DeMille Barn May Get State Grant

A historical preservation group has been given county approval to seek an $80,000 state grant for the restoration of the old Lasky-DeMille barn, the site of Cecil B. DeMille’s first feature-length movies and the place where some historians say Hollywood got its start.

The barn, built in 1895 on a farm at Selma Avenue and Vine Street, was rented in 1913 by the 32-year-old DeMille and his partner, Jesse L. Lasky, as a studio for filming the “Squaw Man.”

The “Squaw Man,” based on an established Broadway hit, cost $15,000 to make but grossed more than $200,000. The company quickly took over the entire block and later moved to Van Ness Avenue and Marathon Street, where it eventually became Paramount Studios.

Hollywood Heritage Inc., which is restoring the 90-year-old barn for use as the Hollywood Studio Museum, expects to complete renovations and open the museum to the public this year, a spokesman said.

The barn, now located in the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl, will house memorabilia from the movie industry’s early years.

The Board of Supervisors this week gave approval to the organization to seek a state grant under a new program designed to preserve California’s historical resources, a county official said. The application will be sent to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which is administering the program.

Ralph Buddemeyer, a spokesman for Hollywood Heritage Inc., said the group plans to launch a fund-raising drive to help finance the extensive and nearly completed renovation project, estimated to cost $96,000. “We are completely restoring it from the bottom up,” Buddemeyer said.

“We’ve taken out rotted sections and torn out boards and really rebuilt a lot of it. There are very few pictures available of the barn from the early days, but we are trying to stick as close to the original as possible.”

Joe Prather of the county Department of Parks and Recreation said that water lines and other services should be hooked up soon.

Buddemeyer said the structure has a rich history.

According to historians, Buddemeyer said, actors shared a stall with a horse to change their clothes and DeMille had to keep his feet in a wastepaper basket under his desk when the barn’s owner hosed down the floor.

In 1926, Lasky and DeMille’s firm, known as the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, merged with other partners and moved to the current site of Paramount Studios. The company demolished all the old studio buildings except the barn, which was moved to the new location and used for dressing rooms, a library and storage, and eventually as the studio’s gymnasium.

In 1956, the barn became a familiar sight to television viewers as the railroad station for the Bonanza series. That year the structure was declared a California state landmark.

But, Buddemeyer said, the building deteriorated over the next two decades, and in 1979 was moved to a parking lot on Vine Street, where it sat unused.

In 1982, the building was transferred to Hollywood Heritage Inc., which moved it to the Hollywood Bowl parking lot. Restoration, all of which has been financed by the organization, began in 1983, Buddemeyer said.