| CBS Columbia Square | |
|---|---|
 CBS Columbia Square in April 2007 | |
| Location | 6121Sunset Boulevard Hollywood,California 90028 |
| Coordinates | 34°05′54″N118°19′23″W / 34.098293°N 118.323087°W /34.098293; -118.323087 |
| Built | 1938 |
| Architect | William Lescaze |
| Architectural style | International Modernism |
| Official name | CBS Columbia Square Studios |
| Designated | March 10, 2009 |
| Reference no. | 947 |
  Location of CBS Columbia Square in the Los Angeles metropolitan area Show map of the Los Angeles metropolitan area CBS Columbia Square (California) Show map of California CBS Columbia Square (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
CBS Columbia Square (also calledColumbia Studio) was the home ofCBS's Los Angeles radio and television operations from 1938 until 2007. Located at 6121Sunset Boulevard in theHollywood neighborhood ofLos Angeles,California, United States, the building housed theCBS Radio Network's West Coast facilities, as well as CBS's original Los Angeles radio stations,KNX andKCBS-FM. KNXT-TV, Channel 2 (nowKCBS-TV) moved into the complex in 1960, and theCBS's West Coast network operations were based there until it moved to the largerCBS Television City in November 1952. After its purchase by CBS in 2002,KCAL-TV moved to the Square from studios adjacent to CBS's corporate siblingParamount Pictures. Between 2004 and 2007 all of these operations moved to other facilities in the Los Angeles area.
Columbia Square was built for KNX and as the Columbia Broadcasting System's West Coast operations headquarters on the site of the Nestor Film Company, Hollywood's first movie studio. TheChristie Film Company eventually took over operation ofNestor Studios and filmed comedies on the site, originally the location of an early Hollywood roadhouse. Prior to moving to Columbia Square, KNX had been situated at several Hollywood locations.
Columbia Square was designed by Swiss-born architectWilliam Lescaze[1] in the style ofInternational Modernism and built over a year at a cost of two million dollars — more money than had ever been spent on a broadcasting facility.
Lescaze's sweeping streamline motifs, porthole windows and glass brick were true to Modernist design, though CBS PresidentWilliam Paley insisted the Square's form follow function. In his dedicatory speech, he remarked, "It is because we believe these new Hollywood headquarters, reflecting many innovations of design and acoustics and control, will improve the art of broadcasting that we have built them and are dedicating them here tonight."
Columbia Square opened April 30, 1938, with a full day of special broadcasts culminating in the star-studded evening special, "A Salute to Columbia Square" featuringBob Hope,Al Jolson andCecil B. DeMille. Crowds thronged Sunset Boulevard and a blimp bathed in searchlights hovered overhead as the program was carried coast-to-coast on the Columbia Broadcasting System, beamed to Europe via short wave, and carried across Canada on theCBC. On that premiere broadcast, Hope joked that Columbia Square looked like "theTaj Mahal with a permanent wave." Jolson quipped, "It looks likeFlash Gordon's bathroom."
The Square's original configuration included eight studios. Studios 1 through 4 were to the left of the main entrance. Upstairs were Studios 5 through 7 and at the rear of the forecourt was the large auditorium referred to as the "Columbia Playhouse" that seated 1050. In 1940, two new audience theatres were added to the east of the auditorium called "Studio B" and "Studio C" each seating approximately 350 people. Shows such asJack Benny'sLucky Strike Program andThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet originated from Studio B.Lucille Ball'sMy Favorite Husband,Blondie, andDr. Christian are a few of the shows that broadcast from Studio C. When B and C were built, the Columbia Playhouse then took the letter designation of "Studio A". Studio A was home toThe Silver Theatre,The Swan Show starringGeorge Burns andGracie Allen,The Lady Esther Screen Guild Players and countless others. The complex included Brittingham's Radio Center Restaurant, a men's clothing store, and a branch of theBank of America. Tours of the studios cost 40 cents and passed by a glass-windowed control room housing Columbia's West Coast master control.
"Columbia Square was one of the glories of radio. It was somewhat sacred to those in the industry. There was nothing comparable to its splendor in New York" says writer-producerNorman Corwin whose most famous broadcast,On a Note of Triumph, originated from the Square on VE Day, 1945.
In early 2009, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission and theCity Council designated CBS Columbia Square Studios as ahistoric-cultural monument.
Columbia Square became home to some of the best-known comedies of radio's golden age.Jack Benny,Burns and Allen,Edgar Bergen,Red Skelton,Eve Arden (Our Miss Brooks),Jack Oakie andSteve Allen sparked to the airways from the Square.
Dramas includedSuspense;Gunsmoke; andMan Behind the Gun, written, directed and produced byWilliam N. Robson;Dr. Christian, "The Whistler",Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar,The CBS Radio Workshop, where authorAldous Huxley introduced a production ofBrave New World andColumbia Presents Corwin — dramas produced byNorman Corwin.In May 1945 Corwin's "On A Note Of Triumph" was produced in studio A marking the end of the war in Europe and to mark the end of the second world war Corwin produced "14 August" in Studio A.
