Following on from yesterday’s photo of the Hollywood gasometer next to the Goldwyn Studios, this aerial shot is of the same studios but from an earlier time. Before Sam Goldwyn owned them, they were known as the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios, and is where Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Sr shot many of their movies. The road running along the left side is Santa Monica Blvd and the large set on the right is from “Robin Hood” which Fairbanks shot in 1922. Farther to the right (i.e. to the south of the boulevard) we see nothing but empty (and probably gloriously cheap) land.
Here is a close up of that awesome “Robin Hood” set:
Imagine trying to explain to some kid sitting in a theater glued to the screen that what’s outside those games of competition at the Horse Bowl is not Merry Old England, but rather, a lumber mill with rail yards sitting half a block away across a dirt field. Ah, Hollywood magic!
In far distance along the left we see some angled rail cars. That’s the back side of the newly located PE freight station by Highland below Santa Monica. With the area growing, they had to push the facilities further outward. In a few years, the giant Hollywood Storage Building will appear by there. (There’s some more great shots over there on John Bengtson’s site having to do with Buster Keaton’s short The Blacksmith.)