So, when Cara’s parents were here a few weeks ago their friend’s son works at Paramount as a page (I think). So, he took us on a private tour of the Studios after hours.
After fighting almost an hour and a half of really annoying LA traffic, I made it to Paramount at exactly the moment we were supposed to start the tour. Honestly, I was screaming and bitching my whole way through traffic. One of my personal LA catchphrases is “Isn’t the West Coast supposed to chill me out? I’m so not laid back out here!”
But, once I got there it was all good. I was ready to go on this tour.
The tour started near the gift store, because that’s where everyone was by the time I got there. From there we jumped in the golf cart and started on the RKO side of the lot. I could bore you with a lot of RKO info, but I’ll link you to the Wikipedia page instead. But, to sum it up-
RKO was one of the BIG studios in the Golden Age of film- think like musicals with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. RKO also produced probably two of the most well-known classic movies ever- Citizen Kane and the original King Kong. Later RKO was bought by Howard Hughes who essentially ran it into the ground.
Continuing on from Howard Hughes, the Hollywood part of RKO (Paramount) was bought by Desilu Productions. Desilu is Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s production company. We ventured onto Lucy Park!
Brief note about the above picture. Cheers was filmed on the lot and I guess one night Woody Harrelson and Ted Danson got a little drunk on the lot one night, Ted Danson dared Woody to run around the lot, they came across the wet cement and christened it with their hand and footprints. Ted Danson just signed his name on the block, while Woody’s inscription reads, “Woody Harrelson was here (naked)”.
Lucy Park is small park built by Lucille Ball for her children back when that part of the studio was owned by Desilu Productions. Lucy apparently built this area of the studio to look like her backyard in Beverly Hills. It was so she could take photographs with her children and pretend she was at home when she was actually at work. Couple of fun facts about Lucy Park:
- In the picture above – the brick building with the awning was Desi’s office or dressing room. It’s rumored when Desi and Lucy got divorced, she cemented his door closed.
- The grassy area was used as McKinley High’s football field in Glee’s ‘Grilled Cheesus’ episode
- The tree in the below picture was used in The Brady Bunch episode where Greg tries a cigarette.
- Two pictures down – the bay window was Lucy’s office. I had no idea how big Desilu Productions was- Lucy apparently started on on-studio childcare center because her head writer had gotten pregnant and was going to leave the show to raise her family but Lucy started a daycare to prevent her from leaving. There’s two parts of how cool – the head writer was a woman and the creation of a daycare to cater to women working on set. Also, Desilu Productions like started syndication or “reruns” and they were responsible for a ton of classic tv shows – obviously I Love Lucy, Star Trek, Dick Van Dyke Show, and Mission Impossible, among many others.
I apparently, really didn’t get a good picture but on the right side of Lucy Park is the “high school” from Happy Days. It was very cool to see how much classic television history happened in this one area.
Next we kept driving through the lot. We stopped by the Gower gate, which was used in The Godfather as the entrance to Wurlitz Pictures. Then we came upon something I was very excited about- we were near where they film Community. Unfortunately, the last two seasons of Community they have filmed all the episodes before they air on TV, so they haven’t had the stages or area set up for Community. But, as Danny (our guide) pointed out – there’s still one little hint that Community films here-
The logo on the door still says “Greendale Community College”.
Continuing on we hit probably one of the coolest parts of the Paramount Lot- New York streets. NY at Paramount is set up as different areas – Brooklyn, Greenwich Village, Washington Square, the Financial District, the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side, SoHo. This was really cool because we got to walk around and go inside some of the buildings, because they’re all practical facades meaning that you can actually go in and film inside of them. One of the corner stores had just been used on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and so many different things have been filmed in there. He showed us a clip of Indiana Jones that had shot there.
Going through the NY sets is actually kind of lie a circle- because you go through one NY and then you actually hit “Chicago”. So, in the Chicago area is “Murder Alley”, clearly famous for a lot of murders in gangster movies. But, right near there is what a set I miss very much – Rosalita’s from Happy Endings. Danny told us that they had to reconstruct the exterior of Chicago street on the Happy Endings stage because the way the bar faces, you wouldn’t get the right background (if that makes any sense). Right now, Glee films a lot in NY and Chicago.
We wrapped up the tour, shortly after. Danny brought us around to the front to show us the famous entrance to Paramount. He showed us this window that belonged to the Head Costumer – Edith Head – who actually was kind of the basis of the character Edna in The Incredibles – you know the little woman who designed all the costumes “NO CAPES!”. Yeah.
There were parts of the tour where I kind of wish that I was with a regular tour because I felt like I couldn’t nerd out as much or take as many pictures as I did. I feel like if I came like 2-3 years ago, I probably would’ve been a nightmare to deal with because then it was like the heyday of all of my favorite shows being filmed here. But, today a lot of my favorite shows tape in other studios (that really don’t do tours). I also didn’t get to see the Forrest Gump bench, but another time. Honestly, it was probably one of the coolest experiences getting to walk around and see up close a lot of the sets and stuff.
So what did I learn on this tour?
- Paramount is the oldest remaining film studio in Hollywood. Really stressing the ‘in Hollywood’ part of that sentence.
- In one of the NY sections there are two doorways- one that’s tall and one that’s short and they are referred to as the Tom and Nicole doors for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Because when Tom Cruise (or someone equally short) would stand in the shorter door they look tall and more masculine while someone a bit taller would stand in the all door they would look a bit daintier or vulnerable.
- The Ten Commandments was filmed at Paramount and the early special effects of the parting of the Red Sea was played back in reverse. So, when Moses parts the sea it was actually filmed with the water in the tanks first and then emptied into the pool. So it started parted and for the movie the film was reversed.
- A lot of the RKO side of the studio was really cool. I felt like it had a lot more crazy history than the Paramount side.
- One last fun fact- tour guides can no longer point out working offices or people around the lot. They’ve had “runners” people who’ve gotten off the golf cart and run down these people.
All in all I had a fantastic time and I’m so happy I got to come here. Now, I really have to hit Warner Brothers!
mybigwestcoastadventure 