The Selznick Studios Retrospective Backlot Tour
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- čas přidán 3. 05. 2014
- A nostalgic look at the back lot of one of Hollywood's most famous studios. Using aerial photographs from past and present times has enabled us to see the exact locations of the sets from Gone With The Wind and how they appear today.
- Krátké a kreslené filmy
Is there anything more depressing than seeing historic or beautiful old sets like these replaced by tarmac, car parks and office buildings?
This is sooooo depressing. Why wouldn’t they have restored Tara at the very least?
I feel the same way when I see the MGM back lots in their latter days.
Painful
That was just amazing. It is almost criminal the way all the old sets have disappeared. Movies these days may be more spectacular - but none will ever replicate the magic and splendor of the Golden Age Of Hollywood.
@@robertruge2916 A farm in georgia actually has pieces of the tara house
That depends. The trouble with standing movie sets is that they become icons and readily recognized, running the risk of become cliche's. The Tara set was still standing in the 1960s and was used several times for television productions, most famous as the Barkley mansion on THE BIG VALLEY. Many times sentiment has to be weighed against what is pragmatic.
Well spoken, I couldn’t express any better myself.
@@RayPointerChannel The Tara set was torn down in 1959, before The Big Valley started filming in 1965. The Big Valley set was constructed in 1949 on the Columbia Pictures backlot for a John Wayne movie. It was known as The Mansion, and was used in many films and television shows. In 1974, Columbia Pictures decided to build a parking garage for their employees. So they tore down The Mansion to build the parking garage. The two sets were similar, but they were different sets. (Tara's porch has four columns, Big Valley's porch has five columns, Tara has big windows, Big Valley has French doors, Tara was in ruins in 1959, Big Valley was in perfect shape from 1949 until 1974, etc.)
Some of the sets on the 40 acres were also used in other movies and later TV shows such as The Andy Griffith Show, Hogans Heroes and I think that Tara was also used on Big Valley.. which starred Lee Majors and Linda Evans.
My Father took me to see this movie when I was 16. Needless to say I've been in love with Clark Gable ever since. My Father & I spent lots of time in old movie theatres. He introduced me to Hollywood when it was it's best He's now 93 & I'm 64. Will still talk about our favorite movies. Thank you sooo much for your video.
Thanks Peggy for your kind comment. As you are a fan of Clark Gable (and who isn't!) you may be interested in this new series I'm producing - The Golden Years of Hollywood". Episode 1 looks at San Francisco - czcams.com/video/5G8hP6oMEYs/video.html and the new episode that I'm uploading this Saturday looks at It Happened One Night. All the best, David Duncan.
Спасибо за комментарий
For me, this trailer brought home the reality that Gone With The Wind is truly immortal.
Back in 1978, I hopped the fence of the old Warner Brothers back lot - It was very close to NBC - where I had picked up tickets for The Tonight Show. It was right after Christmas and not busy. I took a lot of pictures, which I still have, but sadly that backlot is also long gone. I also wondered around MGM's back lot in Culver City - also gone. I seem to recall a lot of the stages were named after the big stars of those golden years. Great memories.
That was nice! The scenes inside 12 Oaks were amazing. For years I thought it was real place! Ahh...the magic of moviemaking!
Thanks to everyone for all your kind comments. I wish I had been alive when the backlot was still intact - or better still whilst filming of all those classic films was in progress. Even though it is an industrial complex today it was wonderful to stand in the place of Hollywood history and imagine what had been.
I've always said that I, as well as many of us were born too late.
DGMPROD I did the same thing and visited the site in Culver City. It was fun and sad at the same time. I was struck by how many long years have gone by since it was there!
So the whole 40 Acres backlot was destroyed or torn down. Mayberry, Gomer Pyle, Hogan Heroes, King of Kings, King Kong, and of course GWTW. All classics. Wow. Its amazing how these programs were all made on a fake lot. No real streets, or towns, just fake everything. No wonder Hollywood is considered fantasy/imaginary land. Nice vid. Thks.😊
@@saiyongdawn7756 A studio executive once said, "Hollywood is made of tinsel. But inside that tinsel is a heart. Made of pure tinsel".
@@SymphonyBrahms You mean there was a heart, hardly this any more.
I almost cried after seeing all those beautiful sets disappearing, including Tara. You really showed how time has made the old Hollywood disappear as well, back when films were made with grace and ease, especially since VFX were more artistic than today due to CGI. If I had the money, I'd buy that Mt. Vernon place and rebuild the backlot to its original splendor as a tourist attraction for all "GWTW" and classic Hollywood fans. I can just imagine seeing tourists seeing Tara in front of their eyes.
+darthstarkiller1912
My thoughts exactly! To stand there right where they made the movie just as it was. Who wouldn't want to see that?!
+darthstarkiller1912 Life really imitated art, didn't it? Look for it only online or in books...
