Universal City Studios
So big it had its own post offce
The studio run by a gentle giant
Universal Studios
Lankershim, CA
Active 1914-present
The story of Peerless-World (aka World-Peerless) is the story of two companies working out of the same space. It is also kind of a continuation of its next-door neighbor, Éclair .
The story of the Fort Lee studios tends to be very incestuous, as the same names reappear over and over and weave in and out of one another.
In January 1914 Peerless Studios was incorporated. It broke ground on construction of the plant on March 19, 1914, very nearly simultaneously with the burning of the laboratory next door at Éclair.
Peerless Studio was built and owned by Charles Jourjon, the president of Éclair next door and financed by Jules Brulatour, who was George Eastman's contact person in Fort Lee who also financed Éclair.
On June 9 of that year, World Film Corporation, a distributor of films out of New York and backed by Wall Street interests and J.J. Shubert (the theatrical magnate) combined their interests with those of the Peerless. Jourjon was bought out and Lewis J. Selznick was appointed General Manager of World Film (Selznick also, simultaneously owned Select Pictures and moved his production to this studio).
The studio was rented out to a variety of independent producers and directors, but from this moment the fates of Peerless Studio and World Film were tied together and world forever be known as Peerless-World.
Peerless, at this moment, could boast the largest glass enclosed studio in the world (120 feet by 80 feet though another source suggests it was 200' x 125').
World famous director Maurice Tournour, who worked for Éclair in France and was sent to American Éclair to take charge of production, shifted his focus to the new Peerless studio after the shuttering of production there derailed his American debut.
As production shifted to California, World was caught in the crossfire. They decided not to build a studio on the west coast and by 1921 were in bankruptcy. Management had changed hand many times. Selznick, after a couple of stints as manager, left for California. William Brady was installed as general manager and owners accused him of running it into the ground.
In April of 1925 (after most production had already fled town) four local businessmen purchased the Peeress site and renamed it Fort Lee Studios. They retooled it for the coming sound age. But it was too little, too late. They were closed by the beginning of sound pictures.
The studio was seized by the town for back taxes and resold to Phil Goldstone, a west coast independent and renamed Metropolitan Sound Studios.
The studio lay idle until it burned to the ground in 1958.