Historic Hollywood Sites

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The Brown Derby
3377 Wilshire Blvd.

This is the location of the original Brown Derby. Original owners included Gloria Swanson and her husband, Herbert K. Somborn. The restaurant opened the year his divorce from Swanson became final, 1926. There are lots of legends of how the restaurant got its shape, everything from the shape of Gov. Al Smith’s hat to a friend who said “If you know anything about food, you can sell it out of hat.”

There were five locations over the years including one in Beverly Hills, one in Los Feliz and the glamorous one in Hollywood.

It became a landmark along with its signature Cobb Salad.

In the late 1970s, the restaurant was sold to developers who promised to keep the hat. Well, they did. Today it is located in the back of a strip mall next to Japanese restaurant.






Wiltern Theater
3780 Wilshire Blvd.

In the 1970-1980s, preservation efforts to save classic Hollywood sites were battered left and right and many battles were lost before people realized that too many sites were being lost to developers.
One of the amazing stories of that era is the Wiltern Theater.

The theater was designed by G. Albert Landsburgh (Warner Hollywood theater) and famed City of Angels architect S. Stiles Clemens.

The Wiltern was one of the premiere Art Deco movie theaters on the West Coast. It debuted in 1931 and seated 2300. Alexander Hamilton was the premiere and the theater was supposed to be the flagship theater for the brothers Warner.

A special wooden “Bridge of Stars” was erected over Wilshire Blvd when the city decided not to shut down the street for the premiere. The theater, built in the dark days of the Depression, struggled from the beginning. The brothers Warner pulled out and the theater was shuttered. At the end of the Depression, the Warner brothers returned to the theater and operated it until the 1950s.

The 1960s and 1970s weren’t kind to the Wiltern and in the late 1970s, developers were circling. At the almost 11th hour, a white knight came riding up. Developer Wayne Ratkovich worked with local architect, Brenda Levin, to restore the Wiltern.

Today, the Wiltern is still standing and is home to live performances. It’s exterior and interior beauty is still intact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellissier ... rn_Theatre

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The Hollywood Sign:
We tend to forget that before there was Hollywood as we know it, it was a small town with homes just waiting for the right developer to come and do his magic.

Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler and two partners were just those developers. They dreamed of Hollywood being a place where people could live in a variety of architectural styles from Spanish haciendas to Moorish mansions and everything in-between. In 1923, they erected the Hollywoodland sign to advertise their development.

Located above the boulevard in Beachwood Canyon, the development promised living “above the traffic congestion, smoke, fog and poisonous gas fumes of the Lowlands”.

Today, many of the original homes are still standing as are the original Hollywoodland ornate gates at Beachwood Drive and Westshire Drive. To the right of the gates is a storyboard cottage that was originally the first real estate office in the area, Hollywoodland Realty Company. To the left of the intersection of Beachwood and Belden is where a scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers was filmed with Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter.

Mack Sennet had planned to build a mansion in the Canyon but never did.

Looming above on the side of the hill is the sign that started it all, the famed Hollywood sign. Erected in 1923, the sign has over looked Los Angeles for almost 90 years. It made history in 1932 when starlet Peg Entwhistle, depressed over the lack of her career, jumped from the “H” to her death.
Made of wood, the sign began to deteriorate and maintenance of the sign was discontinued in 1939. In an effort to get out from under the sign, Chandler and partners deeded the sign to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The “Land” portion of the sign was removed as the Chamber thought it better to use the sign to advertise the city instead of the Canyon.

Over the years, the sign has been restored and has been threatened with demolition. In 1978, the sign was threatened and Gene Autry spearheaded a “Save the Sign” effort that brought donations from everyone from Johnny Carson to rocker Alice Cooper.

Last year, the sign was threatened again when a developer wanted to build homes overlooking the sign. This time Hugh Hefner and the LA County Supervisors came to the rescue.






Come on Debbie, let’'s go home.”

Bronson Caves

Many a film has used the Bronson Caves as a location. Everything from The Searchers to Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the TV show, Batman.

Located in the beautiful Griffith Park, the caves are accessible by driving north on Bronson Avenue until it turns into Canyon Drive. Stay on Canyon Drive until you enter Griffith Park. Park. The caves are a short hike to the east.

