The
Poverty Row area of Hollywood, bounded by Sunset Boulevard on the north, Gower Street on the west, and Beachwood Drive on the east, was a collection of small warehouses and offices where independent film makers gathered to buy "
short ends" of film from the major studios, in order to create their "great American dreams". In 1922,
Harry Cohn of
Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation rented 6070 Sunset Boulevard in Poverty Row. The Sunset Gower Studios lot, the home of such Columbia classics as
Frank Capra's
It Happened One Night in 1934,
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939, the
Three Stooges shorts
, The Caine Mutiny, and Funny Girl, has continued to host productions of top new films such as
The Good Shepherd and
The Good German. Television programs that have occupied several sound stages most notably include
The Amanda Show,
Bewitched,
City Guys,
Deal or No Deal,
Dexter,
The Donna Reed Show,
Father Knows Best,
Hazel,
Heroes,
Hip Hop Harry,
How to Get Away with Murder,
I Dream of Jeannie,
JAG,
Married... with Children,
Moesha,
The Monkees,
NewsRadio,
The Parkers,
Saved by the Bell,
Scandal,
Six Feet Under,
Soap, and ''
That's So Raven; the first two seasons of The Golden Girls'', then subsequently moved to the
Sony Pictures Studios (formerly
MGM and
Lorimar Studio) in
Culver City. Its "back lot" on Hollywood Way in Burbank, where the Columbia westerns were made, became the property of Warner Bros. Columbia Pictures Corporation, renamed "Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc." after merging with its television subsidiary
Screen Gems (now
Sony Pictures Television) in 1968, Columbia Pictures Industries relocated to the above mentioned The Burbank Studios. Despite the merger, the Sunset-Gower studios provided the soundstages for popular television shows such as
Bewitched and
I Dream of Jeannie. In 1976, the property was purchased by the Pick Vanoff Company for $6.2 million. The name was changed to "Sunset Gower Studios" and the lot became a rental facility for independent film companies. It was also used in the seventies as a music rehearsal facility called Pirate Sound Studios, catering to musicians such as the
Eagles,
Fleetwood Mac,
Elton John,
Led Zeppelin,
Olivia Newton-John,
Ringo Starr,
Deep Purple and
Frank Zappa. For a time, stages 12 and 14 became indoor tennis courts. In November 2004, Sunset Gower Studios was purchased by
GI Partners for an estimated $105 million, and in 2006 began construction on a six-story building for
Technicolor SA. In August 2007, Sunset Gower Studios was bought by Hudson Capital. The Technicolor building opened its doors in 2008. Since 2007, the studio has been undergoing both interior and exterior improvements on the lot. Sunset Gower Studios is now working closely with its sister company
Sunset Bronson Studios, located just a couple of blocks east on the site of the original Warner Bros. lot (1923–37), formerly owned by
Tribune Broadcasting, and
Sunset Las Palmas Studios, formerly the Hollywood Center Studios until 2017. == Expansion project ==