Where's the Golden Horn???

C

captainoh

General question of stupidity for you all...does anyone know where they shot the scenes from "the Golden Horn" in "Barfly"? Was it a real bar? Does it still exist in LA? I'd like to take my brother there...

Much thanks.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Wow, that guy actually did some research on that little piece. Nice.

Some of the scenes in Barfly were shot at a downtown Los Angeles bar though, but probably not a place Bukowski ever frequented. Just a bar that looked right. ;)
 
C

captainoh

Thanks, I figured they probably shot somewhere in downtown, but I've been trying to find out which bar they used...I'd love to know the name...someone once told me it was in Koreatown, on Third St., but I've never been able to find it...so many of the old Downtown spots are gone now, so it could be that it is no longer in existence...I'd love to get me a scotch and water in that spot though!
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Yeah, well, Los Angeles is notorious for change, and disregard for its own history. Hard to find anything more than 20 years old around here. Bukowski's places on DeLongpre and Oxford are still there, but the Carlton way court is gone. Hollywood has changed a lot in the last 20 years.
 
hoochmonkey9

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
Howard Sounes, in his Buk bio, says that filming took place "in a bar in culver City," and "at a bar on the outskirts of downtown, around 6th and Kenmore."
He doesn't give names.
 
hoochmonkey9

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
found it...LA Weekly says Barfly was filmed at Big Ed's on Washington Blvd. too much time on my hands today.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
No listing for Big Ed's in Culver city (that's the likely spot since it was Washington Blvd.) or downtown. So it must be gone.
 
C

captainoh

Fantastic work from all of you...I am going to continue to scour the landscape for possibilities and at the very least, I may happen into some spots of interest...perhaps it is best to leave the Golden Horn as a Holy Grail, or some McGuffin which propels me further and further along from hole to hole with no end possible as it does not exist. Although, if I know it does not exist, that probably does not qualify it as a McGuffin and may just point to a rather disturbing personality trait of searching through bars. Whichever, I am not giving up...thanks for the help!

The Captain
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I watched the first 45 minutes or so of Barfly last night with Barbet Schroeder's commentary turned on, and he said the Golden Horn was a real bar in downtown L.A. but the building was torn down years ago to make room for something new. So I guess there's no finding it now.

The commentary is pretty good, overall. Lots of details.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I think it's worth the dough, even the secondary market premium. Look at this way, if you wait another year, the thing may be really ridiculously priced. $75 is steep, but it could get worse.
 
chronic

chronic

old and in the way
The bar was Big Ed's (prior to that Sarna's II). It was on Washington Blvd. where it intersects with Culver Blvd. in Culver City about a half-mile east of the MGM (now Sony) Studios and about a block from the Culver Studios.

I drove a taxi in Culver City from 1977 until 1980 and it was a regular stop. I used to go in there from time to time to drink, bullshit with the bartender and just soak up the ambiance. It was the epitome of a dive bar with several filthy old regulars who were there every morning at 6:00 am until they would (literally) crawl out of the door at 2:00 am. It was always very dark and if you ran your finger along any of the moldings it would come away with decades worth of grime. There was a bartender there for years named Brigham Young. He was the great-grandson of the founder of the Mormons. A very nice guy. I later came across a photo of the Mormon Brigham Young and this guy was the spitting image of him.

The building was torn down not too long after the movie was shot there. It's now a parking lot.
 
T

Thomas

For some reason I think that barfly will be re-released within the next year. I don't think it is going to be that hard to get a copy pretty soon
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
mjp: I'm confused (as usual). Is the $75 price for the original VHS Barfly or the DVD? I got the VHS on eBay not long ago for about $10, which seemed like a good price. But I guess I also need the DVD with the commentary. Hope that's not $75.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
The VHS goes pretty cheaply, but the legit U.S. DVD release was going for $75 - $100. I don't know about now, as some people are saying they picked it up for much less. But there are bootleg "region 0" versions floating around that will play anywhere. Not sure if they are taken from the tape or the DVD.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a re-release of Barfly. Unless some cult label does a release at some point. I would doubt a major studio would bother with it. Until the next home video format comes into prominence, at which point they will be probably be more than happy to re-sell us everything we've already bought one or two (or three) times. ;)
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
So that $75 price is for the DVD. That's steep. Maybe I'll wait for the cult favorite reissue 25th anniversary edition.
 
