Hollywood United Methodist Church

Hollywood United Methodist Church is a historic church at 6817 Franklin Avenue, on the corner of Highland Avenue in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The congregation was established in 1909, while construction of the present English Gothic Revival building began in 1927. Designed by architect Thomas P. Barber, with architectural influences from Westminster Hall in London, the church was completed and dedicated on 16 March 1930. Its distinctive features include a tall bell tower, stained-glass windows and a sanctuary with an exposed hammer-beam roof. The building was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 248 in 1981. Since 1993, the tower has displayed a large red ribbon in support of people affected by HIV/AIDS, with permanent ribbons installed in 1996. The complex also contains a gymnasium, classrooms, meeting rooms and a courtyard, several of which have been used extensively for film and television productions.

Hollywood United Methodist Church has appeared in What Price Hollywood? (1932), Imitation of Life (1959), Back to the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Sister Act (1992), That Thing You Do! (1996), Big Momma’s House (2000), The Italian Job (2003), Jarhead (2005), Big Love (2006–2011), Bunheads (2012–2013) and The Wedding Ringer (2015). Although the church’s Gothic architecture has occasionally featured on screen, many of its best-known appearances involve the gymnasium and other facilities rather than the main sanctuary. These spaces have represented everything from a high-school dance hall to a convent dining room and a funeral parlour.

In What Price Hollywood? (1932), the church appears during the wedding of aspiring actress Mary Evans (Constance Bennett) and wealthy polo player Lonny Borden (Neil Hamilton). Their marriage becomes an elaborate Hollywood occasion, organised with the involvement of film producer Max Carey (Lowell Sherman). The church’s exterior and entrance are visible during the wedding sequence, providing an early screen appearance of the building only two years after its completion.

In Imitation of Life (1959), directed by Douglas Sirk, the church was used for the funeral of Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), whose death provides one of the film’s most emotional sequences. Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson appears in the church’s choir loft, performing the spiritual “Trouble of the World” as the mourners gather to pay their respects. The funeral takes place within the film’s New York setting, although the church interior was filmed in Hollywood. The sequence continues outside with an elaborate funeral procession and the arrival of Annie’s estranged daughter, Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner), who breaks down beside her mother’s coffin.

In Back to the Future (1985), the church’s gymnasium represents the hall at Hill Valley High School where the Enchantment Under the Sea dance takes place on 12 November 1955. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) attends the dance hoping to ensure that his teenage parents, George McFly (Crispin Glover) and Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson), fall in love, thereby protecting his own existence. The gymnasium contains the dance floor and stage where Marvin Berry and the Starlighters perform. Marty eventually joins the band, playing guitar for their version of “Earth Angel” before launching into his famous rendition of “Johnny B. Goode”. The production also used a stairwell within the church complex, while the exterior scenes at Hill Valley High School were filmed at Whittier High School in Whittier, California.

In Back to the Future Part II (1989), director Robert Zemeckis returned to the church gymnasium to recreate the Enchantment Under the Sea dance from the original film. This time, Marty McFly returns to 1955 to recover the sports almanac that the older Biff Tannen has given to his younger self. Marty moves through the same crowded dance hall while trying to retrieve the book without interfering with the events of his previous visit. The production recreated the decorations, costumes and lighting from the 1985 film, and many of the original extras returned. Although the gymnasium was used again for the dance-floor sequences, some additional material involving Marty above the stage was filmed on a reconstructed set at Universal Studios.

In Sister Act (1992), Hollywood United Methodist Church provided several interiors for the convent where Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) takes refuge after witnessing a murder. Grant Hall was transformed into the convent’s dining room, where Deloris, now disguised as Sister Mary Clarence, shares meals with the other nuns and struggles to adapt to their strict routine. The same room was also used for scenes showing Deloris scrubbing the floor. The church’s kitchen appears during a conversation in which the nuns gather to eat ice cream, while the production also used its actual choir room, corridors and doorways. The filmmakers altered and repainted parts of the interior to give the rooms an older appearance. The convent’s exterior, however, was represented by St Paul’s Catholic Church in San Francisco.

In That Thing You Do! (1996), the church gymnasium becomes the venue for a college talent show in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1964. The fictional rock band the Oneders perform their original song “That Thing You Do!” in front of an audience, with newly recruited drummer Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) unexpectedly increasing the tempo. His faster arrangement turns the song into an upbeat rock number, prompting the audience to dance and helping the band win the competition. The performance takes place on the same gymnasium stage that had previously been used for the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in Back to the Future.

In Big Momma’s House (2000), Grant Hall was used for a self-defence class attended by FBI agent Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence), who is disguised as the elderly Hattie Mae Pierce, known as Big Momma. During the class, Malcolm demonstrates considerably more fighting ability than his appearance suggests, humiliating the instructor, Nolan (Anthony Anderson), by throwing him around in front of the other participants. The sequence was filmed inside the church’s meeting hall, although the story takes place in the fictional town of Cartersville, Georgia. The church scenes elsewhere in the film were shot at different Methodist churches in Southern California.

In The Italian Job (2003), the church can be glimpsed in the distance during the Hollywood and Highland traffic sequence. Charlie Croker’s (Mark Wahlberg) team engineers a traffic jam in central Hollywood as part of a plan to intercept an armoured vehicle carrying stolen gold. The action takes place around Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, with the church standing farther north along Highland Avenue. Unlike the productions that used its interior facilities, the film incorporates the building as part of the real Hollywood streetscape.

In Jarhead (2005), directed by Sam Mendes, Grant Hall was transformed into a funeral parlour for a scene near the end of the film. After returning from the Gulf War, former Marine Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) learns that his friend and fellow Marine Alan Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) has died. Swofford attends the funeral and is overcome with grief as he stands beside Troy’s coffin. The church’s meeting room was used to represent the funeral parlour rather than appearing as a place of worship.

In Big Love (2006–2011), the HBO drama about a polygamist family in Utah, Grant Hall was used as a community centre. The production adapted the church’s meeting room for a secular interior, concealing its actual function as part of a religious complex.

In Bunheads (2012–2013), Hollywood United Methodist Church appears in the series finale, “Next!”, which aired on 25 February 2013. Michelle Simms (Sutton Foster) travels to Hollywood to audition for a Broadway musical, using the church as the audition venue. After arriving and registering, she joins a large group of hopeful performers competing for a place in a musical adaptation of Dark Victory. The audition takes place in the church gymnasium, where Michelle progresses through several rounds of dancing before being asked to sing. Meanwhile, her young dance students secretly follow her to Los Angeles and watch the audition, fearing that she may be planning to leave them.

In The Wedding Ringer (2015), the church serves as the venue for the wedding of Doug Harris (Josh Gad) and Gretchen Palmer (Kaley Cuoco). Doug has hired professional best man Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart) to provide a fictitious group of friends and groomsmen for the ceremony. When the original priest becomes unavailable, Jimmy assumes the role of an officiant under his invented identity, Bic Mitchum. The church interior is used for the wedding ceremony, while the deception surrounding Doug’s invented friendships eventually unravels during the subsequent celebrations.

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