Author: Phantom of the Backlot

They called me the "phantom of the backlot." Join me on my adventures through the historic and celebrated MGM studios, in Culver City, during the height of its glory.

Mission Impossible-Mayberry in Disguise

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Never say Never!

We start with a Mission Briefing, inside this KVWV truck located at the Paramount Studios lumber storage and mill.

The Big Black Vehicle arrives…

The briefing involves election fraud in Mexico. In this swank 1966 apartment, the record player is disabled as we browse the folders on I.M.F personnel needed for infiltration.

“Cinnamon” is perfect for this assignment and “every” mission period.

We have our small yet tactical force. “Rollin Hand” is a code name we used. It describes how we rolled our “Doobies” on the backlots…

This Mission starts in Mexico, look behind the curtains, this is Mayberry…

Behind this ‘False Front” is the Mayberry Post Office. A Police Station, for this episode. Directly across the street, where camera is, is Andy Griffith’s Courthouse. The backlot uses several disguises in this Golden Age classic. Several Mayberry and Gone With the Wind facades will be altered. T.A.G.S was still shooting this street almost daily, so these set decorations and modifications required “striking.” This backlot was as busy as anywhere in Hollywood. T.V was never as good as this era.

Our I.M.F Force has arrived…

We need a free and honest election…Liberation !

Window set dressing…often-this kind of stuff ends up in my forts. Winston Churchill is a perfect trespasser motivational influence! We would sneak up to these widow displays from the back entrances and remove set decorations. Right after a scene was filmed and before set decorations could retrieve their items.

On the set of Roger Corman’s “CAPONE,” an entire tobacco shop was relocated upstairs in my fort. This included cigars and brier pipes relocated to the Mayberry R.F.D House set. This happened after a gangster was shot from a passing car band was blasted through the picture window. That story in full detail can be found in Book One titled…”Bootleggers, Tommy Guns and L.S.D”…Hole in the Fence–Book One.

This election…is rigged!

A day of reckoning -I.M.F in Volkswagon- Election fixer in dark glasses.

Downtown, Mayberry was built to be Atlanta in 1938. When television was born, this Main Street was disguised as any Metropolis in the world. Paint, cars, signs, and costumes can transform your mind. Production wants you to experience different places, all within the comforts of the studio.

Long before Mexico, this street was used as Atlanta in …Gone With the Wind

Lets unpack this picture...The West End of Atlanta/Mayberry. The Desilu Watertower overlooks the backlot. He pictured above the Atlanta train depot, still standing in 1966. False fronts were installed to block the view of this iconic depot used in GWTW.

There were two theaters in Mayberry. On the corner on the left side, you can see a marquis. An alleyway, not shown, separates the theater from Main Street.

This is that corner, minus the train depot. My picture taken in 1972. The single one story row of buildings that blocked this view of the depot is no longer standing. I took this photo after they had been removed. This is where the pavement begins on this dirt backlot. It was dirt for Gone With the Wind. No backlot in history used so little cement.

Same corner in…Gone With the Wind

Mayberry became the next identifier on this main street. The Untouchables branded it as Chicago, Metropolis in Superman, Gotham City in Batman and Berlin in Hogan’s Heroes.

Election interference…”I was pushed off the road!“

This crash was where the theater alongside the Mayberry Hotel stood. Donkeys are first responders.Concerned voters assist with election ballots inside ambulance.

Meanwhile, in the nearby jungle“We need some gas- Cinnamon”

“I need a smoke Rollin!“ I have seen this gas station before…

Wally’s “Gasolina” Station

This famous turn into Goober’s Gas Station

Goober’s filling station. This dirt road parallels the La Ballona Creek. Gomer Pyle films across the way…

If only I had some music to unwind-says Cinnamon…Mission Accomplished!

To the left of this jeep is the filling station. Music for a successful “Mission Accomplished.”

Final thoughts;

I thought I would share my version of Mission Impossible dating back to 1966. These screen grabs, combined with my photos and personal experiences paint at picture of a wonderful era of television. As God would lay out my future, I worked on the first feature of the same name with Tom Cruise. Paramount rented the Universal -“SKY” backdrop and water basin for some stunts and inserts.

Paramount owned Desilu when this T.V series was in production. Hogan’s Heroes was also a regular Paramount location on the 40 Acre backlot. These streets were like revolving doors, different shows, every day-non stop. Crime had no chance with all the capped Super Heroes and detectives roaming these streets.

I Spy, The Green Hornet, and Batman followed Superman and the Untouchables. Sheriff Taylor also patrolled this street with Barney through much of this 60’s decade. It was originally designed as Atlanta in GWTW.

I rode my bike here in the late 60’s. I came just to look through the fence. I was in search of all these- “Heroes.”

The marvel of television allowed me to watch episodes then go relive scenes where they were filmed. Basically, “I lived my T.V set.” Even my parents were amazed by this passion burning inside me. We would sit and watch television together and I would have my own stories…like a real life Opie Taylor. I put a fort upstairs in the Andy Griffith house.

My folks saw the Hogan’s Heroes tree stump effect become my own personnel hide out. That big bulky item moved in and out of my bedroom to various locations around my house. Everyone wanted to go -“under the lid.” My house had signs with bullet holes nailed to it. I even had a working Barbers Pole that would spin and light up when plugged in.

I was quite the sight. I could be seen towing tree stumps, various props of all sizes, spears, bows and arrows, etc. I had weapons ranging from rifles to ray guns. I brought B.B guns to play inside Combat sets. I fought real Marines from Camp Pendleton. I gave tours of Camp Henderson to these same soldiers. Gomer Pyle, Jim Nabors- was a recruiter and recruitment soared.

Most kids carried school books, but I carried props. I even had bushels of King Kong horse fir, so much I attached it to my dog. That was quite the monster looking creature. My dogs trespassed at times with me. I wasn’t like all the other kids, needless to say.

It’s fun being the “Black Sheep.” I never wanted these times to stop and they never did. My life evolved into living this lifestyle everyday. 35- Universal working years later, I feel a need keep and hand down my history. I did not realize then I was living in the Golden Age. I thought things would never disappear. But disappear they did.

Thankfully, I took notes, no matter what time of night I came home. I gobbled up discarded “call sheets” and have taken more studio pictures than anyone alive. MGM blessed me with hundreds of Art Department pictures. I became a legend long before I worked at these studios. Everyone knew me, or about me-at MGM. I had an endless supply of blank ammo shells, what kid has that?

Not bad for a trespassing kid who even snagged the studio “Trespassers List” from a guard shack. I knew 50 percent- of the captured folks!

I thank all of you. You like to return to that marvelous era I specialize in capturing. This era is called- The Phantom of the Backlots. I always knew I was experiencing “special things.” A salute-from me to you…

Written and lived by…Donnie Norden

But wait-There’s More…Glamour Tram is back up and running. Come take a tour with me. This site on WordPress reads like a book. You must scroll to the beginning for “cast of characters & training exercises.” Otherwise, your just lost on the tram route, which is really fun anyways…

Real life Tram Tours with Donnie Norden, you too may be on my celebrity list of “miscasts.“

More adventure stories now on sale at Amazon. Follow The Phantom in his escapades back in time…

As always…Boots on the ground stories–Written and Lived by…Donnie Norden

Marineland-Hollywood by the Sea

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Above the surface creatures…

Irene Ryan as Granny reacts to a whale surfacing out of the water in The Beverly Hillbillies episode ‘Back to Marineland’, 1964.
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY – “Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?” 10/22/71 Dub Taylor, Howard Cosell, Shirley Jones, Dave Madden, Danny Bonaduce, David Cassidy, Brian Forster
LOS ANGELES – APRIL 10: Marineland Carnival. A CBS television special. At Marineland of the Pacific tourist park, Palos Verdes, Los Angeles, CA. Broadcast April 10, 1966. Pictured from left is Jim Backus, Irene Ryan. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES – APRIL 10: Marineland Carnival. A CBS television special. At Marineland of the Pacific tourist park, Palos Verdes, Los Angeles, CA. Broadcast April 10, 1966. Pictured from left is Irene Ryan, Max Baer, Jr. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES – APRIL 10: Marineland Carnival. A CBS television special. At Marineland of the Pacific tourist park, Palos Verdes, Los Angeles, CA. Broadcast April 10, 1966. Pictured from left is Donna Douglas, Irene Ryan, Max Baer, Jr. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1970: Photo of Beverly Hillbillies Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
American rock n’ roll singer and actor Elvis Presley (1935 – 1977) feeds a pair of whales during a visit to Marineland of the Pacific at Longs Point, southern California, December 1969. (Photo by Alan Band/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
USA – 1958: A decal for Marineland of the Pacific in California from 1958 in USA. (Illustration by Jim Heimann Collection/Getty Images)
(Original Caption) Sealed with a Kiss. Palos Verdes, Calif.: Actress Jayne Mansfield, on a sightesseing tour of Marineland in Palos Verdes, gets acquainted with a trained seal, who seems to love every bit of attention he’s getting from the beauty. Jayne, who likes animals, found the tour very interesting.
.A. And the intelligent mammal understands plenty of nautical expressions as well as being able to dish out the orders – when he puts his skipper’s cap on. December 1975 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
UNITED STATES – OCTOBER 22: THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY – “Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?” 10/22/71 Dub Taylor, Howard Cosell, Shirley Jones, Dave Madden, Danny Bonaduce, David Cassidy, Brian Forster, Bert Convy, Suzanne Crough, Susan Dey (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
UNITED STATES – OCTOBER 22: THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY – “Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?” 10/22/71 Dub Taylor, Howard Cosell, Danny Bonaduce, Shirley Jones, Dave Madden, David Cassidy, Brian Forster, Suzanne Crough, Bert Convy, Susan Dey (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

Six Million Dollar man

Marineland-Hollywood by the Sea

The End of an Era…MGM/ On Amazon

Tales Beneath the Sea

Animal activists may shudder but one cannot deny the tremendous awe, joy and respect these animals have inspired in millions, including me. I visited Marineland many times. My mother kept my drawing of Bubbles the Pilot Whale on our refrigerator for a number of years. it was my favorite park of all, besides Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. But P.O.P. became derelict and abandoned in the mid 60’s. I was lucky enough to see Marineland through the eyes of a child and then visit the area again as an adult as part of Universal Studios crew.

