Gloria Swanson, laughing, straightens Billy Wilder’s bow tie; he looks down at her, smiling — Gloria Swanson and Billy Wilder, about 1950. Paramount studio publicity photograph · Public domain

William Holden in a dinner jacket, Gloria Swanson leaning on his shoulder with a jewelled hand at his collar — William Holden and Gloria Swanson, Paramount press photograph, 1950. Paramount Pictures press photograph · Public domain

Erich von Stroheim in a dark suit standing in a doorway with a suitcase — Erich von Stroheim, about 1941. Vandamm Studio, New York · Public domain

Deep endWilshire at CrenshawSpring 1949

Sunset Boulevard

Full: Paramount dug it as the price of filming, and in the story Norma has it filled.

Joe Gillis is found in this pool. The house round it stood on Wilshire, not Sunset, and it was pulled down in 1957.

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4201 Wilshire Boulevard · the Phantom House

The house is gone.
An office block stands there.

A long white six-storey office block with ribbon windows on a wide boulevard — The site now: the Harbor Building, November 2021. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 4.0

Police and photographers crowd the edge of a pool below a balustraded terrace and an arched house front — The terrace and pool in the 1950 trailer. Paramount Pictures (trailer) · Public domain

Slide between 1950 and now

1950: Norma’s terrace, Paramount’s pool.

Norma’s house was a 25-room mansion on Wilshire at the mouth of Crenshaw, built for William O. Jenkins and bought by J. Paul Getty in 1936.

One of Getty’s former wives was living there. She let Paramount film on condition that it built her a swimming pool: the pool Joe is found in.

Known as the Phantom House, it was destroyed in 1957. In 1955 it played the abandoned mansion in Rebel Without a Cause. This time the pool was empty, and the house came down soon after.

The office block now on the site was built for the Tidewater Oil Company in 1958 to a design by Claud Beelman.

The house is gone. An office block, the Harbor Building, stands on its site: see it from Wilshire Boulevard.

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One house, three addresses

Build Norma’s house.

Norma Desmond lives on Sunset Boulevard. Put her house together from what Paramount actually used.

0 of 3 in place.

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The darkroom · 0 of 9 printed

Two more stops.

Seitz latensifies about 15 per cent of the film, gaining perhaps two stops, so he can stop the lens down for deep focus in Norma’s dark rooms. Every place here comes out of the tank underexposed. Pick a negative and give it two stops.

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Negative 1 · underexposed

Something is there.

At box speed: too dark to read.

Hollywood · in the glare

Out into the daylight.

Seitz shot the lot almost like a documentary; his day exteriors often show the glare of midday.

An ornate cream archway lettered Paramount Pictures, wrought-iron gates beneath, palms behind — Paramount’s arched gate, 1991. Agnès Contensou · Public domain

5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood (tour entrance)

Back through the gate

Norma drives to Paramount unannounced, through the studio’s real gate. Paramount’s tours list the Bronson Gate among their filming locations.

Inside the gates only on a booked tour. The two-hour Studio Tour runs daily ($71); the three-hour Premier Tour runs on weekdays ($160).

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Paramount Pictures

Paramount Studio Tour

5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood · Daily · 2 hours · $71

Two hours on the lot Norma drives into, past the Bronson Gate and the stages.

See the tour

Cecil B. DeMille, smiling, with Gloria Swanson in a white fur hat and stole — Cecil B. DeMille and Gloria Swanson, 1950 trailer. Paramount Pictures (trailer) · Public domain

Mr DeMille, as himself

Cecil B. DeMille plays himself on the set of Samson and Delilah, the picture he had just been shooting.

Two white marble tombs side by side on a lawn — The DeMille tombs at Hollywood Forever; Cecil B. DeMille’s is on the right. Wildhartlivie · CC BY 3.0

Over the wall · Hollywood Forever

Cecil B. DeMille is buried here, among hundreds of Hollywood figures. Swanson’s first important features had been directed by DeMille, who plays himself in Sunset Blvd.

