West Los Angeles VA Medical Center

The West Los Angeles VA Medical Center is a large veterans’ healthcare campus at 11301 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, immediately west of Interstate 405 between Brentwood and Westwood. The site originated as the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, established in 1887 and opened to veterans in 1888. What began as a residential soldiers’ home developed into an extensive medical complex containing barracks, staff residences, hospitals, a chapel, a streetcar depot and landscaped grounds. Major expansion followed during the twentieth century, including tuberculosis and neuropsychiatric facilities and the group of buildings collectively known as Brentwood Hospital. The old Wadsworth Hospital was demolished after being damaged in the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and replaced by the present Building 500, an earthquake-resistant hospital designed by Charles Luckman & Associates and completed in 1977. Numerous older buildings remain across the campus, giving the property an unusually broad range of institutional architecture. This combination of hospitals, psychiatric wards, offices, theatres, roads and historic buildings has made the campus a particularly versatile filming location, and productions credited simply to the “VA Hospital” have often used entirely different parts of the property.

The West Los Angeles VA Medical Center and its surrounding campus have appeared in Block-Heads (1938), Brainstorm (1965), Little Big Man (1970), Police Woman (1974–1978), Starsky and Hutch (1975–1979), the television version of Halloween (1978), Pandemonium (1982), Death Wish II (1982), 10 to Midnight (1983), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), Re-Animator (1985), Number One with a Bullet (1987), The Hanoi Hilton (1987), The Couch Trip (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Monsters (1988–1991), The Doors (1991), The Addams Family (1991), Man Trouble (1992), Sliders (1995–2000), The Pretender (1996–2000), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–2000), Rebound (2005), iCarly (2007–2012) and Colony (2016–2018). Different buildings have represented veterans’ hospitals, psychiatric institutions, a state mental hospital, a police department, a medical school, UCLA, a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp, a junior high school and the fortified gateway between districts in a dystopian Los Angeles.

In Block-Heads (1938), the West Los Angeles VA campus is used for the veterans’ hospital connected to Stan Laurel’s return from the First World War. Stan and Ollie begin the film serving together in the trenches in 1918, but Stan is ordered to remain at his post while the rest of the unit goes into battle. He somehow remains there for another twenty years without realising that the war has ended and is eventually discovered and returned to the United States. Ollie learns about him through a newspaper article and visits him at the veterans’ hospital. Their reunion includes the famous misunderstanding in which Stan is sitting with one leg folded beneath him, causing Ollie to believe that he lost the leg during the war. Ollie consequently carries him away from the hospital before discovering that both legs are intact. The VA property provided the real veterans’ institution used for this early section of the Laurel and Hardy comedy.

In Brainstorm (1965), the West Los Angeles VA campus represents the State Mental Hospital where Jim Grayam is confined. Jim, a research scientist involved with the wife of his employer, develops an elaborate plan to murder her husband while avoiding execution by convincing the authorities that he is legally insane. After carrying out the killing, he deliberately constructs evidence of mental illness and succeeds in being committed rather than sent to prison. The plan ultimately works too well, however, as the authorities decide that he genuinely requires institutional treatment. The VA hospital appears during the concluding mental-hospital material as Jim finds himself trapped inside the institution he intended to use merely as a temporary escape from punishment.

In Little Big Man (1970), the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center provides the modern-day institution in the framing sequences surrounding Jack Crabb’s story. The film opens with the supposedly 121-year-old Jack, played by Dustin Hoffman under extensive ageing makeup, living in a veterans’ facility and being interviewed by a historian interested in his experiences with Native Americans and the American frontier. Jack begins recounting his life, taking the film back to the nineteenth century and his childhood among the Cheyenne, his encounters with Wild Bill Hickok and General George Armstrong Custer and his involvement in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The film eventually returns to the elderly Jack and his interviewer, making the VA hospital the location from which the entire historical narrative is presented.