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Ciro’'s
8433 Sunset Blvd.

Back in the day, nightclubs were a staple of Hollywood life. Stars used to finish work on the studio soundstages, go home and get dressed to the nines and hit the clubs like the Trocadero and Ciro’'s. Located on the famed Sunset Strip, this nightclub hosted not only the Hollywood elite but the movers and shakers as well.

Founded by W.R. Wilkerson, the owner of the Hollywood Reporter, in 1939,Ciro'’s really hit its stride in the mid-1940s. Wilkerson, an invertrate gambler, sold Ciro'’s to Herman Hoover so he could concentrate on building the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas until he ran out of money and had to go into partnership with Benjamin Siegel. Ciro’'s was so popular that studios made arranged dates for their starlets and up and coming male stars.

Mae West played Ciro's as did Martin and Lewis. Stripper Lili St. Cyr caused a minor scandal and had her show shut down for lewdness. It was at Ciro'’s that Johnny Weissmuller dumped a table of food into the lap of Lupe Velez, his soon-to-be ex. Darryl Zanuck took off his suit jacket, shirt and tie to do chin-ups from a trapeze that was part of a stage show.

In 1957, the IRS claimed that Hoover owed a large sum for not collecting the 20% entertainment charge on private parties. Though a court case cleared Hoover and said he did not owe the money, the whole ordeal had stressed his finances to the point of bankruptcy and Ciro'’s was no more.

Today, it is the famed Comedy Club where comedians from Robin Williams to Richard Pryor to David Letterman all got their start.




The Trocadero
8610 Sunset Blvd.

At one time, this was the other nightclub to be seen at. In 1934, W. R. Wilkerson, the owner of the Hollywood Reporter, opened this premiere night spot. It can be seen in the original A Star is Born. It was at the Troc that David O. Selznick and Jock Whitney held the premiere party for Gone with the Wind. Nat King Cole entertained there. In 1946, it closed its doors.

Today, all that remains are three steps at the southeast corner of Sunset Blvd and Sunset Plaza.



77 Sunset Strip
8524 Sunset Blvd.

It was a low-rise, half-timbered restaurant that was called Dino’s Lounge, named after its owner, Dean Martin. It entered pop culture not because of Dino but because of the celebrated TV show, 77 Sunset Strip that featured the popular eatery each week.




Sunset Towers
8358 Sunset Blvd

One of the most beautiful Streamline Moderne buildings in the City of Angels, it opened as an apartment building in 1931. Designed by Leland A. Bryant, this is a monument to art deco styling. Over the years everyone from Howard Hughes, Billie Burke, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Preston Sturges to Bugsy Siegel called this place home. Due to its location, it has commanding views of the City of Angels.

The tower can be seen in Murder My Sweet

In the early 1980s, developers began moving out the residents in hopes of turning the apartments into a co-op. Hogan’s Heroe’s star Werner Klemperer, who lived in the building, refused to move and brought things to standstill. In 1985, even Klemperer had to move.

The building was finally restored in the late 1980s and today is a luxury hotel.

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Site of the Hollywood Hotel
Northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Avenue

Where Hollywood and Highland now sits was once the site of the first real hotel on the Boulevard. Built in 1903, the hotel played host to those from back East who came to the little burg for the sunshine and warmth. By 1913, the visitors were more and more those who would become the pioneers of the film industry. Rudy Valentino danced the tango at the Thursday tea parties. In 1919, he spent his honeymoon there with his first wife Jean Acker and a month later they were divorced.

The hotel’s big claim was Louella Parsons and her radio program which was called Hollywood Hotel and broadcast from the hotel in the 1930s.

The movie, Hollywood Hotel, produced by Warners Brothers was inspired by the grand dame. The song, Hooray for Hollywood, became a pop standard of the day.

The hotel was demolished in 1956 to make room for a bank. The building, built in the mid-century modern style, stood on the corner until the Hollywood and Highland complex started to become a reality.




Montemartre Café Site
6763 Hollywood Blvd.

The Montemartre opened in 1923. Designed in Italian Renaissance palazzo that was all the rage in Hollywood, the building had a bank on the ground floor and the café/nightclub on the second floor.
It was a pioneer in the nightclub scene that in later years would include Ciro’s, the Troc and others and still goes on today. Joan Crawford danced the Charleston, Valentino tangoed there and the maitre d’ became better known as Bruce Cabot. “Lolly” would often lunch there due to its proximity to the Hollywood Hotel.

