In 1913 Harry Culver went to the California Club and announced his plans. He made it known that he was going to build a city half-way between the pueblo of Los Angeles and the resort town of Venice. He accompanied his announcement with remarks that underscored his knowledge of the real estate business. He made reference to the Red Line, the railway that joined L.A. and Venice.
At least one member of the City Council in Culver City still remembers that Red Line. The Councilman may not recall just how Mr. Culver filed for the name Main Street with the County, but his office will provide that information. A book published by the Chamber of Commerce states that Harry Culver wanted to have a Main Street in Culver City.
After filing that name, Harry Culver searched for something that could fuel the economy of his new city. He realized that Culver City needed an economic base. One day while walking along Ballona Creek, Harry Culver found the goal of his search.
On that day Harry Culver saw Thomas Ince filming a movie scene along the Creek. The cameras aimed at painted Indians in canoes. Soon after seeing that film-in-the-making, Harry Culver financed the construction of a film studio. That studio later became one of three studios that carried-out film-making operations in Culver City.
Ince operated two of those studios. The third, what came to be known as "The Laugh Factory," was operated by a man named "Roach." The Roach studios stretched over the 40 acres behind Ince's second studio.
A walking tour of Culver City will take a tourist past all three of the City's famed studios. It will also take a visitor to the Culver Hotel. It might miss the location where the opening for the Andy Griffith Show was filmed.
In July of 2006, there was a fire on a sound stage at Ince's first studio. That studio, by then a part of the Sony studios, had served as the location at which a famous film had been made. According to a Culver City historian, the movie The Wizard of Oz had been filmed on that same sound stage.
The historian provided no details regarding what items were lost to those July flames. She did not indicate whether or not any Persian rugs had been in the burned studios. If the studios do need Persian carpets, then they might want to search in Glendale, CA.
Many of the Iranians who came to L.A. County settled in Glendale, CA. As a result, Glendale, like Westwood Boulevard and parts of Lacienega Boulevard, has become the home for a number of stores that sell Persian carpets.
Yet that is not Culver City's only connection with Persian carpets. A man who knows how to repair Persian carpets used to visit at the home of a Culver City resident, the home of a reporter for the Culver City Observer, one of two printed papers and one online paper that carry the City news.