I have always liked almost anything that begins with Once upon a time... So then here we go with... Once Upon A Time In Hollywood... I'm not going to be discussing the Quentin Tarantino movie with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio as much as I loved it... because he wrote the happy ending everyone wished had really happened in the first place.

When I was growing up I began my lifelong love affair with movies as I discussed here in (Behind The Scenes) I used to watch the late movie on Friday and Saturday night... and when I got older the Late, Late Movie... and what most all of my favorite movies had in common was they were musicals produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) in the 40's and 50's (truth be told some of them are still my favorites)... as soon as I saw the iconic opening  I knew I had a front row seat on a magic carpet ride of non-stop entertainment to some far off land of mystery and intrigue mixed with musical numbers (most of which I learned the words and all the steps) seasoned with laughter and tears... and with all of it I  usually learned something about myself, other places in the world... and human nature... and there was always the happy ending I counted on that were par and parcel for movies of this era.

 

 

 

 

I really can't say that about most of my current Friday and Saturday night movie venues now... From about the age of six or seven I wanted more than anything to be a singing and dancing star in MGM musical extravaganzas... I got my wish but not in the way I was expecting... as most things in life go it's rarely the way you expect it to happen.... But I'll get back to all this later... 

If you don't know that much about MGM... in the 40's and into the mid 50's they were at the top of their game producing (in my opinion) the best movies in Hollywood.  The studio and backlot was spread across 185 acres of land in Culver City California.

Lot One was on 44 acres and consisted of 195 permanent buildings housing the production offices, commissary and soundstages... The wardrobe department had over 150,000 costumes from almost every historical era. There were over 40,000 employees and they had their own police and fire department and a school for the child actors under contract to the studio; Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland both graduated from MGM High School

 

 

 

Lot Two occupied 37 acres that included the Animation Department and most of the standing sets that included the The New York Street (this one was larger and had more buildings than the other NY location on Lot One) and suburban streets... the most famous was St.Louis Street used in "Meet Me In St. Louis" and New England Street, the swimming pool that came to known as the "Esther Williams Pool" and the horse stables. (if you click on the photo below it will make it big enough to read)

 

 

 

Lot Three on 65 acres had the more elaborate sets that included Jungle Island for the Tarzan movies and a 63,000,000 gallon man made lake used for the Cotton Blossom in Showboat.

 

They also had three western towns... one was  Prosperous Street, another was a deserted ghost town called Ghost Town Street... and a frontier known as Billy The Kid Street.

 

 

 

 

Lot Four, had 5.4 acres  that had the studio zoo and holding area that housed the many animals used in a variety of movies but the majority was parking for Lot 3.

Lot Five sat on 7.8 acres and housed all aspects of transportation the studio used  including... wagons, circus carts, planes, trains and automobiles and boats there was also another stable that housed thoroughbred horses (many owned by Lous B Mayer and Fred Astaire)

Lot Six was six acres devoted to growing the flowers, trees and shrubbery used in the interior studios shots and with the existing landscaping on the lot... they even produced their own grass and sod. They even had their own lumber yard and mill

When films and filming changed in the early sixties (most producers shot a movie on an location  rather than on the back lot) MGM's revenues started to plummet... but probably the biggest factor was the publics taste in movies shifted away from the grand movie extravaganzas that were the staple and life blood of MGM's success in the past. I'm sure you can imagine that the overhead of maintaining such a property was staggering and with the drop in box-office sales from the studios productions it became a liability to the studio...

To offset some costs and generate some much needed revenue MGM Television Division was formed... many of your favorite television shows in the sixties and seventies were filmed on the MGM sound stages and utilized some of the backlot when necessary... a few are...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Flipper 

ChiPS

Fame

With the exceptions of Flipper (the original) and Fame and the 1983 revival of The Twilight Zone which are still owned by MGM all other MGM TV shows produced prior to 1986 are owned and distributed by Warner Brothers Television via Turner Entertainment who also owns the entire MGM movie library prior to 1986.

Louis B. Mayer who was long gone and Debbie Reynolds with the Hollywood Heritage Organization were about the only people who thought the backlots should be preserved for posterity. There was even talk of turning the lot into a theme park and studio tour much like Universal Studio had done. Debbie Reynolds had tried to make the purchase and was unsuccessful.

Kirk Kerkorian the new owner of the studio in 1969 had no interest in making movies and was more interested in  easing the debt and moving forward in Las Vegas with hotels and resorts...   The result was massive lay-offs, cancelled productions that finally culminated in an 18 day auction of almost everything on the lot that was movable including sets as well as 12,000 props and 350,000 costumes, decorative arts and furniture,  trains, cars... The vehicle used in The Time Machine sold for $10,000.00 the ruby slippers that were actually worn by Judy Garland sold for $15,000.00 (I think there were 10 pair that were made by Gilbert Adrian; five pairs have known whereabouts)... the wedding dress that Elizabeth Taylor wore in "Father Of The Bride" as well as many of the swimsuits worn by Esther Williams.. the whole idea was to clear out the sound stages and storage areas and raise some much needed money...  I have it on good authority  (I knew someone at MGM in the 70's and who once invited me to a party on The Cotton Blossom) that almost everything was sold and what was not was bulldozed including the collection of neon signs and thousands and thousands of pages of sheet music that are now part of a landfill in Ventura and Los Angeles County.

If you have not seen the "That's Entertainment" movies the first one was a surprise hit for MGM and it has fantastic film footage of the studios and back lot; it's a little bittersweet to watch because everything was in such disrepair that it resembled more of a foreclosure than the once pristine pinnacle of perfection studio  in the movie industry.... What is left after all the land was sold is now a suburban community with street names like Garland Drive and Astaire avenue.

 

and today Sony Entertainment Studios occupies the 44 acres of Lot 1...