White Men Can't Jump Filming Locations - 30TH ANNIVERSARY

this year marks the 30th anniversary of white men can't jump and right now i'm on my way to venice california where the movie begins but if you've seen this movie then you already know that today we're going to be traveling all around los angeles and i think i did pretty good on finding these locations i think i found most of them i'm afraid there's going to be a few locations that i just can't pinpoint but we'll see in the end so today we're checking out filming locations for the 1992 film white men can't jump let's go see what we can find well i've arrived here in venice i've got my jordans on and i'm ready to find out if i can jump spoiler alert i cannot [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is where we see billy arriving in venice beach he's driving down windward avenue and that building right there that's the one that says saloon on it [Music] [Music] now here's a really cool thing about this location up on top of that building there is a mural of sydney and billy overlooking venice i wonder how many people miss that billy's then walking down speedway away from windward avenue bouncing his basketball off of a mural of venice beach and here's where that mural was the mural is actually still here they just moved it up and changed it a little bit billy then walks out onto oceanfront walk you can see the beach house behind him a lot of the buildings here have changed since then billy then stops to listen to the venice beach boys sing and he was standing right here in front of titanic which is still here and it's been here a long time actually remember this store from my very first trip to venice back in the day and as i already showed you those gazebos they're standing in front of are right here they're just currently being renovated the view behind billy has changed quite a bit a lot of the buildings around here have changed after talking to the singers billy heads out onto the venice beach courts and this is where the singers were standing and right here is where the venice beach basketball courts were is this the venice beach courts i mean is this the only one no i'm telling you billy that's where the courts were as a matter of fact see those two yellow posts those are the exact same two yellow posts that billy walks right by now the reason why it looks so different is because there was never actually a basketball court here just a parking lot but they really like this location so they transformed half of the parking lot into the venice beach basketball courts the actual venice beach basketball courts are way down on the other side of the beach and a lot of people still mistake those for being the ones used in the movie but this entire section of parking lot right here this is where billy and sydney play basketball together for the first time blue [Music] me [Music] so after hustling sydney billy returns home to neptune's grotto the rundown motel that he stays at with gloria and as you could probably guess from the way it looks in the movie it was torn down not long after filming now in real life this was the flamingo west motel and there's a couple of other buildings that you can see around it in the movie but all of those have been torn down as well the only thing i was able to find is this old postcard for the flamingo west sydney ends up convincing billy to team up with him and he brings them here to this basketball court for their first game hustling together now although there is still a basketball court here it has been remodeled and the hoops are no longer in the same place just like that handball court that you can see behind sydney it's since been removed and replaced with a couple of storage sheds [Music] now i can't believe that there's still a bench in the exact same place where billy was sitting raymond realizes he doesn't have enough money to cover the bet so he heads to his car because he's got another plan and his car was parked right here that's the gate that he walks through now when he goes to his car he grabs a gun and a ski mask and he heads to the liquor store up the street and we see him walk right past this wall which in the movie had a mural on it and we see him walk past a pay phone and a mural of the virgin mary and then he goes through the front door of the liquor store and right here is where the pay phone was that's where the virgin mary was and then he heads through this front door and here it is this is the door that he comes through now the inside of this liquor store has been remodeled because when he walks through the front door he walks straight ahead to the counter which would have been to the left of where i'm standing but that's currently just shelves the front counter is now to the right of where i'm standing meanwhile back at the courts billy's doing his stretching while they're waiting for raymond to come back and those houses that you see across the street look exactly the same they just have a different paint job on them sydney's too busy showing off and he doesn't realize that raymond's pulled a straight razor on him and again that's right over here where the handball courts used to be raymond decides he's going to go to his car and get his other gun and everybody takes off running that gloria was sitting in the car right across the street watching as everybody's taking off running and hopping over the fence and billy and sydney run across the street and they jump in the car and take off just in the nick of time and they were parked right here in front of this house [Music] after the game they dropped sydney off back at home at the vista view apartments which is right here and it looks almost the same it's just missing the vista view sign billy pulls his car up right here in front of this wall which no longer has the ivy in front of it but the bricks are still the same after an argument between billy and sydney billy drives away and sydney walks through this front gate so after they drop sydney off billy and gloria are driving home and they're driving on washington and fourth the camera starts by pointing through this intersection and you can actually see this building right here which still looks just like it did in the movie the camera then pans to the left and we catch up with billy and gloria right about here now at the end of that scene they're now on atoms approaching redondo and it starts with the car right over here that building on the corner you can see it's still being built the one that you see in the movie was just recently torn down they then passed by all these buildings and as they go through the intersection you can see a building on the corner with a staircase and as they continue you can see a marquee they pass by all these buildings you can see this building is currently being torn down here's that building in the intersection with the staircase and then right over there is the marquee which actually belongs to a nightclub called feist dodo which has been there for a really long time now it was also in this same area where billy and sydney are arguing about being able to hear jimmy but so many of the buildings around