Saturday, August 06, 2022

Universal Studios 1950s

I recently found some slides of Universal Studios that are undated, but they seem to be from before it became a big tourist attraction (Wikipedia says that what we consider the "modern" studio tour began in July of 1964). I admit that I don't recognize a lot of these backlot locations - to the point where I started to wonder if these photos really were from Universal. But some additional scans (to be seen in a future post) confirmed it.

OK, I don't even have a guess as to what this massive structure is supposed to be. It's not exactly medieval, even though the towers have crenellations. Oh yeah, say it with me... CRENELLATIONS. But it also has those fancy spiral columns, and those Romanesque (?) arches. Maybe it's supposed to be Constantinople. Yeah, probably not.


There it is again, I could probably stitch the previous photo together with this one, but that involves effort. And you know how lazy I am! 


Universal Studios has suffered from several devastating fires over the decades, so much of what we might see in old photos is likely long-gone. Apparently there were fires in 1932, 1949, 1957, 1967, 1987, and another in 1997. Hey, where were YOU in 1997? Your eyes suddenly got very shifty! Anyhoo, this set appears to be set in France. Or Belgium. "Livres d'occasion", that means "Liver for every occasion". 


"Anselmo Fine Italian Foods"... so... little Italy? That building looks pretty fancy for Italian Foods. Where are the bricks and the fire escapes and the kids playing in the open fire hydrants? Those trailers are where astronauts spend weeks in quarantine, in case you were wondering.


Check out the houses to the right, up on the hill's ridge; I always thought it would be fun to overlook the studio, you never know what you might see. Charlton Heston punching a monkey? Steve McQueen driving irresponsibly? Audrey Hepburn wearing a floppy hat? ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.


I sure wish I knew what they were filming; Universal Studios is a real working movie/TV studio after all. This looks like Old Mexico, perhaps. "Vineria", that's where they sell Red Vines. I prefer Twizzlers. 


Well, I know that my commentary wasn't very edifying, but at least it was terse. Stay tuned for "part two", whenever I get around to it!

22 comments:

JB said...

While I did not stitch the first two images together, I did put them side-by-side and got a bit of a 3D effect. But not good enough to keep, or post. Oh well.
Like you, I have no idea what this backlot set represents. Castle? Cathedral? Roman Empire? Fantasy?

The Anselmo's pic is definitely one of the new York streets. Brooklyn? It's got the 'stoops' and the New York-style street lamps. But why is it monochrome? Is this when the street was still being built? Or maybe just prepped for a different paint job?

In the next pic, there's a ghostly image in the sky; the window of a house. And maybe the outline of the house. All that's left of a structure that got consumed in one of the many fires, no doubt.

Twizzlers? Bleh... Red Vines are unique. Nothing else on the planet tastes like Red Vines! One caveat: Only buy them when they're soft and fresh.

Thanks for the interesting Universal pics, Major.

- Team Red Vines

MIKE COZART said...

Growing up in Southern California I was lucky to get to go to Disneyland and Knott’s Berry farm several times a year…. Santa’s village usually once a year … Magic mountain ( we were not a 6 flags family) maybe once every three or four years ….. and universal studios maybe once every 5 or 6 years. But one my earliest Universal visit I remember being very aware that “this place was old “ I didn’t quite understand the passage of time but could sense the age of so many of the sets … the backlots were a combination of exciting and very sad and depressing … like some of the sets really had seen better days and attention.

Regarding the homes up in the hills surrounding universal : about 15 years or so ago a friend of mine I worked with also did acting. One day we had an extended lunch because of some maintenance work being done in our building - my friend wanted to show me something up in the hills : we drove to this really nice neighborhood and parked in a space between two massive homes - the space looked down into universal studios and there was a big set up below of a neighborhood that had been in a distaste were smashed mini vans and news crew trucks and a sections of a jumbo jet and debris and wreckage all over … soon smoke started coming from the wreckages and damaged homes as a universal tour tram drove down the disaster ridden street ( I recall it suppose to be damage from War of the Worlds - the Tom cruise version … . After the tram passed through the seen there smoke dissipated and cleared…. Until the next tram got close. I remember how depressing to have this great view but having to see the horrible disaster seen smoking and smoldering every 15 minutes all day long !

