More Universal Studios, May 1979
I'm using up the last (well, almost the last) scans from a batch of May 1979 slides from Universal Studios. Hollywood, that is. They're not the most exciting things in the world, but the price is right.
From our Glamour Tram we look across a canyon toward some typical SoCal hills. It's pretty green (being May) actually, I'm sure in a few months this looked much browner. There are some houses up on that ridge, I am told that the Studio owns them and lets directors and certain powerful bloggers stay there, which would be pretty cool. I'd watch the trams go to a fro while talking to my agent on my three pound cellular phone.
Looky looky! There's another tram far below. Or is it us, viewed through a time warp? The tram is right on the edge of a pond (any idea what it was called?), with a production going on in that little excavated canyon, where there is part of a plane fuselage. I sure wish I knew what was being filmed.
Here's a more-familiar sight, an elegant mansion that is nothing more than a façade. It's like Hollywood itself, am I right? ZING! Thank you, Bruce Vilanch, for that joke. I need all the help I can get. Next to the mansion, a log stockade, and some random double-decker buses.
Ah, the Western Stunt Show, full of punching and shooting and guys falling to their doom after being plugged full of lead. These stuntmen were so tough that there were no airbags or foam cushions, just that half inch-thick rubber mat.
Who among us has not been on a slow bus from Vescovato to Bastia? Well OK, not me. I had to look up both places; Vescovato is just south of Milan (Italy), while Bastia is on northern tip of the island of Corsica. There are several routes available, both involving a ride on a ferry. The bus seems fairly prominently placed (right next to the tower from "The War Lord", I have no idea if it was used in a significant movie of the moment. "Ciao, Bastia!"??
And finally, here's a photo of a woman regarding a gigantic automobile, which turns out to be from "The Wiz", a 1978 film from director Sidney Lumet. In spite of the fact that the Broadway musical had been a huge hit, the movie was a commercial failure - I haven't seen it for decades, but seem to recall that it was a tough hang - it's possible my opinion would be different now.
My supply of Universal Studios slides is getting slim, but there will be more!
3 comments:
Remember between 1978 and 1981 California had extreme rains ….with lots of flooding. Things were pretty green throughout southern California…. However I recall on Christmas Day 1980 we had a heat wave in San Diego.
The “quick sand “ always made me uncomfortable at this stunt show. Didn’t they used to say it was actually cornflakes or special K?? Or am I confusing that with Hollywood sand storms??
Major-
Isn't that custom limo parked just outside the [then] 'open-air' Universal Amphitheater-?
Thanks, Major.
The first shot looks really nice. But I almost expect to see a giant tarantula creeping over the top of that hill.
I think we've seen the front of that antebellum mansion here before. It really bursts one's bubble to see it from this angle! Looks almost humorous. I have no idea why that fort is next to it.
In the Western Stunt Show pic, I see that Universal's General Store has a lot of its wares displayed out front, just like Disneyland's Rainbow Ridge. Was actually displaying the items on the front porch an actual thing that actual towns actually did back then? The guy in the chaps reminds me of Wally Boag.
I saw "The Wiz" at a theater when it first came out. A couple of the songs and choreographed numbers were OK, but I was not smitten with the film. Not being from NYC, or any other big city, I couldn't really relate to the premise of the film. I don't think the story translates well to a metropolis setting. I has spoken!
These pics are universally interesting, Major. Well... sort of. :-p Thanks.
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