The Winnie-Ko-To Country Club

[bat-rss]

Our sterling moderators are probably in the best position to answer this question, having done a lot of research into shooting locations for the show, but I'll throw this out to everyone: What was the location used for shooting the country club scene in "The Joker Trumps an Ace"?

[Jim Akin]

I have no idea what the correct answer is, but I'd be tickled if it turned out to be here.

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[Scott Sebring]

It was two clubs used for the scene. The stock shot that established the scene is of Wilshire Country Club.
The actual live action sequences were shot at the "Riviera Country Club" in Pacific Palisades. Similar architecture style but different courses and clubhouses in the end.

Stock establishing shot from the episode. Similar but not the actual location for the episode live action shoot.

This old photo from the 50s of the old Wilshire Country Club Clubhouse looks more like the stock shot though it no longer looks anything like this at all these days as it was demolished in 1970. Wilshire Country Club was surrounded by city buildings, much smaller course than Riviera and the course wasn't dipped down into a more hilly valley like Riviera. Riviera is much more consistent to the shots from the show for the actual filmed scenes.

The 1970 demolition.

The Larchmont Medical building the big structure seen in the background of the stock shot.

And now the OTHER place - Riviera Country Club

More recent picture of the Riviera Country Club (RCC)

Club Patio scene:

Shot at the patio stairs
.

Approximated location for the patio stair scene as the RCC building has been remodeled over the years. But this looks pretty close.
At least as good as I could see through Google Maps.
.

Same corner of RCC building back in the day
.

More recent image of that corner at RCC.
.

Batmobile on course scene
.

The course from a Google Maps Street View. (click to enlarge)

In spite of the horrific fires in the Pacific Palisades area this past week and still currently burning as of this writing, the country club has been reported to be still standing.
LA Times: Riviera Country Club still stands after Palisades fire.

[BiffPow]

Still standing! Awesome! Thanks for solving that mystery, Scott!

I wonder why they haven’t been using water barges pumping directly from the ocean to recharge the hydrants and help control those fires? Yes, it would be saltwater which would kill the vegetation, but I’d rather that than to lose all of those homes and lives.

[Scott Sebring]

I wonder why they haven’t been using water barges pumping directly from the ocean to recharge the hydrants and help control those fires. Yes, it would be saltwater which would kill the vegetation, but I’d rather that than to lose all of those homes and lives.

Good question, but let's not de-rail this thread and start talking or speculating over the fires in the area. Thank you.

[BiffPow]

Speaking of the Riviera club, back in the late 1980s I first met a man who had moved to my town. His name was John Calvin Lair. He invented the modern day tennis racket, the one with the bifurcated shaft that goes around the head instead of a single shaft leading to the head. John had attended Princeton University, MIT and Occidental College and was a teaching fellow at Harvard. Highly educated, but down on his luck. When he had a consulting firm in Princeton, New Jersey, Howard Head (of Head sporting goods) approached him to design a tennis racket that had a larger, more forgiving, “sweet spot.” John was paid $500 and Howard Head sold the design which became the Prince tennis racket (John told me Howard Head was compensated in the neighborhood of $64 million for the design, and John had always held out hope that Mr. Head would leave him some portion of his estate as an acknowledgment). Some credit Howard Head with the invention, but you can look the patent up and see that it was John C. Lair.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3801099A/en

Now, to the connection to the thread: John Calvin Lair was a founding member of the Riviera tennis club. I don’t know if it’s the same as the Riviera club where that episode of Batman was filmed, or not, but thought I would bring it up since it’s such an obscure piece of information that may get lost in history.

He was a fascinating person, who ended up with virtually nothing. His parents were world famous missionaries in China, both of them earning several column inch obituaries in the New York Times when they passed.

