Back in the 1950s, when this aerial photo was taken, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was still a force to be reckoned with in the film industry, but its peak was behind it. Starting 1947, its competitors, Paramount, Warner and 20th Century-Fox, started to out-gross it. But it still had a vast backlot that that could stand in for pretty much any location in any era. Known as backlot No. 2 and totaling 37 acres, it stood on Overland Avenue across from the main lot, between Washington and Culver Blvds. A fire destroyed a portion of the sets in 1967 and the rest were demolished in 1974. Oh boy, how I would have loved to have had a chance to wander around them just once!
Kirk H. says: “That building in the lower right hand corner is the M-G-M Cartoon Department, home of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, Tom & Jerry, Tex Avery, and Screwy Squirrel, among others.”
These days Backlot No. 2 is occupied by housing, but at least there’s a nod to what used to be there, with names like Astaire Ave, Garland Dr., and Skelton Circle. This image is from December 2023.
MGM once had 6 different lots around Culver City. Lot 3 was located at Overland and Jefferson. The MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS street was just one of the of the well known sets on that lot. There were large sheds along Jefferson, those buildings were filled with thousands of old costumes used in many MGM films over the years. They never through anything away, until 1970, when all those things were sold off and lot 3 was bulldozed. Just before the lot was leveled, any of the sets were offered free to anyone wanting to move them to a new location, but there were no takers. The fencing was removed around lot 3 just before it was torn down. I had a chance to wonder around the lot and see motion picture history before it was just a memory, it was amazing. Across from lot 3 was lot 6, at one time it was the location of the MGM zoo. Supposedly Leo the lion and Cheeta the chimp stayed there long ago. In 1970, lot 6 had what was left of some WWII fighter planes, once used during the war years in a number of MGM war films.
Has anyone ever seen the 1974 TV movie The Phantom of Hollywood? It’s about a fictional movie studio fallen on hard times, but really it’s MGM, and a man terrorizing the place because his home, the backlot, is being destroyed. It’s actually great and sad all at once to see this film because it often shows a scene from an old MGM movie and then what it looks like in the present when the film was made. There are aerial shots of the studio lots from a helicopter and bits of the auction when MGM was selling off it’s treasures. The scenes of bulldozers knocking down the backlot sets is rather heartbreaking.
The film has several actors who worked in Hollywood’s Golden years and I often wonder what they thought of all that was happening. People like Peter Lawford, Broderick Crawford, Jackie Coogan, and Regis Toomey. Even one of the East Side Kids, Billy Halop, has a role in it. maybe they’d seen so many changes over the years it didn’t really affect them as it does us. Skye Aubrey, daughter of one time President of MGM, Jim Aubrey is in it.
Remnants of part of this backlot were still there in sight from Overland in 1978 when I used to travel to eat at Ships Coffee Shop while working in Culver City, like a mentioned two days/posts ago. By the way, Ships was exactly where the red location marker is on the “now” photo above.
Dang, now I want a Shipshape burger.
It’s funny. Growing up in Culver City, all that stuff was just background noise. Who doesn’t walk by movie studios on their way to kindergarten?
Notice in the upper left a fake railyard with a incline platform ending at a faux head building. Then follow the tracks down to some passenger cars and beyond toward a gate (?) at the street. Many studios had rail access from their early years, and a number of historically valuable pieces of equipment had been brought on the lots. Some of it all was recovered or sold off.
That “railyard” area you speak of is where they filmed the scene in Some Like It Hot when the three leads are getting ready to board the train on their way to Florida. In the Phantom of Hollywood movie I mentioned, this area is used for the backdrop when they show the opening film credits. There are some stills of it on IMDB.
Just watched it…and there appears to be two Red Cars which don’t seem to be in the 1950’s photo. The still from the film is at IMBD.
I started working at MGM in 1964. One of the first things my boss did was have a production car take me on a tour of Lots 2 and 3. The driver even gave a running commentary explaining what was what. I soon learned that working in post production on the main lot meant we rarely, if ever, had an excuse to go to the backlots. Many of the people I worked with had never even set foot on any of them, so I realized what a wonderful gift he had given me.
At that time the Cartoon Building in the lower right of the photo had become Filmways, where Martin Ransohoff had his office. I worked as a title artist, which means creating the art for the credits, main and end, so we had several title meetings there with Mr. Ranshohoff.
But a short ten years later we were working on the titles for “The Phantom of Hollywood” which was very depressing because of what was happening around us. The once mighty MGM was being dismantled piece by piece by Kerkorian and Aubrey. We all felt like ‘phantoms of Hollywood’.
