Guide to Route 66 Movie Locations in LA

Opened in 1915 as the South Pasadena Pharmacy, the overtly nostalgic Fair Oaks Pharmacy was a Route 66 attraction back when pharmacists would do double duty working the lunch counter and filling prescriptions. Today, it still features a compounding pharmacy and soda fountain and is also a coffee and breakfast bar, retro gift and novelties store, and a neighborhood diner. Fair Oaks Pharmacy famously appeared in 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds as the corner drugstore in the fictitious Westchestertonfieldville, the alleged hometown of TV tabloid reporter Babe Bennett (Wynona Ryder) while posing as a school nurse. (The location of her claimed childhood home is in nearby Pasadena). Other than being in Iowa in the movie, Fair Oaks Pharmacy is perfectly cast as a small-town, throwback community staple.

Even if you’ve never dined at Cindy’s restaurant in Eagle Rock, you may well have glimpsed it on screens. An eatery since the 1940s and Cindy’s since 1963, this understated Googie-style delight appears in 2004’s star-studded Surviving Christmas, in 2014’s not-so-star-studded Ouija, and on a Season 6 episode of TV’s Sons of Anarchy. The colorful diner has also graced small-screen series Parenthood, Aquarius, and Secrets and Lies. But Cindy’s most lingering, entirely undisguised starring role is in Justin Timberlake’s 2016 “Can’t Stop the Feeling” music video, which opens with its Route 66-era signage, includes multiple interior shots, and has racked up nearly 2-billion YouTube views.

Seventh and Broadway was the original western terminus of Route 66, before it was extended to Santa Monica. When Route 66 was designated in 1926, this Downtown crossroads was the busiest intersection in the world, a chaotic throng of rickety early automobiles and shoulder-to-shoulder pedestrians. Today a part of L.A.’s (literally) glittering Jewelry District, it remains a key transit point and, being a highly walkable neighborhood, is a great jumping off point for visiting multiple famed filming locations without having to re-park or hop back onto public transport (which serves the area well). Nearby Pershing Square is a five-acre postmodern plaza with roots reaching back to 1866 that has featured in movies like The Bodyguard, Beverly Hills Cop, and I Am Sam, as well as on TV series including Knots Landing, The Incredible Hulk, and Falcon Crest. Also nearby, the bustling and colorful Grand Central Market opened a decade prior to Route 66 and can be seen in movies including La La Land, Midnight Run, Most Wanted, and City of Angels.

Surrounded by reflective tiles, hurtling headlights, and vehicles darting in and out on sharp, sudden ramps, driving through the Figueroa Street Tunnels can feel like something from a science fiction film, especially at night. Sure enough, director Ridley Scott chose these living Elysian Park landmarks, which were once designated as part of Route 66, as a location for his hugely influential 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner. In the film, Harrison Ford drives through one of the tunnels while listening to the recording of an attempted murder. Some of the four Figueroa Street Tunnels have also featured in 2005 Jennifer Aniston rom-com Rumor Has It, in the end credits of 1995 PlayStation video game Twisted Metal, and in the opening credits of 1971’s Duel (though the more prominent tunnel in that cult favorite is in northern LA County, near Agua Dulce).

Just west of Downtown LA on Sunset Boulevard, Paradise Motel was built in 1958 during the heyday of similar Route 66 motels that once punctuated its 2,450 miles. While it doesn’t live up to its name these days, the still-operational Paradise has proved useful as a film location over the years. In hit 2000s teen drama series The O.C. it is typecast, undisguised as a sleazy motel somewhere between Newport Beach and Tijuana where a group of teens get stuck after crashing their car. The appearance of the distinctively L-shaped building just south of Dodger Stadium in Water & Power is much more geographically apt, as the 2013 movie is a gritty Angeleno crime drama set in neighboring Eastside L.A.

Uniquely nuanced 2009 comedy horror movie Drag Me to Hell is littered with highly recognizable L.A. locations. Among them are Echo Park Pawn Shop, which appears completely unmasked with its name and Sunset Boulevard street number clearly visible, where protagonist Christine (portrayed by Alison Lohman) sells everything of value she owns. A coffee shop where she meets with her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) in the movie was actually hip nearby clothing store Luxe de Ville, also on Route 66 at the corner of Sunset and Mohawk Street. The couple then stroll along Mohawk and stumble upon a psychic reader’s shop, which was in fact a boutique at the time.