His housing situation was “not ideal,” let us say. I secured government housing for him at what used to be a local hotel and helped him move. Among his belongings I helped him pack: a personal invitation to dine with President John F. Kennedy at the White House (I believe two or three other guests were invited), a photo of him at a meeting of the American Rocket Society scientists in the 1950s, taken at the Henry Hudson hotel - John had worked on the Titan missile at TRW’s Space Technology Laboratories (Jimmy Doolittle was Chairman of the Board). My recollection was that John designed - or possibly worked on the design for - the Titan missile guidance system. In the photograph, at the adjacent table, to the elbow of John, was Wernher von Braun. This was in the days before Sputnik; a large binder containing a collection of personal correspondence between John and some of the many famous people he knew, including Clare Boothe Luce and Katherine Hepburn, high ranking military officials, etc.; his published study on sending a probe through the tail of Halley’s Comet (used as a reference when they actually did so decades later, but not specifically based on his formulas, as I understand it); a book of poems he wrote, and; photographs of him - as a semi professional - playing tennis on the Riviera Club courts.

He had been an acquaintance of Marilyn Monroe and had been her dinner guest. He also related that he had worked with Amherst Villiers - of the “Bentley Blower” (the supercharged Bentleys - Ian Fleming’s James Bond, Agent 007 drove one). He spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese (I tested him with my limited knowledge when he first told me he grew up in China). He was quite a dapper looking man in his youth.

I apologize for the tangent, but, before my time on this earth ends, I thought it might be good to share and preserve a portion of what I knew of this man. He died several years ago, about a month after he last visited my office.

[bat-rss]

Interesting stuff, BiffPow!

Scott, thanks for the detailed explanation! Wouldn't have guessed it was two different clubs.

[Yellow Oval]

I have to say thanks very much, Scott, for researching and posting all of this. For years I always thought they used either Hillcrest Country Club or Rancho Park Golf Course that were side by side and just around the corner from Fox Studios where they usually shot. From a production cost point of view this would have made more sense financially. Wonder why they decided to go further over to Riviera?

[Ben Bentley]

I have to say thanks very much, Scott, for researching and posting all of this. For years I always thought they used either Hillcrest Country Club or Rancho Park Golf Course that were side by side and just around the corner from Fox Studios where they usually shot. From a production cost point of view this would have made more sense financially. Wonder why they decided to go further over to Riviera?

I believed the same until a few years ago when our deep diving ascertained it was Riviera.

I have a couple of thoughts on your question though, as I think the answer lays between two factors.

1) As Scott and I have discovered through our locations research over the years and then confirmed upon visiting, neither the golf course at Rancho Park nor the neighboring Country Club just over Motor Ave are actually all that big in the scheme of things. Certainly "car-chase-tear-the-course-up-big" at least.

2) As to the cost and practicalities of going right to edges of the "Thirty Mile Zone" production area, I suspect Dozier's Rolodex is responsible for the location choice. From the research I did a few years ago, Riviera was seemed to be Hollywood's go-to spot. The club lists Gregory Peck, Dean Martin, Humphry Bogart and others as members...

[Yellow Oval]

I have to say thanks very much, Scott, for researching and posting all of this. For years I always thought they used either Hillcrest Country Club or Rancho Park Golf Course that were side by side and just around the corner from Fox Studios where they usually shot. From a production cost point of view this would have made more sense financially. Wonder why they decided to go further over to Riviera?

I believed the same until a few years ago when our deep diving ascertained it was Riviera.

I have a couple of thoughts on your question though, as I think the answer lays between two factors.

1) As Scott and I have discovered through our locations research over the years and then confirmed upon visiting, neither the golf course at Rancho Park nor the neighboring Country Club just over Motor Ave are actually all that big in the scheme of things. Certainly "car-chase-tear-the-course-up-big" at least.

2) As to the cost and practicalities of going right to edges of the "Thirty Mile Zone" production area, I suspect Dozier's Rolodex is responsible for the location choice. From the research I did a few years ago, Riviera was seemed to be Hollywood's go-to spot. The club lists Gregory Peck, Dean Martin, Humphry Bogart and others as members...

Thank, Ben. That all makes perfect sense. I didn't know those two golf courses were that small. As for the Riveria having such high-falootin' clientele than it only stands to reason that's where the Maharajah would go to play golf.

By the way, now that you mention the location research, any word on the status of the book?