When the Place You Sit Is Seen on the Big Screen

A Hollywood Bowl audience is about to see the Bowl while at the Bowl.

The variety and plentitude of location shoots guarantee that practically every movie goer will have been to some location featured in some film at least once.

But in Los Angeles? You're very likely to see the building in which you sit in the movie you're watching, or at least the immediate neighborhood. When the Regent Showcase screened David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" on opening weekend, the crowd applauded at the sight of Pink's Hot Dogs, which was just across the street.

Then you have Bugs Bunny and the Hollywood Bowl. The iconic shell arrived in town a few years ahead of the Looney Tunes gang, meaning that when a stage was called for in a short cartoon, like, say, in "Long-Haired Hare," something very Bowl-like made an animated cameo.

Now "Long-Haired Hare," and several other music-sweet Warner Bros. cartoons, will roll at the Bowl on Friday, July 5 and Saturday, July 6.

Such as? "The Rabbit of Seville." Of course. "What's Opera, Doc?" Naturally. And "Long-Haired Hare," as mentioned, which not only features a very Bowl-y setting but the name "Leopold!" repeated several times. (You remember it now, if you didn't before.)

In the end? It's rather marvelous and meta to sit in a venue and see that venue, or the surroundings, pop up on screen you're watching. And when it shows up in an animated classic, a short that's been seen the world over for over a half century, even the better.

And, true, we claimed this is a Los Angeles kind of thing, but for sure New Yorkers and denizens of other cities have enjoyed this odd experience as well. The only rule is this: If you see the place you're sitting in pop up on screen, everyone has to clap, if only for a second. C'mon, it's pretty cool. Honor the moment and the meta.

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