Bad news coming from Hollywood and the Los Angeles Valley as one of the major landmarks of the area is in process of burning down. The fire started around 5AM this morning and drew crews from all across the valley.
Five buildings currently reported lost as well as the New York City backlot. King Kong ride was destroyed as well as the video vault. The video vault contains the duplicates of the very important film vault which contains much of the history of Hollywood collected in movie tins on the original film.
Right now no surrounding businesses or houses are threatened. But there were lots of businesses located on the lot or in progress of filming. I wonder what was in production when the fire struck.
In 1990 the backlot area of USH burned down and smart thinking managers had film crews turn their cameras on the disaster to get some stock footage of a city burning. No word if the same thing happened with this fire.
King Kong has a Disney connection in that Bob Gurr designed Kong as part of his work at Sequoia Creative. Gurr wrote about his work on the Kong Attraction in this LaughingPlace.com column from 2004.
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Just wanted to add my $.02…
The Universal Studios Hollywood complex is not actually part of Hollywood, which is a “neighborhood” of the City of Los Angeles. The complex is NOT part of the City of Los Angeles proper. It is “unincorporated”, yet has gained the name “Universal City”. Being unincorporated territory, it falls under the direct jurisdiction of the County of Los Angeles government.
That is why the County’s Fire Department is the lead agency on this incident. I remember on the tram tour seeing the County Fire Department station right there on property, numbered the same as the one from the television show “Emergency!”.
There is also a County Department of Public Works (my old stomping grounds) Building & Safety Division office there, and they will no doubt be involved in analyzing the damaged buildings as well as any plans for new buildings.
Furthermore, the police for the complex are the County Sheriff’s deputies.
NBC’s West Coast operations, including the local KNBC-TV Channel 4 (and the Tonight Show, when Conan takes over) will be moving to that area from the City of Burbank, part of the consequence of the NBC-Universal merger.
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I hate to be picky, too, but it’s the San Fernando Valley, not “Los Angeles Valley.”
Terrible news. I hope nobody was hurt in the fire.
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