Hollywood history time. What you’re looking at isn’t just a soundstage on the @WarnerBros lot in CA. It is, in my opinion, a ridiculous story that would never happen today. This Gandalf of a soundstage (going from Grey to White) is my favorite soundstage in all of Hollywood. 1/x 
Soundstage 16 used to be like the others. While it had a bigger footprint than many soundstages pre-1935, its height was unremarkable, it was largely unassuming and didn’t appear to be all that powerful. It was just Soundstage 7 then. I think of it as Gandalf the Grey era. 2/x
In 1935, @WarnerBros was prepping a big musical to be shot on Soundstage 7. The kind referred to back then as the BIGGEST and WITH A WORLD’S CHAMPIONSHIP CAST. Massive rush of chorus girls to the lot kind of deal. (Hollywood has never been known for its subtlety) 3/x
None other than Marion Davies (alas, no twitter handle) was the star of this musical, to be called Cain and Mabel. Marion liked to go big when it came to moviemaking. For this particular movie -- dancing cast, huge set pieces -- Marion wanted NEXT LEVEL overhead crane shots. 4/x
Small problem: no soundstage in existence was big enough to accommodate the next level crane shot ambitions. So Marion pressed studio bigwig Jack Warner (again no Twitter handle...how did they get by?) to literally raise the roof. His answer: uh, no. 5/x
Marion Davies didn’t take no for an answer (impressive). Given that her boyfriend, newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst (@... never mind) had a few pennies and was a producer on the film, she went to him. He foot the $100K bill to raise the roof. Jack Warner was like, ok. 6/x
This is where it gets bonkers. Time was short, there was a movie to be made, so they decided to, get this, jack up the entire soundstage so it was 98 feet in the air held up by railroad tie stilts. Nothing to see here, all is well. 7/x
Some walls replaced the railroad ties and this Gandalf the White of a soundstage came to be. Cain and Mabel the movie did not change the world. But I’d argue what became Soundstage 16 did. As if doubling the height wasn’t enough, a 2.3M subterranean tank was added. 8/x
Soundstage 16, at 9 stories top to bottom, has been the birthplace of some of moviedom’s most epic tales. Busby Berkeley’s world famous geometric pattern choreography musicals? Soundstage 16. My Fair Lady, the drag race in Rebel Without A Cause, Yankee Doodle Dandy. 9/x
One particular set housed by Soundstage 16 that continues to blow my mind in terms of its epic ambitions (even by Hollywood standards): One Eyed Willy’s Pirate Ship from The Goonies. Take a look at the Inferno. This was all on Soundstage 16. Not a green screen in sight. Wow 10/x
It also turns out that what happens in Vegas sometimes happens on Soundstage 16. Ocean’s Thirteen’s 3 level Vegas casino - escalator and koi pond included - was in reality Soundstage 16. The roof of Caesar’s Palace in The Hangover Part III was Soundstage 16 as well. 11/x
Inception, Dunkirk, and parts of Tenet. The roundtable room in Camelot. Gotham city center in Batman Returns. The rooftop scene from Ghostbusters with Gozer and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. The T-Rex from Jurassic Park broke loose from its pen on Soundstage 16. 12/x
Even the North Atlantic Ocean has been created on Soundstage 16. The Andrea Gail and her unfortunate crew from The Perfect Storm battled the elements via a 2.3M gallon tank in the soundstage. Imagine George Clooney walking from shooting in the North Atlantic to Morton’s. 13/x
And so this marks the end of this episode of Hollywood history time, Twitter style. Soundstage 16, know that you are loved. Am thankful you exist. P.S. The @WarnerBros lot is so very, very good. A treasure. 14/14
P.S. for the @pinkfloyd fans out there. Soundstage 16 played a role in this iconic image as well...to the left is good old 16.
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