Dick Tracy and some Guest Detectives at Universal

This is 2024, Universal Studios Nissan commercial.But this lighting took me back to a feature we did here titled –Dick Tracy, back in 1990. Starring Warren Beatty and Madonna. Warm up with these first 5 car shots for what follows…

.Cut Here…Bring in Dick Tracy

The climatic shoot out, probably the best I have ever seen on this lot. A close second is City Heat starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds

He’s so vain, he probably thinks this song is about him!- So says Carly Simon.

1984 Brownstone Street Universal. A fun, drawn out, exchange of humor mixed with gun fire. This is the same corner Clint says ‘Do you feel Lucky Punk”

Dirty Harry 1971

Telly Savalas, Peter Falk

We are well stocked on this lot with investigators..

We begin on Universal’s original New York Street:

Uniformed officers patrolled around here back in the 70s in Dodge Darts while filming Adam-12. We had our own Fire Company and still do- Engine Company 51. The most famous fire fighters ever to step in front of a camera. We had more detectives than criminals. The one common denominator is the paved streets all this takes place on.

During the time of all these pictures I’ve displayed, they took place on our original New York City streets.Sadly it would burn down, as would its replacement 10 years later. Each rebuild took almost a year to accomplish. The job was titled The Phoenix Project. Up from the ashes we carried on.

The show must go on and this street is our big moneymaker. The best films done here were made on New York One -the original street.

I lived these fires, I have fire pictures from our Fire Department and the challenges they faced, prioritizing the film vaults that were irreplaceable. With everything bad something good surfaces often. Seeing an entire city get rebuilt in the footstep of the original was a historic site to see, the thrill of victory would once again be achieved. Fresh wood dominated the landscape and air we breathed.

To literally see massive 5 story street structures return from the ashes was similar say to a dead plant surprising you with re-life sprout again. I always wondered what it must have been like to have built this street and never figured I’d live to see- not one, but two of these Metropolis’s rebuilt.

Much of Dick Tracy is night scenes to take advantage of lighting effects. Not only were the buildings repainted in brighter hues, but colored gels were put in front of 12 K lights to illuminate these otherwise non descriptive generic streets. Watering down streets also help the color flow be reflective.

I worked days during this film and much of this show was nights. As I arrived at work, I could see the damage filmed the night before. The smells of gunpowder and rubber cement were everywhere the morning after. I could only imagine the mayhem that took place hours before… I couldn’t always be assigned to the shows I’d prefer.

A long standing production electrician and best pal-Greg Bishop, my mentor who has literally seen everything on this backlot told me the shootout he witnessed as the finally was… the most insane thing he ever witnessed on our lot. We walked the bullet ridden sets and damaged cars together while as I tried to imagine what he was saying as we explored the wreckage. Bullet holes and crashed cars litter the streets. The smell of kerosene attaches to everything.

One funny side bar, unless you’re Madonna, is the fact a Glamour Tram clipped her vintage Mercedes Benz. The car was parked outside a soundstage and the 4th car of the tram smacked her car good. That didn’t go over well. Universal flipped the bill for that expensive repair…

The steamy relationship between Warren Beatty and our singing star was in full City Heat during this project. Cherished memories would continue for me on a daily basis for decades to come, as I continue my childhood adventures as a full grown adult that now gets paid for having fun.

That’s how life is suppose to be lived everybody…

Written and Lived by…Donnie Norden