City of Universal City history

Early movie productions under MCA included Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1962), which grossed $4.6 million, and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck.

In 1963 legendary movie mogul Lew Wasserman, then president of MCA Universal asked VP Al Dorskind to look into the feasibility of creating a permanent tour.

The first edition was in 1965, the Visitor’s Entertainment Center, which was built at a cost of $5 million on the main Upper Lot.

Ma and Pa Kettle Farm, also called Ark Park, was introduced later around 1967 and featured animals that were used in many Universal productions.

Flash Flood Set — The first special effect sequence was created in 1968 and still holds a place on the Studio Tour today.

Starting in 1970, there were also regularly scheduled shows under the direction of Ray Berwick, famed animal trainer best known for training the hundreds of birds for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” on the newly-constructed Animal Actors’ School Stage.

The first music performance was the Los Angeles premiere of “Jesus Christ Superstar” on June 28, 1972.

Just 3-years after the amphitheater was built, in 1975, following the success of the smaller makeup show on the studio tour, an 1500-seat outdoor arena was prepared for the much grander The Land of a Thousand Faces show.

Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) grossed $38.5 million, and Sissy Spacek won an Oscar for Best Actress.

On Golden Pond (1981) grossed $63 million and won three of ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Henry Fonda and Best Actress for Katherine Hepburn.

Among Universal's 16 Oscar nominations in 1982, E.T. won four of eight nominations, while Meryl Streep won Best Actress for Sophie's Choice.

Sidney Pollack's production of Out of Africa (1985) won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Pollack.

In December of 1986, MCA announced Cineplex Odeon Corp., a Toronto-based entertainment company 50 percent owned by MCA, would be an equal partner in what would now be known as Universal Studios Florida.

In 1988, Universal added its third iconic Studio Tour attraction, Earthquake: The Big One, another themed soundstage, where the trams shook and bobbed during a simulated 8.3 San Francisco earthquake.

Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company of Japan acquired MCA in November 1990.

In 1991, Universal Studios Hollywood expanded onto the Lower Lot with the opening of a quarter-mile series of escalators connecting the top and bottom of the mountain upon which Universal City was built.

The Amblin productions grossed $548.7 million; 60 percent of Universal's movie revenues derived from three of 18 movies released in 1993.

Pollock also helped Ron Howard and Brian Grazer form Imagine, whose award-winning production Apollo 13 (1995) grossed $162 million within the first ten weeks.

In 1996 Universal City in California introduced Jurassic Park: The Ride, a replication of the theme park in the popular movie.

The Universal Studios Networks Division was created in August 1997 for the international marketing of branded televisions channels.

Travel deep into the jungles of Disneyland’s original Adventureland to seek out the origins of everyone’s favorite punny skippers, ambushes, and piranhas. — In April of 1998, the Walt Disney Company created an entire theme park filled with animals from around the world.

The Universal Pictures division lost $200 million despite revenues of $3.38 billion in 1999.

In the Summer of 2000, Universal brought the tram into the 21st Century with the debut of The New Studio Tour with the inclusion of LCD video monitors, a state-of-the-art audio system, onboard video cameras and DVD players containing over 200 pieces of custom produced media.

His fate was sealed in a particularly nasty one that took place on the backlot in the early morning of June 1, 2008.