Lights, camera, action! This simple illustration of studio lights was on the cover of a Universal City Studios menu in 1969.

In 1914, Carl Laemmele purchased the 230-acre Taylor Ranch, five miles north of Hollywood, California, and began construction on Universal City, the largest and most advanced filmmaking facility in the world at that time.

The German American immigrant, who got his start in the movie business in Chicago, envisaged a factory-based, assembly-line mode of film production, with an annual output of some 250 films.

UniversalCity was not only a gigantic working studio, it also had its own police force, mayor, post office, bank, school and zoo. The general public was invited to see the movie-making action for an admission fee of five cents, but these groundbreaking studio tours were discontinued

around 1930 due to the advent of ‘talkies’ and stages not being sufficiently soundproofed. The studio’s trademark genre in the 1930s were horror films such as Dracula and Frankenstein (1931) The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and a remarkable range of film-making talent started at Universal including the actor Rudolph Valentino and director John Ford.

 Other famous films made there include To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) The Blues Brothers (1980) Scarface (1983) Field of Dreams (1989) and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and Jurassic Park (1993), among many others.

This 1969 menu had a ‘celebrity room’ section and proudly notes that waitresses’ uniforms were created by Jean Louis. The French/American fashion designer was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and designed costumes for Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn and Judy Garland.

His most famous design was Marilyn Monroe’s ‘nude’ sparkling gown that she wore to sing Happy birthday to President John F Kennedy in 1962. The dress sold at auction in 2016 for $4.8m, making it the most expensive dress in the world. We wonder what the waitresses’ uniforms were like!

Laemmele’s dream of allowing the general public access to filmmaking took flight again in 1961 when Universal recommenced tours of the studio. Today, Universal Studios and its theme parks across the globe host millions of film fans every year.