Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal
This is a great shot! (It was at the corner of La Cienega and Venice Boulevards, by the way.) I am currently reading the book M-G-M HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST BACKLOT and they mention this site where the Ben-Hur set was constructed. The photo they use of the completed set pales in comparison to one or more of the aerial photos that were posted on this thread previously and I have been looking for them, but I cannot locate that post or posts. Can someone help?
Some of the fascinating text from the M-G-M book (page 133) related to this parcel of land seen in the above photo:
In 1925, after the three-way merger that had created the company, Thalberg was forced to shut down production on Fred Niblo's spectacularly out-of-control Ben-Hur. The entire unwieldy project then limped back home to Culver City to await redemption and completion. But once cast and crew had been transplanted onto the lot, Thalberg (with Mayer looking over his shoulder, no doubt) realized that the Lot One backlot was too small and already too congested with standing sets to contain the massive coliseum which, Griffith-like, would have to be built for the picture's chariot-race climax.
The solution was an abandoned lot several miles up the road at the intersection of La Cienega and Venice boulevards. Unfortunately, in a potentially disastrous oversight, no one bothered to actually rent the property from anyone, and when a city bulldozer started to disassemble the still-unfinished set for a county construction project, it took a great deal of pleading and probably greasing of more than a few outreached palms in order to postpone the project so set construction could continue. At a cost of $300,000, a most generous budget for an entire picture at the time, the Roman Circus Maximus was eventually recreated and thousands of extras (including then unknowns Myrna Loy and Marion Davies) were called upon to watch several dozen gladiators (actually local cowboys) tear around the track as recorded by an unprecedented 42 cameras.
When the dust had settled on the spectacle...Mayer and Thalberg realized, sadly, that they could not keep the magnificent set, and, in fact, it was soon bulldozed. Knowing they would need area to shoot equally epic scenes for the forthcoming The Big Parade, the idea of a second, expanded backlot, a magnum opus of backlots--Lot Two--was born.
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Very interesting
MP. Kevin Brownlow had a slightly different take on that story in
The Parade's Gone By . . . (University of California Press, 1968):
Google Books --
http://books.google.com/books?id=wCD...Venice&f=false
Perhaps neither version is true? This July 8, 1925, story seems rather straightforward:
Los Angeles Times
The Ben-Hur set -- or at least its former site -- is apparently visible northeast of the corner of Venice and La Cienega in this 1926 aerial looking east from over Culver City:
LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035859.jpg
KevinW's photo again, looking west:
And a closeup of part of the same area in 1940; it almost looks like some of the set's footprint is still visible, although the angle in relation to the RR tracks is a little off:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/21939/rec/28
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Fascinating find. -sad what was lost in this art deco redo. (although I do like the triangular art deco windows)
. The GSV image is dated May 2011, and I can't find out what happened to the building after the fire. The 
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