History Timeline…

This public oceanarium operated from 1954 to 1987. Designed by William Pereira, it was the world’s largest oceanarium when it opened.

In 1974, 20th Century Fox becomes the new operator, allowing Fox to diversify exposure of its motion picture and television assets to the public. Fox begins work on integration of movie and television displays throughout the park. Walk-around characters from Planet of the Apes are seen. (If anyone has a picture of this, please share!) 

Fox also begins discussions with Irwin Allen to “transform” the park into a major tourist attraction. In 1978 Fox pulls out following overly aggressive development plans by Irwin Allen that prove impractical; and marineland is purchased and merged into Hollywood Park, Inc. Hollywood Park, Inc. retains the operating management services of Hanna-Barbera. Costumed characters are seen, including Scooby Doo, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.

But, the real celebrities of the era were the mammals of Marineland including Flipper the talkative dolphin, Corky and Orky-the Killer Whales, Captain Winston’s California Sea Lions – one of which starred as Esmerelda in Twenty Leagues Under the Sea, the beautiful Pearl Divers, Omar the Giant Octopus and countless other memorable sea animals who educated and entertained the public.

Competition with all the other theme parks in the Southern California area resulted in low attendance and the park finally closed in 1987.

Marineland conducted valuable research on animal behavior.  Their approach to training was not only using food as a reward, but playing, rubdowns, splashdowns, positivity and human kindness. (Who doesn’t like that?) Obviously, there was and still is reason for taking steps to ensure humane treatment of these sea creatures. Conclusion–they dislike being captive in small tanks.

Written and Lived by …Donnie Norden

The Wild Wild West

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This story can be found in my second book-The Uninvited Visitor…

Well, here we go again…

The challenge…

Just like last year around the Christmas Holidays, we’ve gone mobile. Studio City here we come. We were out here casing a few of these valley backlots last weekend. Jimmy and I have determined CBS has passed go, and that’s the first stop on today’s Monopoly board that we will circumvent. The fence along the L.A. River is as simple as a recreational climb. This corner fence that has had little activity on its crest is no match for Jimmy, Pat, and myself.  You can tell when a fence gets action by shoe marks and bends from what must be trespassers. Apparently, kids are compliant to the trespassing signs here in a city named after the industry itself. CBS Radford is the facilities operating name.

Universal is a true studio city, since they have their own mayor, fire department and post office. But Culver City has always been the hub for the greatest movies and TV shows ever made. We take pride in the backlots in our city. We live on them. We’re professionals…

Our typical greeting…all the motivation we need!

Today, we explore the unknown. We know every square inch of our backlots, but each turn today will be a passage into the unknown. Every open door, or structure, possibly trees and bushes, will be approached and used as camouflage. Like three chameleons, we are on a mission, to find Gilligan’s Island.

Sure, we might see a security guard, earning double time today. That said, the badge will be in for double trouble, if we cross paths. Better have a fast golf cart buddy, trespassing doesn’t stop on holidays in our world.

This is how we mentally prepare for our excursion. Like a team, a team that’s undefeated. When we touch down on the forewarned private property, it’s like taking the field for the big game. If Maureen and her pals were here, they’d be cheering… Go Centaurs!

We’ve landed…CBS

First and ten…

We’re in and the three of us take cover in some houses laid out in a rustic tree lined area void of roads and activity. That’s how we like to start, quietly nestled in, observing activities. Jimmy and I both have camera bags on our shoulders, Pat is shopping for old cars. Where we begin reminds us of MGM lot 3. The landscape is all we see, a large grass field with lots of trees around it, could the remains of the lagoon be around this spot?

We sometimes need to put on detective hats to connect dots to the past. Things get buried easily when ratings cease to meet expectations. You’re only as good as your last sweep weeks in Hollywood.

With Gilligan canceled years ago, who knows if this deserted island still exists. At MGM and Desilu, Tarzan filmed on sets like this. But Tarzan’s deep “AHHHAAHHHA” as he swings vine to vine would be replaced by the Skipper shouting “Gilligan” on this lot.

We have no idea of what this set was used for, but that’s the beauty of being kid detectives.

The silence of a backlot on a holiday morning is similar to a prayer moment in church. Pristine quiet, we skip the kneeling of course. Morning dew covers the grass during this chilly but bright morning sunrise. We touch everything, we are on an expedition. Last year on this same day, we conquered The Burbank Studios. My camera is still dented forever after saving me from falling through a roof on Laramie Street, last New Year’s Day. Of course, at Disney, my camera received more battering, and was captured, only to be released to my parents, who were forced to drive all the way out to get me.

This year’s resolution was the same as last year’s, go where few if any kids trespass, and explore new frontiers. If all goes well on this tiny lot, we will visit the Columbia Ranch afterwards. But first, where is this damn island?

My other island was torn down for housing, the former MGM lot 3. Some of it remains and is located in what is called Raintree Condominiums. We sneak in there also- to remember the glory of MGM lot 3. A few original things still remain besides the magnificent trees, if you have a keen studio eye.

Right off the bat, this area seems to be where you would stick an island or lagoon on the Radford backlot. We scrounge through the bushes, as if searching for the remains of a downed aircraft or yacht that’s been marooned. It appears the castaways have been rescued, there are no signs of life now-or ever. The jungle gives and the jungle taketh away…

Our exploration has centered on another set that says CBS on its credits. This is the home of The Wild Wild West, starring Robert Conrad. I love Cowboy shows, and this one is slick. He’s a thinking man’s Cowboy. We usually just watch shows from Culver City lots, but Alias Smith and Jones and this show are too good to pass up. I made my own 8mm western movie on the Desilu lot, in front of the saloon, I feel at home as we pass a gallows pole…

Follow these tracks and you’ve arrived in the Wild West, CBS style.

Just like last year at a saloon on Laramie Street, we toast to the New Year with a big joint in the old west. We sit on barstools lined up along the dust covered dark stained countertop. The three amigos are reunited, this time in a different saloon. Satisfaction gleams on all our faces. Adventure awaits, maybe we’ll find a picture car from My Three Sons. A station wagon tour, after all, we are three boys!

Smoke blows out the swinging doors as we follow its swirling path. The aroma sets us free. Life is easy- welcome 1976.

There are props all over the place on this western street, it’s like we’re at a Cowboy yard sale. The street is jam-packed with lanterns, whiskey barrels, gun powder boxes and livery equipment. Such wonderful items, it’s deserted here so we take our time. Must be no hangings planned today.

Behind the western street is a small-town square, Mary Tyler Moore films her show here. She should, she and husband Grant Tinker own the place. I found a call sheet from Dick Van Dyke Show at Desilu. Here she lives, ten years later, different husband and studio. That’s Hollywood for ya!

This is one finely built set…
No- that’s not us boys…

No- we’re not driving this car and trailer…

My Three Sons set has been discovered… Kids were so good back then!

Well, we covered this entire, quaint, backlot and it’s just now noon, after a nearby- Bob’s Big Boy lunch, we will plan the second half of today’s adventures at this iconic hamburger joint. It’s much older than the ones where we live. While Ohio State is kicking off versus UCLA today, we will be climbing a fence to take on Columbia Studios.

It’s good for the taking- we already cased the joint!

Another backlot…another year of backlot fun awaits!

I have a 3rd book, just released. A trilogy of trespassing all the backlots in the 70’s. I have permanent scars on my body from events that I lived during these wild times. I call them MGM tattoos-remembrances I cherish, caught in the exact moment they took place. Trust me, this trespassing game is not as easy as it sounds in the…Wild Wild West!

Written and Lived by…Donnie Norden

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Hollywood Forever

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Paramount Studios …early 70’s–It’s built like a penal institution with Insurmountable walls.
Maybe we can get into the studio through here…this backlot cemetery?

I turned 65 on this Friday the 13th, and I’ve still “got it!”

My office at Home- Tea with Marion is how my morning begins and I’m headed out today to see her grave, in respect and appreciation for this gift of extremely tangible Hollywood History. My day always begins with Hollywood Spirits…
This stool is where Marion sat with a make-up artist in a tiny room that fits two. You’re surrounded by mirrors inside. It’s amazing how good of condition this chair is. It could be fastened to the floor when this trailer was originally moved by horses.
This trailer was made when Marion was working at Paramount Studios. This room bore witness to sound revolutionizing how films are made. Silent to talkies, films were silent when this unit was built. Underneath some white paint is a distinctive color green. Paramount and RKO were that green color, it’s on their equipment. The degree of craftsmanship is astonishing. The mirrors are built into the wall, not hung. Shingles would be added at some point to preserve the original wood integrity. Randolph Hearst did not have film facilities, but he had a star he controlled and endless stories from Cosmopolitan Pictures, which he owned. A disconnect happened between Paramount and Hearst, and this portable trailer went on a long company move cross town to Culver City. That’s when the story I’ve discovered becomes overwhelmingly compelling….
Bottles of various Ambrosias. Wine bottles imported from Italy still remain. “Hey, wait, is that the Phantom, who’s drinking that bottle? “
This is the room’s entertainment system. Installed in 1925 …
I brought the music and the wine...what guests should we expect?
Everything ages, time waits for No-One. It just folds up to be revisited… you just gotta believe. This room never died. I applied power to the lighted mirrors and they illuminated like they did in the early 1920’s.
“Horses are hitched, we’re ready to roll” One of two rubber wheels, not counting the “steel wheel” above the hitch.
Randolph Hearst strolling around a Koi pond San Simeon. Culver City also had a similar pond in- between Marion’s dressing room and the Ince Backlot.
This statue from antiquity sat above a Koi Pond outside Marion’s make up room door. It came along in the relocation. This is her art; I’m just keeping it for her.

