The 20th Century Fox of the Future

Growing up in a pleasant corner of L.A. called Beverlywood (no, I had nothing to do with that), I was quietly thrilled by the proximity of a famous movie studio. Yes, 20^th Century Fox was about a mile from my home. It was exciting to drive west on Pico Boulevard and see the gates through which celebrities entered, along with huge posters for such coming attractions as Cleopatra, The Sound of Music, and Star Wars. In later years,  my husband- to-be, along with members of my family, took part in the mammoth parade down a fake New York street that was intended to be the high point of 1969’s Hello, Dolly!

 Of course, time marches on. Starting in 1963, much of Fox’s rambling backlot was sold to developers, resulting in the building of hotels, condo towers, and a high-end shopping mall known collectively as Century City. (Such brand-new boulevards as Avenue of the Stars played into the movie-star motif.)  Then, after a series of ownership changes, most of the studio (including its intellectual property) was purchased by Disney in 2019. Today the complex is known as 20^th Century Studios: it houses Fox productions, maker of The Simpsons as well as other television favorites, and is also used as rental space for additional TV and movie projects.

 Unlike such storied Hollywood properties as Universal Studios, Fox has never been known for public outreach. Touring the lot is generally not an option, unless you have specific business on the premises. But today that’s starting to  change. A project called Fox Future is being organized to preserve and enhance the remains of one of Hollywood’s oldest studios, and the first to commit itself wholly to the production of sound films. Among the plans: the resurrection of the Fox Research Library, which—like most of the old studio libraries—had been shamefully allowed to disperse over the decades.

 In tandem with Fox Future, the heroic L.A. Conservancy devoted itself on a rain-splashed recent Sunday (yes, it does rain in  SoCal) to educational tours of the lot. We glimpsed the commissary once visited by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (who there learned with dismay that his planned visit to Disneyland had been cancelled out of security concerns)), and were allowed inside a famous scoring stage. We gawked at giant murals commemorating the studio’s greatest hits, like Gene Wilder and Teri Garr romping through Young Frankenstein as well as Marilyn Monroe flirting with Tom Ewell in The Seven Year Itch. Perhaps most charming were the earliest buildings on the lot, from the days when Hollywood studios pampered their über-famous contract players with private cottages tailored to their individual tastes. Still standing in the so-called Artist’s and Writer’s Village are several cozy but elaborately outfitted bungalows now used as office space but once dedicated to some of the studio’s brightest stars. Will Rogers’s once-upon-a-time bungalow still has its American Southwest flair. Next door  is what originally was meant to look like a wee Irish cottage. It was apparently built for the popular Irish tenor, John McCormack, who made several films in the early 1930s. Eventually, it became the

home-away-from-home of one of Fox’s biggest Depression-era stars, Shirley Temple. Here’s one of my very favorite factoids from a tour docent: little Shirley was such a worldwide favorite that she frequently received gifts from overseas fans. One admirer in Australia sent a brace of live kangaroos. Soon they were hopping all over the lot, but ended  up being corralled  in an historic lily pond near the studio’s original main building. (You can’t make this stuff up!) 

 

20th Century Fox: Hail and Farewell

It’s hard to explain to anyone who didn’t grow up in my neighborhood how I feel about Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox studios. My home base from kindergarten through the time of my marriage was just south of the Beverly Hills border and less than a mile from the Pico Blvd. entrance to 20th Century Fox. It was always exciting to know that while I went about the business of being a kid, the glamorous folk were making movies not far away. Fox never went in for big public tours like Universal Studios, which eventually parlayed its Studio City back lot into a major theme park. So what went on inside the 20th Century Fox gates was mysterious, and therefore delightful.  There was a time that a distant relative with showbiz connections promised my family a private tour of the Fox lot. Of course I was thrilled.  And of course I dressed carefully for the occasion, half-convinced that some important so-and-so would stop our group and tell me I was just the girl he needed to feature in his upcoming production. (And of course, nothing of the sort happened. Which is the only thing I remember about that tour today.)

At various times, Fox was the home of Tyrone Power, Carmen Miranda, Henry Fonda,  Betty Grable, and Sonja Henie. During the Depression, it was bankrolled by the success of Little Miss Shirley Temple. It’s where, in 1962, Marilyn Monroe was fired from her last film, Something’s Got to Give, and where (just one year later), the cost overruns on Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra almost threw the studio into bankruptcy. That’s why Fox sold off its fabled backlot, which became a massive business and shopping destination known as Century City. Fox did slightly better in the late Sixties, thanks to an unexpected blockbuster, Planet of the Apes. For me a special film of that era was Hello, Dolly!, the film version of the blockbuster stage musical. At a time when Hollywood’s philosophy was “bigger is better,” Fox brought in Gene Kelly to direct and cast young Barbra Streisand in a role that had been immortalized on Broadway by Carol Channing. Huge stretches of studio façade were turned into a so-called New York Street, with a turn-of-the-century brownstone look. For a massive parade scene, to provide a fitting backdrop for Streisand singing “Before the Parade Passes By,” the studio wanted literally thousands of extras. That’s why half of my neighborhood was recruited—including my mother, sister, and future mother-in-law—while my husband strutted proudly with the UCLA marching band.

I myself spent time in a Fox soundstage when researching the TV show M*A*S*H for Theatre Crafts magazine. (Today dozens of shows, including The Simpsons, use Fox facilities for their production needs.) I’ve also attended many a screening in one of the studio’s plush auditoriums. And I visit the Fox lot from time to time as an invited speaker for the Storyboard Development Group,where aspiring screenwriters analyze and argue over the scripts of upcoming Hollywood releases.  It’s always fun to see, on the sides of Fox buildings, the huge murals that pay tribute to the hits of days gone by: Star Wars, The Sound of Music, Young Frankenstein.

I’ve just read that in selling their artistic empire to Disney, the Murdoch family (hardly my favorite moguls) are holding fast to the Fox lot. For them it’s a business decision, not a nostalgic one, as an article in the L.A.Times makes clear. I just hope the lot remains a place where I can dream about Hollywood past, present, and future. 

Here I am on the lot, with the cast of Young Frankenstein looming large behind me.