Warner Brothers Studio (Los Angeles, California)

 place with historical importance, film/video production studio/facility, historical layer / disappeared object

5842 Sunset Blvd.

Originallt built in 1919, the long time home of Warner Brothers Sunset Studio, and the place where the legendary "The Jazz Singer." the first "talkie", was filmed. Warner Brothers bought the assets of Vitagraph, which included a big studio east of here (in the Los Feliz area, now known as Prospect Studios). When they decided to venture into sound pictures, they realized they needed a new studio to make this happen, so they bought a vacant lot here and built the first "sound" stage and shot "The Jazz Singer."

It wasn't too much longer that they outgrew this lot (buying and taking over First National Studios in Burbank in 1928) and using this as an auxillary studio and home to their animation unit. Paramount leased the lot for a bit as an extension to their big studio directly to the south. They built one of the first TV stations here, KTLA (channel 5).

The historic colonnade building in front was turned into a bowling alley (Sunset Bowl), as Warner Brothers also owned Brunswick bowling equipment. Eventually the lot was bought by Tribune Broadcasting (as well as KTLA) and most of the lot was leased to others mostly for television comedies. Today it is owned by Hudson Capital and is undergoing a major renovation to bring the historic studio into the digital age.