One hundred and four years ago The HAL ROACH COMEDY COMPANY opened a studio at Washington and National Boulevards. This studio was known as “The Lot that Laughter Built” where such screen icons as Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chase and other comedy stars made Culver City their home. The Roach studio opened in 1920 and closed in 1959 almost a forty-year run as one of the most successful comedy studios in film history. During WWII the studio was converted into a military facility from 1943-1948 making training films. After the war, the studio entered the world of Television.
The overall mission for Roach was to nurture talent and its star players, that spent the prime of their careers on this Culver Lot. The Roach Studios turned out genuinely original material such as the screwball classic Topper (1937), and the serious story Of Mice and Men (1940), followed by One Million B.C. (1940). Join us as Marc Wanamaker presents The Hal Roach Studio and the legacy it left as one of the most famous film studios in film history, which took place in Culver City.
