History
The tour has always been at the heart of Universal. From 1915, when visitors sat on bleachers for 5 cents, to the 1964 introduction of pink and white GlamorTrams, to the current technological sophistication, the behind-the-scenes view of a working movie studio has been a large attraction.
During the early years of the tram tour (1964–1965) all of the attractions at Universal were reached via the tram. The tour originally departed from the front lot comissary. In 1965, the upper lot studio tour center opened.
In 1991, the tram boarding was moved to the lower lot following the construction of the Starway escalator system. In 1996, boarding moved back to the upper lot to make room for Jurassic Park: The Ride.
As the movie studio has continued to evolve, the tour has evolved along with it. In late 1989, CD players finally gave the tour guides a chance to rest their voices. In 2000, the CD players were replaced by DVD players and LCD screens, allowing the tour guides to show scenes from movies filmed at the locations which the tram passes.
Since 2006, some studio tours have bypassed the Collapsing Bridge, due to aging and wearing. However, the bridge has since undergone renovations, and was added back to the tour schedules in August 2008. Since July 2010, the Collapsing Bridge has been used as a representation of the Skull Island city for the new King Kong: 360 3-D attraction.
Read more about this topic: Studio Tour
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I think that Richard Nixon will go down in history as a true folk hero, who struck a vital blow to the whole diseased concept of the revered image and gave the American virtue of irreverence and skepticism back to the people.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887–1971)
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)