All the World's a Stage

Hollywood Pictures Backlot at Disney's California Adventure is not meant to be Hollywood. After all, you can visit the real thing just up the road. Instead, this district of the park sets out to recreate the feeling of being on the lot of a grand Hollywood movie studio.

The scene opens with a dramatic studio gate for the fictional Hollywood Pictures (although for a time Disney did release films under the "Hollywood Pictures" banner). The gate is an elaborate tribute to the Great Wall of Babylon set from D.W. Griffith's 1916 silent film classic, Intolerance. The original set was constructed at the junction of Hollywood & Sunset Boulevard and remained in place for quite a few years after production wrapped.

The main drag of the Hollywood Pictures studio is decked out as a giant exterior set of Hollywood Boulevard. Take a peek around any of the Spanish baroque or art deco facades, and you'll discover they're held up by scaffolding.

Beyond the Hollywood Boulevard set are the sand-colored sounstages and other production facilities of the studio. In some, like the now-shuttered Hollywood & Dine restaurant, Guests could visit standing sets from various productions. In the case of Hollywood & Dine, a food court-style restaurant, the interior sets recreated the look of a number of legendary Hollywood clubs and eateries including Don the Beachcomber, Schwab's Pharmacy, Villa Capri, the Wilshire Bowl, the Zebra Room, the Victor Hugo Restaurant and Ciro's.

The Hollywood Pictures Backlot culminates in a spectacular forced-perspective scene, creating a trompe l'oeil effect of a streetscape of classic Hollywood movie palaces against a blue-sky backdrop. Among the theaters depicted is the El Capitan, which the Walt Disney Company has leased since funding a multi-million dollar restoration effort in the early 90s. The marquee of the El Capitan typically showcases the latest Disney film release (usually playing simultaneously at the real El Capitan).

The scene also includes the "entrance" of the Hyperion Theater, based on the historic Los Angeles Theater which opened in downtown L.A. in 1931 with the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. The Hyperion gets its name from the California street on which Walt Disney had one of his early studio facilities.