TokyoMagic! said...

The structure in the first pic was remodeled quite a bit, but it was still standing in the 1970s and maybe even the early 80s. This photos is from a pictorial guide that was sold at Universal. I have a copy of the guide, which I purchase in 1979 or 1980, but I do remember seeing this structure in 1973 and 1975, when taking the tram tour. I seem to remember them calling it "Frankenstein's Castle" as we drove by it. From this photo, it looks like guests aboard the tram would not have a clear view of it, but I remember it could be seen up close from other angles, when the tram drove around to the other side of the structure. I have a strong memory of this building, because my brother was a huge "monster movie" fan. However, I'm not certain if this structure was actually used in any of the Frankenstein films. Hopefully, someone else will know, but I wouldn't be surprised if Universal gave it that name just for the tram tour. They were kind of notorious for such things:

http://www.thestudiotour.com/wp/wp-content/gallery/denver-street-pre-2010/denverstreet_and_castle.jpg

Chuck said...

These were taken after the 1957 fire (I’ll explain how we know that in a moment), so these may have technically been taken at Revue Studios rather than Universal. The Music Corporation of America (MCA) bought the Universal lot in December 1958, renamed it after their television division, Revue Productions, and then leased it back to Universal. MCA eventually bought Universal’s then-parent company, Decca Records, in 1962 and the name reverted to Universal Studios.

The first two photos are of the Tower of London set, originally built for the Basil Rathbone/Boris Karloff 1939 film of the same name about Richard III (also featuring a young Vincent Price in one of his first film roles). When originally constructed, the film’s art director apparently consulted 13th Century drawings of the actual castle in London to make it as authentic as possible. The castle appeared in a lot of later productions (the staircase at the left of both shots is fairly easy to pick out when it shows up), even showing up in an episode of Battlestar Galactica. It was removed in 1988 and replaced by the Earthquake attraction.

The third photo is of the Little Europe area, located in the northeast part of the backlot. This set burned to the ground in 1967 but was rebuilt to the original plans.

The next two photos are of Brownstone Street, located adjacent to New York Street and Courthouse Square on the west end of the backlot. Courthouse Square (Back to the Future, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc.) is directly behind the facade in these pictures. The weedy foundations in the foreground of the second Brownstone Street image were for a theater set that stood for about 20 years but burned in the September 25th, 1957 fire. Based on the weed growth, I would date these to around 1958-59, before the theater site was rebuilt as the “business district” side of Brownstone Street.

At some point before 1968, a third story was added to the street. The facades shown in these photos burned down in 1990 and were rebuilt to a similar (but not identical) style. Those replacements themselves burned down in 2008, to be replaced with lookalikes.

I think the last photo was taken in the Little Europe area, although I don’t recognize the specific sets. The angle of the layout of the buildings reminds me of Mediterranean Square, which abuts the Little Europe area, but that wasn’t built until after the 1967 fire. Perhaps that area was built using the spatial relationships of an earlier cluster of Mediterranean sets. Vineria means “wine bar” in Italian, so the Mediterranean setting is appropriate.

Mike, finally saw the Spielberg-Cruise version of War of the Worlds last weekend and the 747 crash site I’d read about for years. Impressive set, and interesting to see something new at Universal that wasn’t an animatronic set-piece in an enclosed building, but I thought “how often is this actually going to be used for a film location?” Then last night I was watching a Key & Peele sketch and - lo and behold - there was the 747 crash site!

Can’t wait for t Part 2!

Chuck said...

Mediterranean Square appears in the photo TM! references above. Find the right edge of the Tower of London set, then track directly upwards to the red tile roofs.

