Movie Mogul Left a Universal Legacy

More than eight decades after Carl Laemmle welcomed 20,000 visitors to its gala opening, Universal Studios is a thriving mini-metropolis of sound stages, restaurants, nightclubs, UCLA Extension classes, stunt shows, gift shops, offices, concerts and a $110-million re-creation of Steven Spielberg’s celluloid dinosaur preserve, “Jurassic Park.”

Following a profitable investment in Chicago-area nickelodeons in the early years of the 20th century, the German immigrant quickly established himself as one of Hollywood’s first movie moguls after forming the Independent Motion Picture Co. of America to compete with the powerful Motion Picture Patents Co.

In 1910, Laemmle inadvertently launched the star system by publicly identifying Florence Lawrence, the once-anonymous “Biograph Girl,” as his studio’s featured player. After luring Lawrence from Biograph, the flamboyant producer planted a false newspaper story reporting her accidental death and subsequently unveiled her as the “Imp Girl.”

It was Laemmle’s purchase of a 230-acre chicken ranch in Cahuenga Pass that would become his greatest legacy to the San Fernando Valley, however. Now home to Universal Studios and parent company MCA, the site once featured bleachers where film fans could watch silent pictures being shot. Alas, the 25-cent attraction ended with the advent of “talkies” in the late 1920s.

Financial troubles brought on by the extravagant spending of Universal’s production chief--and Laemmle’s son--forced him to sell the studio in 1935 for slightly more than $5 million. He died in 1939.