The 1960's were a time of transition in Hollywood. Wall Street's desire for diversification and the shifting sands of the entertainment industry created a perfect storm where corporations who knew little about filmmaking were able to swoop down and begin buying up the major and minor studios. Without an ongoing system to provide product, the new owners saw the opportunity to pay down their new debt by selling their valuable backlots to developers who saw a huge opportunity in building new subdivisions. Large backlots, once the pride of the Hollywood moguls were being bulldozed to pay down their new parent companies' debts. The storied MGM lot was mostly destroyed so that its new owner could build new casinos in Reno and Las Vegas. One of the larger lots, however, was spared by a strange twist of fate- that of Universal Studios.
In 1958, the cash poor Universal Studios was looking for an influx of cash. Its massive lot seemed like a perfect source of cash, but Universal's major business concern was making pictures. Making those pictures required a lot, so what would Universal do? The answer was found courtesy of then SAG President Ronald Reagan who had just handed MCA, a talent agency, an exemption to produce television programming while still operating as a SAG authorized talent agency. MCA now needed a studio lot immediately. It chose to buy Universal Studios, then lease it back to Universal Pictures, using the some of the facilities for its television productions. While MCA couldn't really poke around in Universal's business due to anti-trust issues, its head Lew Wasserman was intrigued by the possibility of taking over the company entirely. Owning Universal's production studios gave MCA a huge advantage. In 1962, the company decided to pull the trigger and divest of its talent agency, acquiring all of Universal Pictures.
The mega-deal created an entertainment behemoth. The enforced divestment of the talent side of things put the combined company on better financial footing than its fellow entertainment companies. The new MCA had little pressure to sell its backlot, which gave it an idea- Walt Disney was bringing in millions of tourists to Southern California for DISNEYLAND- maybe Universal could cash in by offering tours of its lot? The lot hadn't hosted tourists since before the sound era when founder Carl Laemmle offered entry for the price of a dozen eggs, which were still being produced on the premises to make ends meet. The first tours began in 1964 aboard trams designed by Disney Imagineers.
The tour was an instant success, capitalizing on the tourists attracted by DISNEYLAND who were looking for other activities in the area. Plus, being the only attraction offering tours of a real working studio was a novelty that gave tourists an unprecedented peek inside one of Hollywood's biggest studios, thus saving it from the fate that befell many of the others.
