Wednesday, February 4, 2009

More about film studio, Hawaii 5-0, Magnum







Idrove over to my old haunts around the film studio today (in part to let my visiting sister help our economy shopping at Kahala Mall) and took some photos.  Rubber chicken has put his original letter to me under comments in the previous post if you want to follow all of this.  I also forgot to point out that the google maps of the studio area are at least 4 years old since they do not show the new studio offices and construction mill although the new soundstage is shown.

I took pictures of the corner of Diamond Head Road at 22nd Avenue and again at 18th Avenue.  I think some of you will recognize parts of the National Guard building that was used in some Magnum episodes.  I wasn't aware that across the street from this building (on 22nd Avenue) there are still some of the old WWII warehouses still in use for something.  I remember when they used to actually store tanks there.  As this is the most expensive part of the island, I used to tell visitors that this area had their own army for protection.  In any case, there does not seem to be any trace of a warehouse that could have been the one where 5-0 was filmed.

Sorry, couldn't add these photos on this post so refer to above next posting for views.

The view at the corner of Diamond Head Road at 18th Avenue is much greener and better landscaped than it was during Magnum times.  The old soundstage (renamed the 5-0 Stage and now used for storage by "LOST") has a new sliding door and has been repainted, but is otherwise the same.  It's just an old Butler Building warehouse, but is the holy grail for Magnum fans.  The new studio gates and guard house are an improvement over the old shack and chain link fence that were the entrance for Magnum slightly to the left of the main gate and still there.

Well, it ain't much folks, but it is 30 years later and this is what it looks like now.

Aloha,  Rick

P.S.  here is also a detail of one of the old guard houses to Fort Ruger and now an electrical substation.  Also the bust of Jack Lord outside Macy's at Kahala Mall.........odd place for a memorial.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

G'day Rick,

Thanks for posting the pictures - it's really interesting to see what it all looks like! You mentioned in the post before this one that:
"we used the entrance (and other parts) of the building on 22nd Avenue and DH Road as a prison and other "secure" or military looking locations in other episodes"
... it looks familiar but now I'll be wracking my brain trying to figure out which episodes they were - maybe some of the other commenters can help. Thanks again for your posts... I get much delight out of them (though I should really be doing work... just don't tell the boss :)
Cheers,
Dave from Perth

JJW said...

Rick,

Thank you so much for these wonderful pictures of the Hawaii Film Studio and surrounding area! :)

So, the old "Magnum soundstage" (aka "5-0 Stage") didn't have a sliding front door?

Where is the newer soundstage (aka "Lost Stage", heh) located? Is it far from the old one?

Magnum Decorator said...

Well, as long as you're not the only David in Perth, I think you'll be ok with sneaking a look at my blog at work. Any chance you are related to my cousin David in Brisbane? :-)

Yes, the Magnum soundstage had a sliding door in the same location which lead to the main aisle that separated the "Higgin's side" on the left to the "Tom side" on the right. There was also another sliding door on the mountain (mauka) side as well. They didn't always let us run the air conditioner when we worked on the stage without the film company there so it was nice to open those doors for a breeze. Otherwise it was so cold on that stage (there was only one setting for the A/C and that was "ON") that you always had to wear a sweater or something to stay warm. Sometimes the window on the little entrance door next to the flashing light would fog over! There was a big remote switch so whenever they yelled "ROLLING," they would have to turn off the A/C and when they yelled "CUT" they turned it back on. The new soundstage (maybe 200 yards away) to the right of those new entrance gates, has a huge A/C unit next to the soundstage that is so quiet it doesn't need to be turned off during filming. It also appears that they have painted the exterior of that old soundstage. Ironically "Baywatch Hawaii" replaced the plywood floor (yes, wiping out all Tom's footsteps) but nothing was ever filmed on it or in that building since 1998--just used for storage.

rubber chicken said...

Dave, the prison scene that took place here was in Past Tense (3.5). The building is seen at upper left in Rick's third photo in this post.

22nd Avenue in front of the building was used in Torah, Torah, Torah (5.21), seen at
28:39. The building seen in that picture is across the street from the prison building.

The front of the building was used in numerous episodes as a "Hawaii Metro Police" station. One was Out of Sync (7.19).

The southwest end of the building was also used as a police station entrance/exit. Smaller Than Life (4.3) was one example.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rubber Chicken - excellent work!

Anonymous said...

Typically after I return from a trip, I do an after-action search for more info. And of course being a magnum-holic found your blog. On Friday Oct. 23rd I was at Diamond Head and drove right past the old studio... Dang!

Cool website. Neat to see some of the pics from the show! Aloha and Mahalo, Rob