Filmed from the air over Sacramento · built on a street in Burbank

American Beauty

The Burnhams’ street was never one place. Below: Sacramento from the air (Amadscientist, CC BY-SA 4.0, 2014), with a plat drawn over it.

Lot 14
Annette Bening in Washington, DC, on 25 April 1998, months before filming began. John Mathew Smith (Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Annette Bening Carolyn · April 1998
Lot 15
Thora Birch in 2006; no free photograph of her from 1999 has been found. zack_wolk, cropped by anetode · CC BY-SA 2.0
Thora Birch Jane · pictured 2006
Lot 16American Beauty the rose · 1914 engraving

The Burnham house

One house, four addresses.

Lester walks out of one front door, but the house was made in four places. Press a part of it and it lifts away to where it was really filmed.

Nothing lifted yet. Start with the front door, or with the sky above the roof.

The house is in one piece.

A studio gate with a Warner Bros. sign behind a brick wall at the corner of Hollywood Way — Gate 12 of the Warner Bros. Ranch on Hollywood Way, Burbank, in January 2015, eight years before its streets were levelled. Junkyardsparkle · CC0

411 North Hollywood Way, Burbank

Blondie Street

1934Columbia’s Harry Cohn bought the 40-acre lot at Hollywood Way and Oak Street by the end of 1934.
1970A fire in 1970 destroyed a quarter of the lot, including parts of Blondie Street.
1999The Burnham and Fitts homes were two neighbouring houses on the Ranch’s Blondie Street.
2023Demolition was completed on 26 October 2023, with Blondie Street and Park Boulevard levelled. The Ranch Lot Studios opened on the site on 18 March 2026.

A working studio, closed to the public. The street is gone; see the lot from North Hollywood Way.

Where we read it

Warner Bros. Studio Tour

Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood

Burbank

Three hours on the working lot in Burbank, guided and self-guided, from $79; tours run 8.30am to 3.30pm at 3400 Warner Boulevard. The TCM Classic Films Tour, from $99, takes in the backlot streets used for exteriors.

Book the tour

Carolyn’s garden

Cut for the vase.

Carolyn cuts her roses and arranges them in vases, and there, the film shows, they begin to die. Each bud on this bush is one of the film’s real places. Cut it and it goes in the vase, and the place opens. The more you cut, the more the first ones droop.

Where we read it

Carolyn cuts the roses and arranges them in vases, where they begin to die; roses are in nearly every shot of the Burnham home.
Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)

The front of the house
The rooms inside
Next door, inside
The view from above
Jane’s school
Lester’s new job
Carolyn’s listing
Where the director came from
First night
Three Globes
Five Oscars

Eleven buds on the bush. Cut one for the vase.

Woodland Hills · Winnetka · Torrance

Out in the Valley.

Carolyn sells houses. Lester takes a job at a drive-through. Jane goes to school. All three were filmed a long way from the street they live on.

Open houseToday

The San Fernando Valley from the hills, Woodland Hills in the foreground — Woodland Hills and Warner Center from Top of Topanga, December 2006: the neighbourhood, not the house. Oakshade at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Woodland Hills, Los Angeles

Carolyn’s open house

Carolyn’s open house was filmed at a house in Woodland Hills.

The house Buddy Kane is selling stands across the same street, seen only briefly.

A private home. It is named here by neighbourhood and kept off the map; the photograph is the district from the hills.

Where we read it

Drive-thruOrder here

A low Valley house behind tall trees and a palm under a blue sky — A Winnetka street in the San Fernando Valley, July 2015: the neighbourhood round the drive-through. Clotee Pridgen Alloc… (Panoramio) · CC BY-SA 3.0

20105 Saticoy Street, Winnetka

The drive-through

Lester’s fast-food job was filmed here, including the drive-through where Carolyn pulls up without knowing he works there.

A fast-food restaurant today. Check its hours before you go; the photograph is a nearby Winnetka street.

Where we read it

South High

A high-school marching band in green and white uniforms parading down a street — South High School’s marching band in green and white, Torrance, May 2015. mark6mauno · CC BY 2.0

4801 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance

Winter break at South High

Many of the school scenes were shot at South High School.