The iconic Paramount Water Tower…distant.

“Pull over, who’s driving this car?“…Before being ordained as The Wizard of MGM, Arnold Gillespie worked with Cecil B. DeMille on the Paramount Studio Lot. This stunt gag by A.G. preceded his long heralded career at MGM.
They don’t make movies like this anymore-you know –the feel good ones-1922. An Exodus was taking place at this time…both Marion Davies and her overseer, Randolph Hearst, and Arnold Gillespie would move on to Culver City. Ironically, these parties would reunite at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. A top actress, a top art/effects technician and the richest man in the world all packed up and set foot at the brand new facilities built by Thomas Ince.
Cecil B. DeMille (hand on hip) directing one of his early motion pictures. ca. 1920.
Don Adams-A Gentlemen first, television star second…now resides very close to Marion Davies. Get-Smart filmed at this Paramount Studio.

I gave this man and his family a Tour of Universal and a humorous discussion took place involving “Shoe Phones.” Dial me up on my at –The Glamour Tram ...WordPress site.Ride with us on WordPress…The Glamour Tram. Stories aboard trams lived by yours truly. Take a tour around Universal with Agent 86. This is a priceless tour, follow me for more on T.G.T.

“I Love Stuntmen” Burt Reynolds checked in to Hollywood Forever Cemetery because “we needed an actor capable of doing his own stunts!”
“I know I can jump this pond-Get me my Trans Am”…”I’m bored”

I’m reading Burt a story featured in my latest book, just released. We spend the day at The Columbia Ranch and I meet and gab with Hooper. He loved it then,he loves it now. Going on fifty years at this graveside visit.

“Stay out of trouble Charlie, for mom’s sake!” This was Marion Davies mother figure. Hannah Chaplin, Mother of Charlie. Two top box office stars but more importantly-Soulmates. His soul sadly, was not allowed back into the U.S.A. He rests in peace in Switzerland at the Corsier-sur-Vevey Cemetery. Grave robbers dug him up and held him for ransom. This was Marion Davies’ best Male-Friend. Not Randolph Hearst. That leads to speculation…was Thomas Ince accidentally killed on board the Oneida. Was Charlie the real target do to shenanigans between the two? Hearst covered it up in his news papers, nothing to see here!

Persons of interest…Thomas Ince, deceased on voyage. Charlie Chaplin-potential target of jealousy. Marion Davies and Randolph Hearst.

“Charlie…was it really indigestion that killed Mr Ince?” A report of blood was mentioned in the La Jolla medical facility that Mr. Ince was dropped off at after the fateful cruise. “Was that supposed to be you Charlie…Was Ince at the wrong place at the wrong time?

“My Make-Up Trailer would know”-these mirrors were privileged to experience what really happened aboard ship. History documents itself forever in mirrors. Belief is portals are created when mirror reflect other mirrors, as they do in Marion’s room from antiquity.

So let me get this correct Charlie, it was you-not Thomas Ince-that Randolph Hearst was perturbed with? Wasn’t the merger of Ince/ Cosmopolitan the entire point of the cruise? Rumors persist you and Marion had a thing going on…

Marion being serenaded by Charlie Chaplin
This was Marion’s very best friend. The highest grossing box office duo for eternity. The attraction between these two is part of the mystique of that famous 3-day cruise that changed motion picture history. What I have discovered in Culver City fuels this conception that things were going on behind the scenes involving Thomas Ince and Randolph Hearst. Cosmopolitan Productions and Thomas Ince Productions had an announcement to make on the return voyage…
Connecting Dots is what I do…

GWTW used Marion Davies’ trailer. Scarlett refers to the compound I discovered on Lucerne Avenue in Culver City as “Tara Next Door.” Quote “If you need me I’ll be at Tara Next Door!” Make up done for Vivien Leigh was done right behind The Tara Plantation. At the time GWTW was being filmed, Marion Davies, Clara Bow, The Little Rascals, and Fay Wray all connect to this tiny little Trailer. The first ever mobile star studded Make Up Trailer in Hollywood.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road-Judy Garland is also laid to rest here.

Marion’s neighbor, The Tower of Power.“Only the good die young” said Tyrone.
More neighbors…Mickey Rooney 1938-“Boystown”-same year as fan letter. My kind of kid!
“So Mickey, I had the coolest fort upstairs in the Andy Hardy house at MGM. And another fort in building we called Boystown. Your sets became my forts. We think of you all the time-I brought some mail…from 1938.”
Mickey Rooney fan mail from 1938. I found this in a desk on the backlot in MGM.
Cecilia is best know as Marian Hardy, the sister of Andy Hardy. Alabama Power Company top corner-crossed out.
Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. She passed on in July of 1993 in Ventura California. In 1938, the time of this letter, she married actor Dick Baldwin.
“Ohh… Lonely Boy You”
“Stay Away from Her!”
Reflections of simpler times. Marion’s make up trailer had a koi pond right outside also.
Home for Eternity yet, I feel she’s in my house. Marion Davies’ crypt.
Family name Dovras-Marion Davies is incognito for eternity.
Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door…
Marion at the entrance of Hearst Castle
Always the Clown- Like Chaplin
Cool stuff like this ornate decoration- both trailer and tomb…
Entrance to Hearst Castle
The make-up trailer and the crypt she is buried in both have just one door to enter, like the Twilight Zone
“Welcome to my Life…come on in!“
My dog Thora visiting with Marion–she talks through this mirror, in the –Twilight Zone.
Marion’s room lit right up like no time passed by at all. The bulbs were all unscrewed but original and in a box inside her room. Different colors and frosts helped provide the tint most favorable. Blue and red bulbs were options.
Randolph Hearst is Mr. Statue, besides other things. She took a ‘fancy’ to his same art tastes. They had that in common.
Marion’s-Fan Mail Box or simply “Somebody just wanted out!”…beneath her crypt lies this protrusion. This is how I find treasure others miss or simply pass over. You gotta get your hands dirty to go back in time.

Across from this opulent crypt his a simple stone grave in a fancy location.

We shared a Make up trailer, a Movie Compound, and now are neighbors forever…A camera from 1933, on display at the Culver City Historical Society, was discovered in Marions’ trailer. In 1933-Marion had a new trailer. This original trailer location was a sling shot away from Skull Island and King Kong’s massive walls. Fay Wray had her make up done in this trailer, hence the camera. Continuity of make up…funny how things play out over time.

Marion Davies’ Make -Up trailer would be used by Fay Wray in 1933 for King Kong. Now they share the same cemetery, very close proximity.

My dog Thora was with me when we went inside Marion’s trailer on Lucerne Ave. We said “Open Sesame” and as the entry door opened, it revealed the secrets still hidden inside. As if this room wanted to be discovered by a caring figure, which I am.

Legendary Director Tony Scott, here directing Brigitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills Cop II is located at this plot. Expand and you will see his name in granite at the top, with his list of shows also carved in below his etched name. Victor, the gentleman pictured on the right, worked with Tony and still does for Ridley Scott. I have met both of these legends. Blade Runner is an all time favorite. 90 nights was the schedule for Blade Runner. Mostly all at Warner Brothers and many on New York Street. One of my all time favorite films. I was told that the affair Tony Scott had with Brigitte ended his marriage and Sylvester Stallone’s.

I was on that set-pictured here with our female star. Turmoil began here with the Scott family.

Your Mission, if you choose to accept it, is scale this impregnable fortress…. “I was here 50 years ago, scouting for a way in, it doesn’t exist. Mission Impossible best describes trespassing here.
New York Street peeks over the top of the fence above this graveyard...
A symbol of excellence…
Spirits in the Night..You don’t know what they can do to you...

My Third Book is finally completed. An anthology of the decade of the 70’s ‘Trespassing Adventures on all of Hollywood’s Backlots’

Pictures on covers: John Ritter rescuing a kid from a burning building in the last MGM Feature ever done on their historic backlot. Hero at Large 1979. A special thanks to the legendary Marc Wanamaker for his fine words. The Front Cover is picture I also took in 1977. Behind the Fireworks-in a Hot Air Balloon is Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees sailing above the MGM Backlot. They had to duck for cover and this scene was replaced by CGI cheesy replacement.

This is a must see color experience, you won’t be disappointed. I’m not trying to sell you a used car like Cal Worthington does, fact is my diary just kept getting better. I took more pictures of MGM than anyone ever. This color book presents my personal photos on every film set used by MGM in this era.

Included are never seen before tear down photos in 1980. This book will make you laugh, and make you cry. Some stories will scare you but you will come away wanting more, after you catch your breath anyway. The final chases and events at MGM are inside these magical covers…enough said… Roll Film!

We begin today’s adventure mingling through grave sights and tombstones from the distant past. In this haunted landscape-I appear…

The date, June, Friday the 13th, 2025. It could just as well be 1925, clocks aren’t needed here, the sands of time are just… Blowing in the Wind.

I discovered my Hole in the Fence at MGM’s legendary backlot 2. The first set I saw was a cemetery. My friend Jimmy and I were frightened. We hid behind tombstones. We even hid alongside a coffin with weeds growing out of it. Ironically, my studio life began in a cemetery. A big fancy studio stood beyond, like what is in front of me today.

I immediately cross paths with Paramount Security guards right off the bat…”How is that, why are they here?” I ask my dog. I approach a gentleman with the badge and Paramount baseball cap. I ask why he is stationed here? Stonework surrounds us with names and beginning and end dates chiseled on the surface… Eternity begins here.

