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. The studio thrived in the ‘Golden Age’ of cinema then languished as its parent company moved off the lot. The site became a rock rehearsal space for guys such as Frank Zappa and John Lennon, as well as indoor tennis courts.

These days, the studio is fused with nearby Sunset Bronson Studios and once again offers stage and office space to big-game productions.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Sunset Bronson Studios

0.26 MILES

Jack Warner founded Sunset Bronson in 1919, building his studio on old farmland. It was here that Warner and Zanuck shot Rin Tin Tin (1924), the film's…

2. Hollywood & Vine

0.38 MILES

If you'd turned on the radio in the 1920s and '30s, chances were you’d hear a broadcast ‘brought to you from Hollywood and Vine’. Thanks to a mega…

3. Pantages Theatre

0.38 MILES

Scottish architect Benjamin Marcus Priteca designed this 1930 survivor, the last theater commissioned by Greek-born theater magnate Alexander Pantages…

4. Capitol Records Tower

0.46 MILES

You’ll have no trouble recognizing this iconic 1956 tower, one of LA’s great mid-century buildings. Designed by Welton Becket, it resembles a stack of…

5. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

0.64 MILES

Paradisiacal landscaping, vainglorious tombstones and epic mausoleums set an appropriate resting place for some of Hollywood's most iconic dearly departed…

6. Janes House

0.68 MILES

The last remaining Victorian home on Hollywood Blvd, built in 1903, and the former site of Miss Janes’ School, which was attended by the children of old…

7. Egyptian Theatre

0.88 MILES

The Egyptian, the first of the grand movie palaces on Hollywood Blvd, premiered Robin Hood in 1922. The theater’s lavish getup – complete with hieroglyphs…

8. Guinness World Records Museum

0.96 MILES

You know the drill: the Guinness is all about the fastest, tallest, biggest, fattest and other superlatives. Frankly it's an underwhelming tourist trap…