Historical Marker · No. 554
Cecil B. DeMille Studio Barn
Hollywood, Los Angeles County · California
Erected by California State Parks, Los Angeles County, and Paramount Pictures, 1956
They were going to Flagstaff. DeMille got off the train, decided Arizona did not look like the West he wanted, got back on, and rode to the end of the line. In December 1913 the Lasky company rented half of this barn at Selma and Vine for $250 a month; horses used the other half, and the cast changed in empty stalls. The Squaw Man came out of it, the first feature made in Hollywood, with the Ho-Chunk actress Lillian St. Cyr playing Nat-U-Ritch. Edison's patent trust was a continent behind them.
What the plaque says
One-half of this structure, then in use as a barn, was rented by Cecil B. DeMille as the studio in which was made the first feature-length motion picture in Hollywood, "The Squaw Man", in 1913. It was originally located at the corner of Selma and Vine streets, and in 1927 was transferred to Paramount Studios. Associated with Mr. De Mille in making "The Squaw Man" were Samuel Goldwyn and Jesse Lasky, Sr. Registered Landmark No. 554 Plaque placed by California State Park Commission and Historical Landmarks Committee of Los Angeles County in cooperation with Paramount Pictures Corporation, Dec. 27, 1956
Where it stands
34.10863, -118.33608 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Campo de Cahuenga — 2.6 miThe treaty that ended the fighting in California was signed on this ground, and the building it was signed in is now under the boulevard.
- Chavez Ravine — 6.0 miThree Mexican American neighborhoods cleared for public housing that was never built, then traded to a ballclub.
- Los Encinos State Historic Park — 10.0 miA spring that never stopped running, the village it fed for thousands of years, and the rancho that took the ground away.
- Colorado Street Bridge — 10 miBeaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
More markers nearby
- Freeman House — 0.3 mi
- Ennis House — 2.5 mi
- Campo de Cahuenga — 2.6 mi
- Hancock Park-La Brea — 3.3 mi