Looking through some photos the other day and I found a group of images from various years at the Universal Studios tour in southern California. (I can’t bring myself to say Hollywood. Even North Hollywood is stretching things a bit. Universal City is a better location.)

So, after a bit of inspiration from another blog - Viewliner Ltd. -  I hope you’ll enjoy today’s offering. The photos all came from a collection of vintage photographs I purchased on eBay several years ago from Nicepictures.

The view above shows the entrance plaza in what must be the late 80’s (judging by the shiny new SUV). The Victoria Station restaurant wasn’t long for the world as the chain suffered financial problems and filed for bankruptcy in 1986. If memory serves, I think we ate a fine prime rib dinner there on our honeymoon, in the spring of that same year. This location actually featured some British passenger cars that were also inside the gates. (A Google search reveals that one location, Salem, MA, is still in operation.)

Ah, yes... the Studio tour or “Glamor” trams. Originally designed by Harper Goff, (yes the same man responsible for Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise boats) and produced by Minibus. Be sure to “Ask for Babs” as your tour guide.

My first visit was in the early 70’s. But the public has been visiting Universal since it’s earliest days as a motion picture studio. Owner Carl Laemmle offered the public tours during the silent film days at 25 cents a piece including lunch and the chance to watch movies being made. That ended with the advent of sound films, but the studio tour reappeared in the mid 50’s as tour bus companies added visits to Universal. According to The Studio Tour website (a great source of information), July 15th, 1964, was the first day of the Universal Studios Tour.

If memory serves, on my first visit, we boarded the tram and rode down the hill to the Studio. Here we disembarked for a tour of couple of sound stages (as seen above). Today, guests take the series of escalators up and down the hill.

Here’s a vintage view of those sound stage tours. And I actually watched both of those television shows, in prime time, no less.

The real meat of the tour was the standing studio sets. All of the various streets...

And you got to see various props and other studio goodies along the way, too. I remember seeing what remained of the PT 73 hull at one point.

Finishing up today, views of a couple of famous homes once seen on the lot.

1313 Mockingbird Lane, looking pretty good, considering...

Cabot Cove, long before Jessica Fletcher came to town, before Bruce came to the lagoon, and the house on the hill which offered that a boy’s best friend is his mother.

Hope you enjoyed this brief look back at one of southern California’s other attractions. Back next week with more goodies!