here have changed that i just wasn't able to pinpoint any of the buildings in that scene the next morning the snooki brothers catch up with billy and gloria and they have to flee neptune's grotto and as they're running away from the stookie brothers they run into a tunnel that goes underneath the freeway and this is the tunnel that they go running into you can see that it's now gated up and you can no longer go inside [Music] but this is pretty close to the shot that we get without me being able to go into the tunnel now as billy and gloria are running out of the tunnel the camera's shooting the other way and you can see a building that looks like it's almost right across the street this is pretty close to the shot that we get of them running out of the tunnel and as you can see that building's not there but it actually is there it's just about five blocks down they're using a zoom lens that makes it look like it's right across the street but if we go all the way down here to the end there's that building now like i said in the movie it looks like it's right across the street but it's actually quite a ways down pretty crazy [Music] now after they come out of the tunnel they then run across a bridge that's going over a freeway and that's the eighth avenue bridge coming away from 25th street and you can see this bridge is also gated off you can no longer cross it as they're running across the bridge you can see a sign for arlington avenue and they're running over the i-10 freeway and you can see right there the sign for arlington avenue and here's interstate 10 that's the bridge they're running across billy and gloria are running so fast that they run two and a half miles all the way to the ocean breeze motel [Music] now in real life it's the cinema motel and it looks almost exactly like it did 30 years ago it's just missing the sign that says ocean breeze motel and while billy and gloria are busy moving into a new place sydney's also busy trying to find a new home a better place to raise his family [Music] the camera starts pointed up at these palm trees and then slowly pans down to show us this house and then right over here where this car is this is where the kids were playing jump rope now sydney stands right up there on the porch trying to pretend like he's not really too crazy about the house obviously that's just because he knows he can't really afford it but then his wife pulls him out onto the front yard and tells him she wants this house no matter what it takes and they were standing right here in front of the house and that's when sydney realizes he's got to get this house no matter what [Music] now the camera starts over here looking at the train and then moves under the stairs and ends up right over here looking at the basketball court and just like the one that we saw earlier there is still a basketball court here but things have changed the hoops aren't in the same place now as usual billy shows up as the game's already being played he comes walking down these stairs right here and sydney's already out on the basketball court setting up the hustle now a lot of the buildings around here have changed but this one that you see behind sydney looks the same it just has a different paint job on it now these buildings that we see over here have changed a bit and that handball court is gone i just realized that this house over here this can be seen a few times throughout that scene sydney watches as billy sadly walks up these steps because they just lost the game because sydney lost it on purpose to hustle billy and he does feel bad about it but he's got to do what he's got to do so he can get that house for his family he watches as billy sadly walks across this bridge trying to figure out how he's going to tell gloria that he lost the money and speaking of gloria billy arrives home at the ocean breeze motel where gloria is waiting for him in room number three we see him walk across the parking lot and then he stops at the front door and he kind of stops and tries to figure out how he's gonna tell gloria that he lost all the money and there it is room number three i wonder if this is the white man can't jump sweet after gloria finds out what happened her and billy get on a bus and go to pay sydney a visit the bus stops at the crenshaw district sign right in front of the family savings bank right up there that was the family savings sign the clock is gone along with that crenshaw district sign and as the bus is pulling away if you look through the window you can see the boys market across the street which would have been located right here it's currently just an empty lot billy and sydney team up once again to try and make some money and they go compete in the two-on-two tournament [Music] now that was filmed here at lafayette park and a lot of stuff has changed here the park's been remodeled a skate park's been added a soccer field the walls have been changed the playground's been changed but there's still a couple of buildings that you can match up from the movie like that office building i just showed you and this church and a little piece of trivia when they were looking for the location for the two on two tournament they really liked this park but they needed a park with two basketball courts so the movie crew actually built a second basketball court and then gifted it to the city of los angeles when they were done filming so after the tournament billy and sydney are driving down crenshaw and the camera follows them and we see them pass right by the boys market that's the same boys market that you see earlier in the movie now when that scene first starts you can see a bunch of buildings and neon signs right over in this area and all of those buildings have gone they've all been changed however there's one neon sign that you can see that's still there and i'm gonna take you over there right now and show it to you so in the beginning of that scene you can see this neon sign now in the movie it doesn't say big five or goodwill that's because all of these buildings are different all of the old buildings have been torn down and rebuilt it's a brand new shopping center however they kept the same neon sign so as they're driving down crenshaw they're arguing about whether or not billy can dunk and you see them pass by a shell gas station on the left and a yum yum donuts on the right and they're driving through the intersection of crenshaw and what's now obama boulevard you can see the shell gas station is still there however the yum yum donuts has since been torn down a few moments later they're driving in the opposite direction and they end up pulling up in front of the yum yum donuts which would have been located right here and right next to the yum yum donuts was a place called jack's chili factory which you can clearly see as they're pulling away from the donut shop so they go looking for a basketball hoop so billy can prove that he can dunk and they pull up right here against the curb you can see that building across the street and nothing has changed on that building that's how we know for sure that this is the spot where they pull up now i don't