Most recent film I’ve seen it in is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007). THIS CLIP shows just how versatile these building sets can be with the use of additional set dressing, costumes, dramatic lighting, shooting at night, etc. Unlike watching a lot of 1960s and 70s TV series, where you can immediately see how this set was used before two episodes ago on a different show, you really have to know what to look for to recognize the set in this film.

Gojira said...

Great batch of photos! The castle was indeed used in House of Frankenstein (1944). Glenn Strange as the monster carry/drags Boris Karloff down those steps from the archway at the top.

https://hollywoodmetal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/1944_HouseFrankenstein_img14.jpg

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, huh, I would have never even thought to try for a 3D effect, I’ll have to try it when I’m done responding to comments! Doesn’t it seem odd to have that “Anselmo” building look wrong for a “fine foods” establishment in New York? It feels much more residential to me. Maybe I’m mistaken, though, I grew up as one of the Children of the Corn. I noticed that ghostly window in the sky, and don’t really know how it got there. Double exposure? It’s weird. And to be honest I don’t care for Twizzlers OR Red Vines!

Mike Cozart, Universal Studios was not far from my grandparent’s Encino home, so we went there somewhat regularly (same with the Busch Gardens in Van Nuys). We always looked forward to it. Disneyland was an “event”, maybe twice a year (when we lived in SoCal) if I was lucky, but often only on Navy Nite. Knott’s was our most-visited park, we used to run around that place and have so much fun, and I assume it must have been much more affordable, because otherwise my mom wouldn’t have taken us there. I don’t think I paid much attention to the sets at Universal, I was more about things like the giant props, meeting Frankenstein’s monster, and the tram tour. I’m not sure if they still have the “War of the Worlds” set as part of the tour, I was shocked that they still had crumbling and faded sets from Ron Howard’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”; like WHY? Did anybody care?

TokyoMagic!, thanks for the link to that photo! As far as I know, any sets that were actually used in the classic Universal Monster movies burned down many decades ago, so when you see “Monster Square” today, with an almost identical archway, it’s a reproduction of the original. I could definitely see how the building in those first two pictures could be turned into a tall, imposing castle with the addition of a matte painting. My brother and I were “monster kids” too, so our favorite thing was anything having to do with monsters, including a display of mummified corpses that were used in an episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”.

Chuck is doing his Chuck Thing (I accidentally typed “Chick Thing”, which Chuck was definitely NOT doing). I am simultaneously impressed and ashamed when a reader does 10 times more research than I do. I know nothing about Revue Studios, and admit that at first I was not sure that these photos were from Universal (there were quite a few backlots in the old days), but some of the other photos that you have not yet seen confirmed that it is indeed Universal. I guess I should get around to “part two”, though you probably won’t see it until January. Yes, I am already almost done with December’s posts! Thank you for the info about the Tower of London and Little Europe. I didn’t really “clock” that those were “weedy foundations” in those photos of Brownstone Street, that’s very interesting! I thought that these were older than ’57, but mostly based on the look of the slides themselves. But you’re evidence is right there. I once had to take some penicillin for Vineria, but that’s a whole other story. I’m amazed that they still find uses for that “War of the Worlds” set! Thanks Chuck!

Chuck II (The Reckoning), how in the world did you know that Mediterranean Square was used for that scene in “Pirates of the Caribbean (etc)”? I’ve never seen that movie (after the first one, they got pretty bad). On the main Disney lot, they have a VERY tiny backlot area that was continually be redressed, it was interesting to walk by it one day and the corner store was a Chinese restaurant, and two days later it would be a bookstore.

Major Pepperidge said...

Gojira, first of all, thank you for not stomping on Tokyo today. And clearly my comment to TokyoMagic! was wrong (what else is new), thank you for that link to the great photo of Glenn Strange on the castle steps!

JG said...

The GDB collective comes through!

Great stuff, Major and Junior Gorillas. Blogger ate my first post, so I will only re-type that the set designer visited a different Tower of London than I saw. The set is more Hollywood than Plantagenet, but still splendid for all of that.

Thanks all!