Sunset Junction is where Route 66 kinked true west from Sunset Boulevard onto Santa Monica Boulevard. This eclectic Silver Lake neighborhood is popular with creatives and the bars, boutiques, and restaurants they crave – which also makes it a great backdrop for filming. Perhaps its most notable appearance is in 2005 rom-com A Lot Like Love, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet, in which Sunset Junction staple Bar Keeper (which sells barware, glassware, and spirits) appears as Upon Gallery. For the laundromat scene where Oliver (Kutcher) waits for photographer Emily (Peet) to appear at the gallery, the long defunct Sunset Launderland, part of the historic Black Cat building, portrayed itself, inside and out.

With its main entrance right on Historic Route 66, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, founded in 1899, predates the famed highway. Its manicured, park-like 62 acres are not only the final resting place of movie legends including Cecil B. DeMille, Jayne Mansfield, Judy Garland, and Rudolph Valentino, but have also actually appeared in movies such as The Bonfire of the Vanities, L.A. Story, The Player, and Valentine’s Day. On TV, it’s been seen in Columbo, Californication, and – perhaps most appropriately – Six Feet Under. Hollywood Forever Cemetery also hosts outdoor classic movie screenings in the warmer months (only in Hollywood!) as well as other cultural events including concerts, author evenings, podcast tapings, and even comedy shows, as well as private bookings like album release parties and “for your consideration” events.

Adjacent to Hollywood Forever, on a plot that once belonged to the cemetery, the legendary Paramount Studios has predictably been a filming location for countless productions for both the silver and small screens. Movies shot at Paramount include Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, Bridesmaids, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 English-language remake), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spider-Man 3, and Mission Impossible III. TV hits produced at the 65-acre complex include Landman, Tulsa King, The Agency: Central Intelligence, and Mayor of Kingstown. You can learn more about these productions and the studio’s over 100 years of motion picture magic on a Paramount Pictures Studio Tour. This includes behind-the-scenes visits to prop warehouses, the New York Backlot, iconic filming locations and, on the VIP Tour, exclusive access to Paramount’s archives and archivists.
The Formosa, Hollywood
Opened in 1925, almost concurrently with Route 66, originally in a Red Car trolley owned by prize-fighter Jimmy Bernstein, the storied Formosa restaurant and bar is a part of movie history on multiple levels. Because there was a studio lot just across the street (originally United Artists Studio; later Samuel Goldwyn Studio and Warner Hollywood Studios), stars like Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, and John Wayne were regulars in its red leather booths. As The Formosa endured and its legend grew – including some staff who worked there for decades –, it began to itself appear in films such as L.A. Confidential, Swingers, Nurse Betty, and Still Breathing. Having survived close calls due to encroaching new developments, including a sudden closure in 2016, The Formosa continues to serve stiff drinks and Chinese-influenced cuisine in surrounds rich with authentic Hollywood history.

The original Barney’s Beanery is another storied eatery that’s no stranger to screens and stars. Celebrating its centenary in WeHo next year, it was a welcome site for weary travelers on Route 66 during the highway’s early years, when Barney’s was basically in the middle of nowhere. The property appeared almost weekly on hit 1970s crime drama Columbo, in which Lieutenant Columbo (played by Peter Faulk) is a chili-lovin’ regular. While the first appearance of Barney’s interior on the show was actually filmed on location, thereafter a look-alike set was used, although “real” exterior shots speckled the series throughout its 8-year run. The WeHo Barney’s has also appeared in 1980s movies Real Genius and Body Double; in 1991’s The Doors, in which Val Kilmer depicts Jim Morrison urinating on the bar; and in 2003 comedy Stuck on You.

The number of movies and TV shows filmed at Santa Monica Pier – the symbolic but not literal western terminus of Route 66 – could justify an entire article. Located within the entertainment industry’s “studio zone” (which determines employee benefits for work performed inside and outside of it), its history on film dates back to 1914 silent comedy Tillie’s Punctured Romance and also includes Farewell, My Lovely (1975), Mighty Joe Young (1998) and, in the 2000s, Not Another Teen Movie and Hannah Montana: The Movie. The pier’s Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant is a nod to its appearance in Tom Hanks classic Forrest Gump. On television, Santa Monica Pier has graced everything from The Rockford Files and Charlie’s Angels to Grey’s Anatomy and even South Park. Next-door on Newcomb Pier, Looff Hippodrome is a historic beachside carousel where Paul Newman’s character lives and works in 1973’s multi-Oscar-winning The Sting.