It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film Hello, We grew up in Long Beach during our kid days. In 1963, they filmed the movie, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. It took place all over Long Beach, but especially the downtown area we were familiar with during our early days. Cormier Chevrolet in Long Beach 1963 in, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World movie. This was our favorite place in downtown Long Beach. It was several blocks from our high school and close enough to run down there for some needed parts, etc. My brother bought his 1958 Impala there in the fall of 1957. We had many runs down to the parts department for getting new ring or pinion gears, Positraction oil, hydraulic linkage tubes for the three carbs, and other parts, etc. (The son of the Cormier Chevrolet owner had a Corvette as his first car, as we all expected.) It was the Chevy dealer for locals, especially from our high school a few blocks away. Cormier Chevrolet near downtown Long Beach. I bought my 1965 El Camino in the fall of 1964 at this location prior to the whole place being shut down and moved to a huge location almost at the entrance to the Lion’s Dragstrip, near or off the side of the 405 freeway. The huge sign was seen by zillions going by daily on that freeway. From an earlier post: Back in 1963, the movie Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was filmed at this particular location in Long Beach. The movie also utilized the various other places downtown and along American Ave. (now Long Beach Blvd) It was fun to be able to know where those scenes were filmed as we all walked at the locations at one time or another. The movie theater, the underground tunnel with cool food stands and access to the beach right out in front… and of course, “The Pike.” 1963 Pine Avenue going toward the ocean and the Pike. Jergins Trust and the State Theater on the left. (soon to be a Hard Rock Resort Hotel and amenities, including the old Jergins tunnel underneath revamped) All on Ocean Blvd in the foreground. 2012 Pine Avenue going toward the ocean. Remnants of the Jergins Trust Building on the left. The Ocean Center Building is on the right. “Top: View of Ocean Blvd. and Pine Ave. looking southeast on August 13, 1986. The Jergin’s Trust Building is on the right, in the center is the Crocker Bank Building (now the Salvation Army Building), and on the left is Breakers. The Jergin’s Trust Building was named for the Jergin’s Trust oil company, which built a four story addition in the early 1920s. The Lowe’s State Theater occupied the lower part of the building. The original Jergin’s Trust Building is no longer. By 2027, a new Hard Rock Hotel/resort will be the cornerstone of the oceanfront shoreline for Long Beach. It will be the first new hotel built in the last 30 years. The tunnel underneath where we used to cross Ocean Blvd. will supposedly be retained and updated, too. Just in time for the 2028 Olympics events in Los Angeles (about 40 minutes away) or the Long Beach events along the shoreline and harbor. Jnaki Rainbow Pier (an unusual round pier from shoreline to shoreline, with water locked in place) and Linden Avenue were/are the entrances to the downtown shoreline, Pike beach areas back then. These days little to no filming is being done. But TV series like NCIS LA, CSI Miami, yes, Miami… and of course, Ferris Buhler’s House on Country Club Drive, Bixby Knolls, were shot in the community due to similar locations elsewhere. The NCIS LA show is no more, but they used the whole city as named and filming was done from the harbor warehouses/docks to the city streets. The latest is a show being filmed along the “Dexter” series. On the Alamitos Bay Peninsula is one of the last remaining houses from the hurricane of 1939. It will be a part of that series. My wife’s college apartment was one block away, down the beachside. The CSI Miami scenes were taken at the beach, Marine Stadium, 2nd Street bridges, the canals, and the harbor to look like Miami. The trickery of Hollywood was evident. At first, we were amazed that almost in every scene, it was supposedly Miami, but they eventually were Long Beach, CA locations. They just seemed too familiar. The Long Beach Alamitos Bay tall bridge area was supposed to look like Miami canals and the backgrounds just looked like a nice marina. It was a nice marina, the Alamitos Bay Marina attached to Belmont Shore in Long Beach, CA. The "Queens Way" road sign… only in Long Beach, CA Note2: Another point of view about the Mad World filming: posted by So Cal local, @old man hal
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