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30th Anniversary
June 21st 1994
Against all odds, tram tour survives,
flourishes
(From Variety, June 23 1994)
"I
remember they said we were crazy," Lew Wasserman reminisced
at Universal Studios Hollywood's 30th anniversary. "They
said talent wouldn't want people staring at them -- and that
it (the tour)
wouldn't do 50,000 people a year." Yes, Wasserman admitted,
talent did not delight in seeing the tourists invade their
sanctum sanctorum. Then, one day, Robert Taylor, coming out
of the commissary,
saw a tram (there were only two running four times daily, with
a capacity of 70 people). Taylor walked over to the fans, who
were totally respectful. And Jimmy Stewart, coming out of his "Rare
Breed" stage, walked alongside a tram, talked to the fans.
No star complained thereafter. And when Alfred Hitchcock did
his famous commercial, riding in a tram and talking to a likeness
of himself walking alongside, the floodgates were opened. I
wrote the initial "Universal City Studios Story" book
for the tour, 29 years ago. That tour has come a long way from
the
Quonset huts on Lankershim Boulevard and an entertainment center
in the basement of the commissary, plus a fashion show by Edith
Head and Perc Westmore doing makeup on a lucky fan ... Wasserman
says 5 million visitors will pass through the Universal City
tour gates and 7 million in Orlando this year. A 3,000-car
parking garage is added next to the 18-screen Cineplex Odeon
Universal,
the country's most successful house(s). And a new office building
will soon open on the hill, replacing trailers, making room
for four more acres of a second CityWalk, which will double
its present
size ... Tuesday night, 700 guests helped Universal celebrate
the anni. They were red-carpeted from the new live "Flintstones" show,
to "Cinemystique" starring Jonathan and Charlotte
Pendragon, then to the Spectrablast, cornerstone of the new
nighttime summer
program. Among those on hand who've worked or played at Universal:
Tony Curtis, Charlton Heston, Tom Selleck, Tippi Hedren, Howie
Mandel, Suzanne Pleshette, Malcolm-Jamal Warner. And Wasserman
and Sidney Sheinberg. The latter were also celebrating the
latest "Schindler's
List" figures --$ 210 million foreign -- and the "Flintstones' " blockbuster
bow in Singapore!
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