20th CENTURY FOX LOT IN THE BATMAN-LOST IN SPACE-IN LIKE FLINT DAYS AND A JAUNT AROUND THE LOT

20th CENTURY FOX LOT IN THE BATMAN-LOST IN SPACE-IN LIKE FLINT DAYS AND A JAUNT AROUND THE LOT

Back in yesteryear, I used to visit my dad once or twice a year...as I lived with my mom and older sister. This one time, dad had wanted me to go to the studio to meet the head greensman, I imagine that he thought at some later date I may get a job there as a greens-man (setting up greenery for the sets) in my kid's mind I thought he was going to hire me then(never taking into account I was a kid and didn't live in L.A., th the time,) so somewhat dashed when, he showed me what he did and I did not get any job offer, but he then took me to the batman set and said it was alright to just walk around to the different sets and if anyone asked i was Frankie’s kid (my dad was one of the head chefs at the Cafe de Paris within 20th Century Fox Studios)

 

M.M. EATING THERE IN 1959

 and I wouldn't have any problems so, when I came upon

the set there was Batman and Robin sitting in director’s chairs with their real names on the back. Burgess Meredith was the penguin-arch enemy and his crew were the sharks and had cool and weird make-up and one other of the sharks had a strange face but perfect casting for a shark-like look. and there was Alfred (Alan Napier)
The Batmobile was there and it seemed after the did about 20 shots of Batman and Robin getting out of the Batmobile to be greeted by Alfred, assuming they were near the bat cave or Wayne Manor. they all got together with I'd assume the director, so while that went on I made my way over to the Batmobile and I was crushed-the phone was plastic and the labels were all(nicely done) but handwritten and the gauges look less cool than when on television, many being plastic and not the metal one I had assumed, the some and mirror of make -believe land!

 One of the realities of life that later would visit me again. Burgess Meredith was the Penguin and played it to the hilt, the long cigarette holder being his trademark he had and talked at times with it in his mouth.

They brought up on a flatbed pulled by a tractor trailer a front part of a boat, so they had a scene being shot where some of the sharks-man who were thugs for the Penguin where they came up in a quick dash-keystone cop like-and told the penguin something very dramatically as the penguin answered with his cigarette and holder in his mouth. After several takes, it seemed they were going to an early lunch-at the Café de Paris or some had the food brought to the sets if there were reading scripts and/or doing script changes together or alone. The kids have tutors sometimes on the set or at home.
Well one of them, a set crew guy told me that I could go wherever I want to go on the set and to just remember that when the red light was on at a stage there were shooting and not to try and open the door or make any noise if inside and green meant oi could move around. More or less what the head greensman told me.
This was before 20th-century fox sold off much of the studio land which later became Century City shop, offices etc.
So, with the aspect of seeing more movie and t.v. sets and having spent a few hours watching the filming and actor along with the setting up of the sets and scenes and these were all outside not inside a stage and was ready to further my horizons and venture onwards.
As the adventure continued now headed along another stage filled street there were stagehands some carrying different prop sets alone or together and some larger set props being pulled by little tractors trucks (forklift like) there were stages with no little placards or lights on, above the door and it looked locked up, on the sides there were all types of different props along the sides of most stages, taking a peek and saw some cool stuff, there was the front half of a car, a palm leaf partial background-corral-like posts

Still a bit scarred from seeing the Batmobile wasn’t as I expected I saw a placard lost in space and that’s where I wanted to go-the light was green, so I ventured inside carefully opening and closing the doors shut.

 Looking really intensely the spacecraft at least the sets version and there was like a cave set up to one side with a stairway and then by the spaceship were the rocks which seemed phony from where I stood but probably looked real when filmed-the ole smoke and mirrors. I could see the cast sitting in director’s chairs with their names on the back of the chairs canvas that supported your back.

There was Angela Cartwright-Penny and guy Madison and all the others and appeared to be going over the script as the director gave them some cues for their filming placement.

The director then had the cast go inside the spacecraft and again my bubble burst as the doors to the raft were opened and closed by crew members rolling the door (you couldn’t see) on a set of curved wood rails that gave the illusion of automatically opening via electronics. The actors took their places be it at a control console or standing or looking over someone’s shoulder. They went thru their paces for this scene and made whatever adjustments asked by the director, but he was open to suggestions from the cast.

 It made me aware how long it took to make what seemed a simple scene flow as naturally as possible-by blocking the shot-lighting and sound by gaffers. Then to keep the actors with a good camera shot-and to frame the shot so the camera is a smooth picture. Which more in hindsight than my thoughts at the time. So, they started the scene and one of cast missed the shot blocking and everyone laughed rather than belittle them, real nice fun interacting between everyone, not egos out of control. They redid the scene and it went like clockwork but had to reshoot because there was glare off one of the console screens, so they reset the lighting and two takes later the scene was done.

