RKO Forty Acres

RKO Forty Acres
1965 aerial photo of the Forty Acres property, looking west. Desilu Studios can be seen in the background
General information
Type	Film backlot
Location	Culver City, California
Opening	1927
Demolished	1976
Technical details
Size	28.5 acres (11.5 ha)
Studios in charge Cecil B. DeMille (leased from Harry Culver) 1927 RKO Pathé 1928–1948 Selznick International Pictures (leased from RKO) 1935–1939 RKO under Howard Hughes 1948–1955 RKO General under General Tire and Rubber Company 1955–1957 Desilu 1957–1966 Paramount 1967 Perfect Film and Chemical 1968 OSF Industries Limited 1969–1976

RKO Forty Acres was a film studio backlot owned by RKO Pictures and later Desilu Productions located in Culver City, California. Best known as Forty Acres, or "the back forty", it had other names such as "Desilu Culver", the "RKO backlot" and "Pathé 40 Acre Ranch" depending on which studio owned the property at the time. For nearly fifty years it was known for its outdoor full-scale sets such as Western Street and Atlanta Street or Main Street and was used in films like King Kong (1933) and Gone with the Wind (1939), and television shows like Bonanza and Star Trek.

The property was a triangular parcel of land that measured 28 ¹⁄₂ acres (11.5 ha), located a few blocks from RKO (now "The Culver Studios") which was situated to the west. It was bounded by Higuera Street to the north, West Jefferson Boulevard, Ballona Creek and Culver City Park to the south and Lucerne Avenue to the west. In 1976 it was razed for re-development and is known today as the southern expansion of the Hayden Industrial Tract. A number of the buildings in the industrial park have been converted to television studios. One of the shows produced at the park is Hell's Kitchen.

The property on which the backlot was located was originally intended to be a lease for Cecil B. DeMille’s production of the 1927 film The King of Kings. On it he constructed the historical City of Jerusalem, which remained for the RKO production of King Kong in 1933. By then it was known as Forty Acres and owned by RKO Pictures.

In 1935, David O. Selznick leased the property from RKO for his new studio, Selznick International Pictures. For his 1939 production of Gone with the Wind, the plantation Tara, the Atlanta Depot (based on Atlanta's 1853 Union Station), and other Atlanta buildings were constructed on Forty Acres. The depot and many of the Atlanta buildings became permanent fixtures on the property until its final days, while the set of Tara was sold in 1959 to investors who planned to open a theme park in the Atlanta area (see Tara (plantation)). From 1943 to 1958, a separate part of the 28.5 ac (11.5 ha) known as the African jungle set, located on the opposite side of Ballona Creek, was used extensively for the Tarzan series by RKO, and later for The Adventures of Jim Bowie television series by Desilu. Following years of turnovers by several owners, including Howard Hughes, the backlot was practically deserted and cinematic productions declined. It was purchased in 1957 by Desilu with the intention of filming for the burgeoning television industry.