Sony Tour!

It's finally here! This is a muti-state blog. I've written parts of it in California and in Colorado. I'm currently on the road back to the East Coast to go back home and work....ENJOY!

I took the Sony Studios tour! It was a blast. My cousin Jess and I saw a bunch of things and actually saw a guy who played a part in Twilight. Now, I don't know anything about Twilight, but apparently he plays "James." Anyway there were plenty of Classic Film elements offered, so those I will address--as well as relating the whole thing to Ingrid (of course!).

I took a bunch of pictures for you all.

So if you watched my Sneak Preview you saw a bunch of apartment buildings that have been turned into offices.

As most of you know, when all of our favorites were roaming Hollywood (Culver City in this case), the studios would often put them up in apartments during shooting. This was a way to keep new stars safe, old stars around and keep others away. We walked by 4 buildings which I would like to note:

• The first building (on the way in, it's the last in the video) is the Katharine Hepburn building. Kate the Great would stay here and the building was named after her because she used to throw lavash cocktail parties on the roof! I think that it is not out of character (or at least the character I have observed/built from interviews, documentaries, movies and books) for her to be the trend setter in the now, ever so popular, roof parties.
• The second building was the Joan Crawford building. Here's some irony for you. Our lovable yet slightly off starlet has a former school house named after her. Mickey Rooney attended this school (they said not too much school work was actually completed here, lol) but I just find it funny that the woman whose life was the story in Mommy Dearest is has her name on a school house. Anyone else think this is funny?
• The next building was the Spencer Tracy building. I just love him, so that was cool. Plus it was a door down from the Katharine Hepburn building... I wonder if there was any hanky-panky going on on the lot? Lol.
• The last one was the Judy Garland building. Judy, Judy, Judy. She was a big deal for MGM, I mean if you count being the biggest star in their company a big deal, and this building is the homage on the lots. It is now inhabited by Happy Madison Productions. You might know this company because it is owned and operated by Adam Sandler and his friends. It was pretty cool to see Sandler's Cadillac golf cart in front of his office. That's how you know you've made it.

The tour guide was a nice guy. He said he's trying to be a screenwriter. He had some information about the studio, but really focused on the present day activity. He wasn't too knowledgeable about the classic film era. Jess and I had to correct him on Margaret Hamilton's name when he was talking about the Wizard of Oz.

Now, Audrey and Katharine fans... be warned... this may make you angry... he lumped the two Hepburns together. As if they were sisters. I was like, "BLASPHEMY!"

He's trying to be a screenwriter, so I wish him the best, but he should brush up on his Classic Film as not to piss off nerds like us! :)

So to tie this all in with Ingrid-- like I said I would--

Sony Studios was once, not only MGM, but also the home of Columbia and Columbia-Tri-Star Pictures. There's a huge sign for Columbia hanging over the lot and tons of MGM stuff as well (though MGM went from 400 acres to 44 when they built the hotel in Vegas...)

So, I've made a list of the Columbia Pictures films in which Ingrid starred and found an amazing page that hosts details about her movies and where you can find them now!

A Walk In Spring Rain (Columbia)

Cactus Flower (Columbia)

A Yellow Rolls Royce (MGM)

Goodbye Again (United Artists)

Arch of Triumph (United Artists)

Spellbound (United Artists)

Gaslight (MGM)

Adam Had Four Sons (Columbia)

Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (MGM)

Rage in Heaven (MGM)