TV/Film/History: The Republic Studios mosaic at corner of Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Boulevard, in Studio City

Over forty thousand tiny tiles show the studio that built Studio City- Republic Studios

This is a close-up of the big mosaic, made from a photo of the original Republic Studios lot, which opened in 1935. The mural itself is about six feet high by about 12 feet long, and made up of tiny square tiles, each about 1/2 inch square. Decades ago, Home Bank commissioned artist Millard Sheets over 80 historical scenes, in mosaics, on their banks, each one having to do with the local history of the area. I believe this mural is a later, manufactured mosaic, put up around 2009. It’s on the wall of what’s currently a Wells Fargo Bank, on the southwest corner of Ventura Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue in Studio City, California #steveemigphotos

By my estimation, there are over 40,000 tiles in this big, rectangle mosaic, visible from Ventura Boulevard, just west of Coldwater Canyon. This thing caught my eye for a while, which is why I’m doing a post about it. First off, it’s a lot bigger when you walk up to it, than it appears when driving by. It’s a 1 X 2 scale, about six feet by 12 feet. The mosaic is in a set back nook, on the side wall of Wells Fargo bank. The subject is a historical photo of the Republic Studios, which, is the Studio that built Studio City.

But first, a bit about the mosaic. Each one of these posts about a location that I dive into leads to more threads of history. Millard Owen Sheets was born in Pomona, California in 1907, so he was a SoCal native growing up at the time when Hollywood was being built into the worldwide capital of the new motion picture industry. Wikipedia describes him as an artist, teacher, and architectural designer, so I’ll go with that. He was a painter who did show in galleries, but seems to be best known for doing well over 80, huge, very artistic, historic mosaics, on public buildings.

In the late 1950’s, Millard Sheets was commissioned to do a bunch of large mosaics at Home Bank locations. Ultimately, he did well over 80 of these. You can see one of these on the front of what it now Chase Bank, on the northeast corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura, also in Studio City. However, this mosaic of the Republic Studios lot is a much later, less artistic, and apparently “manufactured” mosaic, obviously from a vintage photo. But somebody had to put up the 40,000 tiles, each in the right spot, so props to whomever did it. You can learn more about Millard Sheets here.

A wider shot of the Republic Studios mosaic, from an angle. A group of six small movie studio companies combined to form Republic Studios, in 1935. They bought the Mack Sennett studio in Studio City, built in 1928. The Mack Sennett Studios lot was the centerpiece of what was envisioned as an industry city, based entirely on the young sound movie industry. The Studio was on Radford, a short street between Ventura Boulevard and the L.A. river, then still flowing free. In the plan, Ventura Boulevard would be the shopping district, and then houses for all the workers of the studio and related companies could be built around the studio area. Studio City was born from this studio. #steveemigphotos

This story, and the city of Studio City itself, begin with a guy named Michael Sinnott. He was born in Quebec, Canada in 1880. He moved to Connecticut when he was 17 years old. After seeing a vaudeville show as a young man, he decided to get into opera, which people in his life thought was a really bad idea. He moved to New York City, and took the stage name of Mack Sennett. He soon began to act in the early silent films, as well as performing as a singer, dancer, clown, and even worked designing sets.

In 1912, he made his way out west, found financial backers, and started Keystone Studios. That opened up in Edendale, what is now Echo Park, just outside of downtown Los Angeles, California. Known for their slapstick comedy, crazy car chases, and throwing pies at each other, Keystone’s movies were really popular comedy short films of the silent film era. Stars liked Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops, Gloria Swanson, and even Bing Crosby were working at Keystone Studios during that period.

In 1917, Mack let go of the Keystone name, and created Mack Sennett Comedies Corporation. In 1927, a real estate developer from Chicago offered Mack Sennett 20 acres of land to build new studios, up over the Hollywood Hills, in what was then orange, apricot, and walnut groves, in the San Fernando Valley. Mack took the deal, claiming the piece of land on the south side of the Los Angeles river.

The Mack Sennett studios went into construction, and Harry Merrick, the developer, sold the idea of a movie industry district, on the 500 acres of The Valley he acquired. This whole area, from what is now Burbank to Sherman Oaks, was considered North Hollywood at the time. In 1928, the new Mack Sennett Studios, on Radford Avenue, just off Ventura Boulevard, opened up. By the mid 1930’s, Mack Sennett had over 1,000 short films to his name from the previous 23 years, he went into semi-retirement around that time.

By the 1930’s, there were a five large, “major” movie studios, and several smaller ones. The Big 5 were Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and RKO Radio Picture Studios. Universal Studios, has been in its current location, on the hill above Lankershim Boulevard, since 1915. From 1912 to 1914 they were around the hill, where Forest Lawn Cemetery is now. Many others, were in the L.A. and Hollywood area, with the little ones crowded in an area called Poverty Row.

