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The big song from the first movie was "Swinging on a Star" - "Would you like to swing on a star? / Carry moonbeams home in a jar?" That won the 1944 Academy Award for Best Song. The words and music were from Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen. The Bing Crosby recording was number one for nine weeks that year.
That sort of fits the place. There's the annual three-day charity event here - "Octoberfair." Recent fairs have been hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger (with his wife, Maria Shriver), and by Tony Danza. Parishioners here include Martin Sheen, Brooke Shields, Kelsey Grammar, June Lockhart, and the late Lawrence Welk attended mass here. In March 1998 there was the wedding of "Xena, Warrior Princess" here - that would be Lucy Lawless actually. The whole cast showed up, including co-star Reneé "Gabrielle" O'Connor.
At the 1997 Octoberfair comic Chris Farley served as a celebrity Chili Cook-Off judge - and died of a drug overdose two months later. The January 1998 memorial service for Chris Farley was here. Tom Arnold gave the eulogy, and others in attendance included Jay Leno, Gary Busey and Jim Belushi. And another morbid detail, in 1989 the memorial service for Lucille Ball was held here.
This is all very odd.
In any event, the church's website is here. The church was founded in 1886, before there was a City of Santa Monica. The building you see here is from 1926. You've seen it in the movies.
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