Sunset Gower Studios

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Sunset Gower Studios is a 14-acre television and movie studio at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, California. It continues today as Hollywood's largest independent studio and an active facility for television and film production on its twelve soundstages.

The studios were originally founded by Columbia Pictures Studios movie mogul Harry Cohn in 1921 in the Poverty Row area of Hollywood. Poverty Row was the area bound by Sunset Boulevard on the North, Gower Street on the West, and Beachwood Drive on the East.

Poverty Row was a collection of small warehouses and vest pocket offices where the independent film makers gathered to buy “short ends” of film from the major studios, in order to create their “great American dreams”. On January 10, 1924 Columbia Pictures Corporation was born. By 1929 the familiar image of the lady with the torch was beginning to make an impact on the Hollywood scene.

The Sunset Gower Studios lot, the home of such classics as Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night in 1934, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1936 Funny Girl and The Caine Mutiny, has continued to produce top new films such as The Good Shepherd and The Good German. The NBC-TV hit series, Heroes and Showtime Network’s series, Dexter also occupy several sound stages as have The Amanda Show, Deal or No Deal, Six Feet Under, JAG, Married... with Children, Soap, and I Dream of Jeannie.

In 1958 at age 66, Harry Cohn died. His memorial service was held on stages 12 and 14 at the studios. (There is no stage 13).

Without the guidance of the Cohn Brothers, Columbia Picture Corporation was not the profit-making company it once was. Between 1970 and 1972, Columbia moved from the 14 acre lot, and joined forces with Warner Bros. in Burbank. Its “back lot” on which all the great Columbia westerns were made on Hollywood Way in Burbank became the property of Warner Bros.

Columbia Pictures Corporation, renamed Columbia Pictures Industries, Incorporated, became a film entity without real estate. A large list of successful films were produced during this time, and in 1982 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. was sold to Coca Cola in a cash and stock deal valued between $700 an $800 million.

The lot, in the meantime, sat fallow. In 1977 the property was purchased by the Pick Vanoff Company for $6.2 million. The name was changed to Sunset Gower Studios and the lot became a rental facility for independent film companies. It was also used in the seventies as a music rehearsal facility catering to such music greats as Elton John, Ringo Starr, Frank Zappa, and Olivia Newton John. For a time stages 12 and 14 became indoor tennis courts.

In November 2004, Sunset Gower Studios was purchased by GI Partners for an estimated $105 million, and in 2006 began construction on a six-story building for Technicolor.

[edit] References

Porter, Gerald (March 06, 2007). Hollywood’s Legendary Sunset Gower Studios Is Reborn: Multi-Million Dollar Remodeling and New Construction Underway. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
Wooley, Peter (2006). A Thumbnail History of Sunset Gower Studios. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
Fritz, Ben (December, 2004), “Sunset-Gower indie studio space sold.”, Daily Variety
Fixmer, Andy (October 4, 2004), “Investor nears deal to purchase Sunset Gower Studios”, Los Angeles Business Journal