+darthstarkiller1912 I would be there helping you do it !!!
superbruce Thanks for the support! ;-)
darthstarkiller1912 nj
Remarkable and very well done. Captures the essence of 'Gone With the Wind" perfectly, both as a movie, and that era of Hollywood. Just Wonderful.
One of the greatest movies of all times. I have it and watch it at least once a year .
In the 1980s I used to work in the business park that was once the Selznick Back lot where they shot Gone With the Wind. This video showed our office door which was exactly where Tara stood.
Nothing will ever come close to Gone With The Wind!
The late 1960s and early 1970s were truly a sad time for old Hollywood studios and set locations , including the backlots that contained the props and costumes that were stored in warehouses , These items and buildings were actually priceless (in my opinion) and had been amassed over 60 years used again and again in multiple films. At least a few folks (including Kent Warner who discovered the Ruby Slippers ) tried to save films iconic items !
And sad for grand old places accros the country during those years of "urban renewal". There was as much destruction, some say more than, as when Sherman marched through here. (Georgia)
“It's somehow symbolic of Hollywood that Tara was just a facade, with no rooms inside.” / “Hollywood's like Egypt, full of crumbled pyramids. It'll never come back. It'll just keep on crumbling until finally the wind blows the last studio prop across the sands.” -David O. Selznick
I really appreciated the thoroughness of this documentary.
Just as much, I greatly appreciated the “ Then/Now” .....To me, that meant a lot.
It was like being in California and trying to re-trace events and location.
Thank You for posting this excellent piece of work.
The streets of Atlanta were repurposed for use as the streets of Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show in the 1960's. After that show ended, the Selznick "Back 40" lot was sold for industrial and office buildings. Tara had been torn down in 1959. But all of the other sets, the streets of Atlanta/Mayberry, the train depot, Andy's house, and Aunt Pittypat's house were all torn down to make way for the office park. Nobody thought to save any of it. However, parts of the Tara set are housed in a warehouse in Georgia. And the front door is in the Margaret Mitchell Museum in Atlanta.
It is sad, was a Stone Mountain Georgia in 2004 and felt so close to these sets….thank you for sharing Billy
As a matter of fact, in an episode of Star Trek some of the streets of Mayberry were seen!
wonderful video! I am 37 and a big fan of Gone with the wind! I walked the Culver studios for the first time just a few months ago!
Thanks for using the pictures I took in 1970!
Hi Rex, did you really? Well thank you so much for taking them and I hope you're ok that I included them. I was only a 6 year old boy in Australia at the time so had no hope of seeing the backlot even in this older state so it's great that the images can be seen. Cheers, David Duncan.
excellent video but also very sad... brings to mind Joni Mitchell's lyric, "burn paradise, put up a parking lot"
Yes, except it’s “paved paradise”
stunning , and now Hollywood is also gone with the wind !
Why if I had half a mind I could just cry---cry real tears! (Actually I did shed a few at the thought of the loss of all of it! The movie and what we have lost since that time)
Cecil B. De Mille Studios (silent era,) Pathe' Studios (late silent/early talkie,) RKO-Pathe' Studios, Selznick International, Desilu-Culver City (TV production,) Culver Studios, Laird International Studios...what a history!
This was excellent! I am fascinated by the 40 acre backlot and visited the site a couple years ago. I had created an overlay combining new and old aerial photos so I could get to within a couple of feet (of accuracy) to where the buildings were. My imagination is very good but alas, I was on the spot 40 years too late! Very enjoyable none the less. I've also had the opportunity to talk about the backlot with a few people who were on it before it was demolished. I've studied it quite a bit and must say you really nailed the locations! Great job! For any who are interested retroweb.com is a website where you can see every inch of 40 acres!! It's fantastic.
You did a really excellent job with this retrospective. Very enjoyable and a nice tribute to a bit of history. Fascinating to see how things change when they are left or disregarded by their creators. Your video opens an interesting door to the past. It was fun to watch! Thank you. ~ Victor, at CHAP
What a great video, thank you for putting it on youtube. Such a shame it's all gone, I would have loved to have seen it all.
H
Clearly a labour of love. Thank you!
