USC and the Doheny Library fountain
Most of the film’s campus footage was shot at the University of Southern California.
An open campus. Walk in from Exposition Park and find the fountain in front of the library.
Beverly Hills · Los Angeles · La Verne · Berkeley · 1967
The GraduateA summer of stand-ins, and one word of advice
Still water. Tap it.
The hotel is gone, Berkeley is mostly Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara is in La Verne. Take the word you are given and make something of it.
Where this comes from
LAX · the opening titles
Standing still.Benjamin comes home on an underground airport sidewalk, standing still while it carries him to the baggage hall.
The sidewalk is waiting.
Writing in 1968, the critic Edgar Z. Friedenberg said no other airport had one.
A working airport. The Theme Building in the middle of the loop is the landmark to look for.
Where this comes from
The graduation party
One word.“Plastics.” AFI ranks the one-word line 42nd on its list of the hundred greatest film quotes. So take the advice. Choose a cavity, inject the plastic, and pop out a real place.
Where this comes from
Cavity 1: The Taft. Inject the plastic.
Nothing on the tray yet. Every token is a place you can still go to, except one.
Beverly Hills · the birthday pool
Under.His father gives him a scuba suit. The camera puts the mask on, and so can you.
Poolside. Too loud, too bright.
Benjamin shows off his scuba gear in the family pool. The camera becomes his eyes: an Arriflex with a face mask on rods, swish-panned six inches over the water, then cut mid-swish to an underwater camera that dives in.
Where this comes from
The Robinson house
The Robinsons’ house is on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, between Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards. When the crew shot on the streets of Beverly Hills, the no-generator rule applied there too.
A private home on a residential street. Do not go to the door; the street itself is all there is to see.
Where this comes from
Everyone thinks they know.
Anne Bancroft is 35 when the film is shot, and Dustin Hoffman is 29.
Where this comes from
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
The wrong way.He is driving to Berkeley, in a little red Italian car. Take him across.
Halfway across, upper deck. Which way?
Benjamin’s graduation present is a bright-red Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider: a 1.6-litre roadster that sold for about $4,000. Hoffman was a nephew of an Alfa Romeo importer.
- Benjamin drives to Berkeley twice, and crosses the Bay Bridge in his red sports car.
- The bridge and the Berkeley campus were among the film’s Northern California locations.
- For a night drive the crew borrow a finished, unopened mile of freeway. The camera is tied into the car, lights fill the headlamp wells, and the actor switches the camera on himself.
Drive it, or watch it from the Embarcadero. Do not stop on the bridge.
Where this comes from
“Berkeley”
Which campus?The Berkeley campus was off limits, so most of it is in Los Angeles. Not all of it. Flip the pennants.
Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
Elaine walks through Sproul Plaza.
An open campus plaza. Come in by the Telegraph Avenue end.
Where this comes from
Telegraph Avenue
Hoffman watches Telegraph Avenue from the window of a café at 2475 Telegraph, which has since closed.
A busy shopping street. Walk it from Dwight Way to the campus gate.
Where this comes from
The Theta Delta Chi house
The fraternity house in the film is the Theta Delta Chi house on Durant Avenue, between Bowditch and College.
A private student house. Look from the pavement and keep moving.
Where this comes from
0 of 4 flipped.
Visit Berkeley
Graduate by Hilton Berkeley
Berkeley · $$$ · rates on booking
Yes, it is called the Graduate. A hotel at 2600 Durant Avenue, near Telegraph Avenue and the campus, with Cal-themed rooms and a pub called Henry’s. The fraternity house from the film is on the same street.
Check rooms
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Los Angeles film location tours
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for film location tours in Los Angeles. None is a Graduate tour as such: check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare tours“Santa Barbara” · La Verne
The glass.A 500mm lens on the road to the church. Run.
The church is a long way off.
Where this comes from
Benjamin hammers on the church’s glass wall and stops the wedding.
Where this comes from
United Methodist Church of La Verne
- The wedding is set in Santa Barbara. It was shot here, about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
- This is the modernist church where Benjamin hammers on the glass wall and stops the wedding.
- Google Arts & Culture calls it the modernist “Santa Barbara” church of the film’s climax.
- It was built in 1961 to designs by Ladd and Kelsey.
The wedding is set in Santa Barbara, which a 1968 critic put 400 miles south of Berkeley. AFI records extra location work in Santa Barbara County; the church itself is in La Verne.
A working church. Look at the glass from the grounds, and go inside only for a service.
