“Parting The Waters”…Follow Up Pictures
“Parting The Waters”…Follow Up Pictures
Yesterday’s video on how the effects for ‘The Ten Commandments’ “parting the waters” scene were done have brought a couple more interesting tidbits, thanks to Glenn Mack.
Above is an aerial view of the Paramount lot showing the huge water set directly in front of the “big sky” backdrop. In the photo, the tank is empty, but when you add a foot or two of water, it can become a peaceful lagoon with docks (as seen), or be used as a open ocean with scale model battleships or ocean liners for dramas at sea.
Directly in front of the wet set is the western town set. This is where the Virginia City scenes for ‘Bonanza’ were shot. Below is a photo from that show…notice the “mountain” in the background. It’s not a real mountain, just a handy backdrop to hide the top of the Desilu lumber mill and warehouse on the left side of “Virginia City”.
By the way, all of the buildings on the left side of this photo, were formerly owned by Desilu. The ‘Bonanza’ mountain was hiding the the tops of the studio buildings. Enjoy and share!
Before Desilu, the lot on the left was RKO. Paramount and RKO were separate but adjacent studios. In 1957, RKO was sold to Desilu and the lot became the new home of Desilu. In 1967, Desilu was acquired by Gulf & Western which already owned Paramount. The two studios were merged in that year.
I took the Paramount tour in 2008 and saw the ‘sky wall’ and that big tank in front of it where the Ten Commandments water scenes were shot. The western backlot had been torn down long before. Today, there is an extensive backlot in another part of the studio lot located behind the ‘sky wall’.
I noticed that the studio is surrounded by main roads. How can they yell “Quiet on the set” with traffic not too far away?
Andy Rose, it is a bit confusing, but as I understand it, if you are standing in the Bonanza street facing the mountain (looking west), the blue sky backdrop would be to your right (looking north). I think you can still see the mountain facade in the aerial photo, but just barely due to the angle. Another interesting fact, is that before Desilu owned the buildings to the left, it was home to RKO. Look at the lower left hand corner of the property. On the corner at the top of the large soundstage, you can see the remains of the RKO globe. A fake radio antenna used to be on top of the globe to complete the logo.