And so were Edie Adams, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Peter Falk, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Spencer Tracy, and Jonathan Winters. They were all here in Oxnard during the 1962 filming of Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I'm using Buster's name in the title of this cache because this is the only scene he is in (the other was cut from the movie soon after its premiere). Channel Islands Harbor had been dredged from the wetlands only a few years earlier. It looks considerable different now than it does in the movie. The old buildings are long gone, the harbor has been expanded and built up, and Victoria Ave. has been realigned. Nonetheless, there are a few remainders to prove that this was the spot. The cache is located approximately where the camera would have been to capture the following scene.
Captain Culpepper (Spencer Tracy) arrives expecting to be taken by boat to Mexico by Jimmy the Crook (Buster Keaton). Note that the cove extended much farther east then. In fact, this was the east end of an artificial lake built in the 1920's. The dredging of the harbor went through the rest of the lake.
Jimmy helps Culpepper back into the garage. The seawall is the only thing that remains today. The buildings are gone. Much of the houses on the other side are gone as well except for the house directly above the boat with the yellow tarp.
The rest of the cast arrives with a bang in two taxis.
Jimmy the Crook: "What's going on?", Culpepper: "Sorry, Jimmy". So much for the meeting of two movie titans.
This shot shows that the entire main cast was here in Oxnard. Merman and Beryl are on the left, that's Shawn in the red shorts, the blur is Rooney with Falk a few steps behind. Thomas is getting out of the front taxi. The rest are on the other side of the taxis.
Captain Culpepper bolts.
In a cloud of dust, the cast climbs back into the taxis as Buster looks on.
This is an interesting view showing the undeveloped harbor behind a chain of buoys. In the next decade, this end of the harbor will be build out to what you see today.
And they're off! Note the curve in the road right here. Today, Victoria goes straight through where Buster is showing off his silent comedy chops. The curve is still there. It's called Lakeshore Ct. and can be seen from GZ on the other side of Victoria.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was filmed all over Southern California but I believe this was as far west as any cast members went (though some flying sequences went further west). The film's diehard fans love to find the original locations and this is a good one. But the scene is also a unique time capsule of the early days of our beautiful harbor.