I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Majestic Theatre, Yau Ma Tei

Another nailed location thanks to Thomas and his eagle-eyes. In this case it is the Majestic Theatre on the corner of Nathan Road and Saigon Street in Yau Ma Tei.

As usual there is a trove of information provided by HK's premier cinema expert - Raymond Lo - on the Cinema Treasure website: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/29778

The Majestic Theatre (called 'theatre' but was a cinema ) closed in 1988 and was replaced by the Majestic Cinema which eventually closed in the late 90's. What we see in the screen shot below is of course the version that was there in 1965 i.e. the Majestic Theatre.

You can just make out the 'Majestic' lettering at the top right of the building. The smaller road at the side is the eastern part of Saigon Street (south is to the top in this screen shot). Interesting to note are the buildings on the right side of the picture. The low rise building - whose rooftop we can see - was replaced by the current Wing On department store, but the building just to the top (which is physically on the opposite side of Saigon Street) is actually still around. Here are some Streetview grabs to add a bit more context.

So this first picture above shows the site of where the Theatre and the Cinema stood - yes, that is the Novotel that now stands there. Saigon Street, or at least the eastern part of it can be seen just to the right of the hotel. The building to the right of the hotel and street is called the Kim Tak Building and it was completed in 1965 - so I guess that is the building we can see covered in scaffolding on the left of the 1965 screen grab.

Moving across Nathan Road to the opposite - pedestrianised - section of Saigon Street and you can see the building in front with Chow Tai Fook on the ground floor. It's called Wong House and was built circa 1959 and is the building we catch a brief snippet of in the top right of the 1965 screen grabs. On the far right of our modern view though you can see a small portion of the Wing On store that stands on the site of the former low rise building. Coincidentally, the Wing On store is also low-rise in this section and is probably the same height as the building we can see the roof of in the screen shot.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Tai Pak Floating Restaurant, Aberdeen

A quickie here - just a brief glimpse of the Tai Pak all lit up at night. A similar shot was used in the neon montage I posted about several weeks ago here. Anyway, this was in 1965 and a while before the Tai Pak was merged into the now so-called "Jumbo Kingdom". Anyway, the restaurant still has the basic shape and decor but I'm not sure the place we know today is the same place we can see on film given some of the comments posted on my other blog a while ago (by family of the owners).

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Stitched Panoramas from The Peninsula Rooftop

These were too good to leave out and once again have AP to thank for the time he has taken to obtain these screen grabs and then stitching them all together to make some very clever wide angle views. Actually, I have a bunch I haven't used yet and am saving them for later but until then here is the vista across Victoria Harbour and surrounding parts of TST from the original rooftop of 'The Pen'.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Kowloon Panorama

Here is a great panoramic view of the Kowloon peninsular (mainly TST) courtesy of AP who stitched together several panning shots from the episode So Long, Patrick Henry. Lots to be seen so I won't bother trying to list it all, however, I do still like seeing any shot of the old KCR Terminus. Sometimes I wish HK was still low rise like this, but I guess that's progress for you...

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon City

Certainly a welcome blast from the past. I always enjoy looking at old pictures of Kai Tak airport because, despite the fact that I flew in and out of it on several occasions, I have only very vague memories of the place. Anyway, this sequence of screen grabs starts off looking over at Prince Edward Road East and the easternmost buildings in Kowloon City before the car we are following pulls into the car park and then stops in front of the terminal building.

Note the circular booth and the flyover the car passes under, and then take a look at this Govt Archive photo taken a round the same time and it will give you a bit of context as to where it all was.

As I mentioned my memories, despite being fairly recent ('95, '96 and early '98) are sketchy, I just remember the square columns inside the terminal building (you'll see them in a minute), the escalator going up to the viewing cafe place and the bank of telephones at the top and of course the long straight area where all the gates were. I even remember the name of a bloke I started talking to there once (where are you now Gable Merrick?) and even almost missing my plane once because the gate only opened about 5 minutes before departure and I was too busy wandering around with my pals taking snaps (now lost, I suspect). It's very disconcerting when you are running along a very busy terminal building and someone comes up to you and uses your own name to tell you to hurry (yes, I was the last person to board...).

