Hollywood is burning but history mustn't

The most famous back lot fire in Hollywood history was intentional. In 1938, David O. Selznick staged the burning of Atlanta in Gone With the Wind by torching the old King Kong Skull Island set on RKO's back lot and then filming the spectacular results.

Another Kong, this one a 10-m, animatronic gorilla featured in the Universal City tour, went up in flames last week, along with various sets, film prints, audio recording and videotape storage vaults, as Universal Studios suffered its latest conflagration. The tour quickly reopened and now offers a view of the fire damage as part of the tram ride.

Most of the back lot acreage built up during Hollywood's classic studio era was long ago sold off for housing developments and commercial space (Century City lies on much of the old 20th Century Fox back lot), but Universal Studios has always held onto its 93-hectare lot, once a chicken ranch, supplementing profits from moviegoers with tickets to tourists eager for a behind-the-scene glimpse of Hollywood.