Bing Crosby got booked there shortly after leaving the Paul Whiteman band and started his career anew.

Spaghetti Tetrazini was the speciality the Café menu was known for.





The Janes House:
6541 Hollywood Blvd.

One of the things we often forget is that Hollywood Blvd, back in the early days of the 20th Century, was primarily a residential street. While almost all vestiges of that era are long gone, this house which is still located on the Blvd, is a visual reminder of a past long since vanished.

The house was built in 1903 in the Queen Anne/Dutch revival style and the street was then called Prospect Avenue. The home was built for the Janes family that included three sisters who ran a school on the property from 1911-1926, “The Misses Janes School of Hollywood” The sisters were said to have taught the children of everyone from CB DeMille to Carl Laemmle.

The house was occupied until the early 1980s when the last remaining Janes sister was moved to an assisted-living facility. Saved from demolition by Hollywood Heritage, it stands today in the courtyard of a small office and shopping complex.

The big rumor surrounding the Janes sisters is that the author, Henry Farrell, got the idea for his book, “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” from the story of the Janes sisters. Farrell denied the rumor for years.

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Musso and Frank’s:
6667 Hollywood Blvd.

Featured in TCM Hideaways with Ben Mankiewicz and Tom Brown. The oldest eatery on the Blvd. Opened in 1919, it wasn’t long before the Hollywood crowd discovered its good food and its good alcohol. It was originally named for owners Joseph Musso and Frank Toulet.

The eatery was remodeled in 1937 and hasn’t changed much since then. The beamed ceilings, red leather banquettes, wooden booths with coat racks and a wait and bar staff who look they have been there for years are just some of the reasons to check it out. Our favorite reason, the bartender who looks and talks like “"Cuddles"” Sakall. Paid parking is available behind the eatery.







Hollywood and Vine

Perhaps one of the most famous intersections in American culture. Back in the 1930s, many of the radio stations such as NBC and CBS, were located on Vine Street. There was a Brown Derby restaurant also located on Vine just south of the Blvd. Today all of that is gone and only CBS Columbia Square remains to remind us of another era. Hollywood and Vine has always sounded much more glamorous than it really was.

The multi-floor Broadway department store was located on the south side of the Blvd near Vine. In recent years, it's roof-top neon sign has been relighted thanks to the generous support of the men who until recently lived in Gary Cooper's wonderful mid-century modern house in Holmby Hills.








The Pacific Hollywood Theater
6433 Hollywood Blvd.

Opened in 1927 with the premiere of Glorious Betty starring Conrad Nagle and Dolores Costello (who lived not far from the theater back then). It was originally a Warners Brothers theater and it was, until recently, the largest theater ever built in Hollywood seating 2,700. Originally equipped with Vitaphone equipment to showcase the Warners commitment to that brand.

Atop the building is a radio transmitter. Back in the day, the Brothers Warner owned the nearby radio station, KFWB and had the tower placed on the roof of the theater where it displayed the Warner name.

The architect was G. Albert Lansburgh and the exterior design was Beaux Arts. The interior was opulent Moorish styling with a giant chandelier hanging in the lobby. Also in the lobby is a plaque to brother Sam Warner who was instrumental in moving the brothers into sound films and who died just before the opening of the The Jazz Singer which brought the brothers back from the brink of financial problems.

This is the theater where Carol Burnett worked as a teenager. She and her grandmother lived nearby at the Mayfair Apartments on Wilcox Avenue. At her request, her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is in front of the theater.




In the early 1950s the theater was renovated and reopened as Warners Cinerama. Seating was reduced to 1500. The experiment in Cinerama lasted a little over a year and a half. In 1961, the theater was renovated again to accommodate showing 70mm films in addition to 35mm. 2001 played there for 37 weeks.

In 1968, the theater was sold to the Pacific Theater chain. In the late 1970s, the theater was cut up to accommodate the addition of two smaller theaters upstairs. Despite the desecration, much of the interior still remains intact.