His response was the Paramount lot is so busy that overflow parking is taking place in this cemetery. Satisfied with his response, I asked “do you know where Marion Davies‘ grave is?”

No one that works here could direct me and neither can Paramount security. However, I was informed that question gets asked frequently. I have my suspicion because of the Italian architecture. It has a flare of the Randolph Hearst. I’ve found it. It’s fancy as expected.

It’s not a crypt -it’s a condo.

I’ve seen this movie before. Marion plays hard to get, except for me. It could be 1972, when I first visited here. It could even be 1899 when these pearly metal gates first opened.

Just me and my hunting dog on a hazy sunny summer afternoon. We see tomb after tomb of movie legends. I have met many of them. Very surreal, yet pleasant. We all have to checkout and what better place than backside a movie studio.

My dog and I sit in the shade under a tree as the sun gets reflected in patterns. I’ve found tranquility. The grave that happens to be next to me says- June 13, my birthday. Inviting me inside, “I’m not ready, Thank you.” The Paramount Studio fortress overlooks this graveyard. My dog’s ears rise a bit crooked as we hear conversations on the studio side of this graveyard. Past, present, one doesn’t know...just voices.

The graves closest to the backlot are as old as the studio. I’ve been here several times before. I never came to star search. I was looking for a way in Paramount Studios. After all, I am the Phantom. But that never happened, it’s impossible or should I say Mission Impossible…Yes, that show was made on the other side of this blockade. It’s built like a prison. The walls are insurmountable and several stories high. The perfect design to prevent trespassing. I remained in denial. I went back and forth, seeing if I missed any way to get in. I don’t need much but…

I was given a tour by my friend Tim in 1974 who was often in the television series Happy Days. Then, in the 80’s, I got a driver job on the film 48 Hours with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. I drove a San Francisco trolley from the Paramount lot to downtown L.A. It was supposed to be San Francisco. I have very little history here at this studio but certainly not for lack of trying.

In 1976, MGM became Paramount. Dino De Laurentiis took over Louis B. Mayer’s office and the work force was all things Paramount Pictures. Kong was too big to be contained at this tiny facility. I experienced Paramount under the grandeur that was MGM.

Memories cloak their selves with silence. Dead Men Tell No Tales around these parts. Silence is as powerful a tool as a jackhammer. Become in touch with frequencies and dimensions, they are everywhere, invisible, like electricity…soak it all in or you may miss a key road marker.

My googling leads me from Cecil B. DeMille and his family, past Don Adams tomb to Burt Reynolds. I visit each grave, and find myself connected here, almost eerily. I met these recent additions to Hollywood Forever on studio backlots. Hooper – I talked to him about stunts in real life. I also discussed them with Hal Needham. This happened while filming chariot races around the High Noon western street on the Columbia Ranch. Burt was wearing a cowboy hat that day, as he is now and for eternity.

I circle him in respect, I had no idea he was here. Close by, Don Adams’ grave is a tribute to Maxwell Smart. He is saying “Farewell” in his shoe phone. Heaven needed a good comic actor and took Agent 86 from us. I gave him a tour once at Universal. At the Flash Flood, the water jumped the retaining wall. It soaked my shoes as we all watched 10,000 gallons of recycled water reach its catch basin. Other than the 5 gallons that hit my floor pedals. My shoes got drenched. In all his wit, Don Adams, in Maxwell Smart’s voice, says, “I ruin more shoe phones that way!”

Here he is today, his gravestone forever will portray him calling the chief from his shoe. I love this guy. That series was shot close by at Sunset Bronson for four years prior to CBS. He belongs here-forever placing that call to CONTROL.

As I pass Tyrone Power, I’m suspicious of a crypt next to Mr. Power’s simple residence. The name doesn’t match, I carry on yet hear a ghost whisper… I’m drawn to this crypt like a magnet-very similar to the mysterious make up room of hers I discovered. Personal items belonging to her from as far back as the silent days. The truth is this 100-year-old horse drawn Make-up trailer would deteriorate quickly. It could become like a rotted old garden shed in just a blink of an eye. Marion’s spectacular room and all its movie history would disappear, as if it never existed. That was the fate until it called out to me, begging to be rescued. I discovered a photo that confirms who this was built for… A needle in a haystack possibility suddenly turned to 24k gold.

If that isn’t enough, it continued as a featured Make-up station for two of the biggest films ever made. These films were King Kong, released in 1933, and Gone With the Wind. Yes, the mirrors in this trailer are like the paintings Rod Serling stands in front of in Night Gallery. Laced with intrigue, you’re looking back to flapper days.

Mirrors are portals, and you feel her presence. Her original room continued to light up stars’ faces. This happened even after she moved to MGM in a new, fancier trailer. The same power that pulled me into the trailer was now magnetically tugging at me in this graveyard. Finally, after a short visit with Mickey Rooney I find the electronic clue to Ms. Marion. I leave Mickey after telling his nameplate, “I had a cool fort Mickey. It was in your Andy Hardy house in the 70’s. I grew up at MGM too…see ya Mickey”

Back to where I heard those ghost whispers- yes it’s Marion. Another obvious clue is the simple grave alongside. Charlie Chaplin’s mother, Hannah. Marion’s best friend, is buried alongside her there. His mom is located next to Marion’s crypt. Her death long preceded the building of Dorvas family crypt, meaning Marion specifically built hers alongside Ms. Chaplin. Charlie never made it, his grave in Switzerland was ransacked and he was held for ransom. How many dead people can claim a ransom, it’s usually reserved for the living. That’s immense Star Power.

Now that I’m in Marion’s resting place, I show respect and thank her for sharing this most amazing Hollywood relics still useable. I’m sure that’s the reason her spirit connected with mine, to preserve what’s left of this fabulous piece of history. My thoughts and exchanges with this legend are reciprocated through telepathy. We do this at my house too. My office- is her old Make-Up station. How cool is that!

She knows me. I think I am the most recurring face she sees now. We crossed paths in that backyard long ago. She wanted me to have this in my hands. I earned it; I won’t break up all the treasure inside it. I had my suspicions 50 years ago about that mysterious room.

Now her room, itself a star of a million magical moments of movie history, will forever be safe. Reflections of the way life uses to be stare back at the image that stands in front of it. They can also take you on a journey back in time, before sound in movies existed. Expressions ruled, they made you laugh, or cry. Silent films are like this cemetery, this place is one large silent movie. Horses not only pulled coffins around in a snapshot of history. They also hitched up movie trailers and went “On Location.”

Louis Armstrong..All Right, send us off with a little Jazz, Mr. Satchmo!

What a Wonderful World It Can Be

Written and lived by… Donnie Norden.

For a nominal fee…

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What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?

Stay out the hot sun and long lines and enjoy the comfort of favorite seat while operate one these tourist people movers.

This was a fun stage of my life

The Good, Bad , and Ugly

Of tourism.

Excitement, misery, Hollywood behind the scenes in the 80’s

We experience Knight Rider, The A Team , Miami Vice, Smokey and the Bandit.

Not all your guides get “satisfaction “

Some do – just ask Jack Wagner

The role model guides look up too

The Glamour Tram

Subscribe ….

All Aboard !

Kong Fabrication Area…

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This upper torso is foam, and it was carved from large square blocks. The amount of foam being used is amazing. Every concept begins with foam. Foam is the base to make impressions. Once ready and carved, it gets assembled to a steel frame. This frame will hold all Kong’s body parts together. The trees, the mountains, detailed parts of the Great Wall all have foam somewhere inside the finished product.

Komo sambe kong kong!
Woo wooo woo
He lived in the jungle where he was born the king
His great strength made him lord of everything
No creature crossed his path and lived for long
His name, so legend tells us, was king kong
His height was never measured but was great
The jungle shook beneath his mighty weight
His arms were muscled, sturdy as a tree
His chest was thick and wide as it could be
Komo sambe, king kong

Jimmy Castor Bunch-1975

Perfect song to whistle while you work!

Sections 13/1/10/9 and 8 along with sound stages 27/28/29/30 are now assigned to Kong. Section 9 is where Kong forms are assembled for impressions for rubber skin covering. Impressions and molding are done here by effects artists.

We begin on an old corrugated steel fence:

There are the usual yet distinctive sounds that only kids like me quickly identify with. It’s the sound of tennis shoes climbing up a corrugated steel fence. It’s a quick pitter patter when performed by skilled climbers, and Danny and I are classified as such.

On the corner just beyond Overland Avenue, is a climbable old steel fence. With two climbers, it cuts the climbing time in half. It is located just across from Winchell’s Donuts on one corner. It is directly across from my financial institution, better known as Coast Savings. It’s a sidewalk and fence I have traversed back and forth to school my entire life. The other side of the fence here doubles as a storage area. This dirt area long ago had jungle villages and ship docks. They were removed decades ago. The last thing I saw filmed here was a helicopter take off. It was in the opening scene of The Phantom of Hollywood. That was three years ago, now big things are taking place in this same area.

This is how they carve the foam to make impressions for the rubber face.

We’re talking things that can be seen protruding above an area with a two-story fence. An orange figure can be seen towering above this old rusty, studio storage area. The MGM auction in 1970 staged out of this area, selling items of every size, shape and era. It’s the land time forgot. But this area is more significant now than it most likely ever was or could have been. Kong is being created back in this corner of the MGM main lot numbered ONE! Tiny holes tease us. We press our eyes against these portholes. We try to figure out what’s happening on the other side of this fence. Two holes occupied with one blue eye (mine) and one brown eye (Danny’s). Our torsos now block the afternoon sunlight rays from shining through these ancient studio fence protrusions.

Where did I park?

Eventually foam carvings will turn into a rubber, horse hair covered, mechanical robot. The amount of hydraulics needed is similar to a jumbo jet.

