“You can’t make a feature film without a Mitchell camera”
“Studio One was planned, designed and conceived for gay people, gay male people. Any straight people here are guests of the gay community. This is gay!”
the factory, west hollywood
665 N. Robertson, 652 N. La Peer, West Hollywood, California
studio one disco (1974-1993)
Mitchell Camera Corp (1929-1946)
Studio One set mainstream trends and created stars while strictly adhering to Scott Forbes' vision – “Studio One was planned, designed and conceived for… gay male people. Any straight people here are guests of the gay community!”
The disco filled a vital community need: it celebrated sexual freedom for gay men. Almost every night for 19 years, there would be over 1000 people on the dance floor. Studio One’s Backlot hosted performers like Liza Minelli, Joan Rivers, Bessie Smith, and Wayland Flowers.
In 1984, the first major AIDS fundraiser happened at Studio One for AIDS Project Los Angeles; no celebrity would participate except for Joan Rivers. Studio One also played a role in helping Forbes create the first Gay Day at Disneyland in 1979.
The Mitchell Camera Corporation and its products revolutionized the motion picture industry by introducing features to cameras that changed the way films were made.
Due to the development of motion pictures with sound/talkies in the late 1920s, the demand for quiet-running cameras was in high demand by the studios and theatergoers alike. The Mitchell Camera Corporation designed and manufactured the, almost, silent-running NC (News Camera) and the silent-running BNC (Blimped News Camera) at the Mitchell Camera Corporation factory building in West Hollywood, CA. By 1946, 85% of all motion pictures shown in theaters worldwide were filmed with Mitchell cameras that were made at the Mitchell Camera Corporation factory building.
All standard 35mm cameras made by Panavision to this day are based on the Mitchell movement.