Secret Government Studio In Hollywood
Hills Produced Thousands of Still-Classified Films
Lookout Mountain studio today.
CLUI photo
For twenty-two years during the Cold War, the federal
government operated a secret film studio in the Hollywood Hills,
in a complex (pictured above) which has since been converted into
a private residence. Called Lookout Mountain Air Force Station,
the studio produced thousands of films from 1947 to 1969, for
all branches of the armed services, as well as for the Atomic
Energy Commission and other federal and private advanced weapons
organizations.
Few of these films have been seen by the public,
and as part of a effort to declassify at least some of them, the
50th anniversary of the studio was celebrated at the American
Film Institute last October, at an event organized by the filmmaker
Peter Kuran. Many of the "Atomic Cinematographers" (so
called as their work included creating films about the nationÕs
nuclear testing program) were on-hand at the event to reminisce
about the antics of the early days of filming nuclear explosions.
The self-contained filmmaking compound employed
around 250 people, and covered 2.5 built-up acres, housing studios,
film vaults, production areas and screening rooms. It is surrounded
by residential structures in the eccentric and hilly neighborhood
on Wonderland Avenue, five minutes from the Sunset Strip, and
is now the home of a Municipal Court Commissioner and an artist.
