March 15, 2005 Origins of the Universal It's hard to imagine a time before Tinsel Town. Rolling hills instead of Hollywood and Highland. Hoofprints in the sand instead of hand prints in the sidewalk. But in fact, before there was Hollywood, there was Universal City, established by Carl Leammle as "the first city to be devoted exclusively to the manufacture of motion pictures." Universal City opened its gates 90 years ago to this day. And the Hollywood Heritage foundation will commemorate the occasion with a screening event this evening. Catch three rare historic shorts: Universal Tour (1915); Carl Laemmle Presents City of the Stars (1925) and Life in Hollywood (1923). The event kicks off with a slide show of what the landscape looked like before all the pavement and buildings. When Universal City opened, the public was invited to watch films being made for a cost of 25 cents. Call it progress or just inflation, tonight you can watch those people watching films being made for a cost of $8.00. The event starts at 7:30 P.M. at the Hollywood Heritage Museum in the Lasky-DeMille Barn at 2100 N. Highland Avenue. More information is available at the HollywoodHeritage.org. Speaker Alert: This site contains cheesy music.