The crew filmed on the campus during the winter break of 1998–99, and many students appeared as extras.

It opened in September 1957. The Spartans’ colours are green and white.

A working school, closed to visitors. See it from Pacific Coast Highway, outside school hours.

Where we read it

Thora Birch with long fair hair, in black, looking at the camera — Thora Birch in 2006; no free photograph of her from 1999 has been found. zack_wolk, cropped by anetode · CC BY-SA 2.0

Jane

Thora Birch was cast as Jane Burnham by November 1998. She was 16, and her parents and child-labour representatives were on set for her one difficult scene.

Where we read it

Birch was cast by November 1998, aged 16; her parents approved, and child-labour representatives attended.
Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)

An engraving of a single full-blown rose on a leafy stem — The American Beauty rose, an engraving from a 1914 encyclopedia. The New Student’s Reference Work, ed. Chandler B. Beach · Public domain

Madame Ferdinand Jamin, 1875

The rose is French.

The American Beauty was bred by Henri Lédéchaux in France in 1875 as Madame Ferdinand Jamin. In 1886 it was sold in the United States as a new rose called American Beauty, and was soon recognised as the French one.

Sold at two dollars a stem or more, it was called the million-dollar rose, and it was the best-selling rose in America until the 1920s. It is the official flower of Washington, DC.

In the film it is Carolyn’s rose: while there are roses, she believes, all is well. The film uses them as a mask over a house that is not well at all.

Where we read it

Bred by Henri Lédéchaux in France in 1875; introduced in the US as American Beauty in 1886; the million-dollar rose; best-selling until the 1920s; the official flower of Washington, DC.
Wikipedia: American Beauty (rose)
Carolyn’s belief that while there are roses all is well; the roses as a mask.
Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)

Ricky’s tape

The bag.

Stopped.

Alan Ball saw a plastic bag blowing about outside the World Trade Center in 1991 or 1992 and was surprised how much it moved him. In the film Ricky shows Jane his tape of a bag on the wind, and says it taught him there is a whole life behind things.

Mendes shot it with wind machines, and then shot it again himself, in front of a brick wall.

Where we read it

Ball’s bag outside the World Trade Center; Ricky’s tape; the wind machines and Mendes’s reshoot at a brick wall.
Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)

Who made it.

Sam Mendes in Paris in October 2012; no free photograph of him from 1999 has been found. Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sam MendesA theatre director making his first film. Unhappy with his first three days, he got DreamWorks to let him shoot them again.
Where we read it
- A theatre director making his first film. Unhappy with his first three days, he got DreamWorks to let him shoot them again.
  Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)
Alan Ball in Hollywood in June 2009; no free photograph of him from 1999 has been found. Kristin Dos Santos · CC BY-SA 2.0
Alan BallBegan it as a play after the 1992 media circus round the Amy Fisher trial. DreamWorks bought the script outright in April 1998.
Where we read it
- Began it as a play after the 1992 media circus round the Amy Fisher trial. DreamWorks bought the script outright in April 1998.
  Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)
Annette Bening in Washington, DC, on 25 April 1998, months before filming began. John Mathew Smith (Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Annette BeningMendes wanted her for Carolyn from the start and offered her the part without DreamWorks’ consent.
Where we read it
- Mendes wanted her for Carolyn from the start and offered her the part without DreamWorks’ consent.
  Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)
Chris Cooper at Tribeca in April 2009; no free photograph of him from 1999 has been found. David Shankbone · CC BY 3.0
Chris CooperColonel Frank Fitts, Ricky’s father, in the house kept in military drab next door.
Where we read it
- Colonel Frank Fitts, Ricky’s father, in the house kept in military drab next door.
  Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)

Conrad L. Hall, recommended by Tom Cruise, shot it in Super 35 at 2.39:1. Thomas Newman’s score leans on percussion, pulse and colour rather than melody.