But getting back to Lot 2, it was full of gems. On the lower right are the New York Streets, including Fifth Avenue (the long straight one), and can be seen in such differing fare as “In The Good Old Summertime” and “Blackboard Jungle”. You see the intersection with the columned bank in films all the time. Somewhere in there is the famous lamp post from “Singing in the Rain”. On the extreme right is Wimpole Street and Copperfield Court, named for their films. Then straight up and before the horizontal line of trees is the Lord Home from “The Philadelphia Story” with Kathryn Hepburn and Cary Grant. Straight up from there, but totally obscured by trees is the southern mansion, used in many films: “High Society”, “Some Came Running”. You can however see the swimming pool where Paul Newman took a dive in “Sweet Bird of Youth”, which also used the southern mansion, of course. To the left of that at the bottom of the large lawn is the Girl’s School, used as Tate University in “Good News”, as a military academy in “The Wings of Eagles”, and Bligh’s inquest site in the second “Mutiny on the Bounty”, to name a few. Directly below that is Waterloo Bridge where Jane Powell sang to Peter Lawford while pretending they were in London during the “Royal Wedding”. Ironically not used in “Waterloo Bridge”.
In the lower left, the large building is the dock set with ocean liner! Seen in countless films. The train tracks Mr. Donnelly mentions goes first beside the small train station, which is to the right of where there appears to be a train car. To the left of that is Andy Hardy Street and the New England town set. The tracks continue up past the town square set and curve around the complex which included the French Courtyard, Chinese Street and Quality Street, where Gene Kelly pretended to be “An American in Paris” while demonstrating he had rhythm. As Mr. Donnelly described, the tracks go up and end in what was called Grand Central Station, used in “Anna Karenina”, among many others.
After they started leveling Lot 3 a friend of mine and I drove over and as Mr. Wolf says, the fence was down, which surprised us. We were able to actually drive onto the lot to the west of St. Louis Street. They had already leveled enough to give us a clear view of the old homes and got there just in time to see the bulldozer starting to shove down the ‘Smith House’. That facade was as familiar to me as the home I grew up in. It was too painful to watch, so we left. Every ‘home’ on that street was unique, had a name, and were used extensively. The Scott House, the Barkoff House, the Bluett House, and so on, with the Smith House being the most famous, and most used.
Lot 3 also had another complex of western streets and two cavalry forts, the Tarzan jungles, a farmhouse, and Mulberry, Dutch and Brooklyn Streets. The riverboat Cotton Blossom from “Showboat” was there at the waterfront set, where the Bounty and the Mayflower had also set sail, not to mention the huge process tank, where many a storm at sea was filmed.
While I was there “Combat” fought battles in and out of the wooded areas and European sets, alongside “Man From U.N.C.L.E” using slightly different hardware.
“The Twilight Zone” was shot at MGM and used the backlots extensively. In fact the famous episode called “Walking Distance” with Gig Young, was inspired when Rod Serling was on Lot 3 and came across Saint Louis Street. He was struck with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia since it reminded him of his home town, and thus put pen to paper. (No computers yet.)
MGM had more acreage than any of the other studios in it’s heyday. It would have made a much better movie tour than Universal, especially since so many of the classic movies of the Golden Era were shot there and the sets still in tact just waiting to be spruced up and appreciated. But for some reason, the powers that were in charge then didn’t see that or didn’t want to see that. They weren’t out to preserve film history, they were out to build a hotel in Las Vegas.
Thanks for all that, Mary! Much appreciated!
What great detail!
As a kid, my family lived close enough that we could hear the gunfire when “Combat” was being filmed.
And by the way, Paula, I too could go for a Shipshape burger about now. Miss that place!
Me, too!
I would guess A Stop at Willoughby was also fimed there with the bandstand in Wlking Distance? And they had a train interior shot in that episode, so maybe here too?
You are correct. Another of my favorite TZ episodes! They had a similar theme, and both used the bandstand, although in different places. There was another set of train tracks on Lot 3 going across what was called Western Street. It was where they shot the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe number in “Harvey Girls”. At the end of the street set back from the tracks with green space in front, was an old courthouse. In “A Stop in Willoughby” first you see the train interior become that of a 19th century train when he arrives in Willoughby. Then you can see the courthouse out of the train and the camera pans over to a grassy area with the bandstand in front of some homes. However in “Walking Distance” the bandstand seemed to be in one of the park-like areas, so apparently it could be broken down and rebuilt wherever they needed it.
For those interested there is a great book entitled “MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot” which shows a lot of this.