Where this comes from
Everything here is standing in for something.A hotel for the Taft, Los Angeles for Berkeley, La Verne for Santa Barbara. Here is where it all is now.
Where it is now
10 places you can visit. The Robinson house and the fraternity house are private, named here but not mapped. The Ambassador is gone; a school stands on its site.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working airport. The Theme Building in the middle of the loop is the landmark to look for.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A school campus now. Look from Wilshire Boulevard; the grounds are not open to visitors.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open campus. Walk in from Exposition Park and find the fountain in front of the library.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Still a live-music club. Come for a show; the calendar runs most nights.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working studio. The lot is open on guided tours only; book ahead.
The Theme Building at LAX under the moon, 2016. Junkyardsparkle · CC0 1 World Way, Westchester, Los Angeles
Los Angeles International Airport
As the credits roll, Benjamin rides through a tunnel on an underground sidewalk linking the satellites where planes land in Los Angeles to the central baggage area.
A working airport. The Theme Building in the middle of the loop is the landmark to look for.
Where this comes from
The Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in 2004, the year before it came down. Subsven · Public domain 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Koreatown, Los Angeles
The Ambassador Hotel site (the Taft)
The Ambassador stood in for the Taft Hotel, where Benjamin and Mrs Robinson meet.
A school campus now. Look from Wilshire Boulevard; the grounds are not open to visitors.
Where this comes from
Doheny Memorial Library at USC, 2023. EEJCC · CC BY-SA 4.0 University Park, south of downtown Los Angeles
USC and the Doheny Library fountain
Most of the film’s campus footage was shot at the University of Southern California.
An open campus. Walk in from Exposition Park and find the fountain in front of the library.
Where this comes from
The Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, 2015. Ken Lund · CC BY-SA 2.0 8901 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood
Whisky a Go Go
A scene outside the Whisky was shot on a Friday night, with hundreds of people on the Strip who had no idea they were in a film.
Still a live-music club. Come for a show; the calendar runs most nights.
Where this comes from
The Melrose Gate at Paramount, Hollywood, 2005. Chris Brown (zoonabar) · CC BY 2.0 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood
Paramount Pictures
Before filming began, the cast spent three weeks in rehearsal on the Paramount backlot in Hollywood.
A working studio. The lot is open on guided tours only; book ahead.
Where this comes from
Stay
A hotel called the Graduate, and one on Wilshire.
Graduate by Hilton on Durant Avenue in Berkeley, and The LINE on the Ambassador’s stretch of Wilshire.
Visit Berkeley
Graduate by Hilton Berkeley
Berkeley · $$$ · rates on booking
Yes, it is called the Graduate. A hotel at 2600 Durant Avenue, near Telegraph Avenue and the campus, with Cal-themed rooms and a pub called Henry’s. The fraternity house from the film is on the same street.
Check rooms
The LINE
The LINE LA
Koreatown, Los Angeles · Rates on booking
A Koreatown hotel at 3515 Wilshire Boulevard, on the same stretch of Wilshire as the Ambassador site, with a greenhouse restaurant and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Check roomsGo there
The lot, the zoo and the city tours.
The Paramount Studio Tour, San Francisco Zoo, and film location tours in Los Angeles and round the Bay.
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Studio Tour
Hollywood · $71 · 2 hours · daily
A guided tour of the working lot where the cast rehearsed for three weeks before filming.
Book the tour
San Francisco Zoo
San Francisco Zoo
San Francisco · Open 365 days · tickets on the zoo’s site
Where Benjamin follows Elaine to the Monkey House. Open every day of the year, at Sloat Boulevard and the Great Highway.
Plan a visitViator · Ad / affiliate
Los Angeles film location tours
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for film location tours in Los Angeles. None is a Graduate tour as such: check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare tours
Viator · Ad / affiliate
San Francisco and Bay Bridge tours
San Francisco Bay
Live marketplace results for tours round San Francisco and the Bay Bridge. Check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Shows at the Whisky.
The club where a hidden camera filmed the crowd still has a band on most nights.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Three original posters, the novel, the director, the record.
A 1967 poster, a French grande and a 1973 Polish poster from our store, Charles Webb’s novel, Mark Harris’s life of Mike Nichols and the 1968 soundtrack LP.
Printed Originals · Our poster store
The Graduate (1967)
An original 1967 poster, 20 x 27 in, rolled after being folded, in very good condition.
Sold out · archive reference
View poster
Printed Originals · Our poster store
The Graduate — French grande (1967)
An original French grande, 47 x 63 in, rolled after being folded, in near mint condition.