“I climbed in over at the Logan’s Run billboard,” I tell Danny. “It’s the old easy fence, no sharp edges, but we will use the push me- pull you method of entry.” Nothing more needs to be said. The temptation of seeing the front side of this giant head and shouldered orange creature is worth the simple risks. These risks could always come out of nowhere. We stop at the corner. We decide to buy some donuts at Winchell’s. The shop’s back door looks up at Kong. Its side door has a view of where we’re going to climb in. This is the official donut shop for all things Kong. I order my usual chocolate chip with sprinkles and an orange frosted donut.

I can see this figure as I select my donuts…

Satisfied, we exit this popular donut shop and cross the street to our front lot entry point. As we get to the billboard promoting Logan’s Run, we prepare to enter. With just one guy, this climb is complicated. You must find places to get a foothold. Hold the edge of the billboard with pictures of actors we met last year on Lot 2. Welcome to my world.

Danny and I take one last look at the intersection and the parking lot of the donut shop. The Culver City Police live at this donut shop. We don’t want to hit the fence with cops eating donuts and drinking coffee across the way. We time it just right. When the coast is clear, Danny cups his hands together. I put one shoe in the palm of his hand. He lifts me upwards, and I secure myself by standing on a fence cross brace. I can now reach down and pull Danny to the top by pulling on his left arm, like a rope. This process takes 10 seconds. We practiced this. We use this technique all the time on these old-style steel and wood fences.

With the sound of a double thump, we touch down inside MGM lot 1. We take cover behind the first things we see. These happen to be trees. Well, they’re going to be, now they’re just metal reinforced shapes in need of skin. Everything needs skin. Kong stands ever present, as if he’s the only head here that has spotted us. One arm is attached as a second foam arm is being put together like a large toy set. Cranes lift oversized parts, Danny and I joke, “Every crane operator in the world seems to work here now.” I had no idea how important cranes are to shows of this magnitude. After a brief cooling off, we sit between haunted looking trees and stage pit covers in this makeshift storage area. We can hear robust Italian dialects that seem to be leading this crusade. We feel safe because we were not seen climbing in. We sit on a pit cover and prop our legs on a foam log.

Foam log footstool…

As we stare upwards at the beast, our minds process what we see, and what we expected to see. He’s orange, like the donut I’m eating, and stiff, like he could blow over. The Italian voices below Kong have a table with various items. These are likely tech prints. Next to that is a coffee pot, along with donuts and water. We laugh as we realize, Winchell’s is going to make a mint off this show.

Some assembly required applies to this toy. We see forms and conclude this is a mold to make impressions. This isn’t the celebrity Kong that we see here. It’s just a stand-in used to fabricate the rubber skin. This rubber skin will be applied to the mechanical version of this same Ape. That version must be stationed somewhere else. This is where impressions are being made, like my dentist whose office is just down the street. With clarity now on what’s going on in this fabrication zone and this frontier/storage area we exit lot 1. Culver City’s skyline is changing rapidly. There are 40 ft apes, 60 ft walls that stretch from here to eternity, and large body parts strewn around. They are like puzzle pieces.

The backlot is even more active. We enter the backlot through a sharp fence. This fence folds like an accordion when nails are removed. Yes, we too have our own main gate. It’s concealed simply by turning a twisted nail that holds it shut. Because of this, it goes unnoticed.

Our gate is behind the Filmways Building. New York Street sprawls in every direction through the glass windows inside this old cartoon building. Danny and I take a break from Kong. We step away from all this preproduction activity. We relax in still plush seats in one of two theaters inside this building. Only a few refracted and stray sunlight rays illuminate the aisle. They lead to a row of luxurious seats where we recline.

This building will have a strategic value attached to it. It’s directly across from Kong fabrication that takes place across the public street named Overland.

Like we own the place, we sit comfortably and stare at a blank screen. It’s as silent as anywhere now on this lot. We imagine Tom and Jerry cartoons playing again, in the dark environment time forgot. We wonder if the last patrons ever to see screenings here knew what the future would hold. The ending credits that were last up on the screen were truly –The End. It’s been abandoned for years; the building has held up well. It has filing cabinets in most of the offices that wrap around the upstairs spaces. The basement contains the theaters. We feel like producers, whoever this Dino De Laurentiis guy is, we love him. Not only has he saved our backlot, but he’s also adding possibly the best chapter ever to its existence.

“Arrivederci to you… Mr. Italian producer guy! “

This dark theater stimulates our imagination. We just went to Laserium last week at the Griffith Park Observatory. Danny and I reconjure up some color trails still in our mind. We sink into these reclining seats. Danny provides the Greg Lake drums on the back of the seat in front of his. The song from ELP – Karn Evil 9 is captured in partial gray smoke effects. This is opposed to a laser light bombardment. Simple smoke exhaust from our lungs creates images, Danny creates sounds, as we immerse ourselves into full-tilt psychedelia.

You’ve got to see the show, it’s rock and roll.

No truer words have ever been spoken. MGM still delivers the goods, even over 50 years after these gates first opened!

Easter Egg Hunt at MGM

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The final scene from MGM’s Easter Parade 1948. I have my own special Easter celebration on MGM Backlot 2.

Easter is when the difference between Catholic School and Public School is most noticeable. The days off don’t line up at all. Catholic kids wait for the resurrection before being cut loose with days off. Public School just calls it “spring break” no morals or scruples, just colored eggs and time-off. We pray- while they play!

But on Easter Sunday…all is forgiven. We all unite as one-under the guise of a good Peter Rabbit story. This is the time east meets west, all roads lead to God.

Jews, Catholics, Muslims, even Atheists, can come together as flowers start their magnificent blooms. Today, God, in his magic, created colored eggs and chocolate bunnies. These are for kids of every age and color to unite in this small, small world. It’s amazing what candy can do…it breaks down fences and barriers.

My Easter lasted three months last year. That’s when Jimmy and I finally finished finding all the eggs. Two stubborn faded hard-boiled guys stayed hidden until around the 4th of July. Their odor and decomposition finally gave them away. They were lodged inside the steel bumper of an old Rambler that my dad has parked in our long driveway…

Odor solved; it was beginning to affect our kitchen table breakfasts. “No mom, I don’t want any eggs today or ever again.”  We’ve been living off pancakes for over a month due to the foul effects of rotten eggs.

This year, my mom has encouraged me to do this elsewhere, like Jimmy’s house. She still wants to spend Saturday coloring a couple dozen fresh ones. Mom’s quite the artist. The rule this year is to hide them somewhere else.

I am walking home from Market Basket with 2 dozen eggs in tow. I also have a box full of chocolate marshmallow bunnies. I see Maureen as I turn the corner headed home for the decorating party. She is wearing a new Led Zeppelin t-shirt. We both attended the concert at the Fabulous Forum. However, we were not there together. We excitedly exchange notes: “My seats were terrible” she says, “My seats were great” I brag. “They sounded sloppy drunk” she complains but it was mind-blowing!” we agree. “What ya got there Donnie?”

“Oh yeah, eggs!” then I ask her, “do you want to sneak in MGM and hide these with me?” “You hide a dozen. I will hide a dozen at the same time. There’s no better place for a hard-boiled egg hunt than MGM.”

“Of course, what time?” she chimes. “Bright and early. I have to go to church about 11.” That was the one condition I had to agree to, to get this bag of Easter goodies.”

My mom loves MGM, if she didn’t walk with a crutch, she would come with us, I’m sure…bless her heart. In the spirit of living through her son, she has helped me decorate my eggs. We decorated them after MGM movie stars!

We are talking an Easter Parade of eggs, saluting MGM legends. Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Liz Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Ricardo Montalban, Roddy McDowall, Clark Gable, Judy Garland and Laurel and Hardy. MGM’s big hitters made up and ready for their 7am backlot call times.

A Bright Easter Morning – 7am

Maureen greets me on my porch, my parents are still asleep, we sit on the stairs admiring these hard-boiled legends. My mom should work for the MGM Art Department. Fantastic stuff, mom outdid herself on these hard-boiled entertainment legends!

We know these will end up being pulverized, that’s how most our egg hunts terminate, with a Battle Royale.

We load everything in a canvas bag with handles. It’s easy to run with, just in case a whiskered easter villain with a badge interrupts us. TWA has its logo stitched on each flapped side; it fits nicely on my shoulder. I feel like a pilot. Why not? We do have a jumbo jet inside the airplane hangar. It was used in the movie Skyjacked, starring Chuck Heston.

TWA meet MGM as 4 tennis shoes hit the ground at the same time at our Grand Central Train Station. We quickly occupy a seat in the Pullman train cars to get a feel for what’s up on the backlot. I expect zero security, or a courtesy Bronco drive through at best. Maybe the White Rabbit will run by, anything can happen here. We’ll tell him a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given us the call.

The sun enters through the train windows. These windows are caked with dust patterns on the east side compartments. It shines on the eggs we are looking over one last time…Nice, mom made a Louis B. Mayer egg, and it’s gold, with round glasses!

Maureen finds a special egg in her carton… Lassie… mom painted the dog!

We love all of Lassie’s shows. I should have brought my dog Pebbles with us, that’s all that’s missing here. This is like That’s Entertainment- hard boiled!

Ok, here’s the rules…Catholic kids always have to have rules, it’s the law.

“You hide yours here, in these trains…and inside the Grand Station,” as I gesture with my arms. I will go to the cemetery behind the Romeo and Juliet sets. Your hunt will be in the graveyard.”

“Sounds fun …get out of here!” as I am pushed out the side train door back onto the cement platform. “I’ll be back after I hide these guys, you have this entire train station to work with…see you in about 15 minutes!”

Twenty – minutes later, at the depot…

There are five trains at this depot. Each train has its own long aisle with rows of seats. The seats provide hiding places.

