Stop Two - The Keystone Studios
Google Map for this location
Thanks to a web site I found, I knew that the building that used to house the Mack Sennett Keystone Studio was somewhere in the LA area. I mentioned this to Chris as he was gathering his itinerary, and we found that it fit nicely in the tour. So after we left the Three Stooges Stairs, we headed down Glendale Blvd to find our next stop.
The web site said that the building was behind the Jack-In-The-Box, and that's what we spotted first. We pulled into the driveway of the storage facility, and Chris and I jumped out to get a picture of me with the building. Yeah, I know that sounds goofy, but it gets better.
As Chris is snapping the picture, I hear a woman's voice come out of nowhere (actually the speaker on the gate.)
"Can I help you?", the voice asks.
"No thanks," I reply, "just taking a picture."
"Do you want me to open the gate?" she asks.
"That's OK," I answer, a little nervously. "We just wanted to get the building." I add "Just silent film fans."
The voice says "Well, if you want to come in, you can see the plaque that says that this was the Keystone Studio, and designates it as a national landmark."
Chris and I look at each other in surprise and both say "Sure!" We jump back in the Element and tell Steph "We're going in!" The gate opens and we drive in. Right on the side of the building is the plaque, just as the voice said it would be.
Afterwards, we figured that we should thank the woman for letting us in. We walk over to the office, and were met by this very pleasant and knowledgeable woman that I'm embarrassed I didn't get her name. She told us about another part of the studio (a pedestal of some historical significance) that a local fan found was placed somewhere a couple miles away, and the fan is working to get it moved to this location. She also told us that the shell of the building is what was designated as the landmark, and that they could do what they wanted to the inside but the outside had to stay intact. In fact, she said, the rafters in the building are the original rafters, and if we wanted to, we were welcome to take the elevator up to the top floor and see where the lights and other movie-making stuff was hung. We looked at each other and again said "Sure!" We ran back to the Element and again told Steph "We're going in!"
We walked in the building and saw a couple long hallways, lined with doors, like any other storage facility. We took the elevator to the top floor, and here's where it gets a little hard to explain. The top floor consists of similar hallways and doors, but there's no ceiling. Above is the beams and the rafters that make up and support the ceiling. The first thing we see when we got off the elevator was this weird metal rack/pulley contraption, which you can see in the picture below, that's obviously not part of the support of the roof, so we figure must be left over from the studio.
We walked around the whole floor, checking out the rafters. Here and there were things that didn't look like they served any current purpose, and appeared to be pretty old.
I wish I could describe the feeling I had walking around there. I know that it's now just a big building with a bunch of rooms full of people's stuff, but whether it was cool darkness above us compared to the warm light outside, or the thought that Sennett, Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle, Normand, Turpin, Langdon and a host of other comedy legends probably worked in
this very building, there was something special about that place. You may look at these pictures and think I'm goofy, but I see something special there. Maybe you had to be there.
We left the building, climbed in the Element, waved to our new friend in the office as we drove through the gate, and headed to our next stop.
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