Two intersections with a ton of cinematic history. When Nestor Film Company moved to the corner of Sunset and Gower in 1911 it became the Sunset Gower Studios , which birthed Columbia Pictures when the Cohn brothers took it over and signed Frank Capra as their star auteur. Jack Warner founded Sunset Bronson . He built his studio on old farmland.
In fact, it was here after Warner and Zanuck’s 1924 success with Rin Tin Tin , shot on the lot, that the Warner Brothers franchise was born. Both studios thrived in the ‘Golden Age’ of cinema then languished as their parent companies moved off the lots. Gene Autry bought Sunset Bronson in 1964 and turned it into indie production space. Sunset Gower languished and became rock rehearsal spaces for guys like Frank Zappa and John Lennon, as well as indoor tennis courts. These days, the two studios are fused and once again offering stage and office space to big-game productions.
