A Birdseye View of Universal City Studios

Early view of Universal Studios Hollywood published the year after it first opened.

The Universal Pictures production studio was first established in 1912, making it one of Hollywood’s oldest film studios still in use. Tours of the facility were first offered within a few years of its opening, but it wasn’t until Universal’s merger with the Music Corporation of America in 1962 that guest attendance was considered a potential profit center.

The tour was redesigned to incorporate back-stage access, set walkthroughs, staged events, interactions with famous stars, and other attractions – eventually morphing into a full-blown amusement park. This bird’s eye view was illustrated by Harper Goff and published by Universal Studios in 1965 – just the second year of operation for the modernized tour.

The grounds of the massive studio, located in Universal City, California, are fully colored amid the idyllic San Fernando Valley. Twenty-four separate locations of interest are numbered throughout the image, including the Psycho House, the production control center, and a replica of the Tower of London.