Anyway, here are a few more pictures of Robert Culp inside the building.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Braemar Hill Cottage Area, Tai Hang

Okay, so the term 'cottage area' probably conjures up various different images depending on where you might live. For instance, in my homeland - the UK in case you didn't know - a cottage area is either a place filled with quaint little country houses or an area where you might bump into George Michael...

However, in the context of Hong Kong a cottage area is basically a bit of land filled with temporary housing such as squatter huts. They were prevalent throughout the territory until the Govt embarked on their - rather impressive - social housing project.

The Braemar Hill cottage area was fairly extensive and had already been featured in The World of Suzie Wong as the location of Suzie's house, but here we are again - 5 or 6 years after Suzie and the place is the scene of some espionage courtesy of Culp and Cosby in So Long, Patrick Henry.

I particularly like the last few snaps because you can see that the film crew had managed to capture Tiger Balm Gardens in the background. Of course, these guys have already been there during the pilot episode Affair at T'sien Cha, but this is definitely on a  much sunnier day compared to then. Actually, despite the gardens being redeveloped, the wall in the background of the thrid from bottom picture is still around - as is the watchtower.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - The Peninsula Hotel...roof!, Tsim Sha Tsui

Well, I was just talking about unorthodox views of The Peninsula and so here it is as promised.Yes, this is the real roof of the Peninsula hotel circa mid-60's - the roof top had a bit of an upgrade later in life, I'm guessing when they built the high rise office tower. If you take a look at this aerial view over on FLICKR you can see the bits they were walking along - mainly the roof of the west wing.

Once again this is from the episode So Long, Patrick Henry.

Here we can see behind the Pen and I believe that the building with the "National" advert (see below) on top was part of the Kowloon Wharf and Godown that fronted the harbour. The reverse of the building perhaps backing onto Canton Road (though I am merely guessing here)? The island in the distance of the above shot was Stonecutters Island, although in the shot immediately below we can see Stonecutters and even further in the distance - Lantau Island. Look at the lower left and you can see the roof top of what is now Hullet House, but until recently was still the Marine Police HQ.

The shot below is interesting for me because it looks as though the camera managed to catch a glimpse of the Hong Kong Hotel being built. The hotel wasn't opened until 1970 so seeing it at this stage 5 years before (these episodes were filmed in 1965) is no surprise. Of course these days it is called the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel and Ocean Terminal behind it is rather more built up than it was in 1965 (it was still operating as a cargo wharf then).

Okay, now we have moved far enough along to start seeing the bus terminus and Star Ferry pier, as well as the KCR terminus and clocktower below. Note that Star House is missing - seeing as this was opened in 1966 I'm surprised there isn't any sign of it being built - or perhaps we can make out some site formation through the trees?

The following shots give us a proper view across the harbour, but in 1965 the famous Prince of Wales had yet to be built (it was built in 1979) although the HMS Tamar Naval base was there - you can see some navy ships in the water in front. It's now the Central Barracks of the PLA.

There's a wider angle of the area when we see the pursuers and you can see the blanket of mist that has descended on the mountain on Hong Kong Island opposite.

 

These last few shots on the curved white roof look to be back over on the east wing rooftop (referring back to the FLICKR picture) and you get a nice closeup of the detail at the top of the hotel roof.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - The Peninsula Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

Back to our I Spy series and a new episode called So Long, Patrick Henry. Easypeasy one this because The Peninsula is such a recognisable landmark on the Kowloon waterfront. But keep an eye open for a rather unorthodox view of it in a while.

Look closely and you'll see the Shell sign from the petrol station that used to be opposite. The building has changed of course and anyone who reads this stuff will know that there is now an office tower sticking up from the middle section, an underground carpark now exists and to accommodate it the front driveway was raised several feet.

These steps have been absorbed into the raised driveway, but judging from the picture below the interior doesn't look to have change much since Cosby and Culp passed the threshold.

Here are some interesting shots of a stuntman walking across the front facade. At least I'm pretty sure it wasn't Robert Culp...

Actually, the following shot - that IS Culp - actually looks to have been filmed on the floor below (note the absence of circular columns but easy to step on sills in front of the windows). Still, I'm quite impressed the hotel were prepared to let anyone do that at all.

Finally we have some closeups of that famous driveway and what looks to be a Routemaster bus going by in the background along Salisbury Road. Feel free to illuminate me as to the make/model of the car and the taxi company.