The backlot of Universal Studios, Universal City, California, circa late 1920s
This is a shot of the backlot of Universal Studios. Without a specific film or automobile to help us date it, it’s hard to pin down the year. The land is so sparse that I’m guessing it’s probably only a few years after Carl Laemmle opened Universal City in 1915. We can see a British village, a lighthouse, a medieval castle, and an Arabian palace. And beyond that, the empty back of the Hollywood Hills. They’re still empty but that’s about the only thing that hasn’t changed.
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This is a treasure of a photo. Those actors, or crew members who worked amongst those facades of illusion had no idea how pioneering they were. My favourite picture in a never ending stream of highlights
I agree, Steve. They probably thought it was all very transitory and hardly anybody would remember who they were or what they were doing. They’d be shocked, I’m sure, to see what Universal City has become.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Dec. 1916 – street set on the right
A Son of the Immortals – Village on the Right – 1916
Is that what it’s from? Thanks, Dennis – I never would have been able to figure that out.
That castle is built in the same general area (perhaps just to the right of it) where the Notre Dame Cathedral facade was eventually built for the 1923 HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME starring Lon Chaney Sr.