Hal Roach Studios and the First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU)
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After finding it difficult to expand his studio facilities in downtown Los Angeles due to zoning laws, Hal Roach approached Harry Culver about moving his studios to Culver City, where they eventually relocated at the cross streets of Washington and National Boulevards in 1919. The studio was well-known to locals in Culver City as the "Laugh Factory of the World". In any given year, the Hal Roach Studios produced up to 50 comedies, in addition to feature films. Comedic acts like Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, Amos and Andy, and Harold Lloyd (just to name a few), contributed greatly to the growing film-making industry, and Culver City itself became a backdrop for many of the films made by the Hal Roach Studios.
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8822 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA |
Hal Roach Studios sign replaced with Army Air Forces.
The Hal Roach Studios operated from 1919 to 1963, but during World War II, the studio grounds were leased to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), in order to serve the newly formed First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU). The FMPU was originally organized by Jack Warner, who was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel, The unit was later moved to Hal Roach's studio lot, where it gained the affectionate wartime name "Fort Roach." From 1942, the studio served the FMPU in the production of over 400 military training, propaganda, and morale films for the Army Air Force.
 Insignia of the First Motiion Picture Unit
The personnel of the FMPU represented stars from nearly every studio. When not acting or narrating a film, movie stars served in numerous roles that were essential to unit operations. Included in the soldiers stationed at Ft. Roach were James Stewart, Clark Gabel, Alan Ladd, George Montgomery, Robert Sterling, William Holden, Lee Cobb, Arthur Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. Ft. Roach eventually reached over a thousand personnel, consisting of actors, directors, writers, etc., many being transferred to the unit because of their experience in the film industry. The FMPU became so influential that its staff often earned commendations for their efforts, and were referred to as the "Hollywood Commandos," the "Celluloid Commandos," or more recently, the "Culver City Commandos," The unit's official motto was “We kill ’em with film.” Film titles included Winning Your Wings (1942), the self-titled First Motion Picture Unit (1943), and Resisting Enemy Interrogation (1944), among many others. In addition to winning over thousands of new recruits, FMPU films also won several Oscar nominations. Although FMPU was highly influential to the war effort during WWII, the unit's lasting effects on the Cold War are seldom considered.
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The Last Bomb (1945). Courtesy of the National Archives.(35 min)
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One of the last films produced by the unit included The Last Bomb (1945), a propaganda film about the bombing campaigns in Japan. Directed by Frank Lloyd, narrated by Reed Hadley, and staring Arthur Kennedy, James Seay, Don Taylor, and Zane Mann, the film also briefly featured General Curtis LeMay, who after WWII became a central figure in the Cold War as the organizer of the Strategic Air Command, the Berlin Airlift, and as a controversial strategist behind a massive nuclear preemptive strike plan against the USSR.
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The film concludes with a full technicolor image of the mushroom cloud rising above Hiroshima. Instead of discussing the massively destructive power of the two bombs dropped on Japan, it is one of the first instances of framing the bombings as having saved "untold thousands of American lives." Since many of the FMPU films were also shown in theaters, this positive spin was repeated throughout various media sources, leading many to celebrate the atomic bomb as having ended the war. It would be more than a year later that Americans would see the actual devastation of the bombs in such publications like Hiroshima by Pulitzer Prize winning author John Hersey. However, this framing as a "bomb that saves American lives" would play a significant role throughout the Cold War in the development of preemptive attack and "complete annihilation" strategies during the years of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). In defense of the use of nuclear weapons during the height of the Cold War, the number of lives "saved" from the atomic bomb would retrospectively increase from "untold thousands" to an "estimated" million lives or more. As early as 1947, MGM's docudrama The Beginning or the End?, which attempts to chronicle the Manhattan Project and President Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb, had already projected the number to be between 300,000 and half a million lives.
In addition to contributing to the discourse on the strategic use of nuclear weapons, Fort Roach was also where many of the previously listed stars were able to rise in military rank. For example, Ronald Reagan, who was transferred to the unit from the Reserves, was first assigned as a Personnel Officer, and later became a Captain, before becoming a Post Adjutant a few months later. After the war, Reagan also became the 3rd Vice-President of the Screen Actors' Guild, and eventually SAG President, where he would become a central figure in the growing hysteria behind the "Communist influence in Hollywood." Leaving SAG in the 1960's, he would later pursue his political career as the Governor of California, and eventually become President of the United States, and Commander-in-chief throughout the conclusion of the Cold War.
The First Motion Picture Unit was active until the end of WWII, with many being discharged the following December of 1945. Later on, several workers throughout Hollywood, and even some of those in the FMPU, as well as their equipment, were instrumental in the work of the U.S. Air Force's Motion Picture Squadron, located in Los Angeles (1947-1969) at the Lookout Mountain Air Force Base. The base, which had already been an active participant in filming the atomic tests since 1941, came under the direction of the Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission, and served as the center of government films throughout the rest of the Cold War.
After once again becoming the Hal Roach Studios, the Studios eventually sold the studio to his son, Hal Jr., in 1955. Several years later in 1963, the studio property was sold to become a part of the Landmark Industrial Tract. Today, Hal Roach Studios is no longer standing, but a small plaque remains in a park near Washington and National Boulevards reading "Laugh Factory to the World." The plaque was dedicated by The Sons of the Desert to honor the studios' contribution to Culver City.
After once again becoming the Hal Roach Studios, the Studios eventually sold the studio to his son, Hal Jr., in 1955. Several years later in 1963, the studio property was sold to become a part of the Landmark Industrial Tract. Today, Hal Roach Studios is no longer standing, but a small plaque remains in a park near Washington and National Boulevards reading "Laugh Factory to the World." The plaque was dedicated by The Sons of the Desert to honor the studios' contribution to Culver City.
Lugo Cerra, Julie. "Hal Roach Studios". Culver City Chronicles. Charleston: The History Press. 2013.
Lugo Cerra, Julie. "The Movie Studios". Images of America: Culver City. San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing. 2004.
"". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
. Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists..
Siegel, George J. (MT SGT). "". California Military Museum. California Military Department.
Lugo Cerra, Julie. "The Movie Studios". Images of America: Culver City. San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing. 2004.
"". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
. Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists..
Siegel, George J. (MT SGT). "". California Military Museum. California Military Department.