From ‘Blade Runner’ to Amtrak, L.A.’s Union Station turns 80, boasting a ton of history and scores of film shoots

If you’ve ever been to Union Station, you can almost sense the ghosts of 80 years ago, making their way through its regal terminal — a true vintage journey inside this blend of Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival and Art Deco landmark.

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

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• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

• Union Station marked its 80th anniversary with entertainment and activities for families and travelers alike in Los Angeles on May 4, 2019. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

Those 80 years culminated in a celebration this weekend for what is known as the largest railroad passenger terminal in the western United States — “the last of the great train stations.”

• Union Station opening pageant inside the station – credit Los Angeles Railroad Heritage Foundation Collection

• Union Station Harvey Girls in Harvey House Restaurant – credit Los Angeles Railroad Foundation Collection

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• L.A. Union Station Main Concourse — credit METRO PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

• The murder of a recently released convict forces Callen (Chris O’Donnell) to go undercover solo as an old alias, while Sam (LL Cool J) and the LA team track him from a distance, on NCIS: LOS ANGELES, on the CBS Television Network. (2009 file photo courtesy CBS Broadcasting)

• Union Station in Los Angeles on October 21, 1992, with its eclectic mix of art deco and Spanish-style design, was constructed in 1939 for $11 million. (David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)

• Union Station on September 4, 1987. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• The Union Station building on February 7, 1990, has a combination of mission and art deco styles. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Union Station on February 7, 1990. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• At Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, Amtrak’s train to Santa Barbara departs from alongside old, now-unused tunnels on April 30, 1991. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Union Station. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Union Station. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Families say goodbye before getting on a train at Union Station. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Union Station on February 7, 1990. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Union Station on February 7, 1990. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Charlotte Johnson waits for the rest of her family before leaving Union Station. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• Matthew Thomas takes photographs of the fountain in the north courtyard at Union Station on April 30, 1991. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

• In the waiting area, with double chairs, actresses Victoria Fleming, left, and Mary Johnson wait to film their scene in “House Party 2” on April 30, 1991. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)

Its birthday party, which began Friday and continued into Saturday, included arts and crafts, model train exhibits, train memorabilia, live music and guided tours.

Union Station was built in 1939 for $11 million, commissioned in 1933 as a venture between the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroads. It was meant to consolidate the three local railroad terminals.

It ultimately became a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week depot, and by 1972 was designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, with a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Oh, and don’t forget the films. Loads of films have been shot at the hub. A story by an L.A. Daily News entertainment business reporter from 2014 pretty much said it all. Here’s a snippet:

• On location: “Watch on the Rhine” (1943) was among a handful of war effort productions to take what should have been obvious advantage of the station’s perfect backgrounds for traveling troops and displaced civilians. In the postwar era, however, it became economically and technically feasible to shoot on real locations, and audiences started to expect that extra touch of naturalism.
• “Dark” days: Low-budget film noir, especially, got extra bang for their limited bucks at the visually striking downtown depot. “Criss Cross” (1949), “Too Late for Tears” (’49), “The Company She Keeps” (1951), “Cry Danger” (’51) and the totally railroad-centric “The Narrow Margin” (1952) all exploited the facility’s platforms and waiting room. And of course, there was the 1950’s “Union Station,” starring the “Sunset Blvd.” pair of William Holden and Nancy Olson. The film was actually set at Chicago’s Union Station, but there’s no mistaking its totally L.A. look.
• Neo-noir: Those images have been catnip for later generations of neo-noir filmmakers. “The Hustler” (1961), “Marlowe” (1969), “Chandler” (1971), “The Driver” (1978), “True Confessions” (1981), “To Live and Die in L.A.” (1985), “Bugsy” (1991), “The Italian Job” (2003) and “Gangster Squad” (2013) all shot scenes there. Perhaps the strangest, and definitely the funniest, among those was Carl Reiner’s hard-boiled satire “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” (1982), in which Steve Martin stomps around the place with toilet paper stuck to his shoe.
• Recapturing the past: Union Station came to represent Hollywood nostalgia in other movies, too, such as “The Way We Were” (1973), “Gable and Lombard” (1976), “Under the Rainbow” (1981), “In the Mood” (1987) and “The Majestic” (2001).
• Fearsome futurism: Union Station was also part of L.A.’s dystopian future in the seminal “Blade Runner” (1982) — and, more recently, the fictitious Gotham City’s in “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012). “Dreamscape” (1984), “Species” (1995) and “Drag Me to Hell” (2009) are some other fantasy films that employed the location.
• And there’s more: Other productions that have shot there include “Silver Streak” (1976), “Pearl Harbor” (2001), “Friends with Benefits” (2011) and such TV shows as “The Mentalist,” NCIS: Los Angeles” and “24.”

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