RKO Forty Acres was a film studio backlot in the United States , owned by RKO Pictures (and later Desilu Productions ), located in Culver City, California . Best known as Forty Acres and "the back forty," it was also called "Desilu Culver," the "RKO backlot," and "Pathé 40 Acre Ranch," depending on which studio owned the property at the time. For nearly 50 years it was known for its outdoor full-scale sets , such as Western Street, Atlanta Street, and Main Street and was used in many films (including King Kong (1933) and Gone with the Wind (1939)) and television series (such as Bonanza and Star Trek ).
29-405: The property was a triangular parcel of 28.5 acres (11.5 ha ), a few blocks from RKO-Pathe (later Selznick, Desilu-Culver, now "The Culver Studios ") which was situated to the west. It was bounded by Higuera Street to the north, West Jefferson Boulevard, Ballona Creek and Culver City Park to the south, and Lucerne Avenue to the west. In 1976 it was razed for redevelopment. Today it is known as
58-661: A dash ; for example, 1-21-00.26 ha would mean 1 hectare, 21 ares, and 0.26 centiares (12,100.26 m ). The metric system of measurement was first given a legal basis in 1795 by the French Revolutionary government. The law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795) defined five units of measure: In 1960, when the metric system was updated as the International System of Units (SI), the are did not receive international recognition. The International Committee for Weights and Measures ( CIPM ) makes no mention of
87-404: A double prefix is non-standard. The decimilliare is (100 mm) or roughly a four-inch-by-four-inch square. The centiare is one square metre. The deciare (rarely used) is ten square metres. The are ( / ɑːr / or / ɛər / ) is a unit of area, equal to 100 square metres ( 10 m × 10 m ), used for measuring land area. It was defined by older forms of the metric system , but
116-518: A New York style street, a town square and a residential area to the east, was situated in the center of the property and used on shows like Adventures of Superman , Ozzie and Harriet , Batman , The Green Hornet , and Mission: Impossible . The town square was also used on Star Trek in three episodes titled " Miri ," " Return of the Archons " and " City on the Edge of Forever ," while another area of
145-439: A few other units including the are (and implicitly the hectare ) whose use was limited to the measurement of land. The names centiare , deciare , decare and hectare are derived by adding the standard metric prefixes to the original base unit of area, the are . The decimilliare (dma, sometimes seen in cadastre area evaluation of real estate plots) is 1 ⁄ 10,000 are or one square decimetre. Such usage of
174-542: A measure of land area. The names of the older land measures of similar size are usually used, redefined as exactly one decare: The most commonly used units are in bold . One hectare is also equivalent to: The Unicode character U+33CA ㏊ SQUARE HA , in the CJK Compatibility block, is intended for compatibility with pre-existing East Asian character codes. It is not intended for use in alphabetic contexts. U+3336 ㌶ SQUARE HEKUTAARU
203-499: A sloping rise at the north western corner of the property, was razed in 1959 to become the Jerusalem set for The Greatest Story Ever Told . By 1965 the site was occupied by the Stalag 13 set for Hogan's Heroes . Most of the sets, which included Camp Henderson on Gomer Pyle , were situated primarily in the center, south and west end of the property. The narrower east end was the site of
232-426: A strip of shrubs and vegetation, used to provide food and cover necessary for the survival of wildlife. It has been found that these borders may lead to an increased variety of animals and plants in the area, but also in some cases a decreased yield of crops. In Australian and New Zealand English , any agricultural field may be called a paddock , especially if for keeping sheep or cattle. If stock are grazed there,
261-658: A unit of SI, is the only named unit of area that is accepted for use with SI units . The name was coined in French, from the Latin ārea . In practice the hectare is fully derived from the SI, being equivalent to a square hectometre. It is widely used throughout the world for the measurement of large areas of land, and it is the legal unit of measure in domains concerned with land ownership, planning, and management , including law ( land deeds ), agriculture, forestry , and town planning throughout
290-462: A western town set at one time, and was later home to an unusual, narrow alley set lined by two long facades facing each other. The alley set was constructed for the Robert Wise film Star! (1968) with Julie Andrews in the lead role, and it also later made a brief appearance in the film Switchblade Sisters (1975), as did the streets and buildings of the central town area. Overall, the property
319-480: Is a combination of ヘクタール ( hekutāru ), the Japanese translation of "hectare". Field (agriculture) In agriculture , a field is an area of land, enclosed or otherwise, used for agricultural purposes such as cultivating crops or as a paddock or other enclosure for livestock . A field may also be an area left to lie fallow or as arable land . Many farms have a field border, usually composed of
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#1732876683575348-451: Is now outside the modern International System of Units (SI). It is still commonly used in speech to measure real estate, in particular in Indonesia, India, and in various European countries. In Russian and some other languages of the former Soviet Union , the are is called sotka (Russian: сотка : 'a hundred', i.e. 100 m or 1 ⁄ 100 hectare). It is used to describe
377-671: Is otherwise considered distinct. A back paddock is a smaller field that is situated away from the farm house; possibly land of lesser quality. The equivalent concept in North America and the UK is a pasture . In Australia, the word seems to have had its current meaning since at least 1807 and in New Zealand since at least 1842. However, the English meaning of "field" was used earlier in Australia and
406-411: Is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is about 0.405 hectares and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as 100 square metres , or one square decametre , and the hectare (" hecto- " + "are") was thus 100 ares or 1 ⁄ 100 km (10,000 square metres). When
435-457: Is still occasionally used. Similarly, meadow was in early use and has appeared later, for example, in 2004. Field remains in regular use in Australasia in expressions such as football field , Field Day and field trip . In a new style of intensive farming developed in North America, a paddock is a small (perhaps 1 acre) temporary subdivision of a pasture made with electric fencing, which
