When Cheech and Chong were making what became their uproarious feature film debut, Up in Smoke (1978), the filmmakers didn’t make a point to call attention to the movie’s overall setting: Los Angeles. After all, it was about two slackers who go on a dire search for some grass, are deported to Tijuana, and smuggle a delivery van made entirely of weed back into the US.
Although not by design, Up in Smoke still became a L.A. classic, with locations that ranged from the Valley to Venice and Malibu to West Hollywood.
But for a movie in which the Chicano spirit is so heavily infused into the 35-millimeter film on which it was shot, it’s somewhat surprising that the only Up in Smoke locations east of the L.A. River were the reception area of Lincoln Heights Jail and a hot dog stand just up the road from there.
When it came time for the doped-up duo’s follow-up, it was a no-brainer considering Up in Smoke made over $44 million on an estimated $2 million budget. The approach to locations changed.
Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie featured an all-out L.A.-centric plot in which Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong would play the characters of Cheech and Chong proper. Cheech works for a production company and Chong, well, doesn’t do much of anything except indulge in the drugs he’s supposed to sell.
They live rent-free in a condemned, craftsman-style house.
When Cheech arranges for Donna (Evelyn Guerrero), a woman from the L.A. County welfare office, to come over to the house for a date, Cheech needs Chong to make himself scarce. Coincidentally, Cheech receives a call from his “Texas oil-millionaire” cousin, Red (also played by Marin). Finding it the perfect opportunity to get rid of his roommate, Cheech sends Chong to meet Red at a hotel on Hollywood Boulevard.
Cue the misadventures!
“Mexican Americans”
“This is an L.A. story, the Chicano aspect,” says the location manager of Next Movie, Dow Griffith. “There’s nowhere else that you have the concentration of that kind of culture.”
He adds that the characters of Cheech and Chong wouldn’t be what they are without Los Angeles.
Ultimately, it was Griffith’s ambition, know-how, and creative eye that took the film to areas of town that Up in Smoke never went.
Griffith says he immersed himself in the script.
“I wanted to find locations in neighborhoods that were the actual neighborhoods they could exist in,” says the veteran location manager
By the time of Next Movie, Griffith had done locations for films including Carrie (1976), The Onion Field (1979), and The Jerk (1979). Seven years after Next Movie, Griffith worked with Marin on Born in East L.A. (1987).
Griffith recalls telling Marin and Chong, “‘I’m going to go out and look in East L.A.,’ and I got a reaction out of the both of them that surprised me. “They were basically like, ‘Is it safe to do that?’”
Chong could not be reached for comment and Marin was unavailable for an interview.
“They said, ‘What about the gangs?’ I said, ‘I’ll just talk to the gangs, and they’ll love it,’” says Griffith.
He was right.
“I look at the neighborhood gangs as being like the city council. I treat them the same way that I would treat our elected officials,” says Griffith. “I just explained, ‘We’re going to do this Cheech and Chong movie and we’d like to do it here if you think that would work. And if you could help us out, that would be great.”
The production largely honed in on City Terrace.
Chong and Marin happily got behind filming in East L.A., and so did the residents.
“We would say, ‘It’s a Cheech and Chong movie.’ Well, right away, everyone’s like, ‘How can we help?’ People in the neighborhood were really enthusiastic about it,” Griffith recalls. “They would say, ‘Oh, wow, they’re going to come here?!’ They were just as amazed as anybody that we would be filming there. It didn’t happen every day. I think that was a fun thing for the neighborhood.”
Outside of the cluster of Eastside locations, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie included spots like the Rowan building at the corner of 5th and Spring Street in downtown, which was used as the county office of public social services. Marin can be seen entering and exiting Universal Studios at Gate 4 along Lankershim Boulevard. The production was based on the Universal lot and shot Cheech and Chong’s house on the now-extinct backlot set of Industrial Street. The exterior of the Comedy House was filmed at 133 N La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, today a Fogo de Chão and formerly Paul Cummins Roaring 20’s jazz club and a California cuisine eatery called Bistango. The Powers House, a 1914 Tudor-style mansion in Windsor Square, was used as the home of a rich young woman with whom Red and Chong cross paths at a musical instrument shop in Hollywood, the film’s other central shooting area.