In the Police Woman episode “The Melting Point of Ice” (1976), the West Los Angeles VA campus doubles as a large construction site. The story begins with a robbery in which stolen diamonds disappear, leading police to suspect that someone working at a construction project has taken them. Sergeant Pepper Anderson goes undercover as a caterer in order to observe the workers and discover who possesses the diamonds. The production used areas of the VA property that were undergoing major redevelopment at the time, coinciding with construction of the new hospital complex that would become Building 500.

In the Starsky and Hutch episode “Murder Ward” (1977), the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center represents the fictional Cabrillo Mental Institution. Starsky deliberately has himself committed as a psychiatric patient while Hutch infiltrates the institution by working as a male nurse. They are investigating an unusually high number of deaths among Cabrillo’s patients and gradually discover that something more sinister is occurring inside the hospital. The institutional buildings and hospital environment of the VA campus provide the psychiatric facility where much of the episode takes place.

In the extended television version of Halloween (1978), additional scenes inside Smith’s Grove Sanitarium were filmed on the West Los Angeles VA campus. These sequences were not part of the original 1978 theatrical production but were filmed later when additional footage was required for the film’s television broadcast. They include material involving the young Michael Myers in his room at Smith’s Grove and Dr. Sam Loomis arguing that Michael must never be released. The original exterior of Smith’s Grove was filmed at the former La Vina Hospital in Altadena, so the VA campus should not be confused with the sanitarium seen during Michael’s escape in the theatrical version. The exact West Los Angeles VA building used for the added interior material has not been conclusively identified.

In Pandemonium (1982), Building 116 on the West Los Angeles VA campus represents the Indiana State Asylum. Early in the horror comedy, an inmate escapes from the institution, and the exterior of the asylum is the historic three-storey VA building. The sequence is one of several productions that exploited the older psychiatric and hospital buildings on the northern part of the campus, whose institutional brick façades could readily stand in for fictional mental hospitals.

In Death Wish II (1982), the West Los Angeles VA campus represents McLarren State Hospital, the psychiatric institution where Charles “Nirvana” Wilson is confined after being judged criminally insane. Paul Kersey has been hunting the men responsible for the attack on his family, but Nirvana’s institutionalisation places him beyond Kersey’s usual method of confronting criminals on the street. Kersey later obtains a doctor’s coat and forged identification, enters the hospital and reaches Nirvana inside a therapy room. The confrontation ends when Kersey forces him against an electroconvulsive therapy machine and kills him. The orderly who discovers what has happened quietly gives Kersey a brief head start before raising the alarm. Exterior hospital material was filmed among the institutional buildings of the VA campus.

In 10 to Midnight (1983), several scenes involving Warren Stacey and the nurses he is stalking were filmed around the West Los Angeles VA campus. Stacey follows nurses from the hospital to their residence, with Building 116 used for the entrance to the nurses’ dormitory. Another campus building is visible while Stacey watches the women around the hospital. The location returns during the climax, when detective Leo Kessler pursues the naked and blood-covered Stacey through the hospital grounds after Stacey attempts to murder Kessler’s daughter Laurie and her fellow nurses. The final chase runs along roads within the VA complex before Kessler shoots Stacey, who continues threatening Laurie even after being apprehended.

In The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center represents the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane. Dr. Emilio Lizardo has been confined there since an experiment in 1938, when an attempt to pass through solid matter with an oscillation overthruster allowed the alien leader Lord John Whorfin to enter his body. Decades later, Lizardo sees Buckaroo Banzai successfully travel through a mountain using an improved version of the technology. His memories of the earlier experiment return, Whorfin reasserts control and Lizardo escapes from the institution to reunite with the Red Lectroids at Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems. Rooms in the VA complex were dressed as Lizardo’s cluttered institutional quarters, turning the real medical facility into the fictional home for the criminally insane.

In Re-Animator (1985), the James W. Wadsworth Building on the West Los Angeles VA campus provides the exterior of Miskatonic Medical School in Arkham, Massachusetts. Herbert West arrives at Miskatonic after conducting controversial experiments in Switzerland and becomes involved with medical student Dan Cain while secretly continuing his attempt to restore life to dead tissue. Exterior views of the medical school use the VA building to establish the institution where West and Dan study under Dean Alan Halsey and clash with Dr. Carl Hill. The film’s hospital and laboratory environments were assembled from several different Los Angeles locations: the VA campus provides the Miskatonic exterior, while other interiors were filmed elsewhere and the morgue was constructed as a studio set.

