^WO pears ago one of the leading motion pic- 

 ture producers conceived the idea of a com- 

 munity that would be exclusively devoted to the mak- 

 ing of photoplays. Today the idea is realized in 

 the vast ranch and municipality known as Universal 

 City, located in the beautiful San Fernando Valley 

 of California. Although this community has already 

 been described in a past issue under the caption 

 "Chameleon City," its recent completion permits of 

 a more detailed account of the many wonders of the 

 world's only motion picture city. 



ANY ONE who is familiar with the 

 producing of motion pictures is 

 aware that slowly but surely the 

 film companies are taking up their resi- 

 dence in southern California. At the pres- 

 ent moment it is estimated that three- 

 fourths of the films manufactured, or 

 rather motion pictures produced, come 

 from that favored section. The annual 

 payroll of employees of the motion pic- 

 ture companies in southern California 



is at this moment about $7,000,000. It 

 is claimed that the property and equip- 

 ment of these companies is worth more 

 than $3,000,000, and that this sum will 

 ultimately be increased to $6,000,000 

 when the many improvements planned 

 and now under way are consummated. 

 The actors and actresses alone number 

 over 10,000. 



But the object of this story is not to 

 tell how many companies are located in 



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