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381
ouND The Studios
A brief survey of the best-known producing centres of Hollywood, Britain and Europe.
America
Burbank
Warner Bros, and First National Studios, Burbank, California.
BEHIND a busy steam-laundry, overlooked by Beverly Hills, First National produced their lirst pictures on an open-air stage with the only lighting then possible — the sun.
It was not until March, 1926, that the foundations of the present Warner Brothers and First National studios were laid at Burbank. Before that, the tvvo companies which threw in their lots together had studios literally " aU over the place." They used to make pictures now here, now there. And what with transporting scenery, equipment, and players hundreds of miles at expensive railway rates, the executives soon saw that a great central studio nmst be built.
So they covered more than 70 acres with buildings They laid out more than four miles of paved streets. They appropriated 1,100 acres of mountain, river and meadow which lay behind Burbank, so that they could have any sort of location they wanted, from desert to jungle, at a moment's notice.
On June 5th, 1926, the great place was complete. The very first picture to be made in the new two-and-a-half-million-pound studios was The Masked Wo)nan, starring Anna Q. Nilsson.
Then tlie talkies came and Warner Bros, was the lirm that introduced them to a wondering world and a staggering film-world.
Nowadays, Burbank Studios fairly boil with activity. Warner Bros, and First National pictures are produced at the rate of something like 70 a year, as well as many Vitaphone features.
There arc twelve large sound-proof stages. There is, among other specialized departments, a wonderful research library. This is a room which, to the casual visitor, looks like the reading-room of any comfortable club. In reality, it is an encyclopedic store which contains information on every possible and impossible subject which might have a bearing on scene, costume or story. There is a barber-shop, built and decorated in tlie Spanish style, with pantiles, " patio " — which we would call " veranda " — and cool white stone arches. There are splendid laboratories, all white enamel, glass plate, and porcelain. Enough electricity is generated to light a town of ten. thousand inhabitants.
When first completed, the stuchos comprised 44 buildings, with a total floor space of 515,000 scjuare feet ; now it is bigger and better than ever. * Refer to maps : Plates 57, 58, 59, 61.