Newton Knows Our Neighborhood – Culver City, CA 90230 & 90232

Harry H. Culver son of an Army general from Milford, Nebraska, always dreamed of building a city.  He started plans for the city that carries his name in 1913 and it became a fully incorporated entity in 1917.

He established the city in a temperate climate zone, along a transportation route, alongside railroad tracks, halfway between the growing pueblo of Los Angeles and Abbot Kinney's resort of Venice.  He eventually set up is offices in the Hotel Hunt, later to be known as the Culver Hotel.  In 1939 much of the cast of The Wizard of Oz stayed here during filming of the movie that was being made at the Selznick Studio across the street.  Years later the hotel was to be owned by John Wayne.

Over the decades the Culver Hotel has housed many movies stars.  Most notably; Ronald Reagan, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Red Skelton.  For the last 60+ years when the management of the Culver Hotel needs a reliable Los Angeles plumber they pick up the phone and call Newton Plumbing.

Culver City has a lot of rich history and a notable cast of characters.  Young industrialist Howard Hughes established a new aircraft division within his Hughes Tool Company in 1940.  Hughes purchased over 1,000 acres of the Ballona Wetlands just west of Culver City for $500,000.  

During the prohibition era, nightclubs and speakeasies crowded along a swank, honky-tonk Washington Boulevard.  That era was also Culver City’s golden age of the silver screen with The Thin Man, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane and the original King Kong; all produced at this time. The original yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz is still preserved on Stage 27 of Sony Studios.

The well-preserved 1950s era residential streets of Culver City are in continuous demand for production shoots.  Fans of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune may drop in at Sony Studios, formerly MGM, and see the taping of these two popular TV shows.

Culver City is alive and well these days. The residents are extremely proud of their town that has had an important part to play in the shaping of the entertainment and aeronautic industries and thus a lot of the culture of the United States.  The town where L. Frank Baum’s Dorothy and her friends came to life on the big screen in Technicolor beguiling the hearts and souls of Americans of all ages ever since.  Pretty amazing stuff!  And it all happened with Newton Plumbing at their service.