A working cemetery on the far side of Paramount’s wall. Call the office for opening times: (323) 469-1181.

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A cream 1920s apartment block on a street corner with palms and a rooftop sign — Yucca Street at Ivar Avenue, a block below the Alto Nido, 2015. The Alto Nido itself is a home and is not shown. Junkyardsparkle · CC0

Ivar Avenue · a home, not pinned

Joe’s apartment

Joe Gillis’s apartment is the Alto Nido, on Ivar Street above Franklin Avenue. It opened as a hotel in 1930 and became apartments in the late 1940s: seven storeys, 45 flats.

A building of homes. Look up Ivar Avenue from the street; do not go in.

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Sunset Boulevard running west under palms, a shop awning at the right edge — Sunset Boulevard at Crescent Heights, beside the old Schwab’s corner, July 2020. Sony 1992 · CC0

Sunset at Crescent Heights · gone

Over to Schwab’s

The film shows Joe crossing Sunset on his way to Schwab’s, at Crescent Heights. The drugstore you see inside is a replica Paramount built for the film. Schwab’s opened at 8024 Sunset in 1932; the whole block was torn down in 1988 for a shopping centre.

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Chateau Marmont

8221 Sunset Boulevard

A hotel on Sunset Boulevard a few hundred metres up the hill from the old Schwab’s corner. Not a filming location.

Check rooms

Bridge at Norma’s

The waxworks.

Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson and H. B. Warner, stars of the silent screen, play themselves at Norma’s card table; Cecil B. DeMille and Hedda Hopper play themselves too. Turn the cards to see who is playing whom.

0 of 4 turned

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Norma Desmond

Gloria Swanson

Insulted to be asked for a screen test, she was talked into the part by George Cukor.

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Turin · Austin · New York

Where the rest of it went.

A long black 1920s limousine on a museum floor in front of a large image of Gloria Swanson’s face — Norma’s Isotta Fraschini at MAUTO, Turin, October 2020. Zairon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Exhibit · Corso Unità d’Italia 40, Turin

Isotta Fraschini 8A, 1929

Norma’s car is a 1929 Isotta Fraschini 8A, bodied as a coupé de ville by Castagna of Milan. The museum in Turin has it. Norma Desmond’s initials are engraved on its rear doors.

In the story Max gets it running again for Joe after the finance men tow Joe’s own car away.

Open Monday 10am–2pm, Tuesday to Sunday 10am–7pm; last entry an hour before closing. €18, reduced €15. Some cars are off display during building work.

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Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile

MAUTO, Turin

Corso Unità d’Italia 40, Turin · Tue–Sun 10am–7pm, Mon 10am–2pm · €18

The national car museum, home of Norma’s 1929 Isotta Fraschini. Some cars are off display during building work.

Plan a visit

A tall pale stone building with long vertical panels behind oak trees — The Harry Ransom Center, Austin, June 2012. Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0

Austin, Texas

Swanson’s papers

Gloria Swanson’s papers are here: seven decades of business letters, thousands of photographs, fan mail and her school reports. They include stills from every one of her films, some now lost, and wire recordings of her memories made in the 1950s.

Galleries Tue–Fri 10am–5pm and Sat–Sun noon–5pm; the Reading Room Mon–Sat 9am–5pm. Guided tours Tue–Fri at noon, Sat–Sun at 1pm and 2pm.

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Radio City Music Hall’s red and blue neon sign and marquee at night — Radio City Music Hall at night, April 2025. Eden, Janine and Jim · CC BY 2.0

New York · 10 August 1950

New York first

The world premiere was in New York on 10 August 1950. Eight days later Paramount was advertising that the film was breaking non-holiday box-office records at Radio City Music Hall.

At a preview for studio VIPs shortly before, MGM’s Louis B. Mayer shouted at Wilder that he had disgraced the industry.

