Quote:
Originally Posted by Lwize
(latimes.com)
The radio tower will be moved to its original location at Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood after structural retrofitting and renovation, according to KTLA-TV. |
It will sure be odd not to see the KTLA tower looming over Hollywood in that location. The above says that the tower will be relocated to its original location on Bronson. Will it? I've become cynical when so many things of the past were announced to be relocated and were not, or other places, like some restaurants, were closing for remodeling, but never were.
This reminded me of the location right across the street (Van Ness Ave.) from KTLA that had a distinctive "icon" for many years. What I first knew as Metromedia Square/KTTV Channel 11 was located at 5746 Sunset Blvd. at Van Ness Ave.
This is an aerial showing Metromedia Square (outlined) in 1994.
To be honest, I didn't know it encompassed that large an area.
To the left of Metromedia across Van Ness is KTLA where the tower is located.
The triangle shaped area across the street to the north is a Denny's Restaurant.
Cropped from a 1998 USGS DOQQ scan of "Hollywood NW"
The icon I am referring to is the art installation on the rooftop of the building, titled "Starsteps." You might recall this
E_R.
Mark Goodson
This was lit up and bright white at night and could not be missed traveling up the Hollywood Freeway at night. You would always know where the Sunset Blvd. exit was located without needing to read any signs.
What I did not know until recently was that this location started out as the Nassour Studios. They were built in 1946 and officially opened Jan. 1, 1947.
Edward Nassour
Nassour's son writes: My dad purchased the land on Sunset in the early forties. Originally, there were just the old, one story commercial structures and one of them was converted into a rather small shooting stage. My dad...had the old buildings demolished and went ahead with the new construction. A modern Art Deco-styled projection room and modern offices were located on the buildings fronting Sunset.
Edward Nassour
Dressing rooms were constructed adjacent to stages 1 and 2. An old converted two story apartment building located down the street on Van Ness housed producers and writers. Over 100 independent films were shot there while under my family's ownership, Orson Wells had offices at the studio as did Paul Henreid along with Pine-Thomas Productions.
Edward Nassour
Nassour Studios (1947–1950). In 1950 my dad sold the studio to Norman Chandler who owned The Los Angeles Times. He was looking for a facility to permanently house KTTV channel 11 and my dad's studio fit the bill perfectly. The sound stages had been built with television production in mind.
Times-Mirror Company owned it from 1950–1963 and was known as KTTV Studios from 1950-1967.
Metromedia owned it from 1963–2000. After a major renovation in 1967 it was known as Metromedia Square.
It was also known as Fox Television Center from 1986 –1996.
Many famous television series were filmed or taped at Metromedia such as Three's Company and almost all of Norman Lear's shows like All in the Family, Maude, Good Times and The Jeffersons. I saw several series taped here in the late 70's and early 80's. (I saw an All in the Family and I remember one called Apple Pie starring Rue McClanahan, Jack Gilford and Dabney Coleman.)
Metromedia sold the land to the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2000. The building was demolished by the school district in 2003.
Here's a photo, taken Saturday, April 19, 2003, to be exact, right before the studio was demolished, showing some of the ghost signage over the years.
Edward Nassour
Now, in the places where cultural touchstones like Walter and Maude argued, Archie and Edith disagreed, Jack, Janet and Chrissy invited us to knock on their door and the Jeffersons moved on up, students run track and play football and hopefully learn something at the Helen Bernstein High School, a campus which opened in 2008.
(You can see the KTLA tower at the southwest corner of Sunset and Van Ness, near that tall bluish-green building, which must be relatively new. The Denny's Restaurant is still there, too.)
Hollywood Aerial Art Academy
It looks like the site's filming days are not over, though. An article about the school being used as a major filming site for Glee,
HERE!
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Very interesting post Martin_Pal. I had forgotten all about the 'Starsteps' sculpture on the roof. When I saw your photograph of it, it instantly came back to me.
Dept. of Water & Power/DWP
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