JG

JG said...

Tokyo, I think the tour route might have been different at some point, because I saw that castle set in your picture but from another angle and fairly close up. At the time, I hadn’t seen any of the Frankenstein movies, but years later I recognized it when I did see them.

Gojira, thank you!

Here’s some links on spiral columns, 600-800 yrs later than the White Tower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian_Lorenzo_Bernini#/media/File:Interiorvaticano8.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Heyling_Furness#/media/File:ProvidentTrust.jpg

JG

Nanook said...

@ Chuck / Major-
Thanks for all that great info. In the last image, we can see a red yearly registration sticker affixed on the [black-on-yellow] license plate of that black, 1950-1953 Cadillac. The red sticker indicates 1957. So a good guess for that image would be that same year. And coincidentally, 1957 was the first year California began using those stickers.

Just to add more confusion to the Revue name, in the early 1950's (I can't locate the exact date) Republic Studios leased space to Revue Productions. Republic Studios - for those who don't quickly recognize that name - (and now called Radford Studio Center) is located in Studio City [of course] on Radford Avenue. I believe prior to the December 1958 'changing of hands' to MCA, all of the Revue television productions were shot at the old Republic Pictures lot - including (seasons 1-4) of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; (seasons 1 & 2) of Leave It to Beaver and Wagon Train, etc., etc.

Presumably, after Revue productions 'moved down the street' beginning with the 1959 television season, Republic began leasing space to CBS - and by 1963, CBS was the primary lessee of the lot - and the facility was renamed CBS Studio Center. CBS purchased the lot outright in February 1967.

And to continue bolstering my 'street cred' of all things Perry Mason... the series was produced by CBS, but was filmed by TCF Television Productions. You can probably figure out that 'TCF' stood for 2oth Century-Fox - and the series Nine Season run, was shot at both Fox lots (Beverly Hills - Western Avenue) and the Fox Malibu Ranch. And in later seasons, [the previous] Charlie Chaplin/Kling/Red Skelton Studio(s), on the corner of Sunset Bl. & La Brea was also used. (That lot was also home to The Adventures of Superman). And then A&M Records - and finally, Jim Henson Company. But wait... there's still more.

Okay - here's the Revue connection... in the Season 8, Episode 20 of Perry Mason, "Case of the Lover's Gamble" (2/18/65), briefly seen, and mostly-obscured in one shot, one can observe the exterior of the Cleaver house, and some of the surrounding streets used in the Season 1 & 2 episodes for Leave It to Beaver. Remember, by 1965, CBS pretty-much monopolized the lot (Republic) and as Perry Mason was a CBS show, I guess the producers had another location to shoot their weekly drama. Whew.

I thought this was a Universal backlot post that has now morphed into Revue and Perry Mason (I take full responsibility).

Thanks, Major.

Anonymous said...

Major, of course you went to Busch Gardens in Van Nuys regularly, the beer was free!
My father would practically drag me there especially, on hot weekends.
You want to ride the monorail again? Sure the flamingos are pretty, go on knock yourself out - I’m gonna sit here in the very cool shade pavilion and knock myself out!

-MIchael

JB said...

Mike, I imagine that bird's-eye view would become passé (or annoying) to the folks living up on that hill. But I sure would've enjoyed seeing it!

Tokyo!, thanks for that link. It's nice to see how that building was situated amongst the sets. And "Frankenstein's Castle" sounds plausible.

Chuck, Tower of London, eh? OK, that works too. Watching the short video at the site you linked to (thanks!) made me think; don't the various studios have their own fire departments to put out these fires before they do so much damage? Maybe they do but there's just too much combustible material around to get a handle on a fire that breaks out.
Your re-telling of the Brownstone facade repeatedly burning down reminds me of this line from Monty Python & the Holy Grail, "It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up." :-p

Most of Universal's fires occurred in years ending in "7"... maybe they should've skipped those years altogether.

Gojira, thanks for the Frankenstein verification!

