In this circa 1927 aerial photograph, we’re looking at the studios freshly built by Mack Sennett, aka Hollywood’s ‘King of Comedy’ in the area known as Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. These days, all that vacant land you see is filled in with homes (fun fact: the street in the top right corner is Dilling St, which is where the Brady Bunch house is) but back in the 1920s, the valley had more orchard trees than people. The glimpse of road in the bottom right corner is Ventura Blvd and that strip of land where the “Studio City” sign stand is now shoulder-to-shoulder restaurants and small businesses. By 1935, the lot was home to Republic Studios, who were there until in 1958. In 1963, it became CBS Television and is where a number of TV shows were filmed. (Bonus fun fact: the Gilligan’s Island lagoon was located at the northwestern edge of the lot.) My thanks for David Ginsburg for finding this photo and identifying details.

Here is an earlier shot taken while the studios were under construction:

Another early shot of the studio with a closer view of the sign that says “”This is Studio City – central motion picture district.”

And this gif made by Blair Hickey (@BLairHickeyLA on Twitter) shows the top photo overlaid with how the studio lot looks these days (2021):