Dissertation: The Re-use of Hollywood Backlots and Sets: A Case Study of MGM’s Art Department and the Design of Films from the Mid-1930s to the Mid-1950s

From its earliest beginnings MGM established itself as Hollywood’s foremost purveyor of taste, sophistication and glamour. Thus, from the outset, quality of design was named supreme at MGM. This was to remain so even through a period of intense design limitations. Heavy restrictions were put on the use of new materials during the period of America’s involvement in the Second World War. Studios were constrained by law not to exceed a budget of $5,000 on the purchase of new materials per film produced. Based on this information, the main question this dissertation concentrates on is how these restrictions affected the design of sets and the backlot in films throughout this era. Re-use, or the lack thereof, is a key issue addressed throughout this body of work. This dissertation also demonstrates that although re-use in the design of films was not entirely new to MGM at this point in time, it increased tremendously as a result of necessity. This trend, which began as re-use out of need, transformed to re-use for profit in the post-war era. The final segment of this dissertation considers the backlot as a postmodern space and as a pre-cursor to Disneyland and Las Vegas. It has done so through such theoretical frameworks as Simulation, Simulacra and Hyperreality. Furthermore, the backlot is described as a complex and contradictory space where strange disjointed elements of design come together, false materials are employed in each building’s construction and most structures are mere façades.