Fox Studio Lot
| Fox Studio Lot | |
|---|---|
 Fox Studio Lot in Century City, Los Angeles | |
 Interactive map of the Fox Studio Lot area | |
General information | |
| Location | Century City, Los Angeles, California |
| Inaugurated | October 28, 1928 |
| Owner | Fox Corporation |
Fox Studios is a film and television production studio located in Los Angeles on Pico Boulevard. Many shows and series have been and continue to be filmed at this studio.
To the north of the complex is the Fox Plaza skyscraper, headquarters of 20th Century Fox and also used for some films such as Die Hard (1988). The studios have fifteen sound stages and numerous buildings for film production.
The complex also includes offices including the WM. Fox Building, Old Executive Building and New Executive Building as well as the Fox Network Center dedicated to television.
History
[edit]In 1915, William Fox founded the Fox Film Corporation and in 1917 set up a studio in Hollywood at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue.[1]
In the 1920s, western actor Tom Mix purchased 176 acres (71.22 ha) of rolling lowland prairie between what would become West Pico Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, then dirt roads.[1][2] Three old oil derricks had been installed on the property before 1911.[2] In 1925, Tom Mix sold the land to his employer, William Fox, for $1.5 million to raise cash.[2] In 1927, Fox moved onto Mix's land and filmed '7th Heaven there, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell.[1] The oldest building on the site is Tom Mix's farmhouse, numbered #41, which was used as an arms depot and sound effects department.[3] The complex was dedicated on October 28, 1928.[4] It is named Movietone City in honor of the Movietone sound system and a formal garden bearing this name is installed between Avenues D and E north of the complex.[5]
In 1935, following the merger of Fox Film and Twentieth Century Pictures, a major studio expansion plan was launched with the construction of Stages 10, 11, 14, 15, and 16.[5] Other buildings were also erected, such as #88 for administrative offices (since named the Old Executive Building), #89 for props (named the WM Fox Building), an expansion of the Commissary, and #86, a permanent dressing room complex (nicknamed the Stars Building), completed in 1937.[5] #86 contained 14 dressing rooms on two levels.[5] Several bungalows were built on either side of the Tennessee Gate, then the studio's main entrance, to house the stars, such as #69, which accommodated Shirley Temple.[6]
In 1940, Darryl F. Zanuck, the new head of production, purchased an adjacent golf course and expanded the studios to 260 acres (105.22 ha).[1]
In May 1958, the financially struggling studio sought to revitalize the land north of Olympic Boulevard and staged a mock groundbreaking ceremony for a real estate project called Century City.[2] The land was sold to Alcoa in 1961 for $43 million, and the first building, Gateway West, opened on September 25, 1963.[2] The Century Plaza Towers, built in 1975, are part of the complex.
In the mid-1970s, #86 was converted into offices for the production teams.[5]
The Fox Plaza parking lot is built on the site of the Sound Engineering Building.[5]
On December 14, 2017, according to Bloomberg, 21st Century Fox would retain its premises in the event of a takeover by Disney, including Fox Studios.[7]
The skyscraper Fox Plaza
The "Old Executive Building"
The entrance to the "Galaxy Way" parking lot at the foot of Fox Plaza
New York Street in 2011
Studio organization
[edit]The studio complex is organized around streets parallel to West Pico Boulevard, numbered 1 through 10, and avenues A through G, which run perpendicular to it. Other thoroughfares include Avenue of the Palms, which serves as the main entrance, and New York Street, a set located between the Old Executive Building and the WM Fox Building. The Fox Plaza tower, which opened in 1987, was built at the northeast corner of the complex.
The complex includes 19 sound stages:
- Stage 1 for music recording
- Stage 2 for sound effects recording
- Stages for film and television productions
- Stages 3, 4
- Stages 5, 6 and 8 in the north of the complex
- Stage 9 behind the Old Executive Building
- Stages 17, 18, 19 behind the New Executive Building
- Stages 20, 21 and 22 extending from the Avenue of the Palms
- Stages 10, 11, 14, 15, 16 in the south, around the Crafts Building
Other Buildings
- The Old Executive Building and the New Executive Building are located on either side of Avenue of the Palms.
- The Darryl F. Zanuck Theater, located next to Stage 8, is used for movie previews.
- The Crafts Building houses the Fox Sports studios and the medical center.
- The Fox Network Center, located behind the New Executive Building, houses the services for the cable channels.
- Building 3 originally housed the Fox Research Library, which moved to the basement of William Fox Building 89 in the late 1970s.[8]
The complex has 3 parking garages: Fox Plaza, Galaxy Way (which are adjacent to the north of the complex), and Pico West (in the southwest corner).
Assets
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Craig Owens (October 2010). "Histoiry of Century City" (pdf). Chambre de commerce de Cenury City. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Adrian Glick Kudler (26 September 2013). "The Secret Cowboy/Cleopatra/Tinfoil Origins of Century City". Curbed.com. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ↑ Jeffrey Thompson (26 May 2016). "Fox Archives: From horse barn to armory props storage to sound effects studio, history lives on the Fox lot". 21st Century Fox. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ↑ Esme Perry-Trueheart (28 October 2016). "Fox Archives: 88th anniversary of the dedication ceremony for the Fox Studio lot". 21st Century Fox. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jeffrey Thompson (23 August 2016). "Fox Archives: A look at the history of the Fox lot's Building 86, dressing room to the stars". 21st Century Fox. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ↑ Jeffrey Thompson (6 July 2016). "Fox Archives: The glamorous history behind the 'Shirley Temple Bungalow' on the Fox lot". 21st Century Fox. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ↑ Anousha Sakoui (13 December 2017). "Fox Will Keep Studio Lot, Real Estate After Disney Deal". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ↑ Twentieth Century Fox: A Century of Entertainment. Rowman & Littlefield. 2017. ISBN 9781630761431.
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External links
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