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Image / Major Pictures Corporation on Las Palmas in Hollywood

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Title
Major Pictures Corporation on Las Palmas in Hollywood
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1937
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
In 1919, Jasper Johns, built Hollywood Studios Inc. which consisted of several bungalows and three production stages with steel frames, cloth walls and glass roofs and on a 16.5-acre site in Hollywood. The lot was home to many independent production companies including: 1926 Belasco Productions, Renaud Hoffman Productions, Harold Lloyd Corp. and the Metropolitan Studios; 1929 King Burton; 1932 Educational Talking Pictures Co.; 1938 Major Pictures Corp.; 1939 Cobian Productions Inc., Este Productions Inc.; and 1942 Edward Small Productions Inc. With the advent of television, the FCC barred major studios from producing television creating a new opportunity for independent companies. In the 1950s after the switch to television the lot housed 15 or more different production companies at a time. Stage 2 became home to "I Love Lucy," the first primetime comedy on the West Coast produced before a live audience. In 1980, director Francis Ford Coppola owned the lot for a short time, before it was purchased by the Singer Family and again became home television shows, including "Jeopardy," and "Pee Wee's Playhouse." Today, the lot is home to Hollywood Center Studios.
The utility lines are covered with birds on this cloudy day in Hollywood. This view is taken from the parking lot of Boulevard Manufacturing Company (1031 North Las Palmas) across the street from Major Pictures Corporation. Queen palms line the street in front of the studios.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00098492
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-007-932 8x10
CARL0005088525
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/38491
Subject
Major Pictures Corporation (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Boulevard Manufacturing Company (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Motion picture studios--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Palms--California--Los Angeles
Parking lots--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Birds--California--Los Angeles
Utility poles--California--Los Angeles
Automobiles--California--Los Angeles
Streets--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Las Palmas Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs

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