One of the working titles of Next Movie, along with the aptly named Cheech & Chong Go Hollyweed, was Cheech & Chong Go Hollywood.
Griffith says that there was nothing in the script that implied Hollywood, except for the title, so he keyed off that and suggested locations that provided an Old Hollywood feel.
To mark the 45th anniversary of Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie, released on July 18, 1980, L.A. TACO took a look at the film’s Hollywood and East L.A. locations.
The Gas Station
In what is arguably one of the funniest opening scenes in any film ever made, Cheech and Chong try to inconspicuously siphon gas from a tow truck parked at a Texaco gas station.
After Chong successfully suctions the fuel with a tube and spits it all over Cheech, the gasoline starts to flow into a metal garbage can still containing crumpled up pieces of newspaper, cigarette butts, fast food restaurant cups and dead leaves.
By shooting some of the footage from a distance with a long lens, the scene almost has a documentary, voyeuristic edge to it, like you shouldn’t be watching what these two guys are doing.
The gas station was on the north side of Sunset Boulevard between Cahuenga Boulevard and Ivar Avenue.
Griffith says, “When I decided to focus on Hollywood, I think I looked at a couple of different gas stations. This one was nice because it was right on Sunset, and it had that Hollywood feeling.”
A 1976 real estate ad in The Los Angeles Times advertises the station for lease: “At Cahuenga. Best location in L.A. 3 corners, money maker.
Griffith recalls that at the time of filming, the station was owned by an Armenian family. A 1983 ad in The Los Angeles Times shows the business name as Haserjian Bros. Texaco.
“They were happy to cooperate, so that was a big plus because you’re interrupting somebody’s business. But they were up for it.”
In subsequent years, this spot was the Jack in the Box across from the old Amoeba Music location. Today, the property is under remodel.
6407 W Sunset Blvd, Hollywood
Pouring the Gas
From the gas station, Cheech and Chong carry the gas-filled garbage can up the street, awkwardly smiling at passersby.
When they arrive at a yellow 1956 Ford Thunderbird, they begin to pour the gas directly from the trashcan into the tank of the parked car. Cheech and Chong banter back and forth as gasoline and pieces of garbage spill onto the car, into the street, and all over themselves, setting up what is to be the explosive payoff of the entire sequence.
1541 Ivar Ave, Hollywood
“Foxy Mama”
After cruising around the streets of Hollywood for a bit, all while Chong rolls a joint and Cheech rips a big one, Cheech stops the car to flirt with a beautiful blonde woman in a green dress, who was played by Tommy Chong’s wife, Shelby Chong.
Today, the spot looks entirely different.
On the west side of the street was the old Hollywood library branch, which was originally located around the corner on Hollywood Boulevard before being moved to Ivar Avenue in 1940.
Two years after the release of Next Movie, the library was a victim of arson and was replaced by the Frank Gehry-designed Frances Howard Goldwyn Library, which opened in 1986.
In the film, a parking lot connecting Ivar to Vine Street is seen behind the woman. Today, a parking structure and the Triangle Square apartments stand on that lot.
1623 Ivar Avenue, Hollywood
The perfectly crafted opening sequence of the film comes to an end when the Thunderbird stops at an intersection and Chong, with the joint loosely resting on the edge of his lip, asks Cheech for a light.
“Hey, I don’t think you’d better light it in here, man,” says Cheech.
But Chong sparks the lighter, sending two fireballs bursting through the car windows.
As smoke billows out, Cheech furiously pats himself down trying to mitigate any further injury. Cheech blames the explosion on the gasoline and the lighter; Chong attributes it to Cheech’s flatulence.
Griffith says of picking the spot, “Well, you just have to make sure that it’s something you can close down and control and that has a good backdrop.”
