May 16th, 1952 - Warner Brothers Studios outside Hollywood burned to the ground

It was a supercolossal fire. It took place on May 16th in Warner Brothers' studio outside of Hollywood, and everybody agreed it was the biggest fire in studio history. It began about noon - nobody knew how - near a work shed, spread to a row of false-front buildings called the "New York Street" and engulfed a majestic edifice which film fans have seen, slightly altered, as courthouses in Pittsburgh, Paris and New York, and most recently as an italian street setting in Force of Arms. From here the fire jumped to the huge Stage 21, which has a tank for sea epics, and razed it completely.

Colonel Jack Warner, vice president of the company, joined such stars as Ray Bolger, Burt Lancaster and Gordon MacRae in helping firemen man the hoses. Three hours later, when the flames had died, the shooting schedule on three pictures had been disrupted but nobody had been seriously hurt, and every cent of the $1.5 million damage was covered by insurance.

Movie set of wood and plaster, representing a municipal building, is destroyed as fireman struggle to quell Hollywood's biggest blaze.


It was an ill fire that did blow some good to alert publicity men who posed stars amid ruins. Here Steve Cochran (in jodhpurs) helps man hoses.














Virginia Mayo looks wistfully at a rescued script outside the charred dressing room of Alan Ladd, with whom she will co-star in The iron mistress.






















Doris Day wears dressing gown as she comes from shooting scenes for the musical, April in Paris, to survey fire-damaged car in front of gutted Stage 21.












_______________________________________
photos and documentation: LIFE Magazine (US) | Zetu Harrys collection. 

0 Comments