464-1130: The European Union , New Zealand and Australia (since 1970). However, the United Kingdom, the United States, Myanmar (Burma), and to some extent Canada, use the acre instead of the hectare for measuring surface or land area. Some countries that underwent a general conversion from traditional measurements to metric measurements (e.g. Canada) required a resurvey when units of measure in legal descriptions relating to land were converted to metric units. Others, such as South Africa, published conversion factors which were to be used particularly "when preparing consolidation diagrams by compilation". In many countries, metrification redefined or clarified existing measures in terms of metric units. The following legacy units of area have been redefined as being equal to one hectare: In Mexico, land area measurements are commonly given as combinations of hectares, ares, and centiares. These are commonly written separated by
493-573: The are in the 2019 edition of the SI brochure, but classifies the hectare as a "Non-SI unit accepted for use with the International System of Units". In 1972, the European Economic Community (EEC) passed directive 71/354/EEC, which catalogued the units of measure that might be used within the Community. The units that were catalogued replicated the recommendations of the CGPM, supplemented by
522-722: The Atlanta buildings became permanent fixtures on the property until its final days, while the set of Tara was sold in 1959 to investors who planned to open a theme park in the Atlanta area (see Tara (plantation) ). From 1943 to 1958, a separate part of the 28.5 acres (11.5 ha) known as the African jungle set, located on the opposite side of Ballona Creek , was used extensively for the Tarzan series by RKO, and later for The Adventures of Jim Bowie television series by Desilu . Following years of turnover by several owners, including Howard Hughes ,
551-566: The Atlanta/Mayberry set were Atlanta or Main Street , which ran east/west and opened at one point onto a town square , and North Street , a cross street that bisected it at the four corners just west of the square. Hectare The hectare ( / ˈ h ɛ k t ɛər , - t ɑːr / ; SI symbol: ha ) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm ), that is, 10,000 square metres (10,000 m ), and
580-585: The RKO production of King Kong (1933). By then it was known as Forty Acres and owned by RKO Pictures. In 1935, David O. Selznick leased the property from RKO for his new studio, Selznick International Pictures . For his production of Gone with the Wind (1939), the plantation Tara , the Atlanta Depot (based on Atlanta 's 1853 Union Station ), and other Atlanta buildings were constructed there. The depot and many of
609-524: The backlot was practically deserted and cinematic productions declined. It was purchased in 1957 by Desilu with the intention of filming for the burgeoning television industry. Forty Acres is best remembered for providing the backdrop for the fictional town of Mayberry on the television series The Andy Griffith Show . Many of the street scenes and buildings on the backlot were seen regularly on television screens across America and became quite familiar to viewers. The original Town of Atlanta set, comprising
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#1732876683575638-499: The backlot was the most permanent and thus the most recognizable, existing from 1939 until 1976. Other structures like the Jerusalem set, which was torched to make room for the Atlanta set, or Tara, which was replaced with the Hogan's Heroes , did not survive as long. The western/European set at the east end of the backlot disappeared in the late sixties. The two main arteries that traversed
667-488: The lot, the "Arab village," was used in " Errand of Mercy " and the first pilot, " The Cage ." Sharp-eyed television viewers could note many visual cues that crossed over from one series to the next, including the structures themselves or signs on doors and windows. For example, in Star Trek's "The City on the Edge of Forever," a crossover from The Andy Griffith Show can be seen by a sign for "Floyd's Barber Shop." Forty Acres
696-575: The metric system was further rationalised in 1960, resulting in the International System of Units ( SI ), the are was not included as a recognised unit. The hectare, however, remains as a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI and whose use is "expected to continue indefinitely". Though the dekare/decare daa (1,000 m ) and are (100 m ) are not officially "accepted for use", they are still used in some contexts. The hectare ( / ˈ h ɛ k t ɛər , - t ɑː r / ), although not
725-580: The size of suburban dacha or allotment garden plots or small city parks where the hectare would be too large. Many Russian dachas are 6 ares in size (in Russian, шесть соток ). The decare or dekare ( / ˈ d ɛ k ɑːr , - ɛər / ) is derived from deca and are , and is equal to 10 ares or 1000 square metres. It is used in Norway and in the former Ottoman areas of the Middle East and Bulgaria as
754-545: The southern expansion of the Hayden Industrial Tract. A number of the buildings in the industrial park have been converted to television studios. One of the shows produced at the park is Hell's Kitchen . On 22 March 1926, Cecil B. DeMille leased the 28 1/2 acre property, on which the backlot was located, from Achille Casserini, a Swiss immigrant, for his production of the film The King of Kings (1927). On it he constructed historical Jerusalem, which remained for
783-457: The space may be called a run , e.g. sheep run ; cattle run . The term paddock is used more specifically in animal husbandry for a system in which grazing land is divided into small areas, paddocks, and the stock graze each paddock in turn for a short period. Paddock grazing systems may be designed with, for example, 6 or 11 paddocks used in rotation. A paddock is normally fenced, usually by wire, and often defined by its natural boundaries, or
812-530: Was also the backdrop for an episode of My Three Sons entitled "The Horseless Saddle" (1961), and five episodes of the TV series Bonanza where the backlot's Western Street, next to the Garden of Allah (1936) set, served as a trail town. An added feature was the fact that some portions of the backlot were occupied by fields and scrub and provided the ideal conditions for filming a western . The Tara set, which sat on
841-468: Was an undulating plateau with a southern slope (by the town square) that led to Ballona Creek. Trees screened the northern and southern perimeter of the property. Core structures that stood for decades and appeared in many productions are listed here, most of which were constructed to represent, in Gone with the Wind , the antebellum Town of Atlanta , and later used for the fictional Mayberry . This portion of
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