I find my first egg, sitting proudly like the head of a movie studio would. It’s the Golden Egg, with Louis B. Mayer on it. It is in between the arm rests separating two reclining seats. His glasses are facing forward, as if he’s ready to have his ticket punched… in the first-class section.

He is the first one to go back inside the egg carton. Maureen is upset I found that one so quickly. She said, “I think he wants out of this dusty train.” He would like to head back to his clean white office as I shut the lid on this mogul.

Peter Lawford has just been located, in an overhead compartment, he is yellow and hidden properly. The initials P.L. are on this egg in case we couldn’t recognize this member of the rat-pack. One of my mom’s heart throbs. This is so fun!

Maureen says there are a few outside also… I climb down the steel steps. I examine the exterior, underneath the carriage, the train’s massive wheels, the couplers, and the air hoses. It feels like a conductor doing his pre-trip inspection. As luck and hinting would have it, Fred Astaire has been spotted on the sprouting grass between the rails. This spot is where he filmed the Band Wagon and the classic song –By Myself.

Astaire… scene from the Band Wagon, but mom has drawn him in his more familiar top hat. (Grand Central Station MGM Backlot #2).

My Easter Egg Hunt location (Grand Central Station MGM Backlot #2).

Free Range Fred Egg

Roddy McDowall is hiding around here I’m told. That hint takes me to the doorway he walked through when we both met him on Planet of the Apes. As I walk through that same door today, his egg appears, it’s on the fence cross brace in plain sight. It says Roddy on one side and is died Purple. That is a perfect color for the Bookworm.

I met Roddy McDowall for my second time on this TV series in 1974. He greeted all the kids who were watching these scenes filmed at Grand Central Station. The series wanted an abandoned look, bringing in cement fragments. The station was used in Young Frankenstein right before this and was very fancy. Both Planet of the Apes and Young Frankenstein were 20th Century Fox renting the MGM backlot. This station would get fixed up nicely for The Fortune, this deterioration is set dressing. This would become fit for a Band Wagon, once again.

The hunt begins here, we climb in where these train tracks enter the backlot.

We’re leaving the Train Station and off to the cemetery! -There is a fence in this picture laying on the ground, white and dented, a car crashed through it. It was a traffic accident, not a stunt. Imagine crashing your car on the backlot. I’d keep driving around, leave out the main gate. The studio added a replacement fence. Funny enough, it was the side of a ship. It had port holes to look into the studio. That’s the story behind this picture. Look closely, the rear of the train has a guard getting out of the Red Bronco. They patrol this area knowing this is our favorite way in.

My partner in today’s story…This picture is from Maureen’s balcony seen here holding her nephew Shad, In the background is Lot 2. Yes, she had balcony MGM seating. We watched filming from her bedroom. So much fun…Notice the fence and you will see two-port holes. That’s the replacement to the fence-the side of a ship. Only in Hollywood…

MGM Lot 2 cemetery in its glory. Site of my original Hole in the Fence. When we entered, we were scared stiff, we crawled in the high grass along these tombstones. This cemetery was moved around to different locations. NY Street used it on Soylent Green. Also, The Phantom of the Backlot used these graves at Tarzan’s Lake. Then Young Frankenstein made a graveyard below the Girls Reform School I still call Boystown. These are Styrofoam. Some are wood.

These gravestones were used in “Young Frankenstein” and seen here in transit.

A picture I took of the location of the Lot 2 cemetery. I’m peeling apart Peter Lawford as we head over to the next set. I’m hungry… it’s always fun when you can eat game pieces. The cemetery relocated for more filming.

We are done on my part of the hunt, next it’s her turn!

An egg hunt in a haunted cemetery…

“OK girl,” I kept it simple; most are in this cemetery but two are at the pool, just sunning themselves.” She scans the field of retired souls, and now slowly walks apprehensively in search of…movie eggs. Cautiously, she touches the tops of the graves, like she’s knocking on a front door. She is warming up to this macabre environment. I bet no kids anywhere are having an Easter Morning quite like this… except maybe in Transylvania.

That’s good because I hid a white egg with Red Slippers on it- inside a coffin. This coffin has weeds growing out of the partially open lid. The egg just rolled under a wad of ancient and current spider webs. We will see if these slippers can be recovered. Otherwise, Boris the Spider is the new owner of these painted on Ruby Red Slippers.

She points to the sarcophagus, looking for some reaffirmation, I blankly stare back, “Open it!”

Knowing she hates spiders -her head turns as if she’s seen a Phantom, perhaps Lon Chaney. He lurked this lot in the silent era after all… Boldly she grabs the Judy egg. “It’s cracked”, she says. Then in one smooth move as I approach her, she throws it at me sidearm.

Bullseye! She’s good… she can turn a double-play, she’s that good. The cracked egg is now pulverized as I tumble backwards alongside someone less fortunate than me. From a horizontal position, I look up at the graves as the dust settles, I slowly lift myself back up. We both bust up, “keep hunting”-as I think-your time will come!

I left this simple. A six-year-old could do it. Most of these hard-boiled movie stars are now recovered, except the two “E’s”…Elvis and Esther. Esther sits balanced on the edge of her own diving board. Skateboards have replaced swimmers nowadays. Maureen examines this blue egg with Esther on it. We agree to let her roll off the diving board. This will be her final plunge. We will leave her in the pool for eternity… Elvis, with your collar and fancy hair, you just stay seated in that metal lawn chair.

We sit next to King’s egg and talk. Just Maureen, me, and an egg painted with hair, glasses, and a collar. We decide to leave him be, “Happy Easter Elvis, if you get hungry, my mom’s having a buffet, around 2-ish”

Written and lived by… Maureen Miller and Donnie Norden

Mayberry Hotel History

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This picture was taken on the set of Lepke–starring Tony Curtis. This was the last film to capture it with an Art Department. It created a very nice time piece of old Chicago. The last film to have it in their camera’s lens was Vigilante Force with Kenny Rodgers and Jan Michael Vincent.
Bazooka’s were simulated to be firing as what looks like trespassers run down main street. The lot was a shambles. The church had just burned. It’s as if all the wound up, wild spirits are letting you know they’re here. These same sets were built as Atlanta in Gone With the Wind. They survived the civil war. Now, they are being terrorized again for the last time. This street went out with no fan fare, no love, just tumble weeds blowing everywhere through wild west ranch.
You could still find items like ropes. These ropes were tied in a spot where they would never be separated from again. They were akin to a husband and wife. Hence, Tie the Knot, is born… Rope so old it turns to chalk when you touch it.

This four story building is like a ice core sample of studio backlot history. It’s presentable from the outside. The interior is hospitable. The surface floor is an easy touch up to film a needed scene.

The view of the backlot is as good as it gets, and each level has curtains from another era. Some are felt, some are dried out so bad the only thing holding them together is the decades of dirt. The roof is where the sample ends, it is much to risky to walk on this top level. There are only partial floors at these windows. They wrap around to each window, the center of this building is a like an elevator chute without an elevator. If something your standing on gives way, there is a chance you can fall several stories. There is a large space where nothing can break your fall.

Andy Griffith had some really battered sets in use in a town we call Mayberry. That show inherited this town built as Atlanta, and dubbed it Carolina. This was spanking new in the thirties, and aged like an old car that never saw a garage. What’s metal is rusted solid, and what’s wood is splintered and rotted.

This section was built for a show- Gone With the Wind. It was not constructed to be the focal point of the studio for the next forty years. It’s like checking on your Lincoln Log house you left outside for 4 decades, you can’t sell it as new. This street was not part of a forty year plan.

This studio has worked with wild, rogue filmmakers. They used this destination because it satisfied their urges for a brief period. The difference is night and day between Desilu, a true wild child, and MGM. The latter had a well planned long term scope. It efficiently used every square foot, planned every corner, and built sets to last by giving them roofs and backs. MGM’s New York street was an absolute gem, thought out by all MGM’s Art Directors.

Redd Foxx filmed a Colt 45 commercial. The set was a hotel built in the street in front of this same hotel. The building is the same size with interiors also. The reason, the front collapses as Redd drinks a beer at an outdoor table. It was all calculated to fall in a way that table never gets hit. So, the inside of several hotel rooms will be needed, as the dust settles. But, just in case… Redd is replaced after the establishing shot of him drinking his beverage. A stunt double takes over in case it does not go as planned.

But it falls perfectly around two stuntmen just sitting at a table. I watched the grand finale from a window across the street. Those old Colt 45 commercials are legendary. The last 45 years on the only paved road at this wild back lot ranch were also legendary. A backlot fit for a Bull!

This hotel set could easily be seen and was from beyond the studio. The second tallest building on the backlot, the church steeple is the highest vantage point on this lot. These two structures stared down at you inside and out this studio.

This is the same alley as below, reverse angle. 1976, after Al Capone had a bloody shoot-out on those stairs they built for the PONY INN set. That doorway got pounded by Tommy Guns in the hands of Ben Gazzara and Sylvester Stallone. It’s the same doorway Jimmy is in… We were copying an Untouchables episode.
This picture taken in 1973 is the west side of the Mayberry Hotel. My friend Jimmy is crouched in the doorway, his fingers are simulating pistols…I’m being shot at!

This set could easily be seen from beyond the studio chain link fences. The second tallest building on the backlot, the church steeple is the highest vantage point on this lot.

I was standing with Roger Corman at camera for this sequence. Read “Tommy Guns,Bootleggers & L.S.D” Proudly in my book one ‘Hole in the Fence.” Roger granted us permission to stay put when security questioned us. “They have been here all week!” was his quote to the security guy brandishing a note pad. We became part of the crew, I was 15-Thanks ROG!!!

For years, The Pony Inn sign was nailed to my house, in my backyard. 4 Bullet Holes detonated. Taken off the hotel at Desilu by me. Another marvelous decoration was hung up alongside this sign… Leonadro Funeral Home.That was used in in ally at MGM Lot 2. This film used both my backlots, I even scored a Fedora. “I was the most gangster kid you could possibly know.”

