I was only aware of Mack Sennett's studio in Echo Park when I came across these fascinating photographs from 1927.
It turns out, there was also a Mack Sennett Studio in the San Fernando Valley.
The future site of Mack Sennett's studio at 4024 N. Radford Avenue in the San Fernando Valley.
http://museumsanfernandovalley.blogs...1_archive.html
above: This view is looking east toward Mount Hollywood and the Cahuenga Pass into Hollywood.
This photograph was taken from Radford Avenue, just east of Laurel Canyon on Ventura Boulevard.
Construction at the Mack Sennett Studio on Radford Avenue in 1927.
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The land was owned by Harry Merrick of the 'Central Motion Picture District' land syndicate (formerly of the Chicago Assn. of Commerce). Financed by the Guarantee Building Loan & Assn., the syndicate acquired over 500 acres of former Lankershim Ranch land stretching from Tujunga Avenue and Pacoima Avenue (now Laurel Canyon Boulevard), Ventura Boulevard to Chandler Way in 1926, envisioning it's own little city (eventually 'Studio City').
Sennett later explained that "a group of enterprising real estate operators offered me a gift of 20 acres near the
trickle known as the Los Angeles River." Merritt's company would construct the studio from plans drawn by architect Harold Cass.
http://studiocity.patch.com/groups/a...ed-studio-city
http://studiocity.patch.com/groups/a...ed-studio-city
Newspapers announced on June 11, 1927 that the Sennett Studio of over 12 buildings would feature California Renaissance design. Workers began picking fruit from 275 acres of plum, peach, and apricot orchards (an area obviously larger than Mack Sennett's allocated 20 acres) that would soon be destroyed by Merritt's 'Central Motion Picture District'. Later, 60 acres of walnuts, five acres of pecans, and 25 acres of grapevines would be harvested before they too were decimated.
The birth of
Studio City.
http://studiocity.patch.com/groups/a...ed-studio-city
above: Notice that Merrick's ' Central Motion Picture District' is referenced on the billboard.
below: The Mack Sennett Studio today (now known as the CBS Studio Center)
google earth
The old Mack Sennett/CBS Studio Center in relation to Hollywood.
google earth
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