Does anybody know if the fountain featured in Hoi Polloi (that they fall into when getting dancing lessons) is the same one used in the film 1776? 1776 was, according to the special features on that DVD, the last film to be shot on the Columbia ranch. I'm speaking of the scene during Richard Henry Lee's song.
The HOI POLLOI fountain is located in De Longpre Park, 1350 N. Cherokee Ave. That's located in Los Angeles, several blocks due west of the old Columbia Studios in Hollywood (now known as Sunset-Gower Studios).
The Three Stooges Journal # 99 has the details in one of Jim Pauley's "location" articles, with then-and-now photos.
The Columbia Ranch, a.k.a. The Burbank Studios Ranch from 1972 - 1991, and The Warner Bros. Ranch since 1991 - today, is located in Burbank, a couple blocks north of Warner Bros. That fountain, briefly glimpsed in SO LONG MR. CHUMPS (1941), lies in the middle of the Ranch park, and has been regularly seen in film and television productions for 70 years * (most noticably to current generation viewers, in the opening credit sequences of FRIENDS).
*
1776 was the last film done there when it was known as "The Columbia Ranch."
But, not the last film done there... the Ranch continues to be used, and has never been out of operation since Columbia acquired it in 1934.
- Columbia went bankrupt in 1972, sold its Hollywood studio (Sunset-Gower), and leased space at Warner Bros. from 1972 to 1991. During those years, the studio real estate was known as The Burbank Studios, and the Ranch was renamed The Burbank Studios Ranch.
- Sony bought Columbia in 1989, and in 1991 moved Columbia to Culver City on the site of the old MGM studios. Warner Bros. retained the Ranch, and it was renamed The Warner Ranch in 1991.