Where we read it

Hall, recommended by Cruise; Super 35, 2.39:1; Newman’s percussive score.
Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)

$250,000Paid by DreamWorks for the script, April 1998
$15mThe budget
$356.3mTaken worldwide
5 of 8Oscars won, of its nominations

Where we read it

$250,000 for the script in April 1998; a $15 million budget; $356.3 million worldwide.
Wikipedia: American Beauty (1999 film)
Eight nominations, five wins.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: the 72nd Academy Awards, 2000

A theatre laid out as a nightclub, red table lamps glowing in the dark — The Kit Kat Club tables inside Studio 54 for Cabaret’s return in May 2014. Alan Light · CC BY 2.0

254 West 54th Street, New York

Where the director came from

Sam Mendes’s production of Cabaret moved here in November 1998 and ran until 2004.

Mendes thought the building’s run-down state made it the right setting for the show.

Steven Spielberg, impressed by Mendes’s Oliver! and Cabaret, encouraged him to take on American Beauty.

It opened in 1927 as the Gallo Opera House.

A Broadway theatre run by the Roundabout Theatre Company. Buy a ticket for whatever is playing.

Where we read it

Hollywood · Beverly Hills · University Park

Three nights.

8 September 1999
Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, November 2024. ItalianAce1 · CC BY-SA 4.0
6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre
American Beauty had its world premiere here on 8 September 1999.
Sid Grauman built it; it opened in 1922 with the first Hollywood film premiere, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood.
Netflix bought it in 2020 and reopened it on 9 November 2023.
A working cinema. Netflix programmes it Monday to Thursday and the American Cinematheque Friday to Sunday; buy a ticket.
Where we read it
23 January 2000
The Beverly Hilton on Wilshire Boulevard, May 2007. Minnaert · Public domain
9876 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills
The Beverly Hilton
At the Golden Globes here on 23 January 2000 the film won best drama, best director and best screenplay.
The International Ballroom has hosted the Golden Globes since 1961.
Welton Becket designed it; it opened in August 1955.
A working hotel. The lobby and bars are open to guests and visitors.
Where we read it
26 March 2000
The Shrine Auditorium on West Jefferson Boulevard at dusk, September 2012. Stephanie Kemna · CC BY-SA 3.0
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, University Park
The Shrine Auditorium
At the 72nd Academy Awards here on 26 March 2000 the film had eight nominations and won five, including Best Picture.
Sam Mendes won for directing, Alan Ball for the screenplay and Conrad L. Hall for cinematography; Annette Bening was nominated for best actress.
It opened in January 1926, seats about 6,300 and has held the Academy Awards ten times.
A working concert and events hall. See the domes from West Jefferson Boulevard, or go to a show.
Where we read it

The Beverly Hilton

9876 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills

Welton Becket’s 1955 hotel on Wilshire Boulevard, whose International Ballroom has held the Golden Globes since 1961. The film won three Globes here on 23 January 2000.

See the hotel

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Look round the neighbourhood.

Where it is now

8 places you can visit, in Burbank and Hollywood, across Los Angeles, the Valley, Sacramento and New York. The Burnhams’ rooms, the Fitts house and Carolyn’s open house are private homes: named by neighbourhood, not on the map.

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

General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working studio, closed to the public. The street is gone; see the lot from North Hollywood Way.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working cinema. Netflix programmes it Monday to Thursday and the American Cinematheque Friday to Sunday; buy a ticket.

Gate 12 of the Warner Bros. Ranch on Hollywood Way, Burbank, in January 2015, eight years before its streets were levelled. Junkyardsparkle · CC0
411 North Hollywood Way, Burbank
Blondie Street, Warner Bros. Ranch
The Burnham and Fitts homes were two neighbouring houses on the Ranch’s Blondie Street.
A working studio, closed to the public. The street is gone; see the lot from North Hollywood Way.
Where we read it
Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, November 2024. ItalianAce1 · CC BY-SA 4.0
6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre
American Beauty had its world premiere here on 8 September 1999.
A working cinema. Netflix programmes it Monday to Thursday and the American Cinematheque Friday to Sunday; buy a ticket.
Where we read it

Stay

Where the Globes are held.

The Beverly Hilton, where the film won three Golden Globes.

The Beverly Hilton

9876 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills

Welton Becket’s 1955 hotel on Wilshire Boulevard, whose International Ballroom has held the Golden Globes since 1961. The film won three Globes here on 23 January 2000.

See the hotel

Go there