The theater was closed in 1994 due to structural damage caused by the devastating Northridge earthquake. The theater, like the Janes House and Musso and Franks is a Historic- Cultural landmark.

In the early 2000s, the Los Angeles Film School took over the theater and added digital projection. They also cleaned up the theater and restored the main theater to its 1960s size.

[Birdy]

Wow, I feel like I've been on vacation! I will have to go back and do more of the reading on each pic later. Thanks so much for this travelogue!

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The Ozzie and Harriet House
1822 Camino Palermo Drive

This is the house where Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky lived while they were filming their television series. It fit the bill so well its floor plan was used for the set and the exterior of the house became the front of the fictional house as well.

The house was driving distance to the Hollywood General Studios where they shot their tv show. The Nelsons were still living in the house when Ozzie died in 1975. A few years later, Harriet sold the house and moved.




Highland Gardens Hotel
7047 Franklin Avenue

It was here that Janis Joplin was found, overdosed. Immortalized on screen by Bette Midler in the film, The Rose, which featured a singer patterned after Joplin.




The Villa Capri Restaurant

At one time, this was just a small Hollywood style bungalow that housed an Italian restaurant perhaps best known for being an haunt of James Dean. Dean was introduced to the restaurant by actress Pier Angeli when they were dating. Legend has it he stopped here the night before his death arriving in his new Porsche Spyder.

The restaurant was owned by Patsy D’Amore who was a good friend of Frank Sinatra and since the Capri was near Capitol Records, Sinatra was often in the restaurant holding court and enjoying the food. During the Rat Pack days, Dean, Joey and Sammy were often sighted as well.

When the restaurant closed in 1982, KFAC radio took over the building.

A few years ago, the building was demolished despite the efforts of Hollywood Heritage and the LA Conservancy. Today it is a condo building.




The Montecito Apartments
6650 Franklin Avenue

Built in the early 1930s in the zig-zag Art Deco style by architect Marcus P. Miller, this building has been home to Ronald Reagan, supposedly upon his arrival in the City of Angels to Mickey Rooney, Monty Clift and even James Cagney. Cagney actually lived there prior to Reagan.

Raymond Chandler fans will recognize the Montecito as the Chateu Bercy apartment building in The Little Sister.

The Montecito today is low-income and senior housing.


Hollywood USO Building
1641 N. Ivar Avenue

This building with a neon façade of Hope smiling was dedicated in 1973 with a ceremony that brought out Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Martha Raye all to honor Hope. Most film buffs know about Hope’s connection to the USO.





Hollywood Canteen
1451 Cahuenga Avenue

Started by Bette Davis, John Garfield and Jules Stein, the Canteen operated as a place where service men could grab a bite to eat and dance with a pretty girl before heading back to the war. The Canteen opened Oct. 3rd, 1942 and stayed open until Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22nd, 1945.
The Canteen was staffed by volunteers from the entertainment industry. Marlene Dietrich could often be found (when she wasn'’t entertaining the troops overseas) in the kitchen preparing the food.

Warners also produced a movie called Hollywood Canteen.

The CNN tower now sits where the original Canteen once stood.

Today, there is a new Canteen located nearby on Santa Monica Blvd.
Today, the building houses a production company.

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The Formosa Cafe
7158 Santa Monica Blvd.

You've seen Ben M and his traveling buddy, TCM's own Tom Brown, stopping by the Formosa for a drink and a bit of history. It also had a pivotal scene in Curtis Hanson's ode to post-war Los Angeles, LA Confidential.

It's been a part of Hollywood history since the 1930s, when it opened near what was then Goldwyn Studios (and originally the Doug Fairbanks/Mary Pickford/United Artists movie lot). Called "unimpressive with its red brick facade and black and white striped awning", the walls are lined with photos of studio-era stars who used to frequent this little watering hole. Some came for the menu of Chinese food and American staples, others came for the drinks and some came for the opportunity to see and be seen.

From Frank Sinatra pining over Ava Gardner to Humphrey Bogart to John Wayne and countless others, the Formosa was a second home.

It was here that Curtis Hanson had dinner with Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger to offer them roles in his ode to LA-noir.

The Formosa has seen a great deal of history come from through its doors from Hollywood to the mob. Mickey Cohen was said to have run a secret gambling den and kept his winnings in an old railroad safe.

