Warner Brothers Classic Tour

It is my personal belief that one could spend years living in LA and still not scratch the surface of understanding this magical, mesmerising, conflicted city. I suspect LA is a marmite kind of place; you either love or loathe it.  I love it! I thought I would share an insight to one of my favourite LA experiences, a Warner Brothers tour, to inspire your own LaLaLand adventure.

There are other studios and there are other tours, but the Warner Brothers Classic is perfect for me as it focuses on the Golden Age of Hollywood. I lived with my grandparents when I was young and the movies were a key part of my childhood experience. John Wayne, Ingrid Bergman, Jimmy Cagney, Bette Davis were my childhood viewing and being able to visit the studios where these Hollywood greats practiced their craft is just an amazing (and frankly at times emotional) experience for me.

This is a working film and TV studio, so no two tours are alike - it very much depends on what production activity is taking place. My visit was just days after the end of the '23 writers strike, so the lot was quiet; although already gearing up for work to resume.

Our tour-guide, Jorji, was friendly, knowledgeable and bubbling with infectious enthusiasm.  There should be more Jorjis in the world; it would be a happier place!

We were driven around several ‘streets’ - and were able to step away from the tour vehicle and onto/into the sets. I walked down the London Street where Jeremy Brett’s Freddy sang On The Street Where You Live about/to My Fair Lady’s Eliza. I stood in the set where Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland set up home as Mr and Mrs Custer in They Died With Their Boots on. I  stopped by a ‘cafe’ on Warner Brother’s French Street - the lot they use for European feel exteriors. The cafe had featured in Casablanca and continues to this day to be re-painted, re-dressed and re-shot when a European setting is required.

This re-cycling of the lot fascinates me. As an example, I was excited and had a lump in my throat  (I know it's daft, but the movie stuff does that to me!) to discover that Lorelai Gilmore's Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls) is the same set that was used in scenes of James Dean's Rebel Without A Cause. The James Dean character lived in a house just on Stars Hollow's central square; two of my TV/movie heroes; Lorelai and Jimmy Dean were practically neighbours! Albeit with 45 years or so separating them. 

This tour is about the whole movie production experience and we had an opportunity to walk around a small part of the props and equipment store. This was mind blowing; this is where set dressers come to source the furniture, props and knick knacks that they use to literally set the scene on any production. This place was like an Aladdin’s cave! We saw a tiny fraction of what is available, the whole warehouse is easily the size of a small Scottish town, and it was, well …. mind blowing. I would dearly have loved to have a similar walk round the costumes department, but this is not something that Warner Brothers offer. Yet.

Because production hadn’t re-started following the writers strike we were able to step inside Stage 16. Constructed in 1935, Stage 16 has played host to many movies going back to The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex  (Flynn and Bette Davies 1939), The Old Man and The Sea (Spencer Tracey 1959), Batman Forever (1995) and Dunkirk (2017). It was also host to The Perfect Storm (2000) when the stage came into its own. Already one of the tallest in the world, the 2,000,000 gallon water tank was used to flood the stage and create those amazing Perfect Storm effects. The size of this production stage was just amazing!

Next we were given the chance for a coffee and cake from Central Perk. Yes, the actualy Central Perk - Friends was filmed on this lot too.

Fully refreshed we had a fascinating insight into how the sound effects, dialogue and music are layered to create the finished piece. And there was even a chance to overdub dialogue yourself on a couple of movie clips. I was a washout as Harry Potter - but I did a passable job lip syncing with Morpheus (The Matrix) although my voice coming from Laurence Fishburn’s lips was more than a little incongruous! 

The Classic tour is about 3 hours long and I won’t bore you with a complete blow by blow account. What I will say is that if, like me, are a movie fan with an appreciation of the Golden Age of Hollywood then do yourself a favour and treat yourself to a Warner Brothers Classic Tour. It’s $70 well spent! And you even get to hold an actual Oscar. (My cup runneth over again!)