In Number One with a Bullet (1987), the West Los Angeles VA campus doubles as the Los Angeles police department used by detectives Nick Barzak and Frank Hazeltine. The two detectives investigate a major heroin operation while becoming convinced that wealthy businessman Harry DaCosta is behind both the drug trafficking and a series of murders. Both exterior and interior material representing their police headquarters was filmed in one of the older buildings on the VA property, a structure later associated with New Directions for Veterans. The building appears repeatedly as the detectives report to their superiors and continue the investigation despite being suspended for their unconventional methods.

In The Hanoi Hilton (1987), the West Los Angeles VA campus is one of the film’s most important locations and was used for most of the production. The drama follows American prisoners of war held at Hỏa Lò Prison in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, beginning with Lieutenant Commander Patrick Williamson’s capture in 1964 and continuing through years of imprisonment, interrogation, torture and changing attitudes towards the war. Production designers found a roughly century-old building on the VA grounds that had previously served medical and psychiatric purposes and considered its institutional architecture suitable for recreating the Vietnamese prison. Sets and alterations transformed the building and surrounding grounds into Hỏa Lò, allowing much of the prison drama to be filmed within the West Los Angeles complex rather than on a purpose-built backlot.

In The Couch Trip (1988), the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center appears during the psychiatric-hospital material involving John Burns, played by Dan Aykroyd. Burns is an inmate who escapes from a mental institution and, through a series of circumstances, travels to Los Angeles while impersonating psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Baird. The VA property is used for hospital material including the scene in which John encounters Donald as he comes out of the institution, contributing another psychiatric-facility role to the campus’s long screen history.

In Ghostbusters II (1989), buildings on the West Los Angeles VA campus represent Parkview Psychiatric Hospital after the Ghostbusters are committed for attempting to warn city officials about the supernatural threat beneath New York. Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore try to persuade a psychiatrist that the enormous accumulation of psychomagnotheric slime beneath the city and the spirit of Vigo the Carpathian are real. Hospital interiors were filmed at the VA complex, while the rear of Building 115 was used for an exterior sequence in which the Ghostbusters are helped out of Parkview by Louis Tully’s cousin Sherman. Most of that sequence was deleted, although a brief shot of Winston outside the building survives during the end credits. The subsequent shot of the Ghostbusters leaving the hospital in uniform was filmed separately at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

In A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), the West Los Angeles VA campus represents the hospital where Alice Johnson is examined after learning that she is pregnant. Alice visits the hospital with her friend Yvonne and begins experiencing supernatural encounters connected to Freddy Krueger and the mysterious child Jacob. Parts of the sequence use the same institutional corridor later associated with Parkview Psychiatric Hospital in Ghostbusters II, while exterior material was also filmed among the older VA buildings. The hospital becomes important to the story as Alice gradually realises that Freddy is using the dreams of her unborn child as a way to return and reach new victims.

In the Monsters episode “Mannikins of Horror” (1989), Building 116 on the West Los Angeles VA campus provides the exterior of a psychiatric institution in a dystopian society. Dr. Jarris attempts to help Dr. Collin, a former surgeon who has become obsessed with creating and animating small human figures, before the institution’s director decides that he is beyond treatment. Exterior establishing views of the asylum show the rear of Building 116 across the parking area between Pershing Avenue and Grant Avenue, using the same group of historic hospital buildings that appeared in several other productions.

In The Doors (1991), one of the older buildings on the West Los Angeles VA campus represents UCLA Film School during the early part of Jim Morrison’s life. Before forming the Doors, Morrison studied film at UCLA, where his classmates included future filmmaker Ray Manzarek. The film shows Morrison, played by Val Kilmer, during this period before his transformation into the singer and frontman of the band. Rather than filming the scene at the actual UCLA film-school facilities, the production used a building on the nearby VA property to stand in for the university.

