On this week's Hollywood and Levine Podcast, Ken gives you a VIP tour of the Paramount lot where many classic movies and TV shows were filmed. Ken called Paramount home for twenty years and has tons of stories and history on this iconic lot. Only thing missing is a tram.
Just listened; a job well done. So you saw Paramount patriarch Adolph Zukor in the flesh, eh? (He lived to 103, and I think his last public appearance was for the world premiere of "Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood.")
ReplyDeleteI've set foot on the Paramount lot twice, taking the studio theater in 1996 (where we saw a few minutes of a dress rehearsal of "Wings") and in March 2000 for a filming of a "Frasier" ep, where Robert Loggia played the restaurateur at a "Palm"-type place (a caricature of Frasier was a key element).
What a wonderful place with all sorts of history, including 1930 to '37 from the lady in my avatar (when she began there, she lived not far away on North Wilton Place). Carole admits her most iconic films, such as "Twentieth Century" or "My Man Godfrey," were done elsewhere, but nevertheless adores the place. (She shot "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" -- the one Hitchcock directed, not the Brangelina movie -- on the RKO segment of the lot.) And she told me to remind you, "Don't forget Lubitsch! Without Lubitsch, there is no Wilder."
Your comments on earthquakes remind me of a famous Lombard anecdote about filming during one (the so-called "Long Beach quake" of March 1933). Will have to tell you it sometime.
That should be "taking the studio tour in 1996". Oopsie.
DeleteI enjoyed this episode immensely, but then I had a map of the studio open the whole time I was listening. I look forward to other studio tours.
ReplyDeleteNot to nitpick, Ken, but TORA!TORA!TORA! was a 20th Century Fox movie so the - as you said, VERY unconvincing - model effects of the ships were probably not filmed at Paramount.
ReplyDeleteIt may have been a 20th movie but was filmed in the tank. The studio probably just rented it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification, Ken.
ReplyDeleteBoth Paramount and Warner Bros. tore down their Western streets several years ago. Paramount's lot is where most seasons of Bonanza were shot. They had a mill building that towered over the end of Western Street and was visible above the facades. So they built a huge scenic piece behind the sets to look like a distant mountain that covered the top of the mill. Pretty ingenious. Also, the Western street was right next to the B tank, so occasionally the "sky" you think you're seeing above a building in Virginia City was actually the massive cloudy painting on the other end of the tank.
ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteFor some reason this podcast episode is not available on Google Play, which is where I subscribe to your podcasts. Is this just an error?
Brian
Ken,
ReplyDeleteFor some reason this podcast episode is not available on Google Play, which is where I subscribe to your podcasts. Is this just an error?
Brian