For starters, I met some fantastic people! From the security staff, to the executive producers, and everyone in between -- it was so neat to meet and work with the people who had a giant influence on the shows that shaped my childhood.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was how cool the building was! If only those walls could talk! So much history resides at this place. Nick on Sunset originally opened on December 26, 1938 as the West Coast location of the Earl Carroll Theatre. The supper club-theatre offered shows on a massive stage containing a 60-foot wide double revolving turntable, staircase and swings that could be lowered from the ceiling.
(This is what the theater looked like back in the day!)
After Carroll and Wallace died in the crash of United Airlines Flight 624 in 1948, the theater was sold. In 1953, it became the Moulin Rouge nightclub, then later the Hullabaloo Rock and Roll club, and then the Aquarius Theatre in the late 1960s. The Pick-Vanoff Company, who owned Sunset Gower Studios, purchased the property in 1983, converting it into a television theater where Star Search, the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, Alf's short-lived talk show, and The Chevy Chase Show were once broadcast.
In the mid-1990s, Nickelodeon decided to move production of some live-action series' to the West Coast from Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida at Universal Studios. Nickelodeon obtained a lease for the 6230 Sunset Blvd facility, acquiring the soundstage and rebranding it "Nickelodeon On Sunset" by 1997. It has been the home for shows like All That, The Amanda Show, The Nick Cannon Show, Drake and Josh, iCarly, and Victorious.
I'm not sure why, but I was not expecting to see so much Hollywood history in a Nickelodeon soundstage. Nickelodeon has done a fantastic job preserving the rich and deep history they now own.
Special thanks to everyone at Nickelodeon for a great day with some great people!
No comments:
Post a Comment