Universal Studios Hollywood

This guide to Universal Studios Hollywood traces Carl Laemmle's 1915 opening of Universal City, a movie ranch built to let the public watch films being made, and the chaotic celebration that turned tragic within its first two days. You'll hear how audiences cheered and booed from bleachers as cameras rolled through the silent era, and why the arrival of sound shut the studio's gates to visitors for decades. A good moment to pause is right where those old bleachers once stood.