The Culver Hotel & The Culver Studios

• Report rights infringement
• published: 16 Apr 2016
• views: 45

The Culver Studios is a historic movie studio located at 9336 West Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California. Originally created by silent movie pioneer Thomas H. Ince, many classics from Hollywood's Golden Age were filmed there, including Gone with the Wind, A Star is Born, Intermezzo and Rebecca. Culver Studios has helped spawn the career of numerous movie and television stars. In the lot's earlier days, the site was used to film Hollywood classics like Citizen Kane and Hitchcock's Spellbound before a plethora of television shows started leasing the stages in the 1960s to create programs like The Andy Griffith Show and Hogan's Heroes. At the southern end of Culver Studios sit a collection of four bungalows, dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. They have been occupied by a host of celebrated writers and actors over the years and are now considered locally significant structures. Alfred Hitchcock used one of the one-story buildings as his office for years. Another bungalow was built in 1935 and used as a residential space for Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh during filming of Gone With the Wind. Other bungalows have been connected to Olivia de Havilland, Lucille Ball, Gloria Swanson and Orson Welles during the filming of Citizen Kane. As Culver City became a movie-making mecca in the 1920s and beyond, the hotel saw many legendary stars pass through its doors, some maintaining private residences for months at a time. Cast members from classic films like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz (1939) – including the 124 'Munchkins' – are only a few of the guests who contributed to the Culver Hotel's rich history. Casts from the movies, Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz stayed at the hotel during filming, most famously all of the over 100 Munchkins who appeared in the Oz film. The Culver Hotel has housed many stars as guests, including Buster Keaton, Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, Dorothy Dandridge, Douglas Fairbanks, Frank Sinatra.