Elvis is rumored to have surprised one of the waitresses, Dora, with a Cadillac El Dorado.

In the 1990s, it was threatened with demolition. The Los Angeles Conservancy joined with Hollywood Heritage to save the Formosa and let the memories continue to flow.

So, stop by, soak up some history and maybe make some of your own.




The Lot
1041 N. Formosa Avenue

Today it is dwarfed by that giant shopping center which hides its true size.

This historic movie lot dates back to 1918 when producer Jesse Hampton started making movies with W. B. Warner. Hampton had moved from his previous lot where KCET is located today in East Hollywood.

In 1922, Doug Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, having started United Artists with Charlie Chaplin and DW Griffith, took over the lot and renamed it, fittingly enough, the Fairbanks-Pickford lot.




It was here that Doug Fairbanks had the sets for Robin Hood built. They were,in their day, the largest sets to be built and could be seen for miles.





It was here that Fairbanks had the sets for Thief of Bagdad and had a neon sign on top of the lot so that others couldn't film stock footage of his sets and use it in their movies.



And it was here that Fairbanks, after seeing the stages fitted for sound, declared that the magic of making movies was over.

In 1928, Sam Goldwyn became a partner in United Artists and not only made the lot his permanent office but also renamed the lot for United Artists.

By 1936, it was being called the Goldwyn lot though, technically Mary Pickford still owned it. (It was part of the divorce settlement when she and Doug parted ways).




Movies shot there include:

Roman Scandals, Barbary Coast, Dodsworth Stella Dallas, Wuthering Heights, The Little Foxes, The Best Years of Our Lives and Guys and Dolls.

In the mid-1950s, Goldwyn bought Mary Pickford out and headed the studio until his death in 1974.

There was talk of tearing down the studio but Warner Brothers wanted a studio in Hollywood for television production and took over the Goldwyn lot in 1980. Called Warner Hollywood, it became home to many of Warners television shows.



In 1999, Warners sold the lot to BA Studios. BA renamed the studio, The Lot. Warners continues to shoot television shows, including True Blood, on The Lot.

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RKO Studios
860 N. Gower Street

Howard Hughes had life-long fascination with the motion picture business. He produced Hell's Angels, the film that introduced film audience to Jean Harlow, The Front Page and Scarface with Paul Muni.

By 1932, he said he was retiring from motion pictures and was going to concentrate on the Hughes Aircraft Company and began setting speed records and around the world flights.

In 1943, however, he began talking to Preston Sturges about a joint venture that would become California Pictures. It took a year of convincing, but Hughes finally talked Sturges into going into partnership. The first film that Sturges (who took quite a pay-cut for the autonomy he sought) produced for California Pictures was The Sin of Harold Diddlebock and Sturges talked Harold Lloyd into coming out of retirement to star in the film. Hughes had promised not to interfere but he was disappointed in the movie and delayed its release so that he could over-see the re-editing of the picture.

Hughes and Sturges parted ways in 1946.

Later in 1946, Hughes had a devastating crash in Beverly Hills while piloting an experimental XF-1.

In 1948, Hughes purchased RKO Studios. His management style seemed capricious at best and his obsession with The Outlaw and Jane Russell's physique almost toppled the studio. Luckily, the producers who worked at RKO were able to turn out films that kept the studio afloat.

By 1955, Hughes had once again tired of the movie business and decided to get out. He sold RKO to General Tire who was mainly interested in the studio's film library as a way to generate money leasing RKO films to television stations.

Two years later, General Tire sold the studio to Desilu who used the lot for filming its slate of television shows including I Love Lucy, Desilu Playhouse and The Untouchables.



Today, the former RKO studios/Desilu Studio is now part of Paramount and all that is left is the building and the piece of the globe that is still visible from the top of the building at Gower and Melrose.

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Howard Hughes in Hollywood

7000 Romaine Street



This homage to Moderne architecture by way of a Babylonian fortress was the long-time headquarters of Howard Hughes. From here he oversaw his vast empire of aircraft factories, film studios, movie theaters and TWA (until he sold his stock in 1966 for $564 million).

It started life as a bakery and then became an early film lab. Hughes had offices at Metropolitan Studios (Hollywood Center Studios) located at 1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue.

