Warner Brothers Tour

Harry Potter Costumes

I begged my way into a free tour of the amazing Warner Brothers lot last week. This studio really puts a lot of effort into creating a broad range of experiences into their tour. This year marks their 90th anniversary and they're really kicking it into high gear.

Dusenberg used in The Great Gatsby

Warner Brothers is starting an end of the week contest where guests use the hashtag #wbfotofriday when they post their favorite pictures of the tour on Twitter, and then Warner Brothers picks their favorite to post on Fridays.

Jack Lemon bust from the prop department

For the month of November they are providing tours in French on Mondays and Wednesday at 3:45! Spanish tours run Monday-Friday at 12:15 PM and 3:15 PM.

My Fair Lady Costumes

There will also be free guest speakers from time to time. Check the Warner Brothers Website for details as they develop.

A portrait of Humphrey Bogart for his last film, that was never made

There are two types of tours. The VIP tour which is two hours and the deluxe tour that is 5 hours and takes you to the commissary for lunch. While you might think two hours is enough, you'd be wrong. There is so much to see and trying to squeeze it all in to two hour is impossible. I highly recommend the deluxe tour, and if they ever make a ten hour tour I'll recommend that one. Another great perk of the deluxe tour is eating in the commissary. It's great for star gazing.

Jazz singer script

 If you only have one day to tour a studio in LA, Warner Brothers is the place to go. You see it all from backlot sets to props, they even have a museum with an entire floor devoted to Harry Potter. You can get put in a house at Hogwarts by the actual sorting hat. The museum also has a variety of movie memorabilia from early film up to today. When I was there they had the script pictured above from the first "talkie", The Jazz Singer, all the way through the recent Great Gatsby film.

Back Lot

Warner Bros Studio Tours

Warner Bros Studio Tours  had several bloggers come on their deluxe studio tour last week and thanks to  Adrienne's House I was among them as her stand in. It was an amazing day.

We began the day riding the tour trams through the studios stages and back lot. The guide pointed out a million fascinating things, I got as many picture as I could. Here are just a few.

Here is the last remaining set from Casablanca. It's the french cafe. 

This theatre facade was being dressed for something but you may recognize it from The Way We Were, A StarIis Born (54) or more recently The Artist.

We made a stop in the prop department and got to see the rooms and rooms of pieces used in their films. Here are a few that I was excited to see.

This is one of many Maltese Falcons. But still VERY cool!

Our guide told us sometimes prop people will see pieces in films and they will recognize them. Today all props have bar codes but back in the day records were not kept so completely.

Here is a lamp from Auntie Mame, with Rosilind Russel.

The deluxe tour let us eat lunch in the Commissary, which has been redecorated but is original. The food was delicious too! We ended our tour in the Warner Bros. Museum. They house everything from my favorite classic films to current TV shows. Warners' rotate the displays, this time I saw 3 Elizabeth Taylor costumes from Giant, Life With Father, and Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf. I was amazed that they all seemed to be approximately the same size. Sadly no pictures are allowed in the museum so you'll just have to use you imagination till you get there yourself.

UPDATE:

Here is a picture from inside the museum at Warner Bros. This is Bette Davis' dress from Dark Victory. If you look closely behind the mannequins you can see a little bit of the orange piano from Casablanca. This wasn't there the day I was there, but like I said they change things around from time to time, so you never know what cool thing you'll get to see!