About Us - Studio History

The Culver Studios is most commonly known as the place where Gone With The Wind was filmed. Walk the lot and you may hear murmurs that the mansion building is Scarlett's beloved Tara, but it is not. The mansion was featured, but only in the credits as the backdrop for the logo of the David O. Selznick Studios. Gone With The Wind was shot on Stages 11 & 12 in 1939. In those days the studio back lot stretched south of the existing studio all the way to the hills. All the exteriors of Tara, Twelve Oaks and the city of Atlanta were created on the studio's 28-acre backlot (which was referred to, naturally, as the "back 40").

Photo: The Culver Studios mansion circa 1920

The studio was original built by silent movie pioneer Thomas Ince in 1918. After Ince's untimely death (as recounted in Peter Bogdanovich's 2001 film The Cat's Meow), the studio was purchased by Cecil B. DeMille, who built enormous new stages and monumental sets on the backlot. The most impressive sets were replicas of the streets of Jerusalem for one of his biggest budgeted features, The King of Kings in 1927. These sets were used in many movies over the years. They were seen in King Kong as part of Skull Island in 1933. These sets towered over the studio for a dozen years until they were burned to the ground for the burning of Atlanta sequence in Gone With the Wind in 1939.

RKO acquired the studios in 1928 and Joseph Kennedy served as one of the studio heads. It was during his tenure here that he had his infamous love affair with leading lady Gloria Swanson. Legend has it that Kennedy built her a private dressing room as a gift. Only much later and after the affair ended did Swanson discover Kennedy had used her money to pay for it. The bungalow still stands and is used as an office for writers and producers.

RKO controlled the lot for nearly 30 years bringing stardom to Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, King Kong, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. During the 1930s and 1940s the studio was home to a number of memorable releases: A Star Is Born (1937), Tom Sawyer (1938), Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and Spellbound (1945). Orson Welles filmed Citizen Kane on the lot in 1940.

In the years that followed RKO's ownership, the studio changed hands several times. In 1950, multi-millionaire tycoon and movie producer Howard Hughes acquired the studio. Hughes was considered impossible to work for. Under his reign the few movies he did make were flops and contracted talent left the studio in droves to escape his tyrannical ways.

The future became brighter when Desilu Productions purchased the lot in 1956. Over the next decade television emerged as the primary business conducted at the studio. Early classics such as The Andy Griffith Show, Hogan's Heroes, The Untouchables, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Lassie and Gomer Pyle all came to life here. In 1967 the studio was home to the racey soap Peyton Place as well as Batman, The Green Hornet and the pilot for Star Trek.

In 1968, while the industry was suffering, the studio changed hands again and the new ownership sold off most of "back forty" -- the studio's 28-acre back lot. By the late 1970s the once lovely studio had become a dilapidated wreck and remained that way until the mid 1980s, when it was purchased by the joint ownership of Grant Tinker and Gannett. They completed a $26 million renovation which created new state-of-the-art television stages and updated all the existing facilities. More impressively, the construction restored much of the studio's original luster and beauty. The process included extensive renovations of the mansion, bungalows and Selznick wing. It also meant tearing down Ince's old glass and muslin stage 1, and excavating an old plunge behind the mansion to make way for an underground parking structure. The restoration was so successful it has served as a model for other studio projects.

Photo: Original Gone With the Wind Poster

Walk through any of the restored buildings and there is a feeling of another era. Over the years, unsubstantiated rumors of studio hauntings have circulated among the studio staff. Stage hands high in the catwalks have reportedly been confronted by a ghostly figure resembling Thomas Ince. It's rumored that late at night a spirit -- some say Gloria Swanson -- roams the halls of the mansion. While there is no proof of these sightings, eerily similar reports occur year after year.

More recently the studio has been the site of such films as Raging Bull, ET, City Slickers, The American President, Armageddon, Contact, The Red Corner, Wag The Dog, What Women Want, Galaxy Quest, City Of Angels and Stuart Little. Many recording artists have utilized the studio's private atmosphere to rehearse (Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Don Henley, Janet Jackson) and to shoot music videos (Ricky Martin, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Luis Miguel). The Culver Studios is also the birthplace of Baywatch, Mad About You, The Nanny and Arrested Development.

In 1991 Sony Corporation bought the studio and sold it in 2004 to PCCP Studio City Los Angeles. Under the new ownership, the studio has been the home of numerous feature films, including Sony's Bewitched, Fox's The Family Stone, Paramount's Yours, Mine and Ours, and Castle Rock's For Your Consideration. The 3-D motion capture films The Polar Express and Monster House were also "filmed" at the studio. On the television side, the studio is home to NBC's hit Las Vegas , Sony new talkshow sensation The Greg Behrendt Show and game show sensation Deal or No Deal.