What are these guys dressed for?

Time travelers- they landed in Mayberry.

Notice these windows from Mayberry…”Let’s get a drink Joan!” said one space traveler…

Emmitt’s Radio and T.V repairs and Floyd’s Barber Shop...”don’t look so close” said one Art Director!

The stairway this criminal is leaning against is famous. It has been known to have a still in it- for Otis Cambell -to fill up!

There is a stairway to take to a fake cellar Otis has been seen coming out of. Of course, I needed to see what he saw and…it was a closet to fit two people at the most and still get the door shut. 12 steps take you back up to street level as we go backside this structure. Tall licorice plants greet you head high, distributing a wonderful fragrance, and even better, it doesn’t have stickers. Slither through these and look inside, what you see is a wall to block this open backside. A front hotel window is visible from the this area of grown over antiquities. Stuff so old you barely make it out, a wagon wheel sits seperated from it’s carriage, apparently for decades.

That door takes you behind the hotel and barber shop...

The Mayberry Theater and this Hotel are separated by a tiny dirt alley. This alley has had more gangster battles than any other in Hollywood. Elliott Ness was involved in most, I met Robert Stack at the Warner Brothers 100 Year rededication party. He rode on my tram on the Warner Lot.

This baby takes 4 D batteries that creates a spinning grind-stone inside this gun that emits sparks out the muzzle.Simple and effective. Back when boys had toys like men. A toy Manuel Zamora would be proud of! I was armed in my chair with my finger on the trigger on Saturday evening reruns of….The Untouchables.
This is a marvelous read about Hollywood’s top armament provider. The piece also explores an overall weapons handler for not only show business but also the U.S military. He took Tommy Guns used in Little Caesar and converted them back to live automatic weapons. His work helped protect our coast harbor in W.W-2. His name Manuel Zamora. A fascinating life and a great friend of Howard Hughes.

We are now at the front door of a set. It has been used in TV Land on such shows as Batman, The Green Hornet, Superman, and Lassie. It was also used in- Gomer Pyle, Andy Griffith, The Untouchables, and Star Trek, to name a few.

These two guys film all over this backlot.

The Green Hornet uses this backlot.

The Hotel front entrance…

Let’s go inside the wooden double door entrance. A couple of walls go in different directions. They frame the reservation desk. A stained wood stairway provides a nicely presented path. It rises surreptitiously upwards. The higher you climb, the more dilapidated these stairs become. Only a couple of nails hold up the non-supported final climb to the roof. It’s not “if” this stairway collapses, “it’s when!”

Inside the lobby…

RKO, Selznick, DeMille, Howard Hughes, and Desi Arnaz each took turns as head of this place. Meanwhile, one guy, a mogul, ran MGM with an iron fist and a plan. 40 acres had no plan for longevity. It’s a garage with left over movie parts. Use what you need, if you can find it. MGM cataloged and stored everything, like a department store.

The plaster fake brick fronts chip off and can be used as chalk to write on the sidewalk. Bricks also are made from resin and come in sheets like plywood. Fabricated composites poured into a fiberglass mold. It’s these false fronts that offer the little protection these sets get. These iconic sets are really built as simply and cost effective as possible.

“Why we don’t ever use the Paramount backlot?...How did we get stuck in Mayberry?”

Los Angeles …2024–typical street scene.

This lot was where wild beer commercials involving bulls tend be filmed…both Schlitz and Colt 45 compete against each other. Once the bull got loose and ran down Lucerne Ave, after exiting the main gate. Actors can be so temperamental…

“You better run kids!”

The hotel/bar suddenly crashed down to the patrons at the table. Redd had a limo on set being polished up. It had a bar in the backseat and smelled like a box of cigars inside. As soon as the dust settled and the “Gate was checked,” he exited our backlot “stage right.”

Written and lived by Donnie Norden…

I finally got this tram rolling again in time for the upcoming tourism season – Follow- TheGlamourTram, on WordPress

Inside the Enigmatic World of Film Set Adventures

Phantom of the Backlot3 Comments

Your Mission-if you choose to accept, involves slave trade in a foreign land. Follow maps pictured. Mine is the elaborate one involving chases and fires. This village featured today burned to the ground in 1976.

Rather amazingly, this I.M F map looks very akin to my chase map I drew at school one “one- day dreaming afternoon.” I made my map in 1975, having never seen this episode at that time. Me and my merry band of trespassers were “our own” I.M.F force.

A Mosque where women are bought and sold as slaves…

Roof top reconnaissance vantage point, arch entry way. Picture taken 1973

Neighboring sets include the Tara Plantation and a trackless train depot, both built in 1938. This village featured is the oldest set on 40 Acres, built in 1927 by Cecil B. DeMille.

This is a job for Cinnamon Carter…

A deal is being structured in a village where anything can happen…trust me on that!

A roadblock on Freedom Road.This dirt highway actually connects Mayberry to Stalag 13.

“We sure bluffed those guys !”

“A prize potential slave has arrived in our village. Go grab her!”

Dirham and dinar will be offered in abundance is this Islam State for this slave.

More I.M.F has arrived in force for the upheaval to come…

The I.M.F has multiple disguises. Cinnamon is being offered up for slavery. “This where the rubber meats the dirt!”

A Goat is offered as trade. There will be no more human slavery. This decision was made after a brief but powerful meeting with the cleric in charge. The goats name is now…Cinnamon.

A “happy ending” indeed as the I.M.F exits this Desilu Mosque.

Turn your television to 1967…

I’ve spent a lot of time in this middle eastern village. This was the oldest set on the back lot. Built in 1927, and it survived everything this studio could dish out until a fire in 1976.

A land of Kings, Wayfarers, and Gypsies proceeded the even more turbulent 1970’s. Marines, Trespassers, and scantly clad Winches walked in the same footprints in exactly the same fashion. The last film ever made in this section was an “adult movie.” I stumbled across it one afternoon while ditching school. I was pleasantly flabbergasted. Women were topless as they pulled buckets of water out of a fountain positioned center of town.went Provocative hunter-gatherers lined every awning and doorway in this outside Bazaar.

The deal orchestrated by the I.M.F no longer was in place in 1976. The haram has changed in this topless village, now void of rules involving body cover. “Allah” would punish this village only two months later with a devastating fire that obliterated this ancient village. It spread to another famous set-Goobers Gas Station, as fire and ash reigned supreme. I was there as wood crackled in an orange blaze before collapsing in a volcano of sparks.

I could not help to shed some tears. My upstairs fort collapsed in a plume- gracing the night sky. It was once used by Elvis Presley in Harum Scarum. Millions of sparks became airborne, blowing in every direction, like translucent orange butterflies. The challenge for the fire department was limiting this blaze to just backlot and not surrounding hillside and neighborhoods.

The end of a kingdom that stood fifty years was taking place this evening. This was the hub of this backlot, it stood in the skyline for every classic film ever filmed here. This set was a close as could be for the Burning of Atlanta sequence in Gone With the Wind. Fire equipment was everywhere on the backlot and the Baldwin Hills that look down from above. This village was so close during the filming of that iconic moment that fire and effects were stationed here. The heat spread intensely like a solar flare. Everyone involved could feel it while capturing Hollywood’s most legendary night, December 10, 1938 to film.

In 1938, this scene was filmed. The village in our story lies directly behind this special effects fire. One of the first scenes filmed in the classic film. This was a harbinger of the future involving this studio. No studio in Hollywood had more fires. Almost every set burned here. The backlot was similar to a war zone in the civil war, especially in the 70’s.

Being so old, rooftops became perilous, friends of mine have fallen through through to the floors below. Perils exist everywhere. This village, even when not being used in a particular show, was a cornerstone of R.K.O / Desilu history. It was also the longest lasting fort on this backlot built in the oldest set of all.

We lived among...Spirits in the Night

This area could not be more pitch black at night. No city lights, no studio lights here, just…50 Shades of Black. Briefly, we could see our images. Navigate by moonlight, like owls. We flicked our Bic lighters while we smoked hashish. We were in a land very much akin to where this Moroccan waterbased hash was compressed for export. After ignition, we took a deep inhalation from our Hookah pipes. Our images transformed into figures from films of the past. Coming alive all but briefly, yet eternal, as to never leave.

Like we possessed the keys to this ancient kingdom. We became teenagers from the past living in the future.

I spend more time on these backlots then I do at school. This is fine because I’m getting a specialized education in film history. A class not offered in my schools. I was my own professor of movie making, my students were required to trespass, risking, capture, incarceration, and worse…injury. No guarantees on how “class” would finish once you’re inside. We have no clocks, just never ending blowing sand. Your here until your not…

We didn’t have books, We had T.V’s…

Reruns were scriptures of the events that took place before us. Dial in those “rabbit ears” to distant decades. The Outer Limits is reachable here. Like being an electron inside an atom. Anything is possible. Look about the landscape, things still exist and those that don’t…reappear. Powerful stuff-TV’s become “Time Machines.” We transport ourselves with help from a rotary channel changer and a rooftop antenna. Channels 2-13 and many in between, constantly replayed Desilu’s glorious past.

We all grew up here, I was just became the caretaker, or steward if you prefer. You didn’t need to set foot in here because your penetrated this backlot with episodes and images of your childhood. A fascinating place for kids to stumble into. We actually live …our T.V sets in ways unimaginable. In someways, it’s like finding out there is no Santa Clause and the North Pole is just a set!

