The Culver City Studios

Batman was filmed originally at 20th Century Fox Studios. The sets were built, the pilot was shot and then the series sold ! 20th Century Fox had little room in the main studio so they told the Batman Show to pack their bags and move to The Desilu - Culver Studios. The main problem was the Batcave set which had to be broken down in pieces, loaded on 60' flatbed trucks and driven 7 miles down the road to be reconstructed. The pilot episode was actually shot at Fox but all remaining episodes were 80% filmed at Culver.

The Batcave, Batclimb and Commissioner Gordon's Office were all on Stage 16

Wayne Manor, Barbara's Apartment, and the Library were on Stage 15

The exteriors of most Hollywood studios are notoriously plain, typically resembling large industrial plants. Culver Studios is the exception to that rule; its exterior facade is a grand colonial mansion, a virtual copy of George Washington's Mount Vernon, fronted by sweeping green lawns, sculpted hedges, flowering rose bushes, and the picturesque white "mansion" itself. Without doubt, this is the most attractive of all movie studios, and one that is clearly visible to everyone driving down Culver City's Washington Boulevard.

Batman Filmed at the entrance to the studio !

A Few More Shots From Batman - Click for Larger View !

Here is a photo from 1920 When the studio was brand new run by Thomas Ince. Notice there was no backlot at this time.

Now for a bit of history. Batman was a joint production of Greenway Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. The show aired on the ABC Network. Greenway provided the management of the show, directors, actors, scripts, and the production fell on William Dozier and crew. The actual filming , locations, and the mechanical aspects fell on 20th Century Fox. Fox was happy to make room for Batman when the initial pilot was filmed at the cost of over $500,000 but didn't have the space available to host a current production of a TV Show with the requirements of Batman. Fox decided to lease space at what is now Culver Studios. At the time the studio was Desilu - Culver but everyone called it Fox-Culver that had any relationship with the series. Lucy and Desi were at the point of not seeing each other and eventually sold the studio in 1968.

In 1966-67 These are the shows produced at Desilu Studios -

Through the years the studio has had many different owners.

1919- 1924 - The Ince Studios 1925-1928 - Pathé Exchange Studios 1928-1935 -RKO Studios

 1935-1948 - Selznick International Pictures 1948-1955 - Howard Hughes Studio

1955-1957 - General Tire and Rubber Company 1957-1968 - Desilu Studios

1968-1969 - Perfect Film and Chemical 1969-1977 - OSF Industries Limited

1977-1986 - Laird Industries 1986-1991 - Grant Tinker and Gannett Company

1986- Present Sony Corporation - Sony purchased the Studio

While doing this research, I found that the same place that Batman was filmed had some of the most interesting history of any movie studios in existence.

The Culver Studio was known as RKO Studios when many classic movies were filmed there. Most of the Fred Astire dance flicks of the 30's were shot on the same stages as Batman would later use. In 1926 Mr DeMille leased 28 1/2 acres to film " King Of Kings. This backlot was called " 40 Acres " For the movie "The Bird of Paradise", they built a jungle and native village. This jungle became the nucleus of the future Tarzan jungle. The native village and the Jerusalem gates can be see in "King Kong".

 It is interesting to not that within just feet of where Batman was filmed, in 1933 they filmed King Kong ! During this time RKO was having problems with cash ( they many times had this problem) and the only thing that kept them from going under was the popularity and cash flow Kong provided.

Well by the late 1930's RKO had had enough and decided to lease the studio to David O Selznick who at one time worked for RKO. He set out to make the most famous motion picture of all time, Gone With The Wind. The studio was always one of the smallest as far as space and Selznick decided that he needed to clear some areas and to kill two birds with one stone, he set fire to some of the largest sets- The Gate from King Kong's Skull Island and the Jereselum Gate from King of Kings and they became the basis for the burning of Atlanta scenes.

 Gone with the Wind used Stage 11 for many interior shots. On some of the same sound stages Batman was using, Rhett Butler and Vivian Leigh had used over thirty years earlier.