Intersection of Ivar Avenue & Selma Avenue, Hollywood
Modifying the Van
As Cheech steers his work van down City Terrace Drive, Chong tells him to make a quick left-hand turn from the right lane. While attempting to make the ill-advised turn at the intersection of City Terrace Drive and Townsend Avenue, the van crosses paths with a couple of lowriders. One of the cars keeps the van from making the turn while the other one circles it.
Cheech suggests they’re being disrespected because the van isn’t dressed right.
As Cheech makes the turn and parks the van, “Tequila” starts to play, and the pair begins to customize the van using some tools and props stored in the back of the vehicle. The result is a tricked-out 1978 Chevy van lowrider.
1058 N Townsend Avenue, City Terrace
“Pendejo”
In so many words, Cheech tells Chong that to be respected in the neighborhood, you need to have your act together or you’ll get trampled. Then he teaches Chong some Spanish.
Cheech says, “When you see a real good friend, you know, say, ‘Hey, pendejo, how you doin’?’ … That means my real good friend.”
As they stop at another intersection, a bright orange 1963 Chevy Impala pulls up next to the van. Cheech quips about the car being stolen from the circus. The Impala’s hydraulics start to kick in. In response, the van’s rear begins to jump.
While Chong excitedly bounces along with the van, it rolls into the front yard of a corner house.
When the homeowners storm out, Chong exclaims, to the understandable dismay of the family, “Hey, pendejos, how you doin’?!’”
“I can’t remember whether we used their actual fence and built them a new one or whether we put that there ourselves,” says Griffith. “But it’s amazing that homeowners really get behind that. They go, ‘Oh, this is going to be great!’”
And how’s this for a cosmic coincidence? In 2012, a Chevy HHR plowed through the fence of the same house; the homeowner didn’t know the location was used in Next Movie.
827 N Rowan Avenue, City Terrace
The Bubble Van
While driving around City Terrace, Chong pulls out a Ziplock bag of what appears to be cocaine. Cheech is transfixed, but Chong won’t let his friend partake, because the supply needs to last awhile. Eventually, Chong agrees to let Cheech smell what’s in the bag and he pushes his face way down into it. Cheech raises his head, face covered in white power while laughing maniacally. He quickly realizes, however, that it’s not coke and begins to choke on it. Chong cracks up knowing full well that Cheech has just inhaled a heap of powered soap.
To get the taste out of mouth, Cheech reaches for the closest drink: a jar full of Chong’s pregnant sister’s pee that is meant for Chong’s probation officer.
The van begins to fill with foamy white suds as it continues to cruise along the street.
The scene’s bubbly payoff was shot just over the L.A. City border from City Terrace in Boyle Heights.
Fresno Street near Blanchard Street, Boyle Heights
Red’s Hotel
Chong is credited on screen with directing Next Movie, but the process was always a joint effort, as far as Griffith could tell.
“A director has to deal with all the questions, every minute, from all the departments,” says Griffith. “So, Tommy was the director in that sense, but when it came to what was creatively being shown, they were collaborators. They always were. They always came up with ideas together and how it should be executed. But Tommy was the one doing - I guess I’ll call it - the grueling work of a director.”
With the introduction of cousin Red, the film becomes a bit more Marin-centric. Chong, while still on camera, seems to settle back into the director’s chair while Marin takes on the full-throttled reins of the film’s zaniness.
When Chong arrives at a rundown, Beaux-Arts style hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, he discovers that Red is strapped for cash, but he has a bushel of high-grade weed stuffed into a green military-style duffle bag.
The hotel where Red stays, and Paul Reubens - who later appears in the film as his alter ego Pee-wee Herman - manages the front desk, was built in 1917 as the Garden Court Apartments.
The classic Hollywood property was an elegant, four-story complex that once housed Hollywood pioneers and luminaries, including Louis B. Mayer, Mack Sennett, Lillian Gish, Rudolph Valentino, and John Barrymore.
Despite being a gem of Hollywood Boulevard, the building fell into disrepair during the 1960s and 1970s. Plans to house a Hollywood museum in the building never materialized, and it was vacated in 1980.
Griffith says he doesn’t remember the building being that rundown, but it certainly fit the Old Hollywood aesthetic he was after.
