Hollywood Studio Suffers Terrible Fire

Universal's Lots, Film And Music Vault Go Up In Flames

June 2, 2008

Um, is this fire month in the entertainment industry. First, 50 Cent's multi-million dollar house his ex-girlfriend was living in with their son, is suspiciously burned to the ground, and now this.

Citizens of downtown Los Angeles woke up to, as one witness put it, "a mushroom cloud" of fire and smoke, billowing from a Sodom and Gomorrah Hollywood studio.

The Universal lot was on fire. The equivalent of two city blocks consumed by a raging fire that took firefighters 12 hours to put out.

Universal, the makers of the films Miami Vice, the sacrilegious Bruce Almighty and the copyright infringing American Dreamz, and home to thieving artists like Jay-Z and Rihanna, saw the fire destroy 40,000 - 50,000 movie film reels (the fire men saved a couple hundred) and thousands of music masters from classic film soundtracks and modern recordings (Universal Music).

Ron Meyer

The mere fact that the president of Universal, Ron Meyer, who is one of the top supporters, financially and otherwise, of convicted felon, private investigator Anthony Pellicano, stated they have "duplicates" says the original film reels spanning several decades were destroyed in the fire.

As most people know, you can't replace an original. Music masters are also one of a kind originals from which CDs and albums are made.

It's a real shame the set for the cruddy rip off film American Dreamz didn't burn to a crisp, but they had probably dismantled it many months ago, anyway. Um, I mean, sorry for your loss.

For the record, I was in Miami when the fire happened, therefore it wasn't me.

Hollywood actress Sharon Stone

However, regarding the fire in Hollywood, applying the philosopher Sharon Stone's words and reasoning, "is that karma - when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you Hollywood?" Hmmm (sarcasm).

Fire at Universal Studios destroys sets, videos

The streetscape that burned recently served as a backdrop in such films as "Bruce Almighty" and television shows including "Monk," "Crossing Jordan" and "House," said NBC Universal spokeswoman Cindy Gardner.

Meyer estimated there were 40,000 to 50,000 videos and film reels in a vault that burned but said duplicates were stored in a different location. Firefighters managed to recover hundreds of titles.

The videos included every film that Universal has produced and footage from television series including "Miami Vice" and "I Love Lucy."

http://ap.google.com

Universal Blaze Burns Musical History

It looks like more was damaged or destroyed in today's Universal Studios fire than anyone previously thought.

I've learned that Universal Music, which is a completely separate company and owned by Vivendi (which owns 20% of NBC Universal), rents space in the huge video vault housed on the studio lot. But one source tells me that,

As a consequence, inside the video vault that was billowing thick black smoke were 1000's of original Decca, MCA, ABC recording masters from the last century including a wide range of music from Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters to Judy Garland and The Carpenters.

"This is a tremendous loss in music history. A very sad day indeed. It's too bad they saved the videos that they have backups on instead of the master recordings in which they do not, although they may not have had a choice since the fire had already engulfed much of the music side of the vault," a source just told me.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com