Notice in the far right of the photo from False Face, the brown brick building, it was the newspaper building in Gone With The Wind

 Selznick teamed up with Orson Wells and produced Citizen Kane in 1941 and then The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942. When Selznick called it quits, Howard Hughes bought RKO. It was difficut times at the old studio to say the least, behind the scenes, the word on the street was that RKO had become Hughes' personal bordello. He kept the studio staffed with beautiful women, many of whom never saw themselves on screen. The favorites of the harem had entire vehicles built around them, such as Vendetta (1950), which went through five directors to showcase the fresh-faced beauty of Faith Domergue. Hughes wasn't the only one playing around-- Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman made national news when their adulterous affair was uncovered. RKO was swinging. In the '50s, a new sexuality began sweeping across the movie screen, stemming in part from the perversions of RKO's chief. The Outlaw had breached the production code, but Russell's endowments were further displayed in eye-popping 3D and glorious Technicolor in The French Line (1954). Hughes recruited burlesque dancer Lili St. Cyr to take a bath onscreen in the exotic fluff Son of Sinbad (1955). If Hollywood was known as America's Dream Factory, Hughes was supervising over his personal fantasy factory.

Almost the same spot 30 or so years later. Here's a bit more trivia, the street looks normal in Batman but in the filming of Gone With The Wind, they purchased thousands of bricks which were ground up and spread on the street to give the appearance of red Georgia clay!

The building to the left of the Batmobile is what is left of the old train station in GWTW. Tara , the plantation would have been behind us off camera up a slight hill had it not been torn down in 1959. It was still standing when the Real McCoy's had their house here.

The Tara Set before it was torn down in 1959.

The area where Tara once stood later became a Nazi Concentration camp in Hogan's Heroes.

 By 1957 he had pretty much lost it and the mogul lost control of RKO. He locked himself in a screening room on the lot and remained in seclusion for nearly five months as his beard and nails grew and his clothes frayed. When Howard Hughes emerged, he was a shell of the adventurous ladies' man who flaunted conventions. He then went to Las Vegas to finish this bizarre chapter of his life.

 Six years later he would sell out to General Tire and Rubber - sounds strange huh? Truthfully, General owned a bunch of TV stations at the time and wanted the studio not to film as much as to gain the rights to all those old RKO films that could be shown on their TV stations.

Two years later, Lucy and Desi Arnez purchased the studio and made it a part of their Desilu holdings. The studio was in poor shape so Lucy and Desi remodeled quite a bit and started working on new projects. Desi was forced out and Lucy way the big cheese by 1963. The studio was not producing much so to profit they decided to lease a large portion of the studio for other companies. In comes 20th Century Fox who was at the brink of bankruptcy themselves and had begun to sell off their backlot. 20th Century didn't have the room needed to house Batman so they leased a major portion of the studio. Batman had a home !

Adam and Burt standing outside Stage 11 at filmed The trailer was a portable dressing room used by the Batman crew

Go Here To See More About The Backlot 40 Acres

In This photo you can see the first photo is from the False Face episode. To the left of the van is the Mayberry Sheriffs Office. The next photo to the right is from Superman in 1952. Clark Kent is pushing Lois into the car. Notice the building in the background. Third is from an episode of Star Trek, the street was decorated as if it were deserted. The last photo is from Mayberry - you guessed it, the same building. It is an easy focal point due to the bricks that are on the lower section.

Click for Larger Photo

The main stages Batman used were 15 and 16 but other sound stages were also used as well as the backlot for some exterior shots . They also used Stage 2 quite a few times. The backlot was designated "40 Acres" in terms of filming schedules. Here is a copy of a production schedule for an episode shot at Culver Studios-

Click on schedule to see a sample

shooting schedule from

" Catwoman's Dressed To Kill

In Adobe Acrobat

(256kb)

In this photo, you can see the Gomer Pyle Set in the background as the Batmobile whizzes by

Here is a Great Photo of the Batcave set on Stage 16

Click for a Much Larger View !

Here Are A Few More Photos of Shooting In Culver Studios !

Mayberry the home of Andy Griffith was actually part of the Atlanta set. Some of the TV series that used 40 Acres at Culver were : My Favorite Martian, Hogans Heroes, Andy Griffith Show, Batman, Green Hornet, Mannix, among others. Mad About You, The Nanny

Here

In 1976 The backlot, 40 Acres , was bulldozed down and made into an industrial park, with it the history of one of the most famous lots in studio history. With it went Tara, Mayberry, a part of Gotham City, Stalag 13, Gomer Pyle's barracks and many other film and TV locations.

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