presidential fixer while at the gate.  A makeshift guard shack and wall of hedges were installed for the Scandal shoot and the White House later digitally added into the background of the segments.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Studio Gate 3, from the Feud “Hollywood Drive” promo, is actually the gate to Beth Olam Cemetery-Hollywood (which is part of Hollywood Forever Cemetery) located at 900 North Gower Street in Hollywood.

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