SANTA ANA, Calif. — For more than 100 years, movie studio tours have drawn Los Angeles residents and tourists for a glimpse at how movie magic is made.
Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s film studios were built throughout Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley as the home base for major entertainment companies to make their films.
By the 1920s the major studios were grouped into The Big 5 — RKO Pictures, Warner Brothers, MGM, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox — and the Little 3 — Universal, Columbia and United Artists.
Surprisingly enough, it was one of the little three that originated the concept of the Studio Tour.
Before it was a theme park, Universal Studios Hollywood first opened up to the public in 1915 as Universal City.
For just a quarter, guests were able to witness how movies were made. The concept at the time was a live theater experience similar to a modern-day studio taping. The original studio tours first took place during the era of silent films, so when “talkies” came into the picture it became too much to have an audience, and in around 1930 studio visits came to an end.
That was until around 30 years later when Lew Wasserman took over Universal Pictures and he, along with his Executive Vice President Al Dorskind, sought a way to generate new revenue for the studio. As legend has it, they saw photographs from the original tours in 1915 and decided it was time to invite the public back to see how movies were made. The modern day studio tour was born.
Universal Studios opened as a theme park in July 1964 with the Studio Tour as one of the opening day attractions. Those who went on the tour got a first hand look at an exhibition of costume designs, a western stuntman show and were even able to get off the tram for a bit to walk through Doris Day’s dressing room.
Additions to the tour have come and gone as new films have been released such as Amity Island from Jaws in the mid ‘70s, Whoville from the 2000 film “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and Jupiter’s Claim, the Gold Rush theme park from the 2022 film “Nope.”
A notable distinction from other nearby studio tours is that Universal’s tour is also part attraction. During the “King Kong” and “Fast & Furious” portion of the hour long tour, the ride becomes a 4D immersive experience with the tram acting a motion simulator as giant screens that surround the vehicle project a continuation of the films.
The theme park has also updated the “Earthquake” position of the tour which is based on the 1974 disaster drama which simulates an earthquake taking place in an underground subway station in San Francisco.
