Retro Friday: Christmas in Los Angeles

Hollywood Blvd. decked out for Christmas in the 1940s



Studio City Christmas Parade, circa 1965. Among the celebrities in this amateur film: Jayne Mansfield and children (including daughter Mariska Hargitay as a child).



From Los Angeles' KNXT-TV Channel 2 in 1957, it's "The Music of Christmas," featuring "Bill Hollingsworth and His Teen-Age Orchestra"

Television City Lights It Up Blue

CBS Television City in the Fairfax district and CBS Studio Center ("the Radford lot") in Studio City were feeling blue this past weekend. Both facilities were bathed in blue light on Friday, April 1 and Saturday, April 2, in recognition of Autism Awareness Month.

The two-night event was part of Autism Speaks' Light It Up Blue campaign to promote awareness. In New York, Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Center lit up. The event was timed to the fourth annual United Nations World Autism Awareness Day on April 2.

From Television City to Studio City: CBS Moves

CBS' long-awaited move from Television City -- its West Coast base since 1952 -- to the CBS Studio Center (also known as the "Radford lot") happens at the end of the month.



It's been a long time coming; the network first started circulating drawings of a new CBS building in 2003; ground breaking took place (above, CBS' Leslie Moonves, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others) in 2005.

I write in Variety:

The new 162,000-square-foot building, which has been housing KCBS and KCAL since last April, will also lodge Eye topper Leslie Moonves' West Coast office. It will be the home base for CBS Paramount TV Network Entertainment Group head Nancy Tellem and CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler.

Much of the CBS Entertainment team will also make the move to the building, although some departments will remain at Television City. Plan is to gradually bring other staffers over in waves.

As for Television City, the historic landmark -- which first opened in 1952 -- isn't in danger of disappearing. Unlike Columbia Square, which went dark after CBS sold the facility and KCBS/KCAL (plus KNX and KCBS-FM) moved out, TV City is still owned by the Eye and will remain an active facility.

In other words, contestants will still be "comin' on down" for "The Price is Right" at TV City for the forseeable future.

By April, Fox becomes the only major broadcast net not located in the San Fernando Valley. NBC Entertainment is also moving this year, from Burbank to the Universal lot.