The Culver Studios (Culver City, California)
USA /
California /
Culver City /
Culver City, California /
West Washington Boulevard, 9336
World
/ USA
/ California
/ Culver City
World / United States / California
place with historical importance, interesting place, film/video production studio/facility
9336 Washington Blvd.
An Historic studio, built in the 1918. Less well known than neighboring M-G-M Studios.
The Culver Studios is most commonly known as the place where Gone With The Wind was filmed. Walk the lot and you may hear murmurs that the mansion building is Scarlett's beloved Tara, but it is not. The mansion was featured, but only in the credits as the backdrop for the logo of David O. Selznick for his Selznick International Pictures. Gone With The Wind was shot on Stages 11 & 12 in 1939. In those days the studio back lot stretched south of the existing studio across Ballona Creek all the way to the base of the hills. All the exteriors of Tara, Twelve Oaks and the city of Atlanta were created on the studio's 28-acre backlot (which was referred to, naturally, as The Back 40").
The studio was original built by silent movie pioneer Thomas Ince in 1918. This was Ince's second studio, having partnered with Mack Sennett and D.W. Griffith in Triangle Studios, the original name of the larger studio up the block (which eventually became MGM and is now Sony Pictures Studios).
After Ince's untimely death (as recounted in Peter Bogdanovich's 2001 film The Cat's Meow), the studio was leased by Cecil B. DeMille (1925), who built enormous new stages and monumental sets on the backlot. The most impressive sets were replicas of the streets of Jerusalem for one of his biggest budgeted features, The King of Kings in 1927. These sets were used in many movies over the years. They were seen in King Kong as part of Skull Island in 1933. These sets towered over the studio for a several years until they were burned to the ground for the burning of Atlanta sequence in "Gone With the Wind" in 1939.
RKO acquired the studio in 1928 and Joseph Kennedy served as the studio head. It was during his tenure here that he had his infamous love affair with leading lady Gloria Swanson. Legend has it that Kennedy built her a private dressing room as a gift. Only much later and after the affair ended did Swanson discover Kennedy had used her money to pay for it. The bungalow still stands and is used as an office for writers and producers.
RKO controlled the lot for nearly 20 years (in addition to its Hollywood lot), bringing stardom to Bette Davis, Orson Welles, Robert Mitchum, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, King Kong, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. During the 1930s and 1940s, when the lot was known as RKO-Pathé Culver City Studios, the studio was home to a number of memorable releases: A Star Is Born (1937), Tom Sawyer (1938), Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and Spellbound (1945). During much of this time RKO-Pathe advertised as "The World's Largest and Finest Rental Studio," one of its chief tenants was David O. Selznick's Selznick International Pictures (the producer of "Gone With the Wind").
In the years that followed RKO's ownership, the studio changed hands several times. In 1950, multi-millionaire tycoon and movie producer Howard Hughes acquired RKO (and the studios). Hughes was considered impossible to work for. Under his reign the few movies he did make were flops and contracted talent left the studio in droves to escape his tyrannical ways.
The future became brighter when Desilu Productions purchased the lot (along with two other studios in Hollywood) in 1956. Over the next decade television emerged as the primary business conducted at the studio. Early classics such as The Andy Griffith Show, Hogan's Heroes, The Untouchables, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Lassie, and Gomer Pyle, USMC all came to life here. In 1967 the studio was home to the racy soap Peyton Place as well as Batman, The Green Hornet and the two pilots for Star Trek.
In 1968, while the industry was suffering, the studio changed hands again and the new ownership sold off most of "The Back Forty" -- the studio's 28-acre back lot. By the late 1970s the once lovely studio had become a dilapidated wreck and remained that way until the mid 1980s, when it was purchased by the joint ownership of Grant Tinker and Gannett. They completed a $26 million renovation which created new state-of-the-art television stages and updated all the existing facilities. More impressively, the construction restored much of the studio's original luster and beauty. The process included extensive renovations of the mansion, bungalows and Selznick wing. It also meant tearing down Ince's old glass and muslin stage 1, and excavating an old plunge behind the mansion to make way for an underground parking structure. The restoration was so successful it has served as a model for other studio projects.
In 1991 the studio was purchased by Sony Pictures and used as a rental facility. In 2004 it was sold to Pacific Coast Capital Partners (partners included Lehman Brothers) . As of March 2014, the studio is owned by Hackman Capital Partners, whose plans include a major renovation to bring the historic studio into the digital age.
By the end of 2017, the historic studio's primary tenant is Amazon Studios, IMDb, Amazon Video and Amazon’s worldwide advertising group, occupying more than 280,000 square feet at the site, including the Culver Studios Mansion and Bungalows. The company currently employs more than 700 people. Apple's new streaming service (a competitor of Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix) is anticipated to be another tenant.
www.theculverstudios.com/
An Historic studio, built in the 1918. Less well known than neighboring M-G-M Studios.
