A rare postcard I own showing the filming of Gone With the Wind. Notice the Main Lot studio water tower is seen peeking through the trees.
All that remains of the famous Backlots in Culver City are dirt, a few trees which bordered these backlots which escaped demolition and a fossil footprint which can be seen looking down from Baldwin Hills or Google Maps.
50 years later, I still walk these areas each morning with my dog Thora. My morning walk takes me down through the Studio Estates housing complex, formerly MGM Backlot #2; then down Ince Blvd to the Warehouses which were built over the 40-acre backlots.
I have a passion for Motion Picture Archeology, and I’ve always wondered “How much of these backlot sets are still buried underground? Was it easier to bury some of it than haul it away?
There are a number of pictures from 1976 which show the 40-acres backlot completely demolished and leveled out other than a pile of bricks and concrete. What sets would actually use real bricks, since most of these sets were never built to last?
The answer to this is simple. Wilbur Kurtz, who was hired on as an Artist and Historian during the production of Gone With the Wind states: The majority of Tara was built with composition board “the kind you find at Sears”. Only the brick columns and floor of the front porch were actually brick and mortar. Bingo!
You’ll see in the pictures of this post that the brick and concrete moldings, which I covered on a prior GWTW post, match up perfectly with the columns of Tara. Now, what I’d like to find out is… are the columns still buried there?
I’ve narrowed down the current location of the columns using before and after pictures, and call me crazy, but I for one, would love to rent an Excavator and dig up a section of the parking lot to see if they’re still there! Is anyone down for a dig?
Story written and lived by Donnie Norden
A 1939 Publicity still showing the real brick columns
Desi Arnez Life magazine, 1959. Tara is nearly see-through from decay in the background.
Here’s a great shot of the Tara brick columns in rubble taken in 1976. Notice the moulding is a match.
Another shot of the Tara columns with the Studio in the background. Same studio water tower in the 1st picture of this post.
An aerial shot of the backlot showing Tara (yellow arrow) and the A-frame house (red arrow) to line it up
That same A-frame house can be seen here in 1976 and today. The yellow arrow is our estimated Dig Point!
Vivien Leigh on the porch of Tara in 1939 and below her, the same angle in 1959 in decay.
Another angle of the Tara columns (B&W) taken toward Baldwin Hills, and the Tara location today.
David O. Selznick in deep thought wondering…. Should Donnie go there late at night and dig it up?
Ingrid Bergman in 1943 posing in front of Tara. Tara can be seen later in many movies and television shows.
David O. Selznick standing inside the Atlanta Depot. The majority of the sets he built on the 40-acre backlot remained in use for nearly 30 years.
Thanks for reading! For more backlot adventures, check out my newly released book on Amazon. Phantom of the Backlots Presents: Uninvited Visitor https://a.co/d/eRTFLsy
Phantom of the Backlots 