think anybody's really been able to find this yet i saw a couple of people online talking about how they couldn't find the hoop because it's long gone and that's definitely true but when i was studying the scene trying to figure out where it was it looked so familiar to me and then it all of a sudden clicked boys in the hood we see that exact same used car lot during the crenshaw cruising scene in boys in the hood as a matter of fact in white men can't jump you see an f and an eye on the sign and you can see that exact same sign in boys in the hood and of course this is a really famous cruising area and that's how i was also able to recognize the building across the street so somewhere right here was that small building with the basketball hoop and right here in this parking lot is where sydney says the famous line white men can't jump [Music] so it's right here where billy's walking home down hollywood boulevard and he's trying to figure out how he's going to tell gloria once again that he lost all the money and he's walking past all of the shops right here and that's when he sees the dress in the window of the store and that store was located right here billy goes inside and he buys the dress and then he continues walking down hollywood boulevard and he walks right past a pay phone that would have been right here and you can actually see where the pay phone used to be unfortunately the dress didn't help gloria's had enough and she decides she's leaving billy she walks out into the street and she's hitchhiking and she's standing right here in front of the ocean breeze motel that's when she looks back into the room and she notices that the carpet's on fire billy runs back to try and put out the fire gloria gets in the truck and takes off and that's when the sticky brothers show up now unfortunately i wasn't able to figure out where this scene was filmed but i'm pretty sure those are the refineries in wilmington california i just wasn't able to pinpoint this exact location after they threatened billy the stookie brothers drop them back off at the ocean breeze motel sydney's heading to okee dog to try and close a construction deal with a prospective client he's driving down pico right about here when he makes the left turn into the okie dog parking lot and you can see this building on the corner when he's making that left turn and right there across the street that used to be okie dog but it's since been torn down and you guessed it brand new luxury apartments were built in its place now when the camera is shooting the other way and we see all the workers running towards sydney's car you can see some buildings across the street and there's one pretty unique building on the corner it's still there but it's now covered by this tree but if we just take a walk down the block here's that building that you see when sydney's pulling into the driveway sydney agrees to try and help billy get gloria on jeopardy so they go to visit one of his friends who's a security guard at the tv studio and they were playing basketball here in this tiny parking lot in downtown l.a so we see billy and sydney show up to the court and they're standing in the corner checking things out and they would have been right over here in the corner it's just really hard to see now because there's so many cars in this parking lot and it's a really small lot and it was also right here where all these cars are where they're sitting and talking with sydney's friend trying to convince him to help out billy and he finally agrees to help him out under one condition he's got to make a hook shot and billy thinks he has to make it on the hoop that's right in front of him which would have been right here in front of this wall but they tell him nope you got to make it on the hoop all the way on the other side of the lot [Music] of course billy makes the shot so they helped gloria get on jeopardy and that was filmed at sony studios on stage 10 which is where they filmed jeopardy so that's where they filmed that scene and just recently they changed the name of stage 10 to the alex trebek stage in memory of alex trebek which is really cool so after gloria wins jeopardy billy convinces her to take him back and they celebrate by spending a night at the hotel shangri-la in santa monica [Music] and while billy and gloria are celebrating sydney comes home to find out that his apartment's been broken into and that scene takes place in the alley right behind sydney's apartment however billy and gloria are still having a great day rollerblading and bicycling alongside the beach right across the street from the hotel sydney comes looking for billy because now he needs his help and he was standing right there on the front steps of the hotel and then runs across the street and billy standing on the bike path across the street noticed that tree behind him there's that tree they were standing right here sydney says he needs to talk to billy alone and we see gloria spinning on her rollerblades right here sydney pulls billy aside and notice all of those buildings behind him you can see everything from the santa monica pier in the background billy of course gets excited about the game and noticed those plants they were standing right here and then billy looks over here and sees gloria rollerblading and realizes it might not be a good idea for him to play the game since he just got her back he tells gloria that he's going to play in the game with sydney and then he watches her rollerblade out of his life forever now for that big game with the king and duck the final game of the movie billy and sydney return to lafayette park except for this time the shots are a lot tighter and we don't see much of the buildings around the park however we do get another shot of that office building that we see earlier in the movie [Music] and like i said pretty much everything at the park's been renovated so that's all new playground equipment for the final shot of the movie sydney throws up the ball and billy dunks it proving once and for all that he can jump and obviously these are different hoops they've been changed out since the movie so after they win the game billy meets up with the stookie brothers takes a photo for him and pays back the money he owes i wasn't able to figure out this location since it is just an empty lot for the final scene of the movie billy and sydney are walking on ocean front walk and dudley in front of the same gazebos that we see in the beginning of the movie notice the design on the building on the right and there's that building now the one on the left has been remodeled but these are both the same two buildings that we see in that shot however that wall right there is not the same one that sydney jumps over it's definitely been changed since then billy and sydney walk out into the parking lot or the basketball court and the movie ends that's gonna do it for this video as always thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: 80s Life

Views: 35,908

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Id: dyyCT1A-TBo

Length: 23min 50sec (1430 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 17 2022