HOME | DD

Description
I ran across some old 35mm backstage pics I took when doing some contract work at Universal Studios California in the late 1980s. They had just wrapped Back to the Future 2 and this is the street along the righthand side of Courthouse Square. Universal (as most other studios) rent out their stages for smaller productions and I had done contract work on rented space there for something else so I'd ride a studio bicycle around on lunch breaks and check out what was going on around the studio backlots.

This is a "before & after" of the Courthouse Square movie theater.
On the left is it's normal 'small town USA' generic state. I took this a few years before Back to the Future #1 came out (probably early to mid 1980s). The side street under the tower window is where Marty walks out onto the 1955 version of the square for the very first time. It was called the Hill Valley ESSEX THEATER showing "Cattle Queen of Montana" with Barbara Stanwick & Ronald Reagan on the sidewalk sign, and we heard "Mr Sandman" playing over the speakers as Marty first sees the 1955 version of the Courthouse Square.

Just out of frame in the bottom lower left is the street corner where they filmed Biff's car getting dumped with manure after the skateboard chase sequence.

Anyone familiar with the original Twilight Zone may recognize this old theater façade from the pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?" filmed on Courthouse Square in 1959. You can see the light bulb sockets in the arches for the flashing lights in frame 2:30 & 2:34 Where Is Everybody? - Twilight-Tober Zone - YouTube The doorway at frame 2:21 is the same doorway that Biff comes through to get the Sports Almanac book from the garbage can after hearing Doc & Marty talking from behind the screen door. The corner building at frame 3:05 & 3:15 is the corner diner where Marty meets his dad in 1955, the aerobics studio in 1985, and the '80s Cafe in 2015. Fun fact: backed right up behind that corner cafe on the street directly behind it, was the "Klein's Drugstore" corner façade where the horse race results were telephoned in "The Sting" 1972.

The photo on the right is the "2015 future" overlay where the "JAWS 19" hologram comes out on the right corner and attacks Marty (That shark STILL looks fake!). They had just wrapped BTTF2 and the water was already drained from the concrete rockwork pond in the Courthouse Mall foreground. I walked around and grabbed a few 35mm pics before they strike the set & return it to the generic small town buildings.

Sadly, just a few years after this was the great Universal backlot fire that destroyed most of the original Courthouse Square perimeter buildings, so much of its original heritage was lost...

Description
I ran across some old 35mm backstage pics I took when doing some contract work at Universal Studios California in the late 1980s. They had just wrapped Back to the Future 2 and this is the street along the righthand side of Courthouse Square. Universal (as most other studios) rent out their stages for smaller productions and I had done contract work on rented space there for something else so I'd ride a studio bicycle around on lunch breaks and check out what was going on around the studio backlots.

This is a "before & after" of the Courthouse Square movie theater.
On the left is it's normal 'small town USA' generic state. I took this a few years before Back to the Future #1 came out (probably early to mid 1980s). The side street under the tower window is where Marty walks out onto the 1955 version of the square for the very first time. It was called the Hill Valley ESSEX THEATER showing "Cattle Queen of Montana" with Barbara Stanwick & Ronald Reagan on the sidewalk sign, and we heard "Mr Sandman" playing over the speakers as Marty first sees the 1955 version of the Courthouse Square.

Just out of frame in the bottom lower left is the street corner where they filmed Biff's car getting dumped with manure after the skateboard chase sequence.

Anyone familiar with the original Twilight Zone may recognize this old theater façade from the pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?" filmed on Courthouse Square in 1959. You can see the light bulb sockets in the arches for the flashing lights in frame 2:30 & 2:34 Where Is Everybody? - Twilight-Tober Zone - YouTube The doorway at frame 2:21 is the same doorway that Biff comes through to get the Sports Almanac book from the garbage can after hearing Doc & Marty talking from behind the screen door. The corner building at frame 3:05 & 3:15 is the corner diner where Marty meets his dad in 1955, the aerobics studio in 1985, and the '80s Cafe in 2015. Fun fact: backed right up behind that corner cafe on the street directly behind it, was the "Klein's Drugstore" corner façade where the horse race results were telephoned in "The Sting" 1972.

The photo on the right is the "2015 future" overlay where the "JAWS 19" hologram comes out on the right corner and attacks Marty (That shark STILL looks fake!). They had just wrapped BTTF2 and the water was already drained from the concrete rockwork pond in the Courthouse Mall foreground. I walked around and grabbed a few 35mm pics before they strike the set & return it to the generic small town buildings.

Sadly, just a few years after this was the great Universal backlot fire that destroyed most of the original Courthouse Square perimeter buildings, so much of its original heritage was lost...