Hughes took over the building in 1927 with his Caddo Pictures company. Caddo produced Hell's Angels and Scarface (the original). Both films were edited in the Romaine building as was a later Hughes film, The Outlaw.

Hughes thought that color film, like sound, would revolutionize the movie business and one of the reasons he bought the building was to experiment with color film in the lab. Vaults held the negative and prints to Hughes' films as well as hours and hours of newsreel footage about Hughes and thousands of photos.

Hughes right-hand man, Noah Dietrich, worked out of the Romaine office as did Hughes secretary, Nadine Henley.

As his interests grew, a staff was hired to take care of Hughes demands as well as the daily workings. They transcribed phone conversations, dispatched service calls for Mrs. Hughes, Jean Peters and saw to the day-to-day dealing of Hughes business including the book-keeping.

The building had extensive security and no one was allowed in without an appointment. A motor-pool of fleet vehicles and a staff of 15 drivers were kept on payroll.

After Hughes died in 1976 the building was sold.

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Hollywood Center Studios
1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue



It started out as an open lot not owned by any studio but available for rent to filmmakers looking for a place to shoot their movies. It was built in 1919 by former Chaplin Studio employee, John Jasper on a stretch of undeveloped land. The property was 15 acres and Jasper built 3 soundstages. Jasper brought in C.E. Toberman from Chicago to run the operations.

In 1922 when Harold Lloyd left Hal Roach Studios, he moved his crew to the lot.

In 1924, B.P. Shulberg bought a controlling interest in the property and in 1925, Jasper moved on but sold his stake to the Christie brothers, Al and Charles, who made comedies under the moniker, Christie Comedies. Toberman took the property that fronted on Santa Monica Blvd. and the entrance was moved to Las Palmas.

In the mid-1920s, Howard Hughes filmed Hell's Angels on the lot. The studio begins retrofitting for sound. By 1929, Stages 1 and 2 were finished and the studio was renamed Metropolitan Studios. Hughes saw the future of sound films and began to extensively reshoot Hells Angels and fired his original leading lady and hired Jean Harlow to replace her.

By 1933, the Christie brothers had to throw in the towel and ceded control of the studio to General Services which was part of AT&T who had developed Vitaphone. Stages 1 and 2 were torn down and rebuilt with dead sound-proof space by double-walling.

By the mid-1930s, Merle Oberon moved into Bungalow A and brought Alexander Korda with her. Mae West came over from Paramount after her film Belle of the
Nineties had scandalized the Hayes Office. Paramount Pictures was hoping to tone down La West.

Finally, Harry Sherman moved over to the lot and began making the Hopalong Cassidy series of films starring William Boyd.

By the start of the 1940s, United Artists was leasing the lot for Alexander Korda and his partner, Benedict Bogeaus.

Numerous films including Alexander Korda's That Hamilton Woman and his remake of Thief of Bagdad were shot on the lot.

By 1942, Korda and other high-end producers had left the lot.

AT&T finally did get busted for anti-trust and they had to sell the studio in 1941. Bogeaus ended up in control of the studio.

In 1946, William Cagney (Jimmy's producer brother) became a partner with Bogeaus in the studio. Blood on the Sun and The Time of Your Life were both shot on the lot The partnership only lasted a year before the Cagney brothers moved to Burbank and Warner Brothers.

Cagney and Bogeaus sold the property to the Nasser brothers. The Nassers began advertising the studio to television producers and Ozzie Nelson, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball and George Burns and Gracie Allen all began shooting their tv shows at Hollywood Center.

Between 1951 and 1953, Desilu shot I Love Lucy on Stage 2.

In the 1960s, Hollywood General Studios was home to many of the television shows that are now pop-culture staples, Green Acres, Mr. Ed, Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction among others.

In the early 1970s, the Nasser brothers sold the studio to Miles Production Company, a Dallas oil and gas company. Universal Television rented nine stages a year whether they used the stages or not. Baretta and The Rockford Files were both shot on the lot.

The last theatrical film shot there was Shampoo. George Burns continued to have an office on the lot that started in the 1950s and would last until Burns died at 100 years old.

