Kaufman Astoria Studios

20th century

The studio was originally constructed for Famous Players–Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short subjects were filmed there between 1920 and 1933. W. C. Fields made his silent features there. The first Sherlock Holmes sound film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes (also 1929), was made at the studio by the British producer Basil Dean. The first two films featuring the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), were shot at the Astoria Studio.

Paramount used the Astoria studio heavily in the early years of talking pictures, primarily for short subjects starring New York-based stage and radio performers: Burns and Allen, Eddie Cantor, Tom Howard, Ethel Merman, Rudy Vallee, Lillian Roth, and many others. During this period the studio facility was known as the Paramount Studio.

In 1932, after Paramount Pictures moved all studio operations to California, the Astoria location was turned over to independent producers, including Walter Wanger, whose films were released through Paramount or other Hollywood film companies. All the films starring tango icon Carlos Gardel made in the United States were shot at Astoria Studios. Gloria Swanson cites the studio as, "the studio where I'd been making all of my pictures since 1923" in her autobiography Swanson on Swanson. In 1938,...One Third of a Nation... was the last feature film to be shot there during that era.

Educational Pictures rented space at the facility during the 1930s, until Educational closed its doors in 1938. The last theatrical films produced at Astoria were a series of short Robert Benchley comedies released by Paramount between 1940 and 1942.

In 1942, the United States Army Signal Corps Army Pictorial Service took over the studio for the making of Army training films until 1971, including The Big Picture, shown on American network television and later in syndication.

In 1975, the studio opened again for shooting on Thieves and also The Next Man. The studio became dormant again but in January 1977, the General Services Administration of the US Government handed the studio over to New York City to be operated by a non-profit organization (the newly formed Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center Foundation) initially at no cost for a year and it reopened for filming of The Wiz in 1977.

In 1978, the property was designated a national historic district and added to the National Register of Historic Places. The district encompasses six contributing buildings.

In 1981, New York City received an Urban Development Action Grant from the federal government for the renovation and expansion of the studio which Kenneth Schuman, NYC Commissioner for Economic Development, described as being of "compelling public interest".

Motion pictures filmed there include the musicals Hair and The Wiz, and the films Goodfellas, The Money Pit, and Carlito's Way. In 1984, The Jacksons' music video "Torture" was filmed there as well. Many sequences, especially the 'visitation' sequence in 2002 TV mini series Angels in America, were also shot there. A 2009 remake, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, also used the studios. In 2011, the remake of Arthur filmed a few scenes there. Other notable films that have used the studio include The Devil Wears Prada and its sequel, Scent of a Woman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Birdman, All That Jazz, We Own the Night, Ishtar, The Age of Innocence, The Pink Panther, Presumed Innocent, The Bourne Ultimatum, Going in Style, Men In Black 3, and many films by Sidney Lumet and Woody Allen, whose film Shadows and Fog included a 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) set at the studio, one of the biggest in New York at the time.

Television shows filmed at the studio include Sesame Street, Succession, Orange Is The New Black, Onion News Network, Johnny and the Sprites, Bear in the Big Blue House, Nurse Jackie, Between the Lions, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, The OA, Your Friends & Neighbors, Oobi, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, and its successor Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? Other projects recorded at the studios have included Judge Judy, Power of 10, The Cosby Show, Cosby, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Swans Crossing, Law & Order, Million Dollar Password, the 2009 pilot of The $1,000,000 Pyramid, Video Power, Spin City, Generation Gap and Mariah Carey's MTV Unplugged. WFAN, a local sports radio station owned by Audacy, was formerly based at the studio before moving to lower Manhattan in the fall of 2009.

Performers' images

The walls of the studio are lined with signed images of the performers who have worked in the studios, including Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra, The Marx Brothers, Ginger Rogers, George Burns, Lena Horne, Ethel Merman, Paul Robeson, Lillian Gish, Claudette Colbert, Gloria Swanson, Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Diana Ross, and Jerry Orbach.