nostalgic
Because if you can, I may be able to purchase the very site where Carole Lombard is shown with the toddler playing her son in "Made For Each Other."
We're referring to the historic Culver Studios on Washington Boulevard in Culver City, whose owners the past seven years have decided to sell the property. ( One of the owners involved in the 2004 purchase was Lehman Brothers -- remember them? -- which may explain why it's up for sale.)
Lombard spent plenty of time at the Culver Studios over the years, when it had different names. In the late 1920s, it was the home of Pathe Pictures, where Carole worked on silents, part-talkies and finally full talkies such as "Big News":
Some years later, a full-fledged star, she went back to the place for "Nothing Sacred" (below) and "Made For Each Other":
By then, the place was known as Selznick International Studios, and many mistook its distinctive front for Tara (much of "Gone With The Wind" was filmed at Culver). Actually, it was designed by founder Thomas Ince as a replica of George Washington's famed Mount Vernon; here it is in 1920, two years after its opening:
After Ince's sudden death in 1924, Cecil B. De Mille took over the site, selling it to Joseph P. Kennedy's Pathe films in 1928. Pathe was soon assimilated into RKO, which used Culver as its prime site for several years before moving most of its operations to Hollywood, near Paramount. Later owners included Howard Hughes, Desilu Productions and TV executive Grant Tinker. Much of "Citizen Kane" was shot at Culver, as it enabled Orson Welles some autonomy from RKO honchos in Hollywood.
For more about this fabled studio, which remains home to plenty of film and TV work, go to http://www.theculverstudios.com. And who knows -- perhaps Carole's spirit is somewhere on the lot, either acting or helping out with publicity, as she did for one memorable week in 1938:
The story on the sale, and a slide show, is at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/29/the-culver-studios-for-sale_n_987584.html#s379010.