In The Addams Family (1991), the Brentwood Theatre at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center was used for the school-theatre sequence involving Wednesday and Pugsley Addams. The children participate in a school production in which Wednesday portrays Pocahontas, but the conventional pageant rapidly becomes a characteristically violent Addams spectacle. Wednesday rejects the sentimental version of the Thanksgiving story before she and the other children revolt, setting the stage scenery on fire and throwing the performance into chaos. The theatre on the VA grounds supplied the auditorium and stage for the sequence, while other parts of the film were shot at locations around Los Angeles and on studio sets.

In Man Trouble (1992), Buildings 115 and 116 on the West Los Angeles VA campus are used for the fictional Monroe Park Center, a psychiatric institution in San Dimas. Harry Bliss and Joan Spruance make an after-hours visit to the hospital to see Joan’s sister Andy Ellerman. The back and side of Building 116 provide the exterior as Harry and Joan enter the institution, while Building 115 can be seen in the background when Andy later sits outside in a parked car and speaks with Redmond Layls. The sequence again uses the interconnected historic hospital buildings on the northern portion of the VA property as a mental-health institution.

In the Sliders episode “Sole Survivors” (1997), the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center provides the exterior of the hospital visited by the Sliders on an alternate Earth devastated by a zombie-like epidemic. A supposedly miraculous weight-loss drug has mutated and transformed much of the population into aggressive cannibals, and Quinn Mallory becomes infected after being bitten. Wade, Rembrandt and Maggie search desperately for a treatment before he changes completely. Exterior views and parking-lot material around the hospital were filmed on the VA campus as the survivors attempt to obtain the information and medical resources needed to produce an antidote.

In The Pretender (1996–2000), the West Los Angeles VA campus is used for more than one institution during the third season. In “Mr. Lee”, part of the property represents the mental hospital connected to the episode’s investigation. The campus appears again in “Countdown”, where exterior establishing shots identify the hospital involved in Jarod’s latest case. Interior hospital material in the series was frequently filmed on studio sets or at other medical facilities, making the West Los Angeles VA complex primarily an exterior location in these appearances.

In the Beverly Hills, 90210 episode “Bobbi Dearest” (1999), the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center is used for the hospital grounds where Dylan McKay builds a playground for sick children. After returning to Beverly Hills and struggling to find direction in his life, Dylan becomes involved with community work and contributes to the construction of the playground. The sequence was filmed outside on the VA property, using the landscaped hospital campus rather than its institutional interiors.

In Rebound (2005), Building 115 on the West Los Angeles VA campus represents Mount Vernon Junior High School. Roy McCormick, a successful but hot-tempered college basketball coach played by Martin Lawrence, is suspended after another outburst and ends up coaching the inexperienced basketball team at his former junior high school. The front of the historic VA building is used as the exterior of Mount Vernon, demonstrating how the campus architecture could also be transformed into an educational institution rather than its more common screen role as a hospital or asylum.

In the iCarly episode “iLost My Mind” (2011), Building 116 on the West Los Angeles VA campus represents Troubled Waters Mental Hospital in Seattle. After kissing Freddie and becoming confused about her feelings for him, Sam disappears and voluntarily checks herself into the psychiatric hospital because she believes there must be something wrong with her. Carly and Freddie track her down and eventually stage an iCarly webcast from inside the institution, during which Freddie admits that he has feelings for Sam as well. The exterior establishing image of Troubled Waters shows the front of Building 116; available location research indicates that the shot is probably older stock footage rather than footage newly filmed for the episode.

In Colony (2016–2018), the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center is transformed into the Santa Monica Gateway, one of the heavily controlled checkpoints separating districts of occupied Los Angeles. The series takes place after an extraterrestrial occupation has divided the city into enclosed blocs surrounded by enormous walls, with movement between them restricted by the collaboration government and its security forces. The VA campus appears as the fortified entrance to the Santa Monica Bloc. The gateway is particularly important in the opening episode, when former FBI agent Will Bowman attempts to enter Santa Monica while searching for his missing son and becomes caught near a Resistance attack on the checkpoint.

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