In 1980, Francis Ford Coppola riding a wave of films from The Godfather to Apocalypse Now bought the studio to begin his "noble" adventure. He had a slate of films from One From the Heart, Hammet, The Outsiders and others. He envisioned an old fashioned dream factory where he would employ a stable of contract players, writers, directors and technicans. They would find a friendly and creative environment that would be home not only to them but to veterans like Michael Powell.

Alas, it was not to last. By 1983, Coppola had foundered. Hammet never found its audience and production costs,including building a replica of Las Vegas' Fremont Street complete with working neon signs, had forced Coppola into near bankruptcy. He was forced to sell the studio that only three years earlier had held so much promise.

The Singer family, real estate developers from Canada, took over from Coppola. They upgraded the stages and the office space. They marketed the studio to music video producers and rock and roll bands.

In addition, Body Heat, The Player and When Harry Met Sally were shot at the studio.

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As Walt Disney has such a high profile at this year's Film Festival, I thought it would be nice to point out to Disney film fans some of the historic Disney sites:



Walt Disney Studios
2719 Hyperion Street

It was here that Walt Disney launched what became a movie empire. He had come from Kansas City, broke and fleeing bankruptcy. His brother Roy had encouraged him to come west and Walt, discouraged, took the train to Los Angeles.

They started small with a small office front and in 1926 were able to take over a white Spanish Colonial building. Walt and company had been making Oswald the Rabbit cartoons for Charles Mintz and Universal. But, Mintz was paying Disney barely enough money to cover the costs of producing the successful cartoons and Disney was hoping to negotiate more money. He traveled back to New York when the contract was up with high hopes of more money for producing the cartoons.

Instead, Mintz blindsided Walt by telling him that Mintz had hired away most of Walt's animators and that Disney would get less money for producing the Oswald cartoons, not more. Disney refused to sign and threatened to take Oswald to another distributor. Mintz then told Walt that he did not own the rights to Oswald, Universal did.

Disney took the train back to Los Angeles and sent a telegram to Roy telling him not to worry, everything was okay. While on the train, Walt came up with idea for a new character a mouse named Mortimer. Walt's wife, Lillian, was not enamored of the name and suggested Mickey. The name stuck.

Luckily for Walt, one of the animators that Mintz was unable to convince to leave Disney was the prolific Ub Iwerks. Thus, Mickey was born. It was here at Hyperion Studios that Walt decided that Steamboat Willie should have sync sound added to it. It was to debut but the premiere of The Jazz Singer revolutionized the movie business and Walt saw his future clearly.

It took a couple of tries as the first music conductor thought he knew better and didn’t follow the music cues. Finally, Walt was able to get the score recorded properly and Steamboat Willie debuted to record crowds.

The Silly Symphonies were born in this studio. Leonard Maltin will be curating a program of Symphonies during the film Festival. From The Skeleton Dance to Flowers and Trees and many Hollywood parodies in between, the Symphonies were the first cartoons to be filmed in Technicolor. In many ways, they blazed the trail for a dream Walt had. A dream called Snow White.

It was to be the first feature length animated feature and it almost drove the studio under. Disney was a perfectionist and often work was done and redone. Gags were animated and then reworked. There was speculation that people wouldn’t sit through a cartoon of such length or that the colors would be so vivid they would hurt the viewers eyes after a prolonged time.

Walt had hoped to make the film for $250,000. It was called “Disney’'s Folly” and there was a great deal of talk of how it would fail. Roy and Walt’s wife, Lillian, tried to talk Walt out of making the film. Walt was determined. He mortgaged his house but costs kept escalating.

The Bank of America was providing the financial backing for the film and even the directors of the Bank were getting cold feet. Roy finally prevailed on Walt to show a rough cut to a friendly director. Walt was skeptical, worrying that the bank director wouldn’t be able to follow the story in rough form. All the worry was for naught. Though he sat silently through the screening and remained silent through the walk to the car, in the end he assured Walt that the BofA would continue to back the film and that it was going to be a box-office smash.

Snow White debuted on Dec. 21st, 1937 at the old Carthay Circle Theater (a recreation of the theater exterior can be seen in LA Confidential) just before Christmas. All of Hollywood from Shirley Temple to Gary Cooper turned out for the splashy premiere.

