Due
to all the court battles with the collapse of 'the Trust', many
studios were very unstable. Instead of signing on with another
studio, Chaplin decided to open his own.
Chaplin
opened his own movie studio at the corner of LaBrea and Sunset
in Hollywood in 1917 in the middle of a residential section.
Chaplin
shot all of his classic silent films at this studio on La Brea
Avenue, including The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern
Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1939).
Charlie
even left his footprints in the once wet cement outside of the
studio's Sound Stage 3 (said to have possibly inspired Sid Grauman
to create his famed Chinese Theatre forecourt).
Along
with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he
founded United Artists studio to
distribute the films they made.
But
his original historic studio still stands today, though it has
been reduced in size from 5 acres down to the present 2.2 acres.
After
Chaplin departed the studio in 1953, CBS filmed several well-known
TV Series there, including "The Adventures of Superman,"
The Red Skelton Show," and "Perry Mason."
Until
1999, it was the headquarters of A&M Records, which was created
by trumpet player
Herb Alpert (from the Tijuana Brass fame) and Jerry Moss.
For
a more in depth bio on Charlie Chaplin, click here
