On August 28, 1927, workers from Mack Sennett's comedy studio started picking fruit from 275 acres of plum, peach and apricot orchards near the Los Angeles River. The trees were coming out to make room for a studio. Sixty acres of walnuts, five acres of pecans and 25 acres of grapevines came out after them.
The soundstages that went up on that ground gave Studio City its name. Nearly a century later, the Studio City Neighborhood Council has started planning a 100th anniversary. The lot that started it all is also being sold again. Both stories go back to the same piece of land on Radford Avenue, and together they show that Studio City got its name from a real estate pitch before it ever had a working studio.
A Name Invented to Sell Land
In 1927 a holding company called Central Motion-Picture District, Inc. bought 503 acres along Ventura Boulevard. That ground was considered North Hollywood at the time. The people behind the deal included Paramount executive Milton E. Hoffman, along with Gilbert H. Beesemyer and Harry H. Merrick of the Guaranty Building and Loan Association. A City of Los Angeles historical resources assessment traces the name to that October, when the work under way had become known as the "Studio City Project." The first phase called for thirty miles of trenches for water pipes and twenty miles for sewer lines.
The plan was bigger than a single studio. Historian Mary Mallory's account in the Los Angeles Daily Mirror describes a syndicate that pictured "its own little city." Studios and production buildings would sit south of the river, and the land to the east and north would become homes for the people who worked there. The tract ran from Tujunga Avenue to what was then Pacoima Avenue, now Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and from Ventura Boulevard up to Chandler. In his autobiography, Sennett said the developers offered him 20 acres as a gift. Mallory's take is that this gave the group its hook for selling the city.
You can still see traces of that pitch on a daily drive. The 1927 plans that ran in the Los Angeles Times called the street north of Ventura Place Sennett Street, and the one north of that Waldron Street, after Sennett's studio manager. By the time construction finished, both had new names. Hoffman Street honors Milton E. Hoffman, the syndicate's president. Guerin Street honors Paul Guerin, Sennett's technical and sound man.
1928 Is When the Studio, and the Name, Arrived
The neighborhood council counts from 1927. Most of what made Studio City feel like a real place happened the following year.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| June 20, 1927 | LA Times headline: "Site Obtained for Film City" |
| August 28, 1927 | Orchard harvest begins to clear the studio site |
| October 30, 1927 | LA Times headline: "Dirt Flies at Studio City Project" |
| Spring 1928 | The $800,000 Mack Sennett Studio finishes construction |
| March 18, 1928 | Gala opening, closing with the baking of the world's largest pie |
| May 1, 1928 | First day of filming on the new lot |
| 1928 | The Studio City Post Office opens |
| July 1928 | Radford and Ventura ranks as the third-busiest intersection in Los Angeles |
The post office is where the name stopped being a project label and became an address. Mallory writes that so many drivers came down Ventura Boulevard to watch the studio go up that the U.S. Postal Service named the new branch the Studio City Post Office when it opened in 1928. She credits that choice with naming the community. The city's assessment also dates official recognition to 1928, when the Postmaster General recognized Studio City as a community and ordered a post office there.
The traffic counts back up the sightseeing story. According to Mallory, the Los Angeles Times reported in July 1928 that about 21,000 cars passed through Radford and Ventura on a typical Sunday.
If you count from the land purchase and the first use of the name, 1927 holds up. If you count from the studio opening and the postal name, it's 1928. The March 18 gala date and the post office origin story both come from Mallory's research, so treat them as her account.
The Name Outlasted the Business Plan
The syndicate leaned hard on marketing. In early 1929, newspaper ads invited prospective buyers to ask about a free trip through the Mack Sennett Studio. That April the group started the Studio City Radio Hour on KGFJ, which aired six evenings a week plus Sundays. It also declared April 7, 1929, Movie Day, with stars appearing after a preview of a Sennett talkie.
No other film company bought land or built nearby. By the summer of 1928, the syndicate was already talking up the area as the future airline capital of Los Angeles. Mallory notes that the Times ran its last story on the venture on November 3, 1929, a few days after the Wall Street crash. After that, sales collapsed.
The name still held. In 1935, Mascot Films, a tenant on the lot that was about to become Republic Pictures, gave the city 1,000 signatures asking to rename the area Mascot City. The city denied the request.
The Lot Behind the Name Is Changing Hands Again
The lot at 4024 Radford Avenue went on to become CBS Studio Center, and later Radford Studio Center. The Los Angeles Times reported on January 20, 2026, that owner Hackman Capital Partners had defaulted on a $1.1 billion mortgage on the 55-acre property, and that a Goldman-led group was taking it over. The Times called it "the storied movie lot that gave Studio City its name."
By June, lenders including Goldman Sachs had taken the property back. The Times reported on June 19, 2026 that Netflix was under contract to buy it for close to $400 million, citing two people with knowledge of the deal. The lot had sold for $1.85 billion in 2021. Closing was expected in the third quarter of 2026. The same story said Netflix wants to bring its real estate together in one place. Right now it leases a group of Hollywood buildings from Hudson Pacific Properties, and those leases run out in 2031.
On August 10, the Times still described the deal as pending. It noted that Netflix has leased space on the lot for years. The Times put the lot at 22 stages and three backlots, and Netflix content chief Bela Bajaria would not discuss the status of the deal or plans for the property. We haven't found a public announcement that the sale has closed.
The big makeover that neighbors heard about in 2023 never got going. That plan was roughly $1 billion and, according to the Times in 2023, would have kept the Mack Sennett Building and Stages 9 and 10. It also proposed a public walking and bicycling bridge over the Tujunga Wash. Deadline reported in April 2026 that the new stages and offices were never built. Netflix hasn't said publicly what it plans for any of it.
This sale fits the pattern of 1927. A real estate group backs a studio lot as the anchor for something bigger, the economics shift, and the property moves to its next owner. When the first deal fell apart in 1929, the name stayed and the business plan didn't. So far in 2026, the same thing is happening.
What the Council Has Actually Put on Paper
The Studio City Neighborhood Council's anniversary motion gives its Outreach Committee authority to plan events and outreach. Its justification reads:
"2027 marks exactly 100 years since 1927, when the community formally transitioned from 'Laurelwood' ranching land into 'Studio City' centered around Mack Sennett's movie lot (now known as Radford Studio Center.)"
The motion names Radford Studio Center, the Studio City Chamber of Commerce, the Studio City Residents Association and local schools as groups to work with. It lists its fiscal impact as "none at this time." Any spending on events or materials would go back to the council's Budget Committee and the full board for a separate vote.
Here is what has come up publicly since then:
- A multi-organization steering committee. At the September 23, 2026 board meeting, Outreach Committee chair Andrew Epstein reported that the steering committee was taking shape and that it still needed an SCNC board representative.
- A youth arts competition. A youth board member previewed the idea at the same meeting, with visual art and performing art tracks that could tie into 2027 events. It was informational only, and the board took no vote.
- One hundred trees for 100 years. A September 9 update from the Sustainability and Beautification Committee floated planting 100 trees for the centennial, framed as a proposal.
Separately, the council's Cultural Affairs Committee is working on event concepts that include a multi-location movie series. It plans to look for co-funding before bringing anything to the board.
None of these has a date yet. The September 23 meeting where the steering committee came up was held at 4024 Radford Avenue, in a room called MPR-3, on the same lot Sennett opened in 1928.
If you'd like to talk through what the Radford sale and the centennial plans mean for your part of Studio City, Danny Hizami is glad to compare notes and pass along what he hears as the steering committee sets dates.
