The Last Set ever Filmed at MGM’s Lot 2

Welcome to Season 3…Phantomofthebacklots

Or does it?…

Introduction...I hope all is well with my fans- I look forward to personally reuniting with all of you. I disappeared to focus on my books. Out of the mist, under the cover of darkness-I’ve reappeared. The Uninvited Visitor is now available on Amazon.

On the One Hundredth Anniversary of MGM Studios, I’m proud to go back 50 years with my own stories and experiences at this legendary movie studio that ended up having a major impact on how my life would play out. The MGM Effect is real, I salute you MGM as I would any dear friend I’ve known so long. We shared so much fun together, you’re forever part of my DNA. From hundreds of tiny wooden slivers, a few small yet still distinguishable scars from cuts and stitches from long ago that required a few trips to the ER for repairs. And a tooth that broke and ripped through my lower lip while running through buildings on New York Street. That’s not counting several other…near misses!

A third book detailing MGM’s final years 1977-80 will be my next and final installment. T.U.V will travel back through 1975/1976. A lot happened in these two years including my final stories involving Desilu as it disappears and literally becomes… Gone With the Wind.

Meanwhile a blockbuster film titled King Kong moves in at MGM and that set becomes my home. I will take you to Skull Island. Climb the walls with me in a story titled Dark Side of the Moon. I even briefly go inside Kong, the Robot, as he arrives on the backlot. That story is titled…Welcome to the Machine.

Season Three…Phantomofthebacklots, begins now!

Copperfield Court-The window on left was Filby’s Department Store in The Time Machine.

Young Frankenstein used Copperfield Court in 1974, just for a hanging…

Prior to Mel Brooks’s band of all things fun, this courtyard was used in Soylent Green. The arch had doors on them and was an entrance for a church. Just outside the doors, a shootout took place involving Charlton Heston and Chuck Connors. I watched from these rooftops above while learning how to…Trespass this scary place at Night!

These buildings are funner inside…

1973- One year prior to 20th Century Fox location work here on the MGM backlot.

Lassie Come Home…please girl!

This is just inside the doorway of Filly’s Department Store. The sunset protrudes through windows, doors, and holes in the wall. One side of this structure exits into Copperfield Court while the other exits into Park Ave and Winpole Street, sight of my baseball field. I was always inside here on game days fetching tennis balls that flew through windows.

Art Department vs Living Color for my favorite studio dog besides– my own!

On left, Being There set, 1979-Right, Pandora’s Box, as we called it because sign above door- said so. 1973.

The final call sheet…

Studio Fence line along Montana Street, this is what the backside of Copperfield Court looks like. A Stairway to Heaven high above this Courtyard. Where lights often end up and tarps can create night effects in daylight. Also, rain effects begin the process, up here. Now, don’t be scared…I’ve climbed this at night.

A very easy fence to climb over, but it takes two, one kid lifts the first kid upwards with a tennis shoe in the palm of the others trespassers hand. The first trespasser then reaches down and pulls up the second by there uplifted stretched out arms. This takes 30 seconds, every second counts…

This is the End…My only Friend !

A Salute to MGM at One Hundred Years–Happy Birthday Baby, I miss You!

My Birthday Card to a special place…

I lived this place and I Love it, so who better to reminisce with but me. I have countless stories on every set on this lot, and definitely no shortage here. Where do I even begin. Well, lets try the fence, because how else are we going to get in!

Behind the wooden sets is a 10 foot corrugated, weathered, steel fence that is very favorable to sneak in at. One in we occupy the buildings and climb stairways inside buildings to the rooftops over Manhattan. A place we feel most comfortable occupying, sitting alongside wise old owls. The ancestors of these predators still exist and we still cross paths on early morning walks in the dark on what was the backlot. The backlot doubled as an aviary for several birds, including wild parrots. When Busch Gardens decided to pave their paradise, the birds relocated and have beeb a staple in traversing the skies above Culver City, with stop overs at MGM.

I use to listen to music on this lot, all the time, 93 KHJ was where my AM Dial was set. The L.A Sports also, I was in my own world. I was real comfortable on what seemed like -my own backlot. Although often I entered by myself, I was never alone, between nature and movie spirits, we were all friends. Even my Siberian Husky, “Tashka” was know to trespass on these hallowed grounds.

Over the years, security changed but chases continued, and did they ever. For the film King Kong, the MGM red Bronco was no more and a gang of Heathen’s patrolled the lot, often on motorcycles. Experience some of those moments, in my new book “The Uninvited Visitor.”

Not for the timid at heart, be prepared for…Anything!

When we played baseball in here starting in 1978, home runs landed on this courtyard area after clearing the catwalks. It was almost as fun finding where the balls landed as it was crushing them with my Ernie Banks bat. Like a rubber ball Easter egg hunt. Baseball was so fun, workers would join in, the T.V series Chips was at that time storing crashed cars on the backlot after long afternoons of stunt work, and the guys would hit balls with us. More importantly, they made a clear path, piling cars up with forklifts in away not to block our baseball diamond.

The first thing I ever saw filmed at Copperfield Ct. was Soylent Green. Shortly after, another nighttime film took place titled “A Picture of Dorian Gray.” Horses pulling carriages in thick studio fog created by special effects was what we watched once again from rooftops overlooking the sets. The horseshoe sound on Cobblestone and the smells of all things horses is my take away from that Friday night in 1972.

Chips and that Phantom Cycle” trespasser” filmed on our court, part of a street to street chase from the law, specifically Jon and Ponch.

In 1979, the private security that could never catch me, offered me a job, yes me!

Iv’e come full circle, Public Enemy # 1, to the man in charge of two blockbuster film sets. Hero at Large, starring John Ritter and Being There, starring Peter Sellers.

Many stories took place I will share in full detail in my 3rd book in my anthology to be titled…”The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of”

A book heavy to do with Rock Stars but it doesn’t stop there, it actually stops here, on this set. “Being There”

Hal Ashby will conclude a long list of directors that preceded him on this landscape made up of spirits, castles, never ending roads that twist and turn, practically to my front door. Yes my house became part of MGM with routine patrols…

The stories will never stop, they just get better…

My job is to carry the torch for all things MGM, so it’s never forgotten. Don’t let that Columbia Studios sign fool ya…This place is MGM!

Happy Birthday my baby Lion…

Let David Bowie have the last words “Time can change me, But I can’t change Time”

Written and lived by….Donnie Norden

Hey Everybody, if you would like to meet myself alongside Steven Bingen,Robert Welch and others please unite under the Veterans Park Tower in Culver City, a place Elvis Presley and Ann Margret made famous as we celebrate MGM and it’s 100th anniversary. Special stories by special people- about all things MGM. Experience “The MGM Effect” and how it significantly changed the lives of so many of our citizens. My second book “The Uninvited Visitor,” will also be profiled. We welcome you and all your questions in an All Star Extravaganza involving MGM Studios. See you there, where I will whoosh you back in time, starting in the 60’s and the entirety of the 70’s decade.

Steven will be delivering the decadent side of MGM history while I deliver a specialized version of conquering these backlots, and all the danger and excitement that waits within these barb wire fences.

Join us in a rare opportunity to talk …all things MGM!