Love this! Excellent work ! Fascinating but so sad that these wonderful sets were not preserved. Not much of Old Hollywood left, unfortunately
Of course you know that downtown Atlanta was Mayberry in the Andy Griffith show. Also that area was used in many movies and television shows including Star Trek episode called Miri. And it was used in the first season of the adventures of Superman as the city of metropolis. The area where Tara is was used for the television shows the real McCoys and hogans heroes. Just down the road from there not very far was the outdoor set for Gomer Pyle USMC. Down the road from there was the filling station on the Andy Griffith show. I could go on and on because I know 40 acres very well. I was there in the 1970s when it was on it's last legs. It was built during world war one for use in movies. These were wooden fronts with stucco and brick face on them. Behind some of the Windows was hung old black sheets. A lot of the bricks had fallen off and were literally on the sidewalks or the ground around them. The streets were not paved they were dirt and sand which was sprayed down with water lightly back when they were filming there so the streets were very much packed down they might've looked like they were paved but they were not. It was just dirt. On the sides of some of the streets were sections of concrete or tar apparently for closer shots outside of the home it would look like you had a sidewalk at that a paved street in the shot but that slab wasn't very large perhaps one and a half times the length of a car and a little bit less the length of a car in the other direction apparently they just had all those slabs there for shots where they could show a tiny bit of the street that have it appear as if it was paved. By the way there's a television show called land of the Giants and one of those shows really shows a lot of the downtown area of Atlanta on 40 acres.
Hi Don and thank you for comment. I was too young when all those shows were filmed and being from Australia had no chance to be there when it was in its prime. It must have been wonderful for you to be there and have those memories. Yes the 40 Acres backlot has a lot of history before and after Gone with the Wind. I loved those shows from the 60's and 70's like Land of the Giants, Superman and Gomer Pyle and whilst I know they were filmed there - along with classic films like King Kong, Garden of Allah. Imtermezzo etc it is Gone with the Wind that holds a special place for me as it is the film that introduced me to the magic of cinema at the age of 10. Making this documentary was also a great chance to acknowledge the 75th anniversary of its making back in 2014. I'm so pleased that people enjoy watching this video as it contains all the information I wanted to know years ago - where was it actually filmed. All the best, David Duncan.
This just makes me sad. I understand sets are not meant to survive long but this was history. This is one of the most admired films. You think they would have tried to preserve some part of its history
This was wonderful - thank you. Such a shame that so many of those sets deteriorated.
Lump in my throat going through this. Literally the stuff that dreams are made of. The greatest film of all time.
Great work! I appreciate you creating this!
That was great to watch! Thank you.
At least the location of the "I'll never be hungry again" scene still exists and hasn't been developed as of this writing, it's in Ahmanson Ranch by Calabasas.
I sure wish that there would have been a way to preserve all of those old sets into some kind of museum. If that had been, I certainly would've gone to see it last year when I traveled cross country all the way to California.
Corny saying of the day: Wow, even the set is gone with the wind! Thanks for posting this video
This is FANTASTIC!!! Thank you!
A couple of years we stood outside the white house and it was really something to imagine the history. What a shame that these studies weren't preserved for future generations to visit.
A Good Job Well done, Joni Mitchell had it right when she said "They paved over paradise and put up a Parking lot" (And an industrial Park)
The way it's all changed and Max Steiner's music brings tears to my eyes..... A very moving presentation. I hope you may have done something similar with the MGM back lots.
Very well done. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Wonderfully and movingly done, including your own Selznick-ized touches. DOS would appreciate them. Alfred Newman's fanfare and Max Steiner's score bring alive the magic. I too made a pilgrimage to the Selznick lot (when it was the Laird studio) in search of relics, but at least the Mt. Vernon building is intact. As a factory, it's not a sentimental place. The rest of the glory is up there on the screen, shining brightly, where it belongs.
The Mt. Vernon building is where the studio offices are located.
Just brilliant! Well done on all levels: it's so sad (yet fascinating) to see what has happened to the old lots but also wonderfully evocative. Thank you so much for this
Absolutely brilliant.
This is my favorite 40 Acres Back Lot video. I subscribed. Thank you very much.
This is a real TREAT!❤️
Thank you.
True labor of Love.
Absolutely brilliant ... superb!
Thank you very much indeed.
I guess everyone knows that Tara's original front door is at the Margaret Mitchell museum in Atlanta. I agree with one commentary below, that it would have been an awesome museum to maintain the GWTW sets and let people come see them. Then again, I can't envision Barney and Thelma Lou on the porch at Tara.
They are definetely gone with the wind.
Ah! You took my line! 😆
@@clinthowe7629 Sorry!
Which is the wonder and unchanged of books.
Maravillosa pelicula, nunca habra otra igual.
An iconic movie and packed with iconic casts... all in one awesome package
Very beautifully done- thank you for making this and posting !!!
That was well done. Also interesting to note that after they removed the Gone With The Wind set they constructed the Stalag 13 POW camp for "Hogan's Heroes" on that spot.
What a unique Video..Thank you so much.I have loved the film Gone with the wind all my life ..it is magical and seeing the video you made was magical too..I loved it so much..it is very intriguing to watch.
you KNOW this is a great video just by the fact that there are only 3 thumbs down, that's fantastic! I, of course, gave it a thumbs up - wish I could give it 500, this is a marvelous video indeed!
The Greatest Motion Picture Ever Made
Amacing work!