In 1935, six of the smaller studios, Monogram Pictures, Mascot Pictures, Liberty Pictures, Majestic Pictures, Chesterfield Pictures, and Invincible Pictures, combined to form Republic Studios. A businessman named Herbert Yates pulled these small companies together. He owned a film laboratory, which developed the movie film. They all owed him money, and he used his leverage to merge the six small companies into the decent sized Republic Studios. The new company, already full of seasoned, experienced, lower budget producers, directors, actors, and crew people, got up to speed quickly.

For over 20 years, Republic Studios cranked out dozens of B movies. Republic became best known for Westerns, and is where several legendary movie cowboy actors got their start, including John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry. But Republic producers and directors did a wide range of movies, including serial short films, played at kids’ Saturday movie matinees, super hero movies, science fiction adventure films, feature musicals, and even the occasional Shakespearean movie. As Republic Studios took off, so did the city of Studio City, which built up and grew. The name actually came from the U.S. Postal Service, who called the new post office branch by the studio, the Studio City office. Not too creative, but the name for the city stuck.

When the TV era came along in the 1950’s, most movie studios did not want their movies to appear on TV. Some were bitter because they had been turned down for the TV station licenses. Republic did just the opposite, they formed a separate company to license their huge catalog of B movies, and adapt them to appear on TV. Republic also started leasing the studio’s sound stages out to independent producers, including ones making TV shows, in that era. Those decisions ultimately worked well for Republic. For a deeper look at the history of Republic Studios, here’s a live talk, with dozens of vintage slides, by Marc Wanamaker, celebrating the 80th anniversary of Republic Studios, in 2015.

A close-up of one of the buildings and a couple of the cars, in the mosaic. It looks totally different up close, as opposed to standing back 15 or 20 feet. It’s amazing how much it looks like the photo from a distance. #steveemigphotos

In the 1960’s, more and more TV shows began to be taped at this studio lot. Among the better known ones were Leave it to Beaver, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, The Virginian, My Three Sons, Gilligan’s Island, and many more. The Gilligan’s Island lagoon ponds were built right behind, and to the right, of the big stages you see in this mosaic. The stage that says “Republic” became Stage 1 (the back half) and Stage 2 (the front half). The stage that says Studios became Stage 3. CBS moved many of its TV series to the lot in the 1960’s, and it became known as CBS Studio Center in that era.

With the early 1970’s came The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and it’s spinoffs, Lou Grant, Rhoda, Phyllis, and The Betty White Show. Mary Tyler Moore bought into the studio at some point, and when I worked there in the early 1990’s, it was usually called, CBS-MTM Studios. In the late 1980’s, into the 1990’s, Roseanne, The Larry Sanders Show, American Gladiators, and Seinfeld were all taped on the lot. A bit later, from the CBS Studio Center came Caroline in the City, 3rd Rock From the Sun, and That 70’s Show.

I worked on the stage crew of American Gladiators for four seasons, from 1992-1995. Freeze that clip at :24, I’m the guy in the background, behind Wesley “2 Scoops” Berry, called a spotter on that crew. We shot our show in the summer, when almost everyone else was on hiatus. We used Rosanne’s stage (Stage 1), The Tom Arnold Show stage (Stage 2), and all the driveways near us, on Stage 3, to store all of our huge set pieces for the show. The Addams Family Movie, the 1991 one, was also shot on largely on Stage 3. In more recent years, Malcom in the Middle, Spin City, and Big Brother, among many other shows, have been shot at CBS Studio Center, now often called the Radford Studios, because the main entrance is on Radford Avenue.

In the 96 years since Mack Sennett’s new studio opened up, Studio City, and other cities, have grown up around the original studio on Radford Drive, and the others farther east. It’s been called the Mack Sennett Studio, Republic Studios, CBS Studio Center, the CBS-MTM lot, and Radford Studios, over the years. Whatever you call it, that studio lot accomplished the goal of moving into the San Fernando Valley way back in 1928.

Billions of dollars have been spent in movie theaters to watch all the movies shot there, and on home video since. The TV shows have pulled in billions more in advertising, and more recently, on the 96 or so streaming services that every has to choose from now. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. Homes popped up all over The Valley, around that studio and the others in Burbank, North Hollywood, and the surrounding areas. The prices of real estate in The Valley have attained Ludicrous Level, the TV and film industry has morphed several times, and the CBS Studio Center now has more stages and offices than ever. The original plan by Chicago developer Harry Merrick seems to have worked far better than even he could have imagined, back in 1927.

So that’s a pretty brief look at the Mack Sennett/Republic Studio lot, seen in the big mosaic, on the side of Wells Fargo Banks, on the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Drive. Another tribute to the deep movie and TV history of the San Fernando Valley, hidden in front of our eyes.

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