In October 1917, Charlie Chaplin announced plans to build his own film studio at the southeast corner of La Brea and Sunset Boulevard.

The site was the corner of Sunset and La Brea and had a very fine ten-room house and five acres of lemon, orange and peach trees.

[citation needed] Chaplin's plans for six English-style buildings, "arranged as to give the effect of a picturesque English village street," were published in the Los Angeles Times in October 1917.

"[5] The location was at that time a residential neighborhood, and Chaplin's application for a building permit was opposed by area residents, some of whom complained that it was too near the Hollywood High School.

[10] Chaplin preserved a large existing residence on the northern (Sunset Boulevard) end of the property, and planned to live there, but never in fact did.

[citation needed] Many of Chaplin's classic films were shot at the studios, including The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), and Limelight (1952).

[7][11][12] Chaplin also filmed many famous visitors at his studios on La Brea, including Winston Churchill, Helen Keller, Lord Mountbatten, and Harry Lauder.

Also, the expansion of La Brea Avenue in 1928–29 forced the physical movement of the buildings adjacent to the street back 15 feet (4.6 m) from their original locations, causing some disruption to the filming of City Lights.

[19]Skelton purchased three large mobile units for taping color television shows, making a total investment estimated at $3.5 million.

[19] Skelton also removed a block of sidewalk on the studio grounds into which Chaplin had signed and pressed his footprints on January 21, 1918, for display at his Palm Springs home.

At the time, Carl Dentzel, the President of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board, said the property was one of the few locations from old Hollywood that retained a complete early-day production layout.

Dentzel also noted Chaplin's "studio was one of the first to be established here and by some quirk of fate continuity from the movies' earliest times to today's television and recordings demands has persevered."

The elderly Chaplin briefly revisited his former studio in April 1972, when he made his only return trip to America to accept an honorary Academy Award.

[24] For the 1992 biopic Chaplin, an exterior set of the studio office buildings was constructed among the orange groves north of Los Angeles at Fillmore, Route 126 between Ventura and Valencia.

"[11] At a ceremony in June 2000, the Henson Company unveiled a 12-foot (3.7 m) color statue of Kermit the Frog, dressed as Chaplin's character The Tramp, above the studio's main gate.

In 1985, the hit single and video "We Are the World" was recorded in Studio A by a cast that included Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen, among many others.

[30] In 2011, Van Halen's comeback (and ultimately final) album, A Different Kind of Truth, was recorded in Studio C with producer John Shanks.

[32] Alice in Chains recorded three albums at the studios: 2009's Black Gives Way To Blue, 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here[33] and 2018's Rainier Fog.

John Mayer recorded his 2021 album Sob Rock at the studios and filmed a performance video for a ballad arrangement of his song "Last Train Home" there.

During A&M's tenure, it was used to film music videos, including "Every Breath You Take" by the Police and "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr.[36] In addition, Soul Train was taped there from 1981 to 1985.