Musical acts that performed at Columbia Square includedEddie Cantor,Rosemary Clooney,Bing Crosby,Doris Day andGene Autry. ComposerBernard Hermann frequently scored and conducted Columbia Square broadcasts. Through the facilities of KNX, the Columbia network broadcast big band music from nearby ballrooms including theHollywood Palladium and the Earl Caroll Theater.
WhenThe Bing Crosby Show moved to CBS in 1949 it took over space on the second floor of the east side of Columbia Square. A tape recording and editing facility also was built there to support the show. It was the first facility of its kind to support a national radio show. The recording sessions and the audience shows were usually held in the CBS theater at 1615 Vine Street just south of Hollywood Boulevard. With the new three recorder facility, the radio show evolved from a cut and splice operation into one that was created from many different recording sessions with audience reactions incorporated. It was new territory explored by the Crosby team.[2]
In the late 1940s and early 1950s Columbia Square also served as a CBS television facility. In 1948, the first West Coast-based variety program,The Ed Wynn Show, was produced on Stage A.Lucille Ball's first national TV appearance took place onThe Ed Wynn Show in December 1949 (aired on the East Coast just after New Year). Within the year Stage A would be the location of the shooting of the pilot episode ofI Love Lucy.
In the 2005 KNX broadcast,A Salute to Columbia Square, announcer George Walsh recalled crowds jamming the Square's forecourt for tickets to live broadcasts. (Ushers would sometimes walk downSunset Boulevard toNBC's studios atVine Street to urge audience members to watch a Columbia Square broadcast instead.) After their on-air appearances, actors would dash to the Radio Actors Telephone Exchange in the Square's lobby to check with their agents about their next bookings.
In 2007, KCRW and other public radio stations broadcast "Remembering Columbia Square: A Salute to a Palace of Broadcasting" featuring Norman Corwin, George Burns, Jack Benny, Jim Hawthorne, Janet Waldo, Art Gilmore, Alan Young, Herb Ellis, Art Linkletter, Gil Stratton, Harry Shearer, Marie Wilson, Mel Baldwin and sound effects man Ray Erlenborn. The program was produced by Gerald Zelinger.
Bob Crane was a top-rated KNX deejay at Columbia Square in the 1960s andJames Dean worked as an usher. Some of the Square's once-luxurious radio theaters were converted to recording studios forColumbia Records whereBob Dylan,Barbra Streisand and many other top stars recorded albums.
KNX moved into new studios in theMiracle Mile neighborhood on L.A.'sWilshire Boulevard which it shares withEntercom Radio stationsKFWB,KTWV, andKRTH. KNX, the last radio station to operate in Hollywood, moved after 67 years of operation at the Square just after 11:00 p.m. August 12, 2005, following a farewell broadcast from its Columbia Square studios. On April 21, 2007, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV left the building and moved their operations to theCBS Studio Center inStudio City, thus ending Columbia Square's status as a broadcast facility, one of a very few remaining in Hollywood.[3]
The Square fell into disrepair during the years in whichLaurence Tisch chaired CBS, andasbestos problems were cited as a reason to demolish the venue. Sungow Corp acquired Columbia Square in 2003 for $15 million.Las Vegas-based developer Molasky Pacific LLC, acquired the property in August 2006 for $66 million. It planned to redevelop the 125,000-square-foot (11,600 m2) complex to continue to attract entertainment industry tenants and is considering options that would add some residential units to the office and broadcasting facility. The project is valued at $850-million and is the largest development project in Hollywood, California. The redevelopment of the historic CBS Studios on Sunset was approved in 2009 with a controversial 28-story tower. Developer Kilroy Realty Group acquired the project in 2012 and changed plans — when completed the new Columbia Square will feature a 20-story residential tower with 200 apartments, 33,000 sq ft (3,100 m2) of retail, three renovated historic structures, two new office buildings with an additional 330,000 sq ft (31,000 m2) of space, and four and a half levels of underground parking.[4][5][6][7] The development was under construction by 2014.
In fall 2007, producerViacom, owner of CBS until 2005, chose the site forMTV'sThe Real World: Hollywood.
TheNational Trust for Historic Preservation andLos Angeles Conservancy have been actively engaged in efforts to preserve the Hollywood landmark.[8][9]
In November 2014, Kilroy Realty Group announced that Viacom would be leasing most of the space in one of the new office buildings on the site, for the West Coast offices of its cable television networks, includingMTV,Comedy Central,BET,TV Land andSpike TV; these offices had been in Santa Monica and other parts of the Los Angeles area. (Spike TV rebranded as Paramount Network in 2018; Viacom and CBS re-merged in 2019 to form ViacomCBS, laterParamount Global.)[10][11]
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