Friday, September 9, 2011

The Friday Special: Movie Magic - 28.5 Acres Becomes Forty Acres

Now we all know that its impossible -- even with movie magic -- to turn 28.5 acres of land into forty acres, but a 28.5 acre plot in Southern California was the home of movie magic for nearly 50 years... and was known as "Forty Acres".

Forty Acres was a backlot used starting in 1927 for the original King of Kings and then went on to appear in a long list of pictures including King Kong, Gone With The Wind and Citizen Kane.

When television came on the scene, Forty Acres was used for series as varied as Superman, The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, Star Trek, Batman, Hogan's Heroes and Mission Impossible.


Forty Acres in History?

Q: If it were possible to travel from Scarlett O'Hara's Civil War era home of Tara to the Stalag 13 prison camp from WWII and Hogan's Heroes, how miles would your journey cover?

A: 0 miles. The Tara mansion set, built for 1939's Gone With The Wind, was razed in 1959.  The Stalag 13 prison camp for Hogan's Heroes (1965 - 1971) was built on the same land at Forty Acres.



Click here for the whole story about Forty Acres on Wikipedia.

Discover even more about Forty Acres at  http://www.retroweb.com/40acres.html (Hundreds of photographs!)



Follow me on Twitter... @rnolan1087

No comments:

Post a Comment