I was still looking around at the set and letting the idea of  

of pretend and smoke and mirrors try to set in. Watching the stage crew move huge rocks or roll out a set that changed to whole area still stunned me. It was a funny reality one part of me said make-believe

and the other said too cool-where film and many arts tell you to kill you hammer of disbelief and just be entertained. And not being quite as jaded at a younger age it was not an insurmountable task.

Just an example of the rocks that were created for scenes and that is a stage door with the robot in front of it but made to look like a gate opening.

Liked like the next scene was the setting that looked like stairs cut into a rocky cave and the crew had set up a mummy at the top with the tomb standing up.

Below are shots from the filming I saw “follow the leader” episode, which was the end of their 1^st season and they were going on hiatus after this until the next season shooting started giving them a few months off, depending upon shooting schedule and publicity arrangements or tours.

They had Guy Madison got to the top of the stairway in the cave rocks then he walked down from the tomb and as he looks at it, it opens with a mummy-like creature (and it is the helmet we see that John puts on and has his alter-bad guy ego come out) inside and that ends the scene. Some of the stagehands place a few more rocks and the director talks with Madison and other stage crew bring out a little machine and dry ice and it created a kind of fog/smoke effect-as that slowly fogged around the mummies tomb, as I’d guess another just an addition take of a scene with a special effect added so when it came to editing they could pick which scene fit.-

 Madison made his way to the top of the rock-like stairway-the lighting was reset so it seemed to amplify the fog and got the scene clapper out and the set was quiet on the set-action-Madison came up the stairs with one camera following him with one near the mummy to get a closer view of the fog effect and it picked up Madison as he looked at the tomb-shooting done-now suddenly a guy dressed as a mummy appears and the crew open the romp and he stands inside and do a test run with the tomb lid opening a few times-place the lights a bit differently and place both cameras (looked like the ones you see on tv shooting the evening news) and each shot the scene as the lid opened from two different angles while the fog hung in the air around the tomb.  Then I saw guy Madison and all the actors together on their director chairs and looks like they were rehearsing a scene and the tones and were busy at that and the crew was mostly gone so this seemed like a good time to head out the door and see what was on the other stages and look at some sets even if they weren’t shooting. (the irony of life is a friend married Penny Angela Cartwright)

And there was a call for a lunch break and my queue to exit stage left, but not before I went up those stairs to the mummy and if in my fog of memory I did take some photos, the old Instamatic camera, no one seemed to mind and I kinda did it without bringing attention to me and with most of the lighting a flash wasn’t needed-well those pictures are lost in the journey of a kids things.

Being a kid, I saw something off in the distance like a lake or shimmering, at the end of the one street I looked down. So, I thought I’d start from there and work my way back.  Got to the end of the long street and it was the dock for Peyton place and proudly had a placard stating on hiatus (movie talk for off season vacation, not shooting now) there was a small lake there more than likely used for lake shots. My dad had told me that it was called Fox Sersen  Lake

 and was built for the film Cleopatra.

So on with the adventure and there were props and vehicles around a lot of the stages. Saw the Riddler’s props with question marks all over them. Some parts of an assumption on my part spacecrafts in different sections and set backings.

The next stage I passed grabbed my eye as the placard said Voyage to the bottom of the sea. Lite Was not on so there was no shooting going on and the door was open, the lights were on low in different areas of the building, so I headed to the first stage within the stage building. It was the Seaview’s submarine interior and the controls floor with the periscope.

The consoles had lights on some parts-the radar, the maps, when I saw the periscope I had to go look in it, and to my surprise with few expectations after the Batmobile, pulled down the handles which were metal and looked like it fit and looked real.

 turned and did go up and down at least for a foot of so. After the scarring from the Batmobile, this redeemed it somewhat. In hindsight there was the movie first, the series came after, so this was more than not, the same set as the Irwin Allen film and was more refined for the big screen to keep the smoke and mirrors a bit more realistic and too then the set was already done and less of an expense. It at the least conveyed that it was a submarine with all the bells, whistles and lights and set as if you were on a submarine as opposed to handwritten controls and working lights.

I sat down at several of the stations consoles and pressed buttons, that were real buttons and light with various colored lenses and set up very professionally and not hap-hazard. I took another walk on the deck and headed out to father into the stage, as I stepped down from the raised platform of the deck one could see saw thru a stage doorway what looked like a tank upon reaching it, it was a tank with about an eight foot model with seaweed stands waving in the water (as an aside the crew of the Seaview wore Keds sneakers) and one could envision this as I watched the t.v. show, then  looking around the side and saw a bigger tank and couldn’t wait to look into it.

There were several other Seaview models in it and they were smaller than the 8-foot model in the other tank and the Seaview was smaller and gave a deeper in the ocean look.