“I think we occupied four or five rooms inside, and then we filmed outside of course,” says Griffith. “They had a big fence up that we had to take down completely, because we had a big crane shot that the cameraman wanted to perform there.”
In an unusual turn of events, the property was granted historic-cultural status in 1981, only to have that status revoked shortly thereafter due to continued deterioration.
As transients and drifters began squatting throughout the once glorious building, it gained the nickname of “Hotel Hell.“
The Garden Court Apartments were demolished in 1984. Today, a retail shopping center stands on the property.
7021 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The Massage Parlor
With their duffle bag full of weed in hand, Red and Chong head out to party. Their first stop is an “Oriental Massage Parlor,” complete with ruby-red drapery and kidney-shaped hot tubs.
Griffith tells us that the interior was shot at Plato’s Retreat West, the short-lived offshoot of the infamous Upper West Side, New York City sex club, Plato’s Retreat.
“I had a lot of fun scouting in there,” Griffith says, laughing. “It was a swinging place.”
Plato’s West opened in March of 1979 at the site of the Hollywood Spa, a popular gay bathhouse. It immediately came under scrutiny for zoning violations, as it was located within a thousand feet of another sex-related business: burlesque shows at the Ivar Theatre, located down the block.
After multiple raids by police, the fight to keep Plato’s West open played out in the courts through the rest of 1979. By January 1980, the club's owners decided not to continue with costly litigation, as a forced closure was all but imminent.
In 1981, the location reverted to being run as the Hollywood Spa, which was the victim of harassment by county health officials claiming public health violations due to the use of private rooms. In a May 1988 article in The Los Angeles Times, an attorney for the Hollywood Spa called any so-called violations an obvious stunt to score political points.
The exterior of the massage parlor was shot elsewhere.
“We could have had Cheech and Tommy just walk out of the actual club on Ivar, but that was not that interesting,” says Griffith.
Around the corner from Plato’s West and three blocks down on Hollywood Boulevard, Griffith saw what was an incredible exterior. The location didn’t have nearly the same kind of controversy surrounding it as the interior location, but its history was singular in its own right.
He approached the owner of what is the oldest house still located in Hollywood: the Janes House.
Griffith thought at the time, “It would make such a statement. It’s so unique. Literally nothing like it.”
The Queen Anne/Dutch Colonial Revival-style house was built in 1903 on Prospect Avenue before it was renamed Hollywood Boulevard in 1910.
The Janes family from Aurora, IL, moved into the house in 1905.
By the time Griffith came around scouting locations for Next Movie, one of the four Janes siblings was still alive and living in the house.
Carrie, or Miss Carrie as Griffith refers to her, had been living in the kitchen when he met her, as the rest of the house was jam-packed full of memorabilia, old photos, and mementos.
“Miss Carrie’s place was incredible,” says Griffith. “That was the hardest deal to close.”
Sealing the deal had nothing to do with the common logistical concerns any homeowner may over permitting their house to be used as a filming location.
“Miss Carrie would engage me in conversation like she had been hungry for a visitor for 50 years,” says Griffith.
Every time it seemed that Miss Carrie was going to sign the paperwork, she would go off on a tangent about the child of some famous actor or director who had attended the school her family had run out of the house from 1911 to 1926.
“I got the feeling that if I had been the pushy type and said, ‘Look, you’ve gotta sign this right now,’ she would have said, ‘Oh, go get lost.’ But she really appreciated that someone was willing to spend three hours with her every time they came over,” says Griffith. “I had to go back, I bet it was at least five times, and do the same routine before she finally signed the paperwork.”
After Miss Carrie died in 1983, the house was sold to developers. It was relocated to the back of the lot to make room for a small retail center, which was designed and constructed to complement the aesthetic of the house.
Today, it’s hard to get a good view of the Janes House unless you’re planning a visit to No Vacancy, a speakeasy-style bar currently operating out of the historic home.
1650 Ivar Avenue, Hollywood
6541 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
Follow Jared on Instagram at @jaredcowan.
