Alt Film Guide
Classic movies. Gay movies. International cinema. Socially conscious & political cinema.
Home Classic Movies Historic Warner Hollywood Studios to Be Torn Down

Historic Warner Hollywood Studios to Be Torn Down

Some Like It Hot Marilyn Monroe Warner Hollywood Studios
Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe: Partly shot at the United Artists Studios a.k.a. the Warner Hollywood Studios a.k.a. The Lot.

Historic Warner Hollywood Studios to be torn down

Ramon Novarro biography Beyond Paradise

The historic Warner Hollywood Studios, currently known as The Lot, is to be torn down, reports the Los Angeles Times (March 2012). In its place, current owner CIM Group will erect “glass-and-steel structures.” The Los Angeles area doesn’t have enough of those, does it?

The powers-that-be in the city of West Hollywood, where the Warner Hollywood Studios are located, have apparently given the go-ahead to CIM. First to go will be the Pickford Building, erected in 1927, and then the Goldwyn Building, erected in 1932. When all’s done, that’ll be the end of one more Los Angeles landmark.

Update: According to one source, not every building on The Lot will be razed.

Erected in 1919

Built in 1919 by silent era producer-director Jesse D. Hampton (The Spoilers, 1923), The Lot is located at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue. Initially known as the Hampton Studios, it was later renamed the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios, the United Artists Studios, and the Samuel Goldwyn Studios.*

Warner Bros. acquired it in the 1980s – hence, the Warner Hollywood Studios moniker – but sold the property at the turn of the century. Currently, HBO’s True Blood is shot there.

* Not to be confused with the Warner Bros. Hollywood Studios on Sunset Boulevard, the site where Alan Crosland’s landmark part-talkie The Jazz Singer was filmed in 1927.

Old Mary Pickford-Douglas Fairbanks studio

Among those who worked on The Lot long before Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Alexander Skarsgård were born were:

More recently, among those who toiled on The Lot were:

See also:

  • Historic Mary Pickford Building Destroyed.”

Marilyn Monroe Some Like It Hot image: United Artists.

Info on the Hampton Studios’ cost: Jeffrey Vance, Tony Maietta, and Robert Cushman’s Douglas Fairbanks.

Recommended for You

Leave a Comment

*IMPORTANT*: By using this form you agree with Alt Film Guide's storage and handling of your data (e.g., your IP address). Make sure your comment adds something relevant to the discussion: Feel free to disagree with us and write your own movie commentaries, but *thoughtfulness* and *at least a modicum of sanity* are imperative. Abusive, inflammatory, spammy/self-promotional, baseless (spreading mis- or disinformation), and just plain deranged comments will be zapped. Lastly, links found in submitted comments will generally be deleted.

3 comments

Walter Dominguez -

Keep this story alive until something happens to save at least part of this historic studio! At the very least, can’t West Hollywood officials vote money to send a top photographer to record every facade, every room and angle for posterity? Better yet, make CIM, the developers, pay for it. Better yet, don’t tear it down in the first place! Other studios have made an effort to preserve the old buildings and blend new ones with the original look. We have lost too much of our historic buildings already!

Reply
Martin Pal -

I live in West Hollywood. If it involves money for themselves,
this city council will do a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g.

Maybe they’ll demolish the historic Formosa Cafe on the corner
adjacent to it.

Reply
Anna -

Way to go America. Way to go….

Reply

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you continue browsing, that means you've accepted our Terms of Use/use of cookies. You may also click on the Accept button on the right to make this notice disappear. Accept Read More