Madonna - Open Your Heart (1986) - Music Video Filming Locations

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Featured Filming Location Photo

A Famous Corner In Music Video History
A scene from the Madonna music video Open Your Heart.

Madonna's "Open Your Heart" Video Location: The Secret History of 215 N. Toluca Street

If you visit the southwest corner of West Court Street and North Toluca Street in Los Angeles today, you will see a modern apartment building. However, pop culture enthusiasts know this site—specifically the vacant lot at 215 North Toluca Street—as the iconic filming location for Madonna's 1986 "Open Your Heart" music video.

While the video transformed this space into a stylized, outdoor adult theater set, it leaves behind a fascinating urban mystery: Why did this prime Los Angeles lot remain completely vacant for more than 30 years?

The Hidden Los Angeles Oil Well at 215 N. Toluca St.

The answer to the lot's long-standing vacancy is hidden in plain sight. In the top-center background of the "Open Your Heart" music video, you can actually spot an active, operating oil well.

This specific neighborhood belongs to Los Angeles' very first "oil district," which dates back to the late 1800s. For decades, the landscape of this residential area was defined by massive wooden oil derricks sitting directly adjacent to family homes.

To see what this surreal, industrialized neighborhood looked like during the California oil boom, take a look at this historic 1890s photo of the Toluca Street oil district preserved in the Calisphere digital archives:

West Court Street and Toluca Street Area in 1985

While the oil infrastructure kept developers away for decades, the historic lot finally saw new life when construction began on a new residential apartment complex in 2019.

Historical Production & Location Reference

Music Video: Open Your Heart (1986)
Artist: Madonna
Album Origin: True Blue (Sire Records)
Director: Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Featured Historical Landmarks:
  • Toluca St & West Court St: This Echo Park/downtown-adjacent intersection serves as the core exterior setting where Madonna and young co-star Felix Howard escape down the street.
  • The Peep Show Theater Set: The iconic, neon-lit adult cinema facade was built entirely as a temporary production set on a vacant corner lot at this intersection.

Production & Preservation Note: Filmed on location in the autumn of 1986, this highly stylized video directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino offers a fascinating time capsule of the weathered urban landscape just west of Downtown Los Angeles. While the video famously generated controversy for its provocative avant-garde adult cinema themes, its exterior framing captures the gritty, open topography of mid-1980s Echo Park. For decades, the corner lot utilized for the faux peep show theater remained empty, but the modern influx of high-density residential development has recently transformed the site, with a large, contemporary apartment complex now occupying the historic footprint.

A scandalous (by 1986 standards) music video from Madonna, it was nevertheless placed on heavy rotation on MTV (when MTV played music videos) which no doubt helped record sales immensely. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in the USA on February 7, 1987.

Like many of Madonna's early music videos, this was filmed near Downtown Los Angeles. In this then and now filming locations video, notice that the location of the adult theatre set has only recently been built up, with a large apartment building now occupying the site.

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Madonna - Open Your Heart - Complete Filming Locations Video

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Madonna - Open Your Heart - Complete Filming Locations Photo Gallery


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