£2,000,000 STUDIO FOR FOX MOVIETONE PICTURES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 57 (Supplement)

£2,000,000 STUDIO FOR FOX MOVIETONE PICTURES

Only Plant of Kind

Astoundlngly and unbelievably—like a mirage in the desert —has arisen from the cactus-grown waste-land of Fox Hills, Los Angeles, in less than ninety •j. days, a superbly modern walled city— Fox Movietone City. This colossal undertaking, representing an investment of £2,000,000, will be the future home of Fox movietone productions. The idea and plans for this stupendous task were conceived and executed by William Fox, president of the Fox Film Corporation. “A Miracle City” they are calling it in Los Angeles —those who have seen it growing day by day and night by night. Others, better informed, declare the enterprise unparalleled in motion-picture history, is a manifestation of the faith and courage, the soul and vision of one man—William Fox. To him the walled -“city is a dream come true. For more than three years this man, in justification of motion pictures with sound,, spent money prodigiously in financing movietone research work —in experimentation—perfecting details. So successful has this undertaking been , that he is enabled to give to the world to-day this truly marvellous new Fox Movietone City—a permanent home for the making of Fox talking pictures—a city unique among the production , centres of the world. t Statistics become romance when applied to this dream-come-true. The city itself covers forty acres, lying across the southern end of the Fox Hills Studio, ten miles west of Hollywood. The valuation of the land is £600,000. The great 14-foot wall surrounding the city and the twenty-five buildings within are valued at £600,000, and the v electrical equipment is estimated at £BOO,OO0 —total, two million pounds. On July 28 of this year the site of the future home of Movietone was just California acreage covered with cactus and sunburned grass. Exactly ninety days later—a Miracle City. A few miles away, across the hills, *lT*gronp of buildings are in course of erection under the supervision of the State of California. They, probably will not be completed within four years from the starting date. They are only slightly larger and are of no more permanent character than those of the walled city. In comparison, it is no stretch of the imagination to say it is ' - as if a magician had waved his wand over those barren forty acres and a . whole city sprang into existence. 'The group of twentyyfive buildings

arc designed to endure. They are con- ' structed of imperishable concrete. Four ’■ of them arc 212 ft. long by 165 ft. wide. . The walls are 45ft. in height. In each of the four buildings are two sound- ' proof stages, making eight in all. each with its own equipment, apparatus . rooms, test laboratories, and projection

rooms. . _ On the second floor of Stage One is the largest Wurlitzer organ ever constructed. It was built especially for Fox Movietone. Its equipment includes every appliance and effect that can possibly be used in the making of sound : pictures. And it has its own special !’f pump-room. The administration building is a structure 210 ft. long by 60ft. wide and is topped by a decorative tower. Toft, '■‘in height, destined to be another colourIful landmark silhouetted against the sky. . ■! ; Between the four great stage builds’lngs, grouped in pairs, is a space Oott. iwide. Here are aligned three buildings ■ containing the air-conditioning plant \ for heating and refrigerating. This air-conditioning plant is some- ■- thing of a miracle in itself. It is unquestionably the largest and most complete on the Pacific Coast. It has a capacity of 350 tons of refrigeration a • day. It also contains individual heating units. , v It is not the slightest exaggeration to •'Hsav the Eox Movietone air-condition-s'in g plant will manufacture its own L'weatlier. Its equipment insures ideal t? weather conditions on any stage at any , time, irrespective of outside weather ' It also provides for any desned f amount of humidity—a vital factor in S'air-conditioning. No matter how few, or how many, 'A powerful incandescent lights are being used on a stage —no matter how many - people are crowded into a given space—ft the air conditions will be ideal. At the extreme back portion of the y,‘walled city, outside the square of stages, |i are two 100-foot towers. One is the ii cooling tower for the air-conditioning system,. and the other is the gravity ? tower, the base of the automatic sprinkler system which prevails. Many smaller buildings arc located i without the realm of the square. They if ire strung along the southern and 'western borders of the city, each servicing its specific purpose. : There is a recital hall fully equipped v.for auditions, a test laboratory fitted with the finest of modern equipment, 'and a building for the film-cutters, in which they will work under ideal eonThe huge generators which supply power to the entire city are housed In a building <sft. by 10ft., where all other electric equipment, indeluding battery storage, will be kept. > The enormous transformers are in a $ building by themselves. Then there is J, a master projection room, a wardrobe t building, and one for _ the properties ' that measure 125 ft. by 35ft. . ’ The dressing-rooms are located in a i two-story building 216 ft. long and oOft. The garage Is 100 ft. by 40ft. The

carpenter-shop, paint-shop, and lumberyard are in one large building equipped with a construction platform.

A musical library building, a film storage vault in which 2,000,000 ft of film may be kept safely, and a fullyequipped hospital with physician and surgeon in attendance are all a part of this Movietone city. Other buildings are the studio homes of the studio police and fire departments. Every driveway and every walk is of concrete. One might say it is not only walled, but a paved city, and for this paving alone, including surface drainage, made necessary by the work, the Fox Films Corporation paid 250,000 dollars.

All of this concrete, however, does not mean there are no flowers and foliage. Ample provision has been made for ever-blooming gardens, flowering shrubs, stately palms, and restful greenswards. In fact, Movietone City is already a floral beauty-spot How was all this accomplished in ninety days? By men at work —300 of them (sometimes 350) to a shift —day and night. There was not a minute’s cessation of work —Sundays, holidays —work. To avoid the slightest delay the shifts overlapped by half-an-hour. Swarming like bees over the ground, below the surface, on the high walls and lofty towers, came the men. One shift on the job at seven in the morning, another at three in the afternoon, and another at eleven at night The home-going shifts quit at seven-thirty, three-thirty, and eleven-thirty. A carpenter, for instance, knocking off work, did not drop his hammer: he handed it to the man at his shoulder, who finished driving the nail. An electrician took his pliers off a length of wire only when the pliers of his relief clamped upon it. A truck-driver slipped out of the driver’s seat and dropped off the truck on the opposite side to let another man take the wheel. Not a second lost. Not a motion lost. Romance of building miracles. Romance and figures. Here are a few more: Into this walled city went 2,202,712 ft. of lumber, 488,000 ft. of floor area, 2,100,000 ft. of reinforcing steel (including 36 great russes weighing ten tons each), 240,000 square ft. of pavement in streets, driveways, and sidewalks, 6600 tons of cement, 32,000 tons of rock, 24,000 tons of sand, 51,200 pounds of nails, 25,000 ft. of waterpipe, 15,000 ft. of water and sewer mains, 25,000 yards of carpet, and around the entire plant the 14-foot wall is 6200 ft. long and contains 86,000 ft. of concrete. In addition to this, the electrical installations have used miles and miles of conduit, cables, and wire, enough, perhaps, to stretch around the world.

This, then, is the Fox Movietone City —built by Fox Films Corporation to furnish entertainment, happiness, and pleasure to the entire world in all languages, binding the peoples of civilisation in a closer communion of thought —a city dedicated to the man and woman, the girl and boy of all creation.