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Madison Square Garden Entertainment

Radio City Music Hall Tour

Sixth Avenue at 50th Street, Manhattan · About 60 minutes · adults $44–46

An hour inside the hall where the film had its record run in 1950. No tours were on sale for October 2026.

Check dates

Crowds and 1950s cars under the lit RKO Pantages marquee reading Academy Awards Presentation — The RKO Pantages on Oscar night, 1954. Gib Brush, Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0

Hollywood Boulevard · 29 March 1951

Ready for the close-up.
Three Oscars, none for the stars.

The 23rd Academy Awards were held here on 29 March 1951. Sunset Blvd. won for its story and screenplay, its black-and-white art direction and Franz Waxman’s score. Swanson, Holden and von Stroheim were all nominated. None of them won.

It opened on 4 June 1930 to a design by B. Marcus Priteca, hosted the Oscars from 1950 to 1960, and has staged only live shows since 1977.

A working theatre for Broadway-style shows: you go in with a show ticket.

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The tall vertical Pantages sign over a palm-lined Hollywood Boulevard pavement — The Pantages on Hollywood Boulevard, October 2023. ItalianAce1 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Where it is now

8 places you can visit. The Alto Nido is a home: see the street, not the building. The house and Schwab’s are gone; their sites are pinned.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The house is gone. An office block, the Harbor Building, stands on its site: see it from Wilshire Boulevard.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Inside the gates only on a booked tour. The two-hour Studio Tour runs daily ($71); the three-hour Premier Tour runs on weekdays ($160).
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working cemetery on the far side of Paramount’s wall. Call the office for opening times: (323) 469-1181.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Schwab’s is gone; a shopping centre stands on the corner. Nothing of the drugstore survives.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working theatre for Broadway-style shows: you go in with a show ticket.

The Harbor Building, 4201 Wilshire Boulevard, on the site of the house, November 2021. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 4.0
Negative 1 · 4201 Wilshire Boulevard, at Crenshaw, Windsor Square
The site of Norma’s house
Norma’s house was a 25-room mansion on Wilshire at the mouth of Crenshaw, built for William O. Jenkins and bought by J. Paul Getty in 1936.
The house is gone. An office block, the Harbor Building, stands on its site: see it from Wilshire Boulevard.
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Paramount’s arched gate, 1991. Agnès Contensou · Public domain
Negative 2 · 5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood (tour entrance)
Paramount Pictures
The studio’s entrance gate is one of the film’s real locations; Norma visits the studio unannounced.
Inside the gates only on a booked tour. The two-hour Studio Tour runs daily ($71); the three-hour Premier Tour runs on weekdays ($160).
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The DeMille tombs at Hollywood Forever; Cecil B. DeMille’s is on the right. Wildhartlivie · CC BY 3.0
Negative 3 · 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood
Hollywood Forever
Cecil B. DeMille is buried here, among hundreds of Hollywood figures.
A working cemetery on the far side of Paramount’s wall. Call the office for opening times: (323) 469-1181.
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Sunset Boulevard at Crescent Heights, beside the old Schwab’s corner, July 2020. Sony 1992 · CC0
Negative 5 · 8024 Sunset Boulevard, at Crescent Heights, West Hollywood
The Schwab’s corner
The film shows Joe crossing Sunset on his way to Schwab’s, at Crescent Heights.
Schwab’s is gone; a shopping centre stands on the corner. Nothing of the drugstore survives.
Production file
The Pantages on Hollywood Boulevard, October 2023. ItalianAce1 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Negative 6 · 6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The Pantages
The 23rd Academy Awards were held here on 29 March 1951. Sunset Blvd. won for its story and screenplay, its black-and-white art direction and Franz Waxman’s score.
A working theatre for Broadway-style shows: you go in with a show ticket.
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Stay

A room on Sunset.

A hotel up the hill from the Schwab’s corner.

Chateau Marmont

8221 Sunset Boulevard

A hotel on Sunset Boulevard a few hundred metres up the hill from the old Schwab’s corner. Not a filming location.

Check rooms

Go there