A different kind of Flynn's visit

BaconSM

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Yesterday I posted pics of my visit to the promotional Flynn's arcade that Disney had set up in San Diego. I decided to take one more trip later that day to make my TRON/Flynn's experience complete. There is a finer restaurant a few miles south of my work that I have been meaning to visit for some time after hearing about its history. It's a neat place with a unique look that is situated in downtown Culver City California. The immediate area is rather nice and has a very 1910's/1920's Hollywood feel.

Here is the Restaurant; it's called Akasha:


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Now in case anyone doesn't recognize it, here is how it appeared dressed for the filming of TRON in the 80's:


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The inside has been gutted and rebuilt a couple of times since the movie and it is very hard to recognize from the inside. The wall that had the neon Recognizers in the movie isn't there so the inside is now quite a bit larger. The loft where Flynn was living is completely gone and the space is now filled by bathrooms where the stair going up used to be. The outside is still pretty spot on! The door is different and there is an awning on one side but it is immediately identifiable other than those small details. The outside will probably change very little over time as the structure (called the Hull Building) is a historic landmark. There are still even mounts on the wall where the Flynn's sign used to be, but that could easily be from any of a number of different signs that used to hang there.

Now if only the place could look like this today:


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After checking the movie I could tell exactly where I sat. There was a Battlezone in the movie where the small bar table my wife and I occupied was.
Anyway, it was kinda fun to have these two little arcade related journeys this weekend, I hope you guys find the pictures interesting.


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Very very very sweet. I really liked the modern photo with the Flynn's neon light photoshopped on. Great work with that!
 
Oh that is cool, thanks for sharing!

I wonder what ever happened to the original prop pieces like the recognizer neons, the signs, etc... probably destroyed, but there's always a chance that they are sitting in some warehouse or closet somewhere, too.
 
Reading up on the tron wiki.... it says most of the original Tron props are gone, however Disney still has the original FLYNN's neon sign. I wonder if they used that for the viral campaign or if it was just easier to make a new replica?
 
Thanks for the Flynn composite. How was the food?

The food was very good. I had a flat iron steak that was excellent.
Now, that being said, it is a short menu with most dishes being in the mid $20 range and the servings are on the smaller size. Drinks were good too, but they were in the $12 to $15 dollar range. It made for a nice meal for my wife and I and was fun to see, but it's not a place for everyone.
 
Reading up on the tron wiki.... it says most of the original Tron props are gone, however Disney still has the original FLYNN's neon sign. I wonder if they used that for the viral campaign or if it was just easier to make a new replica?

Yea, someone at work saw it laying down at a prop house at Disney a few years ago.
 
I can't be sure, but I would imagine that the San Diego sign is new. First beacuse there were so many other new signs made for this. Many of the signs had the same names as the neon props in the movies but they were clearly different. For example there was one for "Vice Squad"; the movie version just had the words and the new one had a badge between the words.
Secondly the original was curved to fit the Hull Building and the new version was straight. I suppose it could have been made by putting a new frame together with the old letters but I'm not sure how practical that would be.

Here's the old prop in the Burbank Disney Studio prop house:

flynnsNeon.jpg
 
Was there actually an upstairs room to the place?

It was definatly a practical set and you can figure out where it was but the inside has been gutted at least twice since the movie. The upstairs is gone as is an entire wall. Where most of the games stood there is now a bar and bakery counter.
 
I've always wondered where those scenes were filmed. Thanks for the post...
 
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