1927 Rays View of Culver City, California and Environs

A rare 1927 view of Culver City, California, by artist Rays Burke, part of a local Chamber of Commerce brochure for the city, dubbed 'the heart of Screenland,' still the city's motto.

A Closer Look

Oriented towards the northeast and the Santa Monica Mountains, incidentally with a perspective roughly from today's Los Angeles International Airport, this view covers the rapidly-developing Westside of Los Angeles County, including Santa Monica, Venice, Westwood, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and the west side of Los Angeles from Western Avenue onwards. Film studios are highlighted throughout, including (beyond Culver City) Hal Roach Studios, Harold Llyod Studios, United Studios, and Fox Studios, demonstrating their distribution across the Westside at this time.

Landmarks, such as the Soldiers Home (Veterans Administration Hospital), the University of California (UCLA), and Venice High School, help to orient the viewer. The aviation field at left is now the Santa Monica Airport. Various institutions of high society, including country clubs and the Uplifters (exclusive athletic club), are also marked. The Pacific Military Academy near the center was founded by Henry Culver, who also founded the eponymous city in honor of his father, who was a general in the National Guard. It later housed the First Motion Picture Unit, which consisted of many film professionals who produced hundreds of propaganda and training films during World War II. Red lines along major boulevards trace the Pacific Electric Railway, the largest electric railway system in the world at this time.

Within Culver City, some buildings aside from film studios are labeled or illustrated, including the Hunt Hotel (Culver Hotel) and an automobile racing track that was one of the earliest in L.A. (relocated nearby in the early 1930s). The 'University of Los Angeles' in the foreground is the site of Loyola Marymount University, which was relocating from a location on Venice Boulevard at this time. Several proposed (but ultimately unrealized) projects also appear, including a proposed recreational park and lake at the left (now the neighborhood of Marina del Rey) and a proposed Grand Subway Terminal at the right. The verso and additional pages include promotional images and text for Culver City and the film industry, including portraits of movie giants such as Louis B. Mayer, Ramon Novarro, and Lon Chaney.

The Heart of Screenland

Though less famous than Hollywood to its northeast, Culver City played an important role in the history of the film industry. The future Culver City was founded by Harry H. Culver, a real estate developer, in 1913, expecting that it, like nearby Santa Monica and Venice, would draw weekenders and migrants from Los Angeles and beyond looking for cooler weather and access to the beach. It was officially incorporated on September 20, 1917, and though primarily agricultural land at first, quickly attracted residents and businesses, including several film studios, including Thomas Ince's Triangle Motion Picture Company (later purchased by Goldwyn), Hal Roach Studios, and, upon the merger of three pre-existing film studios in 1924, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The combined studio (and its theater network) hit the ground running, churning out dozens of glitzy films, including the 1925 epic Ben-Hur.

In the following years, the studio became a powerhouse, signing many of the top actors and directors of the late silent and early 'talkie' era, including Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, and King Vidor. Around this time, one of the studio's unofficial mottos (recreated in the brochure here) was 'more stars than there are in Heaven' (its official motto was, and remains, Ars Gratia Artis). Though the studio was the last major one to fully commit to sound pictures, it was an early adopter of Technicolor. MGM also produced other studios' films, ran theaters, and moved into the music industry. In 1939, MGM capped off a remarkable decade with two hit films, The Wizard of Oz, its own, and Gone with the Wind, which it produced. In the following decades, ballooning production costs and the advent of television cut into the studio's profits. Though it has been through some difficult times, including mergers, downsizing, and Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010, the company survives today after being purchased by Amazon Studios as Amazon MGM Studios. However, Sony Pictures now owns its studio lot in Culver City.

Other studios established in Culver City were enduring, though their facilities were often handed on to later owners in the same industry. De Mille Studios, which had formerly belonged to Ince Studios and was commonly known as '40 Acres,' was later acquired by RKO Pictures for RKO-Pathé Studios, then sold to a range of other studios, including Sony Pictures, and is currently owned by Hackman Capital Partners. Other studios seen here have since been torn down, and the land dedicated to other uses. The site of United Artists Studios is now housing (including part of the Studio Village neighborhood) and the site of West Los Angeles College.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn c. 1927 by an artist signed Rays at bottom-right, with another name below appearing to be Burke, either a given or surname. It was printed by the News Printing Co. in Culver City for the Culver City Chamber of Commerce. There are no other known examples of this work, making this a unique opportunity to acquire an early piece of local and film history.