A&M Studios
| Jim Henson Company Lot (Original Charlie Chaplin Studios) |
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|---|---|
Main Gates, 2006
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| Location | 1416 N. La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California |
| Coordinates | 34°5′47″N 118°20′35″W / 34.09639°N 118.34306°WCoordinates: 34°5′47″N 118°20′35″W / 34.09639°N 118.34306°W |
| Area | 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2) |
| Built | 1917 |
| Governing body | Private |
| Owner | The Jim Henson Company |
| Designated | 1969 |
| Reference no. | 58 |
 Location of Jim Henson Company Lot
(Original Charlie Chaplin Studios) in the Los Angeles metropolitan area |
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The Jim Henson Company Lot (originally Charlie Chaplin Studios and formerly A&M Studios) is a studio property located just south of the southeast corner of La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. It was built in 1917 by silent and sound film star Charlie Chaplin.
After being sold by Chaplin in 1953, the property went through several changes in ownership and has served at various times as Kling Studios, the Red Skelton Studios, the shooting location for the Adventures of Superman and Perry Mason television series, and as the headquarters for A&M Records and The Jim Henson Company. In 1969, it was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
In October 1917, Charlie Chaplin announced plans to build his own film studio at the southeast corner of La Brea and Sunset Boulevard. In his autobiography, Chaplin described the decision as follows:
"At the end of the Mutual contract, I was anxious to get started with First National, but we had no studio. I decided to buy land in Hollywood and build one. The site was the corner of Sunset and La Brea and had a very fine ten-room house and five acres of lemon, orange and peach trees. We built a perfect unit, complete with developing plant, cutting room, and offices."
Chaplin purchased the site from R.S. McClellan, who lived on the site and had a large grove of orange trees on the property. The lot had 300 feet (91 m) of frontage on Sunset and 600 feet (180 m) on La Brea, extending south to De Longpre. Chaplin announced he would make his home on the northern part of the property, and build his own motion picture plant on the south part of the property, cornering at La Brea and De Longpre. Chaplin's plans for six English-style buildings, "arranged as to give the effect of a picturesque English village street," were published in the Los Angeles Times in October 1917. The plans were prepared by the Milwaukee Building Company (Meyer & Holler), and the total investment was estimated to be in the region of $100,000. The layout of the buildings was described by the Los Angeles Times in 2002 as a "fairy-tale cottage complex." Another writer has described the style as "eccentric Peter Pan architecture."
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