Though mainly remembered now for being the first name in the three-way merger that became the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer behemoth in 1925, Metro Pictures was a reasonably big deal in the early 1920s, especially after Marcus Loew bought it in 1919 to supply his sprawling theater chain. They were the home studio of Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino, as well as Lilian Gish, Ramon Novarro, Jackie Coogan, and Wallace Beery. This photo is of the front gate at 6300 Romaine St, Hollywood is circa 1924, just prior to Loew merging it with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions
Below is an aerial photo of Hollywood probably taken at around this time. The Metro Pictures Studio is in red and its neighbor, the Buster Keaton Studio is in blue. It shows how sparsely developed Hollywood still was at the time.
Metro Pictures main gate as seen from the air:
In the upper left corner of the aerial shot of the studio lot we can see what I’m guessing is the backlot set for Beyond the Rocks starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. That movie filmed in January and February of 1922. It was while filming this picture that Valentino met Natacha Rambova in Alla Nazimova’s office on the studio lot. He was covered in flakes of mica, which was used as snow during filming.
It took me a while to figure this out but I think I’m right. I happened to be at the site of the old Buster Keaton studio this weekend which is identified in the aerial photo. The front gate identified in the first photo was at 6300 Romaine. However, the building shown in the second photo (the close-up of the aerial photo) is actually the building in the next block to the left of the first building. Its flag pole can be seen distance to the far left in the first photo. That’s Cahuenga Blvd. running between the two halves of the Metro Studio.
Ah, so Cahuenga runs down the middle? I thought it was the road to the far left of the buildings in red. Both halves of Metro had similar facades with center buildings in white with four columns and a flag pole. Thanks for the detective work, Gordon!
Though mainly remembered now for being the first name in the three-way merger that became the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer behemoth in 1925, Metro Pictures was a reasonably big deal in the early 1920s, especially after Marcus Loew bought it in 1919 to supply his sprawling theater chain. They were the home studio of Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino, as well as Lilian Gish, Ramon Novarro, Jackie Coogan, and Wallace Beery. This photo is of the front gate at 6300 Romaine St, Hollywood is circa 1924, just prior to Loew merging it with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions
In the upper left corner of the aerial shot of the studio lot we can see what I’m guessing is the backlot set for Beyond the Rocks starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. That movie filmed in January and February of 1922. It was while filming this picture that Valentino met Natacha Rambova in Alla Nazimova’s office on the studio lot. He was covered in flakes of mica, which was used as snow during filming.
It took me a while to figure this out but I think I’m right. I happened to be at the site of the old Buster Keaton studio this weekend which is identified in the aerial photo. The front gate identified in the first photo was at 6300 Romaine. However, the building shown in the second photo (the close-up of the aerial photo) is actually the building in the next block to the left of the first building. Its flag pole can be seen distance to the far left in the first photo. That’s Cahuenga Blvd. running between the two halves of the Metro Studio.
Ah, so Cahuenga runs down the middle? I thought it was the road to the far left of the buildings in red. Both halves of Metro had similar facades with center buildings in white with four columns and a flag pole. Thanks for the detective work, Gordon!
Great as always. RE-posted on twitter @trefology