It would be an amazing tourist spot if the whole lot was changed back into the GWTW location!!! Such a great idea!! I'd come play your Scarlett!! Imagine like a Disneyland, only GWTW!! Surely someone has the money to do it!!
Thank you i really enjoyed that....was put together very well
Great video! It looks like the whole movie set is gone with the wind. It's a shame a little of the original set was not preserved. I guess they didn't realize people would still love the movie over 75 years after it came out at the box office.
The Tara set was dismantled and was stored in a warehouse in Georgia. It was recently sold at auction to the Margaret Mitchell Museum in Atlanta.
The magic was just that MAGIC, but oh what magic it was.
Real-estate became a big thing just before I was born in 1964. By the time I aged enough to understand what was happening, the electronics age blew up to what it is today. All that creativity and skills-to-go-with of the time ....Just like the title of the movie, they're "Gone With The Wind"! Skills we need more than ever today! Technology can't do everything...It's just a tool.
It's incredible that instead of filming in real beautiful landscapes with big real trees, they filmed in a narrow back lot surrounded by roads and traffic and then they did some tricks, matte paintings, etc.
Le plus beau film de tous les temps !
It was only one movie! Yes, a great and spectacular movie, but the sets were NEVER expected to stay there forever. The upkeep along would be staggering for no one to witness. Life moves on, and on to the next movie set.
My daughter and I visited this museum and my sister-in-law and I, on another day, toured Margaret Mitchell's house; enjoyed them both. Y'all come to Marietta and Atlanta. If you like the movie, you'll like these sites, too.
Well done sir, Well Done!
It's the way it has always been and will be, the old gives way for the new. The events of the past become the ghosts of the present. It is sad and if they had known that people of today would pay great sums to visit these film sets, well perhaps things would have been different. The present is always clouded by the future. Look around at what you can touch today then see what vanishes before your own eyes, and that which will surely be missed tomorrow. Time takes everything, times changes everything and time kills everything Time is the one and only great equalizer for all that is.
Outstanding video. I wish it were longer.
Who in the hell let them build all those studio offices over all that land? The back lot was so much better having empty land to have sets on.
The studio owned the land and they sold it. That's called Capitalism.
Imagine if they had set up Backlot tours the way Universal did. All of that would still be around and even more famous.
This is sooo sad!😥 These buildings deserved better! But, it was what it was. How many of you remember a mid-1970's TV movie called "The Phantom of Hollywood"? Jack Cassidy was in the film. The MGM lot was known as "World Wide Pictures".
Thankyou so very much for putting this together.
The Atlanta train station was also used in the 1958 Filming of 1959s Some Like It Hot.
WONDERFUL!!!!
My favourite film of all time
Thank You So Much, Lovely.
one of the old movie sets that was put to the torch in order to film the burning of Atlanta was the giant wall from king kong ( 1933 ) which was a left over set from Cecil b demilles the king of kings ( 1927 ) . From Michael from Yorkshire and proud of it .
This really is a civilization gone with The wind... I wish i would have lived in the 19th century,but,unfortunately time doesn't ever come back.
You're driving down the street and the last house IS JUST RIGHT THERE and my out of town guests freak out 😂
That made my whole day Thank you!
Look for in only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Hollywood gone with the wind...
I was so young in the early '60s and remember some of the 40 Acres / MGM backlot, but didn't know enough about old movies to know what movies were shot where.
You must cry when sou see all of this.And it's really truth that all is gone with the wind
I was working at the MS. State Hospital when 'A Time to Kill', was shot on the campus. It was quite the experience!
There is a Gone with the Wind memorabilia store in Atlanta that I visited in 1995.
Just loved this... who is the moron that voted this exquisite work down, i wonder...
Thank you for taking the time to put this together!! :D :D
Now 80 years.
Great job!
I know it was just a movie set but it was sad to see what once represented the magnificent Tara reduced to a falling down shell.
so sad.....cant imagine how many tourist would have paid good money to go to original bldgs...thanks for sharing
natserog Debbie Reynolds tried to tell them :-(
yes TrangPak2, she sure did.. and she succeeded for several years with her own museum, but, alas, eventually she had to sell it all when her last husband caused her once again to lose all her money.. a horrible shame to happen to such a sweet person.
The Greatest film & story ever made. 👏👏👏
You did a great job on this video!
This is heartbreaking to see the dellapitation of a classic :(
Nicely done. Today, not only is 40 Acres gone, but almost every building and stage on the main lot as the new owners have demolished everything to build new stages for Amazon's production purposes. They probably would have torn down the Administration building too if it wasn't a protected landmark.
Sad to see what replaced the original buildings of "Gone With The Wind", and the entire Culver City backlots.
love you the film GWTW, HI FROM VZLA
Well done, I like this before and now.......Life moves on"
Amazing video
So well done; a Proud Congrats to the team!