Hidden Gems in Culver City

From its inception and then incorporation by Harry Culver in the early 1900s to the renovation and revitalization of its downtown that began in the 90s, Culver City is a city rich with motion picture, television and aviation history. Metro Goldwyn Mayer built their studios there in the 1920s; the facility later became Sony Pictures Studios. Howard Hughes opened his Hughes Aircraft plant in 1941 - at one time it was the largest employer in Los Angeles. Sony Pictures Entertainment is Culver City’s largest employer to date.

Iconic films such as "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind," a portion of "Grease" and the Tarzan series were filmed in Culver City. By the early 2000s, parts of the Hughes empire had been purchased by or merged with General Motors, Boeing, NewsCorp and Raytheon, but Culver City’s imprint on aviation is evident throughout Martin Scorsese’s biopic, "The Aviator."

Read on to learn about the lesser-known destinations worth seeking out in “The Heart of Screenland.”

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Hidden Gems in Echo Park

Flanked by Elysian Park, Elysian Valley, Silver Lake and Chinatown, Echo Park is a historic and diverse neighborhood where you’ll find everything from Dodger Stadium, the home of our beloved Los Angeles Dodgers, to Echo Park Lake, which reopened recently after a $45-million renovation. Locals and visitors alike enjoy paddle-boating around the lake, while the surrounding area continues to experience a retail, recreation and restaurant renaissance. Read on to find out more about Echo Park hidden gems, and discover an entirely different side of the neighborhood.

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Hidden Gems in Silver Lake

Silver Lake is one of L.A.'s most featured neighborhoods, named after one of two reservoirs around which it was drawn. Sunset Junction, Silver Lake's urban center, is located at the intersection of Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards, two main L.A. streets that otherwise run parallel all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Until the mid-1950s, the Junction served as the site of the branching of two inter-urban railway lines. The neighborhood was also home to Walt Disney's first large studio from 1925 to 1939, located at Hyperion Avenue and Griffith Park Boulevard. Since then, the area has become renowned as a community that’s continuously in flux, home to a population that is diverse even by Los Angeles County's multicultural standards. Despite all the recent Silver Lake media coverage, it can still be hard to find the lesser known places worth visiting. Read on to discover Silver Lake’s must-see hidden gems.

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Hidden Gems in Century City

Century City originated as the backlot of 20th Century Fox. With the advent of television representing tough competition for the studio and a budget for the movie Cleopatra spiraling out of control, the studio sold portions of its backlot to Alcoa Inc. and William Zeckendorf with the option to lease 75 acres back.

Welton Becket - who designed landmarks such as the Capitol Records building, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and the Cinerama Dome - as well as other architects were hired to develop a masterplan for the brand new commercial and residential city-within-a-city, using aluminum for high rises. The city was designed with pedestrian bridges and wide boulevards to ease crowding. Today, Century City is a center of business and commerce in Los Angeles, so it can be easy to overlook the public places worth visiting. Read on and discover 10 hidden gems in Century City.

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