A Thumbnail History of Sunset Gower Studios
When Harry Cohn, a song-plugger from New York came to the west coast in 1920 to seek fame and fortune, he came to where all the “little guys” settled. Poverty Row was the area bound by Sunset Boulevard on the North, Gower Street on the West , and Beachwood Drive on the East. It was a ragtag collection of small warehouses and vest pocket offices where the independent film makers gathered to buy “short ends” of film from the major studios, in order to create their “great American dreams”. Harry along with his brother, Jack, and Joe Brandt started a company, CBC Film Sales. CBC became known around the major studios as Corned Beef and Cabbage.
 With Harry, a proud man, that sobriquet did not sit well. On January 10, 1924 Columbia Pictures Corporation was born. By 1929 the familiar image of the lady with the torch was beginning to make an impact on the Hollywood scene.
Enter director Frank Capra. Capra’s first film for Columbia was “THAT CERTAIN THING”  in 1927, a modest film that served the studio well, and Cohn, Capra and Columbia were on their way. “SUBMARINE” in 1928 followed. It was Columbia’s first film with sound effects. Capra, along with screenwriter Robert Riskin teamed to put Columbia Pictures and Harry Cohn firmly in the Hollywood Pantheon with a series of talking films including, “IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT” in 1934, “MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON” in 1936, and “YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU” in 1938, as well as “LOST HORIZON” in 1937, and ending with “MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN” in 1939.Columbia Pictures Corporation continued with such films as “FROM HERE TO ETERNITY”, “ON THE WATERFRONT”, “ PAL JOEY”, “PICNIC”, “ALL THE KING’S MEN”, “BORN YESTERDAY”, “THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI” and a host of other Oscar winners.
In 1958 at age 66 Harry Cohn died. His Memorial service was held on stages 12 and 14.
Without the guidance of the Cohn Brothers, Columbia Picture Corporation was not the profit-making company it once was. Between 1970 and 1972, Columbia moved from the 14 acre lot, and joined forces with Warner Bros. in Burbank. Its “back lot” on which all the great Columbia westerns were made on Hollywood Way in Burbank became the property of Warner Bros.
In the meantime, the lot sat fallow. In 1977 the property was purchased by the Pick Vanoff Company. It underwent a name change to its present name Sunset Gower Studios. The lot became a rental facility for independent film companies. It was also used in the seventies as a music rehearsal facility catering to such music greats as Elton John, Ringo Starr, Frank Zappa, and Olivia Newton John. For a time stages 12 and 14 became indoor tennis courts.
In August of 2007, Sunset Gower Studios was purchased by Hudson Capital, LLC. Hudson Capital’s vision incorporates both honoring the history of the lot and continuing with an eye on the future with the construction of the six-story building for Technicolor.
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