The film went wide on Feb. 4, 1938 and did boffo box-office as they say. The film went on to garner Walt a special Oscar presented to him by Shirley Temple. An award size Oscar and seven smaller ones was presented to Walt at the Oscar ceremony in 1939.

The success of Snow White came at just the right moment for the Disney brothers. They were able to follow-up with Pinocchio and allowed Disney to dream of building a new studio in Burbank that would be not only state-of-the-art but allow his staff to grow.

In 1940, Walt moved his studio to Burbank where it still is today. The Hyperion site is a historic site and has Cultural marker #163. L.A.

You can see Walt’s special Oscar for Snow White (and many other treasures) at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

[Lzcutter]

Walt Disney Studios
500 S. Buena Vista Vista
Burbank

When Walt envisioned a new state-of-the-art studio, he was in the midst of making of Pinocchio. He wanted his animators to have room to be productive. The robin's nest and warren like cubby-holes of the Hyperion Studios made Walt envision something much more modern.

There were 51 acres in Burbank that seemed like the best place to build their new studio.

Walt was involved in all aspects of the planning. From the lay-outs of the offices to the right chairs for the animators, all details went by Walt before they were approved.

The Animators Building would be in the middle of the lot with the Ink and Paint and Camera buildings near by. In addition, there were Editing facilities and sound stages as well as post-production buildings for sound.

Many of the buildings were linked by an underground tunnel and all the utility lines were underground, quite an innovation for 1940. Walt wanted the animators to have the northern light, considered the best kind of light. There was plenty of types of exercise, ping-pong tables, volleyball and horseshoes.

Fantasia (screening at the Festival) and Dumbo were in production. Fantasia was Walt's attempt to blend animation with classical music and a special stereo system, Fantasound was designed to deliver the best quality sound for the soundtrack.

The studio endured the bitter labor strike in the early 1940s that tore apart the friendly, family like atmosphere that the studio and employees had built. When the strike was finally resolved, Walt's attitude towards his employees had changed and he remained bitter about the strike.

The military took over the studio when war was declared in 1941. With Lockheed in close proximity to the studio, the military sent troops to the studio to protect Lockheed. Walt and the studio went to work making training and propaganda films for the war effort.

After the war, Disney branched out into live-action film and the backlot was filled with turn of the century homes as well as modern 1950s homes that served as homes to the Hardy Boys and the Shaggy Dog. It was here that Zorro (Guy Williams) kept the peace in the Southwest of yore,

The Sound stages were kept busy.

Stage 1 had housed the filming of the live-action sequences for Fantasia. Stage 2 was built in 1949 and Jack Webb utilized it for the filming of the first Dragnet series. With over 31,000 square feet, the stage also hosted The Mickey Mouse Club was also filmed on the stage utilizing sets designed by Harriet Burns and other designers. In 1954, Stage 3 was built to house the sets for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Stage 4 was built for Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

The entrance to the Studio off of Buena Vista still offers a glimpse and taste of what the lot used to look like.

From the 5/134 freeway, you can see the new Animation Building and the ABC Building. The new Animation Building has a giant Sorcerer's hat and has a faux Art Deco look to it. Where these buildings sit is where Walt first envisioned building a small theme park.

Across the street from the Buena Vista entrance is St. Joseph's hospital. Walt donated a beautiful mural by one of his artists, Mary Blair, to the children's wing. Mary Blair, known for her use of color, is famous for the mural in Tomorrowland, the look of the interior of small World as well as her work on Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Three Caballeros.

When Walt took ill in the fall of 1966, he went to St. Joe's. He died at St. Joe's on Dec. 15th, 1966.

To learn more about Walt's life and his movies, visit The Walt Disney Family Museum- www,waltdisney.org - in San Francisco.

[moira finnie]

WoW, Lynn, this is like a tour of LA without the jet lag and hassle! Thank you so much for putting this thread together. Your images are beautiful too. Have you been to all these places?

[JackFavell]

Lynn-

this is a treasure trove of wonderful Hollywood architecture and photos! Thank you so much!

Did you get to watch Fragments last night? Doug's clip and the Leigh Conley clip were chock full of beautiful California scenery! I was thinking of you.

I am curious about something I think I read about - isn't there a section of Hollywood where Walt Disney's animators lived, in adorable storybook style homes? or maybe I am just making it up somehow?