Sold out · archive reference
View poster
Printed Originals · Our poster store
The Graduate — Polish (1973)
The original 1973 Polish release poster, 24 x 33 in, art by Maciej Zbikowski, rolled and in mint condition.
In stock
View poster
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate
The Graduate
Charles Webb
Charles Webb’s novel, the source of the film, in Penguin Modern Classics.
Find the book
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate
Mike Nichols: A Life
Mark Harris
Mark Harris’s biography of the director.
Find the book
.jpg){kind=link}
eBay · Ad / affiliate
The Graduate: The Original Sound Track Recording
Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel and David Grusin · LP, Columbia Masterworks OS 3180, 1968
The soundtrack LP as first issued in the US in February 1968.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
One word: plastics.
Where this comes from
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 25 of 25 Moments
Los Angeles International Airport
1 World Way, Westchester, Los Angeles
Standing still
Benjamin comes home on an underground airport sidewalk, standing still while it carries him to the baggage hall.
The Ambassador Hotel site (the Taft)
3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Koreatown, Los Angeles
The Taft
Benjamin and Mrs Robinson meet at the Taft Hotel, played by the Ambassador.
A hundred lamps
No generators allowed, so more than 100 quartz-iodine lamps are hidden round the lobby and wired into the hotel’s supply.
Down
The Ambassador closes in 1989 and is demolished in 2005 for a school.
The Robinson house
North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills
One word
“Plastics.” AFI ranks the one-word line 42nd on its list of the hundred greatest film quotes.
The scuba suit
Benjamin shows off his scuba gear in the family pool. The camera becomes his eyes: an Arriflex with a face mask on rods, swish-panned six inches over the water, then cut mid-swish to an underwater camera that dives in.
Back under
The underwater view lasts until his father’s hand pushes him back down by the face mask.
Not her leg
The leg on the poster is not Anne Bancroft’s. It belongs to Linda Gray, then an unknown model.
Thirty-five and twenty-nine
Anne Bancroft is 35 when the film is shot, and Dustin Hoffman is 29.
USC and the Doheny Library fountain
University Park, south of downtown Los Angeles
By the fountain
Benjamin waits for Elaine by the fountain at USC’s Doheny Library, playing Berkeley.
Whisky a Go Go
8901 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood
Across Sunset
Outside the Whisky, a 500mm lens watches from a gas-station window across the street. The crowd never knows.
Paramount Pictures
5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood
Leaving Mel Brooks
Hoffman is set to play a Nazi playwright in Mel Brooks’s first film when The Graduate comes along. Brooks is married to Anne Bancroft.
Three weeks
The cast rehearse for three weeks on the Paramount backlot before shooting begins on 24 April 1967.
The Oscar
The Graduate is the highest-grossing film of 1967, and Mike Nichols wins the Academy Award for Directing.
Already released
Nichols wanted Simon & Garfunkel’s music from early on. Every vocal track except “Mrs. Robinson” had already been released.
United Methodist Church of La Verne
3205 D Street, La Verne
Running and not arriving
The 500mm lens shoots Benjamin running straight at the camera. It flattens the distance so much that he runs and runs and gets no nearer.
The glass
Benjamin hammers on the church’s glass wall and stops the wedding.
No pounding
He was meant to pound on the glass. The minister, watching closely, would not allow it, so Hoffman spread his arms against the window instead.
Santa Barbara, 400 miles
The wedding is set in Santa Barbara, which a 1968 critic put 400 miles south of Berkeley. AFI records extra location work in Santa Barbara County; the church itself is in La Verne.
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
Interstate 80 between San Francisco and Oakland
The Duetto
Benjamin’s graduation present is a bright-red Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider: a 1.6-litre roadster that sold for about $4,000. Hoffman was a nephew of an Alfa Romeo importer.
The wrong way
On the way to Berkeley, Benjamin is filmed crossing the upper deck away from Oakland. The right way would have put him on the lower deck, out of sight.
An empty freeway
For a night drive the crew borrow a finished, unopened mile of freeway. The camera is tied into the car, lights fill the headlamp wells, and the actor switches the camera on himself.
Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
Sproul Plaza, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley
Elaine on campus
Elaine walks across Sproul Plaza, on the real Berkeley campus.
Telegraph Avenue
2475 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley
The café window
Benjamin watches Telegraph Avenue from a café window.
The Theta Delta Chi house
Durant Avenue, between Bowditch and College, Berkeley
San Francisco Zoo
Sloat Boulevard at the Great Highway, San Francisco
The Monkey House
Benjamin follows Elaine to the Monkey House.