{"id":290318,"date":"2026-04-28T21:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290318\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T21:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:32:10","slug":"hollywood-gym-turned-museum-has-surprising-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290318\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Gym Turned Museum Has Surprising Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dive into the history of what started as an old wooden barn on the Paramount Pictures lot<\/p>\n

For decades, an old wooden barn on the Paramount Pictures lot was the studio gymnasium. Today it is the Hollywood Heritage Museum, where you can pose with a vintage medicine ball and ancient workout gear.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Hollywood Heritage MuseumCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols<\/p>\n

The 125-year-old clapboard landmark was originally built near Selma and Vine as a shelter for horses and lemons. In 1913, legendary director Cecil B. DeMille and producer Jesse L. Lasky rented it to set up a studio where they could make their first feature film, a silent western called The Squaw Man<\/a>. The American Film Institute<\/a> calls it \u201cThe very first feature-length motion picture made in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Hollywood Heritage MuseumCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols<\/p>\n

Not long after the film was released, the hot company was merged into what would become Paramount Pictures. I guess mergers and acquisitions are nothing new for the company, which recently bought Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Samuel Goldwyn, C.B. DeMille, Jesse Lasky and Leo Carrillo at the landmark plaque unveiling in 11956Credit: Valley Times Collection\/Los Angeles Public Library<\/p>\n

In the 1950s, the sentimental founders lobbied the state to recognize the barn as
Hollywood\u2019s first film-related landmark. The turn-of-the cen- tury relic had been moved to Paramount\u2019s Western backlot, where it fit right in. Movie cowboys on horseback rode down Bonanza Street outside while stars worked out inside.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Historical plaque outside the Hollywood Heritage MuseumCredit: Photo by Caterpillar84\/Wikipedia<\/p>\n

Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the photos of women in the gym look like they are posing while the guys were working out,\u201d says Mary Mallory<\/a>, on the museum\u2019s Board of Directors. \u201cThe first trainer was Richard Kline, who taught classes on the beach. You can tell he worked out with weights. He was nice-looking but he wasn\u2019t going to give Gary Cooper a run for his money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The Lasky\/DeMille barn in a temporary holding location on Vine Street in 1980Credit: Photo by Roy Hankey\/Los Angeles Public Library<\/p>\n

By 1979, the old guard was long gone and, shortly after filming the bizarre Henry Winkler\/Herv\u00e9 Villechaize wrestling epic The One and Only<\/a> inside, the barn\/ gym\/museum was gifted to Hollywood Heritage, who moved it up Highland Avenue across from the Hollywood Bowl. The original site on Vine now houses one of those anonymous five-over-one apartments and what\u2019s on the ground floor? An Equinox gym.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The Lasky Demille Barn on the Paramount Lot in 1938Credit: Works Progress Administration Collection\/Los Angeles Public Library<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dive into the history of what started as an old wooden barn on the Paramount Pictures lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[110387,90008,123976,1743,48,52,51,47,50,49,2311],"class_list":{"0":"post-290318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-april-2026","9":"tag-ask-chris","10":"tag-cecil-b-demille","11":"tag-hollywood","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-museums"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}