The day Victory Pictures movie studio burned down

Warning: The following article contains a graphic description and photo of a production company fire which involves Tom Tyler, the rest of the cast and film crew for “Mystery Range”, a 1937 Victory Pictures B-western.

Filming B-westerns in the 1930’s may have seemed like a lot of hard work yet fun for Tom Tyler, the final result offering his viewing audience plenty of excitement and thrills. In June of 1937, however, Tom had a very close call with death – along with other members of the cast and film crew – during the making of one film which almost ended his career.

After the troupe returned from filming on location in Chatsworth, California, the final wrap up for “Mystery Range” needed to be done at the production company, Victory Pictures. Tom, his leading lady Jerry Bergh, director Bob Hill, plus twenty-two other actors and film technicians, were trapped inside the production company building when a fire broke out in the property room.  The fire quickly spread throughout the rest of the wood building, located at 9077 Venice Boulevard in Culver City, California. Additionally, the scene dock and generator rooms were also destroyed from the fire, which quickly spread around the perimeter of the building, blocking all exits inside. 

According to The San Francisco Examiner dated June 7, 1937, a “sudden shift of wind” allowed one viable exit for everyone to safely escape. Luckily no one was hurt, and the movie cameras and office equipment rescued from certain loss from the stucco office building – equipment of high value to the film makers and actors, so that their work was saved. Firefighters from Culver City, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica were called to arrive as quickly as possible to put out the massive fire. The firefighters also had to search the burned-out remains for any possible victims but the good news was, there were none. 

The entire film studio sustained damages to the tune of $50,000.00 (the original estimate was $25,000.00) – or $904,125.00 in the year 2020 – close to a million dollar loss. As for Victory Pictures producer Sam Katzman, he could not resume making films due to the loss of his movie studio. All final work on Tom’s successive films made for Victory Pictures in 1937 – “Orphan of the Pecos”, “Brothers of the West”, and “Lost Ranch” – were successfully completed and released in movie houses across the nation.

Victory Pictures studio was located in the old Foy Studios building. Bryan Foy purchased what was the Sunset Studios building in Culver City back in 1931. Famously known as being one of the seven Foy siblings, Bryan was a successful movie producer and director whose career dates back to the silent film era.

At some point between the fire of June 1937 and December of that year, the former Victory Pictures building was in the process of being rebuilt as a dramatic school. Unfortunately, the building was to experience another, and far more devastating fire in January 1938. According to The Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1938, the fire was caused by “spontaneous combustion”. It is probable that 35mm nitrate was stored at Victory Pictures under a circumstance that would in fact cause spontaneous combustion. To make matters worse, power lines fell, altogether, a total of four explosions was heard by everyone in the surrounding area. Unlike the fire that took place in June 1937, no one was in the old building during the second fire, which caused a total of $100,000.00 (in 2020 dollars, $1,846,723.40) in damage. At the present, a Chase Bank is located near where the Victory Pictures production formerly stood. 

Click here to see an image of the June 1937 fire.

Collectibles: Tom Tyler on the Manoli Gold tobacco card

 One of the few tobacco cards bearing an image of Tom Tyler in addition to the Mercedes A. Batschari card is Manoli Gold Filmserie. Also manufactured in Germany, the Manoli Gold card is identical in appearance as the Mercedes one, with Tom standing up against a tall wood fence with a dog at his left, and sepia in color. Curiously enough, this card also bears the same number in the set as the Mercedes one, number 89. What does differ is the size of the card:  2” x 3 1/16” in size, slightly longer than the Mercedes tobacco card. 

The Manoli A.G. tobacco company of Berlin, Germany issued at least five different sets of film star tobacco cards, each set containing 168 cards. Each set of cards were of a slightly different size than the previous. Famous Hollywood and European stars appeared on these collectible movie cards. The year of issue for the set the Tom Tyler card appears in was probably 1930. As with all the Manoli Gold tobacco movie cards, albums were also issued to collectors to place their cards in, each card having its own designated spot.