Culver City is an established neighborhood of
shaded, tree-lined streets with neatly-manicured houses and shops. The city
contains a history steeped in the movie industry with many of its markers still
in place. It is here that many popular programs were filmed in the Culver / Desilu Studios such as Hogan's Hero, Superman and hundreds of shows and films
known to a wide audience. Max Roach worked his movie magic here, as well,
and utilized the city's fantastic weather and acreage to produce classic black
and white films viewed by millions worldwide.
Things to do and see include:
Historic Kirk Douglas Theater
Culver City Farmer's
Market is held every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. at Media Park on Culver Blvd.
Walk
of Fame provides a tour of the famed movie history on the sidewalks of
Washington Blvd. from La Cienega to National Streets.
Kaizuka Meditation Garden
at Culver City Library, 4975 Overland Ave.
Summer Concerts Thursday evenings
from 6 to 7 p.m. at City Hall Plaza. Culver City Public Theatre presents Summer
Performances at Dr. Paul Carlson Memorial Park.
www.ccpt.org
Culver Ice Arena, 4545 Sepulveda Boulevard (310) 398-5718 - recorded message
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, 9341 Venice Blvd., Call: (310) 836-6131
The historic Culver Studios, where such films as "Citizen Kane" and television
classics such as "Lassie" were filmed, has been sold to a private investment
group for $125 million.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Japan's Sony Corp., has owned the 17
acres of backlot sets and soundstages since 1991. Sony will continue to own its
nearby lot, which is used by its Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Television
divisions.
The buyers, known as Studio City Los Angeles, includes Lehman Brothers, Pacific
Coast Capital partners and Pacifica Ventures, which will manage the property.
Many of the group's partners, operating under the name "Studio City New York,"
are trying to build a $375 million studio complex in midtown Manhattan. That
project is on hold while the partners search for tenants and await approvals.
The Culver Studios were built in 1919 by Thomas Ince and have been host to such
legendary filmmakers as Cecil B. DeMille and David O. Selznick. The lot was once
home to RKO Pathe Studios when it was run by Joseph Kennedy and later served as
home to Desilu Studios, owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
The lot includes a replica of George Washington's Mount Vernon mansion. A
28-acre backlot, part of which was set ablaze to recreate the burning of Atlanta
in "Gone With the Wind," was sold in 1968 and subdivided into homes and
industrial uses.
As part of the deal announced Tuesday, Studio City Los Angeles has agreed to
build a 30,000 square-foot expansion of an existing office building to provide
space for Sony's animation and visual effects divisions.
Sony will continue to be a major tenant of the studio, which is being used for
commercial production, rehearsal space for major musical acts, including Britney
Spears, as well as film and television production.
Most of the major studios operate their own backlots and soundstages and often
rent them to competing production companies. Several studios, including
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and DreamWorks, as well as most independent filmmakers, do
not own their own production facilities.
The problem of runaway production for TV series has slowed in recent years,
statistics show. Most of the shows filmed for the 2003 fall TV season on
broadcast television were shot in the United States, according to the Center for
Entertainment Industry Data and Research.
Culver City is located at the intersection of the San Diego
and Santa Monica Freeways.
