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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2002 |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Superstar Limo, open for business |
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Before you ride Superstar Limo, take a look at the façade. It’s a cartoonish collection of Los Angeles landmarks. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2002 Beverly Hills Hotel, “The Pink Palace” |
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Yes, there’s a real Beverly Hills Hotel, and it really is pink with a sign on a green section. The luxury hotel, located within tropical gardens on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, opened in 1912. It’s only been pink since 1948. The part of the hotel on the Superstar Limo façade is based on the 1949 addition by architect Paul Revere Williams. The Beverly Hills Hotel caters to celebrities—and to affluent tourists hoping to see famous faces in the hotel’s legendary Polo Lounge. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 Towers of Union Station, City Hall, and the Westin Bonaventure |
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Three downtown Los Angeles landmarks rise in the center of the façade. Combining the Mission Revival and Streamline Moderne styles, Los Angeles Union Station and its clock tower opened in 1939. It was the last of America’s great railroad stations. As passenger rail travel declined in the latter half of the 20th century, activity at the massive station dwindled to only a handful of Amtrak trains each day. Today, with the addition of Metrolink commuter rail service, Red Line and Purple Line subways, Gold Line light rail, and all sorts of inter-city and local bus service, Union Station is once again a bustling travel hub. |
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The distinctive 32-story Los Angeles City Hall opened in 1928 as the tallest building in Los Angeles, a distinction it would keep until 1964. Baby boomers might remember City Hall from the Dragnet television series as the building on Sgt. Joe Friday’s “714” police badge under the credits. Or they might remember it referred to as “the pointy building” on Lohman and Barkley’s radio show. Having undergone a seismic retrofit in 2001, Los Angeles City Hall continues to hold the mayor’s office, council chambers, and many government offices of the city of Los Angeles. Consisting of five reflective glass cylinders, the 35-story Westin Bonaventure Hotel opened in 1976. Architect John Portman’s design features a disorienting six-level atrium at the base, pie-slice-shaped rooms in cylinders, and the revolving BonaVista Lounge at the top. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2002 Angels Flight, “The World’s Shortest Railway” |
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Angels Flight, a short funicular railroad, opened in 1901 to connect the Los Angeles downtown commercial district along Third Street with the Victorian mansions and the “Angel’s View” observation tower atop Bunker Hill. Two funicular cars were connected by a cable that went around a wheel at the top of the hill; the cars counterbalanced each other, and maintained proper spacing on the track. By the 1960s, the once fashionable Bunker Hill neighborhood had deteriorated into slums. As was then the custom, the solution was not to restore the grandeur but to flatten the entire neighborhood for urban renewal. Plans called for Angels Flight to be demolished. Protests ensued. Revised plans called for Angels Flight to be removed temporarily, and to return to the redeveloped Bunker Hill. In 1969, after 68 years of safe operation, Angels Flight was dismantled and put into storage. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 Care for a swim in the planter? |
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It took 27 years. On February 24, 1996, the two original funicular cars returned to service on a new track a half block away from the original Angels Flight. High-rise office and residential buildings now stood atop Bunker Hill. Lacking necessary safety features and suffering from inadequate maintenance, the new Angels Flight had a deadly accident on February 1, 2001—after less than five years of operation. As it approached the top of the hill, one of the cars broke loose and sped to the bottom, slamming into the other car. An 83-year-old man died. Seven other passengers were injured. It took until March 10, 2010—more than nine years after the 2001 accident—before passenger service was restarted on Angels Flight, with new safety features. Angels Flight closed September 5, 2013, because of a derailment. It finally reopened on August 31, 2017, after engineering changes. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 The Pasadena Freeway tunnel, under the Los Angeles Coliseum |
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In Los Angeles, the city known for its freeways, the Pasadena Freeway (originally called the Arroyo Seco Parkway) was the first one. Just north of downtown Los Angeles, the freeway’s northbound lanes pass below Elysian Park through a series of four tunnels with stylish entrances. The tunnels, built between 1931 and 1935, originally carried two-way traffic for Figueroa Street. A few years later, they were connected to the new freeway. Although the Pasadena Freeway is primitive, narrow, and not straight enough by today’s freeway standards, it’s an iconic part of the Los Angeles road system. Yes, the Pasadena Freeway has an exit at Stadium Way, just like on the façade. The real exit leads to Dodger Stadium. The stadium pictured on the ride façade is the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (That’s not a complaint; it’s actually rather clever how the mural brings together Los Angeles’ most historic freeway and most historic stadium.) The Coliseum was the site of the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984—and will again be used for the 2028 Summer Olympics. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2002 Hollywood Freeway |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2001 Superstar Limo façade at night |
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Come back at night when the landmarks of the “City of Angels” are lit up—and the whole park looks better than by day. |
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Superstar Limo opened as part of the original roster of rides at Disney’s California Adventure on February 8, 2001. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 One Cast Member, zero guests |
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The ride had such a short life—less than a year—that many guests never had a chance to ride it. Far more guests had a chance to see the exterior façade which lasted until a construction wall appeared in front of it in March 2005. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2002 Superstar Limo with barriers at the entrance and exit in 2002 |
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By the end of 2005, the former Superstar Limo had become Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2008 Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2007 Painted characters |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2017 Entrance |
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Neither the Superstar Limo façade nor the Monsters, Inc. façade fits into the theme of the Hollywood Backlot. A real studio backlot has exterior sets for movies. What kind of movies would be filmed in front of the painted panels of the Superstar Limo or Monsters, Inc. exteriors? The real-life landmarks that were on the outside of Superstar Limo are all still around. Take a trip to Los Angeles County to visit them… |
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Photo by Alan Light, 2007 (CC BY-SA 2.0) (modified) Beverly Hills Hotel |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015 Los Angeles City Hall |
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Photo by Prayitno, 2011 (CC BY-SA 2.0) (modified) Westin Bonaventure Hotel |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015 Los Angeles Union Station |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Angels Flight |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015 Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles |
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Walt Disney Concert Hall, one of the most prominent landmarks of Los Angeles, was never part of the Superstar Limo façade. The Frank Gehry-designed home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale opened October 24, 2003—more than two and a half years after California Adventure opened and more than a year and a half after Superstar Limo closed.
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© 2009-2020 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated September 18, 2020 |
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