The Culver Studios is most commonly known as the place where Gone With The Wind was filmed. Walk the lot and you may hear murmurs that the mansion building is Scarlett's beloved Tara, but it is not. The mansion was featured, but only in the credits as the backdrop for the logo of David O. Selznick for his Selznick International Pictures. Gone With The Wind was shot on Stages 11 & 12 in 1939. In those days the studio back lot stretched south of the existing studio across Ballona Creek all the way to the base of the hills. All the exteriors of Tara, Twelve Oaks and the city of Atlanta were created on the studio's 28-acre backlot (which was referred to, naturally, as The Back 40").
The studio was original built by silent movie pioneer Thomas Ince in 1918. This was Ince's second studio, having partnered with Mack Sennett and D.W. Griffith in Triangle Studios, the original name of the larger studio up the block (which eventually became MGM and is now Sony Pictures Studios).
After Ince's untimely death (as recounted in Peter Bogdanovich's 2001 film The Cat's Meow), the studio was leased by Cecil B. DeMille (1925), who built enormous new stages and monumental sets on the backlot. The most impressive sets were replicas of the streets of Jerusalem for one of his biggest budgeted features, The King of Kings in 1927. These sets were used in many movies over the years. They were seen in King Kong as part of Skull Island in 1933. These sets towered over the studio for a several years until they were burned to the ground for the burning of Atlanta sequence in "Gone With the Wind" in 1939.
RKO acquired the studio in 1928 and Joseph Kennedy served as the studio head. It was during his tenure here that he had his infamous love affair with leading lady Gloria Swanson. Legend has it that Kennedy built her a private dressing room as a gift. Only much later and after the affair ended did Swanson discover Kennedy had used her money to pay for it. The bungalow still stands and is used as an office for writers and producers.
RKO controlled the lot for nearly 20 years (in addition to its Hollywood lot), bringing stardom to Bette Davis, Orson Welles, Robert Mitchum, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, King Kong, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. During the 1930s and 1940s, when the lot was known as RKO-Pathé Culver City Studios, the studio was home to a number of memorable releases: A Star Is Born (1937), Tom Sawyer (1938), Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and Spellbound (1945). During much of this time RKO-Pathe advertised as "The World's Largest and Finest Rental Studio," one of its chief tenants was David O. Selznick's Selznick International Pictures (the producer of "Gone With the Wind").
In the years that followed RKO's ownership, the studio changed hands several times. In 1950, multi-millionaire tycoon and movie producer Howard Hughes acquired RKO (and the studios). Hughes was considered impossible to work for. Under his reign the few movies he did make were flops and contracted talent left the studio in droves to escape his tyrannical ways.
The future became brighter when Desilu Productions purchased the lot (along with two other studios in Hollywood) in 1956. Over the next decade television emerged as the primary business conducted at the studio. Early classics such as The Andy Griffith Show, Hogan's Heroes, The Untouchables, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Lassie, and Gomer Pyle, USMC all came to life here. In 1967 the studio was home to the racy soap Peyton Place as well as Batman, The Green Hornet and the two pilots for Star Trek.
In 1968, while the industry was suffering, the studio changed hands again and the new ownership sold off most of "The Back Forty" -- the studio's 28-acre back lot. By the late 1970s the once lovely studio had become a dilapidated wreck and remained that way until the mid 1980s, when it was purchased by the joint ownership of Grant Tinker and Gannett. They completed a $26 million renovation which created new state-of-the-art television stages and updated all the existing facilities. More impressively, the construction restored much of the studio's original luster and beauty. The process included extensive renovations of the mansion, bungalows and Selznick wing. It also meant tearing down Ince's old glass and muslin stage 1, and excavating an old plunge behind the mansion to make way for an underground parking structure. The restoration was so successful it has served as a model for other studio projects.
In 1991 the studio was purchased by Sony Pictures and used as a rental facility. In 2004 it was sold to Pacific Coast Capital Partners (partners included Lehman Brothers) . As of March 2014, the studio is owned by Hackman Capital Partners, whose plans include a major renovation to bring the historic studio into the digital age.
By the end of 2017, the historic studio's primary tenant is Amazon Studios, IMDb, Amazon Video and Amazon’s worldwide advertising group, occupying more than 280,000 square feet at the site, including the Culver Studios Mansion and Bungalows. The company currently employs more than 700 people. Apple's new streaming service (a competitor of Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix) is anticipated to be another tenant.
www.theculverstudios.com/
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culver_Studios
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 34°1'22"N 118°23'26"W
- Carthay Circle HPOZ 4.8 km
- Historical 20th Century-Fox studio and back lot 5.1 km
- West Adams Terrace HPOZ 5.6 km
- Brookside 6.4 km
- Hancock Park HPOZ 8.3 km
- Hollywood Walk of Fame 10 km
- Where "Hollywood" began 10 km
- Getty Center 11 km
- First National Pictures Studios 15 km
- Columbia Ranch-historic location 16 km
- Sony Pictures Imageworks 0.2 km
- The Shay - Destination by Hyatt 0.7 km
- Old Culver City 0.8 km
- Sony Pictures Studio 1.2 km
- Alexander Hamilton High School 1.3 km
- Culver Center 1.6 km
- Palms 1.7 km
- Beverly Hills Country Club 2.1 km
- Cheviot Hills 2.8 km
- Mid-City 3.6 km
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