Mickey Mouse operation:In “Spy Hard,” the new...

Mickey Mouse operation:

In “Spy Hard,” the new Disney/Hollywood Pictures comedy, Leslie Nielsen’s spy agency uses a real-life Disney building as its headquarters--the Team Disney edifice supported by columns in the shape of the Seven Dwarfs. Funny thing, though. In the movie, the nearby reflecting pool is full of sharks. We always thought the sharks at Disney were in the office suites.

ANGELS FLICKS: The reopening of Angels Flight this year marks the return of not only a downtown landmark but a film veteran. Some of A.F.’s credits:

* “All Jazzed Up” (circa 1920): A silent comedy about a quarrelsome husband who interrupts his honeymoon to conduct business and later finds this note from his bride: “It was too lonesome here without you. I have gone to Angels Flight. Meet me up above.” Thinking she means heaven, he makes several colorful but unsuccessful suicide attempts until discovering that she has merely developed a yen for the trolley.

* “Turning Point” (1952): Investigator William Holden makes the two-block ascent on Angels Flight to survey the hide-out of a gangster’s moll in an adjacent, flea-bag apartment.

* “Indestructible Man” (1956): Lon Chaney Jr., given superhuman powers by an industrial accident, boards the trolley on his way to committing some mayhem.

* “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” (1948), “The Glenn Miller Story” (1953) and “Little Shop of Horrors” (1960): All have background shots of the world’s shortest railway.

* “Boston Blackie” (TV) (1952): Villains set up a meeting at Angels Flight to collect blackmail money but are foiled by Blackie and company.

* “Perry Mason” (TV) (1960): Perry and faithful secretary Della Street take the trolley only to find, on their return, that his car has been burglarized. Another case for crack investigator Paul Drake.

ANGELS REST: Footage from several of the above movies as well as fascinating period clips of the trolley appear in Jon Merritt’s award-winning documentary, “The Return of Angels Flight: A Promise Fulfilled.”

Merritt shows such wonders as Angels Rest, the 100-foot-tall observation tower that stood at the top of Angels Flight until 1938, and Court Flight, a second (and largely forgotten) trolley that operated down the street until 1944. And there are amusing anecdotes such as the terms of the City Council permit for the construction of Angels Flight in 1901. Engineer J. W. Eddy was told that he must build an adjacent stairway up Bunker Hill in order not to “monopolize” traffic. After all, not everyone wanted to pay the original 1-penny price of the trolley trip.

miscelLAny:

For those who don’t get their fill of signs along the freeways, the Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica is showing a historical exhibition of billboards through July 3. The oldest billboard on display dates back to 1917. It was, we believe, an ad for a Robert W. Morgan radio show.