 Looking for a while and then saw by a door to the side a huge model of the Seaview and found out was nearly 18 feet long and was on a small trailer and was taken to the Fox Lake Sersen

 to make surface shots and looked so realistic because of wind machines and savvy effect technicians who created a cadence to produce an irregular wave pattern that gave the shot more realism.

Barbara Eden was part of the crew on the Seaview,  of “I Dream of Genie” fame.

I hadn’t seen but there was an underwater tank outdoor shooting tank that was 60x60x11 feet and had set up for shots with a silk diffuser, so we didn’t see that swimming pool rolling shadow effect. There were convex underwater ports (to stop refraction of the light in the water and keep the Seaview looking normal not magnified (as an aside that ports were brought from Disney used to shot ‘20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’) There was several various film cameras there and even a few models of the flying sub about 3 or 4 feet across. Since no one was filming it was time to head out as there were a few more hours for me to

wander around the studio stages on the lot. Passing onward down one of the streets to look at the stages. There was on that had the door open but no placard, so I decided to look and there were several different stages set ups within. One was like a beach café, with palm fronds and bamboo as part of the structure and what look like a bar with booze bottles all along the back and some glasses stacked too. Neat but really didn’t capture my curiosity. Another had a car there with a projection screen behind it and what looked like some small tracks along the one side of the car, for a camera?

Then jackpot, there was a set with a black background with stars and then there was like a planets ground, looking kind of like rocks with little rock spires here and there. No one was there so I touched the planet’s floor with my foot and it sunk about 4 inches… couldn’t contain myself and had to walk on it and you , if you walked normally you would bounce almost as if you were in space without gravity. Went and dropped down and bounced and had a hard time getting up because everything was spongy and kept me falling off balance all the time so after twisting and turning I finally got up on my feet and bounced my way off the planets floor (never knew what it was for, I thought it was for” Visit to a Small Planet”, but couldn’t find a reference and it was released earlier than my visit) that was cool!!! There were a few more sets but they were interesting but not that interesting.

As I went by another stage after I left the other one, I could see more props on the side of the building and a guy on a small tractor pulling along a large section of a roof with several crewmen holding on to each side to keep it balanced. There were some stacked wooden kegs and several different backgrounds leaning against the stage.

There was one stage caught my eye, there was a placard with our man flint and I headed in there not know what the movie was but liked the title. The door was ajar to the stage building and I headed in, the first set I saw was a room with a lounge-like barber chair that swiveled and if I remember flint was getting shaved by a woman as Lee J. Cobb spoke to him about an assignment.

I think this was a studio still, but has him in that chair.

I looked around went  to a huge stage set that looked like an huge apartment.

Now for that era that was the height of cool except I didn’t see the New York building background as it wasn’t lite up or projected. So, the set was cool but I didn’t really care too much about room furniture except with the concept of cool. Set stuff does have a surreal feel to it as you look at it and most of the set was the real deal, at least in terms of decorations and there was a crew to build the furniture to fight the scene.

I looked for a while and headed to another set and it had a few lite up consoles with the lights and buttons but then the set of office furniture but fancy items.  And from there down the hallway to another set there was a fancy office with a big desk and fancy chairs. I went towards to stage exit door and there was a set in the process of being set up not sure exactly what it was except it looked a bit like a restaurant, at least tables set up as such. I turned around and headed back out the main stage door.  Heading down the road that lead to the Café de Paris where my dad was a chef I passed some greensmen carrying some plants and at least that day there were few people on the sets other than myself as visitors. It was close to around 3 in the afternoon and my dad came in on his day off as a request for him to make his outstanding Rueben sandwiches which were a favorite of everyone there and apparently one of the Studio heads had a small party and had requested my dad to set it up. So he had a half day, which also saved me from getting up early and was getting ready to leave,  as I got there one of the waitresses told me he’d be right out and gave me a small table to sit at and just brought me a malt and smiled and I vastly enjoy it to the last drop. My dad came over and he was in street clothes out of his chef’s uniform. I got up and as we headed out, and an older guy came over and thanked my dad for coming in and introduced himself as Mr. Zucker. As I was looking around as we left I noticed several people from the tables waving to my dad We were just about out the door and this tall thing gentleman came over and told my dad that he always came over for one of the Rueben sandwiches when he was at the studio my dad said this is my son we shook hands and as we headed out the door I asked my dad who was he? He looked familiar but could place him, my dad said that’s James Coburn. We got to his car which was one of the first 1964 ½ Mustangs which he brought forever after that. As we got into the car he handed me a manila envelope and I opened it and there was a bunch of 8x10 glossies of different stars all were autographed to me of about every show on the 20th-century t.v. shows and a few from movies. Sad to say there have parted with me during my crazy hazy 20’s. And so, a day at the 20^th Century Fox studios and freely wandering around both filming of shows and looking at the cool set came to fore filling end for a young lad

Sadly I missed Steve McQueen who was filming the last parts of the sand pebbles