And through here is the bomb shelter… Former top-secret Hollywood military base for sale as home at $6.3m By John Stevens
Last updated at 7:44 PM on 13th June 2011
With its sprawling grounds, swimming pool and views over the Sunset Strip this ten bedroom mansion looks like a typical Hollywood Hills home.
But deep underneath this 53,000 square foot house is a bomb shelter that gives a clue to its secret past.
The property, which has just been listed for sale at $6.3 million, used to be a top-secret military base and was used as an Air Force film studio and research facility for the atom bomb.
According to Sotheby’s, the Lookout Mountain Air Force Station on Wonderland Avenue, LA, was built in 1941 as the main WW11 air defence and radar communications headquarters on the west coast.
The base, just five minutes drive from the Sunset Strip, was used as an Air Force film studio between 1947 and 1969 and made 20,000 movies - more than the whole of Hollywood.
Films of the nuclear tests at Nevada were processed here under the tightest security controls and high-ranking military officials would come to view the footage.
It was not until the 1990s that the existence of the military base was revealed to the public.
The building was converted to a spacious residential property and is now back on the market.
The home has few traces of its former use, although it still has a two-storey soundstage accessible only through and electric door.
There are also 17 temperature and climate controlled film vaults, which new owners could potentially use as wine cellars.
The home is currently owned by an artist and judge and has ten bedrooms and 13 bathrooms.
It also comes with a large free-form pool, four 100 foot long art galleries and a large underground parking garage with room for about 15 cars, as well as a parking lot that holds another 70.
The real estate agents describe many of the rooms as ‘multipurpose’.
At the height of its use by the Air Force, the compound had soundstages, screening rooms and film processing labs just like any other Hollywood film studio.
Over 250 people, including civilians seconded from Warner Brothers, worked as cameramen, producers and directors at the military facility.
Each one cleared to access top secret and restricted data and sworn to secrecy regarding the activities at the studio.
For 22 years the studio produced millions of feet of classified film and thousands of stills for the military.
Beginning with the first nuclear test in 1945, there was a need to capture the testing with still and moving pictures to help enhance the understanding knowledge of the behaviour of nuclear weapons.
Some of the best talent in the film industry were recruited to work at the studio to film the nuclear blasts.
Staff used specially constructed bunkers in the test area to house remotely-controlled cameras, and took to the skies in planes directly behind the bombers.
Only a few dozen of the films made at Lookout Mountain have been declassified.
Daily Mail
I never would have known about him if not for Dave.