David

David

Chronic, do you know where McLaughlin Ave. is? It's where I grew up and I wondered when you mentioned Washington Blvd. how far "Big Ed's" was from McLaughlin. I remember walking up Washington as a kid, but don't remember how far up you have to go to get to Culver City.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
roni

roni

mjp said:
[...] but the building was torn down years ago to make room for something new.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what Hank said in Hollywood.
End of chapter 28 / p.149 in my Ecco-softcover-ed:

"But there was a sadness in the air because after the movie was shot the bar and hotel were going to be torn down to further some commercial purpose."

Maybe they could've rescued it by declaring it a historical-cultural landmark?
 
D

Delight SChwartz

Big Ed's was run by my in-laws
chronic said:
The bar was Big Ed's (prior to that Sarna's II).
Click to expand...
You're absolutely right - Big Ed's is now a Culver City parking lot; but my in-laws were there running the place from about 1980 to 1987 when it was condemned/torn down, including while Barfly filmed; they met Buk, and my father-in-law had to sneak him a drink once in awhile while his wife wasn't around... because of the bar's shape/size it was easy to get a camera dolly on both sides of the bar, so it was used frequently for location shoots - Streets of Fire, The A Team, Hunter, etc.. I think the relative bartender of Brigham Young's that you mentioned was named Bucky.. I have a shot my husband took years ago of Big Ed standing in the doorway shortly before the condemnation hearings began for the building.. I'm brand new to this site and can't figure out how to post the file but will try again soon. Thanks for the post!
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

Welcome, Ms. Schwartz; good info on a Sunday night. To post a photo, you need to host it on a site such as photobucket. You can either copy the image link (
) over there and paste it into a post here or you can use the "insert image" button in the post header bar.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Purple Stickpin said:
To post a photo, you need to host it on a site such as photobucket.
Click to expand...
No, please don't. I would rather you attach photos to the thread.https://bukowskiforum.com/showthread.php?6318-Posting-images-in-threads

There are hundreds of pictures missing from old threads because people used some free photo hosting service that deleted them. If you attach the images, like the link above shows, the images will never disappear. They will be stored in the forum's file system.

Purple Stickpin's method might be easier, but use attachments if you can. Or just do whatever, and I'll make the image an attachment myself.
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

Stupid me - sorry for the misinformation. I never knew (more properly, I likely read that and spaced on it) we could upload from our computer. I hate dealing with Photobucket - glad to now know that we can upload directly from our computer. Much easier!
 
esart

esart

esart.com
Founding member
as far as i knew, it used to be in la right outside of downtown around 6th nearby kenmore below koreatown. that was what i came up with when i researched it in the early 1990s when i needed it as a reference to paint it, but it was already gone by then.
 
xxedgexx

xxedgexx

"The Kenmore" is on 3rd and Kenmore. All the scenes showing Henry and Wanda walking away from the front of the bar were shot at the Kenmore:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...=i4kgOp75XUlmHx3yyuZAtg&cbp=12,195.38,,1,2.52

It looks like a shitty convenient store these days. I'm not even sure if it's a functioning business.

I believe I've been to most of the remaining Barfly bars from the opening credits.

Hank and Frank's
Smog Cutter (was there recently. Fucking brilliant bar.)
Silver Platter (I think it's a gay bar...it wasn't entirely clear.)

and of course Craby Joe's, which is no longer in operation but lives on in my fondest memories.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top