We progressed. We started taking the most beat up television you have ever seen into sets on the backlot. These sets had “utility convenience outlets” for powering up our Time Machine. An extension cord was like an umbilical cord. Creating one dimensional life in a three dimensional setting. Channels changing required a pair of pliers. The antennas were broken also, you carried it with one hand, like football. We had to climb fences with this five pound box full of transistors and tubes. Always being on guard for “guards.” This magic-portal resembled a football helmet with dings all over it. It never refused to pull in a picture…

Time for Rod Serling wisdom; “You’re about to enter another dimension. It is a dimension not only of sight and sound, but also of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination.You’re moving into a land of both Shadows and substance of things. And ideas- you have just crossed over into the Twilight Zone”

No truer words, put out your cigarette Rod, this a place best known for fires.

Televised segments from long ago, sparks from the past so to speak. In then sets they were created at years and decades before. Even Rod would have appreciated the extent we went to journeying …Back to the Past.

Written and lived by…Donnie Norden

A Guard Tower at Stalag 13

Phantom of the Backlot2 Comments

Reflections of the way life used to be.

Through the mirror of my mind, I go back to a place and time I can remember so clearly. I flash back to simpler times on this lot and cling to the memory for comfort.

In the summer of 1973-this story begins…

Teenagers will be teenagers; fun can be had anywhere. Anywhere for me almost always involves a backlot. I have a pretty girlfriend, named Maureen. She’s a female me, she likes excitement and smoothly and efficiently climbs razor sharp fences, usually in cut offs. We trespass at MGM Lot 2 all the time, it’s part of living so close. But my shiny new first ever girlfriend has heard so many cool stories about Desilu. She wants me to show her around. Like a 13-year-old Gentleman, I agree.

A Green- Culver City bus drops us off on the corner of Van Buren. The driver reminds us, “Bus service stops at 10 pm.” We cordially nod in approval. I paid our fare with change from my dad’s Blue- Santa Monica Bus coin dispenser. It’s like my own personal piggy bank. Nickels, dimes, and quarters are at my beckon call when dad mistakenly leaves this money contraption on our kitchen table. Yes- my dad is also a bus driver with the Venice/Santa Monica beach route. Sometimes Jimmy and I ride with him just for the views. There are always plenty of nice girls riding along with the newest trends in beach attire. This attire is barely any attire at all. It’s cultural and educational.

Maureen and I exit the folding glass doors across from the Culver Hotel, at a Richfield Gas Station. It’s just a short walk from here to the La Ballona Creek. As we head in a southern direction, we small talk back and forth as we briskly walk to our destination. We slow the pace down. We pass where Bruce Lee once lived during the filming of The Green Hornet. “He lived upstairs here,” I point upwards to the second floor in a duplex right behind Desilu. Every teenager “Digs” Bruce Lee and sadly he just passed on at the age of 32…His death shocked me. It was like when Jimi Hendrix died. Or when Vince Lombardi, Pete Duel, and Venice legend Jim Morrison died, all recently. It seems to us young teens… The Good Die Young!

We pause in respect like…he’s here!

We continue down the street and climb down a cement slope and into the La Ballona Creek. This is where most trespassers begin their journey. There is no fence at all. Barb wire chain link surrounds the studio, but no obstacles here. Guard Dogs have disappeared that used to guard this place. It has a new owner, Laird Studios, and Hogan’s Heroes was just canceled last year. That is the main destination tonight, Stalag 13. The time is just past 6 PM. It is a summer night. The bright orange sky highlights itself against a gracefully aged backlot.

We hold hands as we go up that same cement embankment. We peek between eucalyptus trees that line the creek on one side. A dirt road leads all the way to Mayberry on the other side. The first set we pass is Goobers Gas Station. I show her around, first inside where empty shelves used to sell motor oil. There is still a pump and an icebox, left behind out front of the filling station. Off to the side is a dirt pit that cars drive over so Goober or Gomer can change your oil. There are a lot of holes around this backlot. We both jump over the pit at the same time because- “we saw Opie Taylor do it!“

I cut through some Eucalyptus trees. I pull Maureen behind me through a face full of leaves. We enter the King of Kings set, built in 1927 by Cecil B. DeMille. “Me and the boys just built this fort” as I proudly walk upstairs to the second floor. It’s narrow inside and we have a table and chairs…they are actually boxes that say Explosives that we found at the camp. I quickly realize there is no comfortable place here to relax and talk school. This is a man’s fort– so we move on.

Downstairs and after one last farewell glance backward, we move ahead under a plaster archway. We’ve now entered the old west. Like a pair of tumbleweeds, we roll through town. All’s quiet so far, we are the only people here this evening. The sky takes on a more dramatic orange hue. White clouds are whipped up above us. We head towards the infamous Hogan’s Heroes tree stump.

I hold open the lid. Maureen proceeds down a 6-foot wood ladder into the dark abyss. She does not hesitate at all. The remaining daylight lights the entrance. It suddenly turns to pitch black as I slam shut the hatch. Just me and her in the pitch dark interior of the most famous tree stump in the world.

I have the advantage; I control the lid. Her laughter turns into a scream as I grab at her childishly. She finds me in the pitch blackness. She begins punching me when I reopen the lid for my own safety. I help her out of this wood and composite stump filled with spider webs. I notice her forehead and hair have some fairly large cobwebs on them. They look like camouflage.

We reset our bearings to approach our next target- Klink’s Office. We enter from the backside of his headquarters while walking and taking in 6-foot-tall licorice plants. The entire backlot looks and smells like this wonderful fragrance gift from nature. We arrive quickly. We take one step into the tiny, widely exposed backside. We stand between a wild wall that hides this field from the camera. Then, the front door opens. It’s my turn. I twist that black metal door handle. We step out on the covered porch overlooking the Stalag. At this moment, we are like – Colonel Hogan and Helga.

I really want to make out, so does Maureen…I think. I feel electricity usually reserved for when I’m being chased. Or when I’m hitting a home run. Or when I’m scoring a touchdown. It’s that feeling!

We walk to the dog kennels located next to a wishing well and a utility hut. I tell her “I want one of these for my dog Pebbles”- who sometimes trespasses herself. I know all the tricks here. I say “under one of these 6 dog houses another backlot hole exists.” She finds it and celebrates like some hidden Golden Easter Egg. You feel a certain moment of satisfaction. It occurs when you see this particular camp entrance. This entrance supposedly begins at the tree stump yonder. Here it is- in all its glory.

Next, we browse into a P.O.W. bungalow which happens to have… rope cots. We sit, then lay on them but we reject them as very uncomfortable, like potential “rope burn” uncomfortable. Close but no cigar. We open the P.O.W. door and look toward the main gate. “let’s go climb up into the guard tower, shall we?”

We run in anticipation, stopping to look in the Red and White striped guard shack. Close by, a ladder invites you upwards toward the guard lookout vantage point. The gigantic searchlight has been removed as was the machine gun. We look over the Stalag as the sky just begins to darken. We are in the Tower farthest right looking outward beyond the Main gate, toward the grassy snow-covered knolls.

A lot of kids watch sunsets at the beach. Maureen and I dig backlots. We find Stalag 13 very romantic. Eventually we get sick of standing and just lay on the floor of this tower…making out like sophisticated 13-year-olds. I remind her to be careful not to fall through the hole the ladder rises up through. Maureen looks beautiful as the sun sets on her already golden blonde hair. As I remove one more cobweb…”We begin the Art of Making Hickeys” on each other’s necks to the sensual sound of crickets.

Definition…These are marks left on the skin. This usually occurs after sucking. They can take 10 days to disappear.

Sometimes, I just like to soak in my surroundings. She likes to talk. I guess it’s what you call “pillow talk.” I find myself fading in and out but hear something that spikes my interest. She said, “when I get older, my first time has to be special.” It should be like in a barn with hay and moonlight. I nod in polite concurrence. She may think I’m not listening. However, I feel that we have ratified an agreement. It’s like a treaty between two countries. I think to myself… Desilu has three barns. Three! Whee! Three! Be careful what you wish for young lassie. Pillow talk… I can dig it.

We watch the episode of Hogan’s Heroes when General Burkhalter arrives at that main gate. Every time, we share a secret. We were the last scenes at this Stalag…with those same two giant Southern California Palm Trees off in the distance. We each gave our personal stamp of approval on this iconic set. “Don’t let your mom see this for Ten Days-at least! “

We’re off to Desilu! The Number 7 takes you past not only MGM- but Desilu too. MGM Studios pictured on the right.

A street named Van Buren is located directly behind the Desilu. This pulsating iconic legend lived here in 1967 while filming –The Green Hornet. A salute to Kato is always in order.

The tower farthest is our landing spot. This is where we discover “necking and hickeys”.

Just behind those Eucalyptus trees lies Camp Henderson from Gomer Pyle. The Baldwin Hills looks downward like a balcony seat.

Future Trespassers- Location, location, location… Proximity to the studios would set our fate. At this age, machine gun fire echoed through our street from the T.V. series Combat, filming close by. I was born in the middle of WW 2-on T.V. anyway.

Partners in crime…Maureen on the left/Donnie on the right. Yearbook photos at Culver Jr. High. Funny thing here is “I never carried Identification, but I did carry a brush-everywhere.” We were constantly brushing our hair. She was always reaching in my back pocket. That’s life in the 70’s.

A four-foot-deep square hole lies under one of the six dog houses. This was where the POW’s would enter and exit the camp. The tree stump tunnel was how our Heroes snuck back into Stalag 13. They were both just- holes in the ground.

Of the three stumps, only one opens. This lid shuts by that rope handle. It had an incandescent light at one time for the actors that were put inside. This evening had no such amenities…Pitch black darkness awaits us.

This wooden cross piece was part of the top lid that opened and closed. It is all that remains from my tree stump. It was towed across town on a steel wheel cart when Stalag 13 was torn down.

This is a story from my second book, The Uninvited Visitor. Trespass with us through the Golden Age of Hollywood. Back to the 70’s we go… Advice…If I start running, you better keep up!

Written and lived by Yours Truly...Donnie Norden