Major, I had a feeling you weren't actually crazy for Twizzlers. I figured you were just using them as a tie-in with "Vineria". But I decided to go overboard with it, as one does, or as me does.
I'm glad to hear that the penicillin cleared up your Vineria.

Nanook, now I'm exhausted!

DBenson said...

Recognizing sets and stock footage in old movies and TV is always fun. It's not so easy now, what with CGI and location shooting. These days you're more likely to spot a real place impersonating a fictional one.

The Universal horrors look like they take place in the same country, with not only the same sets but the same contract players. The first Flash Gordon serial borrows sets, costumes, props, footage, and even music from older features. In the 50s-60s, set dressing was a little more effective, but there was a decided tram-tour vibe in those suburbs when Don Knotts and others hung out.

Without the standing sets of bigger studios, Disney used lots of matte paintings. You might recognize a familiar facade here and there, but the overall feel is more of people running around in better-than-real illustrations. A favorite example: In "Johnny Tremain" there's a shot looking down at a Boston street, with pedestrians and puddles bracketed by painted buildings. Later there's a similar shot of a DIFFERENT Boston street, with different artwork framing the same pedestrians and puddles.

Chuck said...

Major, believe it or not, it was the angle and orientation of the staircase that clued me in to it being Mediterranean Square. But I didn’t catch it the first time or two that I saw the film, and even then I looked it up just to be sure. And I referenced the wrong POTC film - the clip in question is from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006). A thousand pardons.

Nanook, thanks for all of that additional info. I guess with the license plate sticker, we can date the photos to late 1957. The weeds must have grown faster than I thought, but I sometimes forget that California’s climate supports a longer growing season, and there would have been a lot of water pumped onto the site during the fire. Or maybe the pictures weren’t all taken the same day. Or maybe that Cadillac was driven onto the lot and didn’t leave, meaning it didn’t require a new sticker. Or the owner might possibly have been a scofflaw.

JB, Universal does have its own fire department, LA Fire Department Station 51 (not kidding; formerly Station 60, it was renamed in honor of the station in Emergency! In 1994). I’m wondering how much more frequent big fires would be if they didn’t have that station around.

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, I will punish Blogger by writing a long series of especially horrible posts! Plantagent Hollywood was a short-lived themed restaurant chain.

JG, I do think that they regularly rerouted the tram tour depending on what was going on at the studio. I have always been fascinated by those incredible spiral columns at the Vatican! How did they make them?!? People just take them for granted.

Nanook, great bit of into on the red 1957 license plate sticker! I had a friend who lived just north of Radford Studios, it looks so modest from the outside, but there is a lot of history there. Didn’t Republic Studios do “It’s a Wonderful Life”? Thanks also for all of the other studio info; regarding Perry Mason, I barely remember that show, mostly Raymond Burr and his voice, the theme song, and… that’s about it. Haven’t seen it since I was a child. I know of the characters “Della Street” and “Paul Drake”, but I don’t personally recall them. I was probably wishing that cartoons were on at the time!

Michael, I don’t remember anybody in my family ever actually getting beer at Busch Gardens, though I definitely remember men walking around with those little metal buckets of beer! The whole idea seems incredible now.

JB, once years ago I met some friends at Universal City Walk for dinner. I got there a little early, and parked on top of the huge parking structure. So I spent some time just looking down on the park as the sun was setting. As pretty as it was, every minute or so I’d hear the screams of the fisherman whose boat was pulled underwater by the “Jaws” shark. “Aaaaa! Aaaaa! Aaaaa! Aaaaaaaaaa!”. It was kind of funny. I really don’t understand how that studio could burn down over and over and over, you’d think they would eventually have the best darn fire department in the world. But those who don’t learn from history are doomed to eat donuts. I think Shakespeare said that. And yes, what is up with fires on years ending with the number “7”? Lucky number my foot! “Red licorice” is bad, but not as bad as regular licorice. The candy of the damned.

