In closing, my intimate understanding of Cops only reinforces the tremendous respect I have for Keaton, his crew, and for all of the other hard-working silent comedy filmmakers. ? Based on fewer extras, the set design, and the late day sunlight – this is likely the Metro backlot Although these two scenes could have been filmed at almost any urban intersection, for some reason Keaton chose to film here, roughly 150 blocks away from his studio. Skip had noticed that the wall details in both scenes matched, and correctly surmised it was the same building.
Other prominent buildings in the background are still standing as well.Īfter reporting this discovery to “Skip,” the publicity-shy, eagle-eyed sleuth who discovered the “Solved at Last” mystery building from Safety Last!, Skip quickly reported back that the preceding scene with Buster and the alley was filmed on the Washington side of the very same Rutland Apartment building – a rare instance where the cinematic geography for these two scenes comports with reality. The prominent awning in the background, remarkably still attached considering the earthquake risk, belongs to the Rutland Apartments at 1839 S. Although I started on Broadway, I followed the trolley route south onto Main, and somehow was patient enough to continue for several more blocks until I got lucky and recognized the setting.īuster knocked the cop down at the intersection of Main and Washington Boulevard, with the camera looking towards the NW corner up Main. Simple, huh? I knew that Keaton filmed other scenes from Cops south of 11th Street, and found this location simply by using Google Street View. Today Broadway has been extended much further southwest, hooking up with what was Moneta, and today most of Moneta is re-named Broadway. Main continued southwest until 36th Street, where it split into Moneta Avenue and Main, parallel streets both heading due south. While there is still a Moneta Avenue today much further south from downtown, the Los Angeles street layout was significantly different back when Keaton was filming late in 1921.īroadway originally ended near 10th Street (now Olympic) by merging into Main Street, but was later extended a few blocks further south to terminate at Pico. The clue to this discovery is the trolley car approaching in the background during the scene (left) that clearly reads “MONETA AVE.” on the destination sign. The scene depicted above was filmed far away from downtown, 19 blocks south of the Los Angeles Civic Center, as an angry cop chases Buster from an alley into a busy intersection, where Buster then knocks down a traffic cop to trip the first cop chasing him. The yellow car Los Angeles Railway MONETA AVE line ran south to Manchester
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