DGenson, I truly love those original Universal Horror movies, and could watch them over and over. In fact I have, though it has been a while now. But I love the “staginess” of the outdoor scenes, and the German Expressionist influence of the sets. Interesting about Flash Gordon using the sets, I know that was a frequently-used money saving strategy. The “Skull Island” King Kong sets (different studio, I know) were used in multiple movies before being burned down in “Gone With the Wind”. Even though I worked at the Disney Studio (all too briefly), it wasn’t until after I left that I went to visit somebody who worked in an office next to a storage room that still had giant matte paintings used in “Dick Tracy” and some other movies that I have sadly forgotten what they were for.

Chuck, I guess I will forgive you for mixing up those “POC” movies (or are they “POS” movies, ha ha) but don’t let it happen again. California is very proud of its fast-growing weeds, our State motto is “Eureka”, but it used to be “Man, those weeds grow really fast!”. You make a good point, maybe the studio would have also been destroyed on years ending with the number “3” if a fire department hadn’t quenched the flames.

JG said...

Thanks everyone, I have really enjoyed the comments on this post.

JG

Melissa said...

Wow, today is a real "Come for the pictures; stay for the comments" day. I think I earned two credits toward film school just reading them.

"Major Pepperidge" and "lazy" are not three worlds I would use in a sentence together, at least not without the word "not."

"I’ve never seen that movie (after the first one, they got pretty bad)."

I saw the last POTC movie in the cinema at Disney Springs (Downtown Disney as it was then) during a non-park day of a WDW trip. I don't know if it was the movie, the Florida heat, or being tired from walking the parks and getting little-to-no sleep (couldn't afford my own room and had to share with a heavy snorer), but I fell fast asleep about five minutes into he film and woke up just before the closing credits.

I've always been fascinated with studio backlots and how they figure into production costs. Imagine getting so much use out of all that land and construction materials that it makes financial sense to own them all!

Fun fact that everybody else probably already knows, Vincent Price was in two movies called Tower of London, both based on the story of Richard III. He played the young Duke of Clarence in the first, and an older King Richard in the second (the second being a low-budget affair filmed at a rented studio). My favorite six-degrees-of separation story is that during a production of Macbeth, I once gave screaming lessons to a woman who turned out to be an old college friend of Vincent Price's daughter Victoria. It's a small world after all!

"Lou and Sue" said...

Today's post is GDB gold. Great info, links, photos, stories and fun. The only thing missing is hearing from Mike C. that he owns something shown in one of these pictures. ;o)
He has one of everything that's cool!

Melissa, HOW do you get so good at screaming that people want you to give them lessons?? I wish I was there. ;o)

Thanks, Major and everyone!

Melissa said...

Sue, when I was younger, so much younger than today, I had dreams of being a classical singer. One day my awesome voice teacher said that something I’d have to learn is how to scream without hurting my voice, in case I ever ended up in one of those operas where people go around getting killed. When my friend was playing Lady Macduff and worried about screaming during the murder scene without hurting her voice, I offered to give her pointers.

TokyoMagic! said...

Chuck, yes...."Tower of London," too. I forgot about that one. They also mentioned it on the tram tour.

Gojira, thanks for the confirmation about "House of Frankenstein"!!!

Major,

Gojira, first of all, thank you for not stomping on Tokyo today.

HA!!! I see what you did there, Major!

Bu said...

I think Red Vines need to be called Red Vines because perhaps technically they are not licorice. I don't think that "Red Licorice" is legal either. Twizzlers are legal. The current ones filled with frosting are delicious and will make you go running for your insulin. Universal is cool. I wish the focus was still on movie making. I think the fires TRE'd it all for us. Those sets are flammable. This bag is not a toy. Do not eat. All good advice. The Universal Sheraton at one point when no one wanted to stay there was my favorite business hotel in LA. It has easy access to the 101, and a bar inside with a collection of strange people from around the world. None of which were ever there to see an amusement park. It wasn't exactly the Star Wars bar, but it was always reality TV worthy. This was before reality TV. The bar WAS the reality TV.