By Charly SHELTON

Warner Bros. Studios has been around since the heyday of silent movies. It was founded in 1923 and has been the distributor of many of the films now referred to as “the classics:” “Casablanca” from 1942, “Gone with the Wind” from 1939, “The Maltese Falcon” from 1941, “The Jazz Singer” from 1927 – the first talkie – and the list goes on. These Warner Bros. films are part of the world’s cultural heritage and now, to celebrate its 95th anniversary, the studio lot tour will present “Classics Made Here,” a twice-weekly tour to immerse guests in the history of the classic films shot on the lot and elsewhere.

The tour not only takes guests through the front and back lots but also allows guests to get off their golf carts and walk through the façades, learning tidbits of trivia for each place along the way. And while many classics were shot on these famous sets, the spark of recognition may go off for any number of films or TV shows shot there.

“The thing about this lot that I love is, well everything, but I think that, as we walk around these standing sets, the streets of the town square and all of this, memories are triggered,” said famed movie historian Leonard Maltin at the preview event for the tour. “Someone just asked me, ‘Is that the Gilmore Girls house?’ Yes, if that’s your memory, if that’s what you grew up watching, then that’s what it means to you. The house behind me – someone just asked ‘Gremlins?’ Yes, it’s the Gremlins house and [there are] 50 others. Everywhere you turn, there’s something that’s a memory. [Pointing to the town square:] ‘The Music Man’ with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. Or if we go a little farther around the bend there, ‘Little Caesar’ with Edward G Robinson, [Humphrey] Bogart movies like ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ the list just doesn’t stop. Because this was a home base.”

The three-and-a-half-hour tour includes a champagne toast for guests 21 and over to honor the classics before boarding the golf carts to visit several locations on the lot that will no doubt jog memories – the jungle area used for “Jurassic Park” when the T. rex chased a jeep which “must go faster, must go faster,” or the bayou swamp where a green felt frog played his banjo and sang “The Rainbow Connection” before being offered a standard rich and famous contract.

The Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter films meets guests on the second level of the Archives exhibit, lanterns made for The Black Pearl from “Pirates of the Caribbean” hang in the Mill Shop, and the best photo op of the day – the Warner Bros. water tower, where Yakko, Wakko and Dot are locked safely away so they don’t cause any trouble – are all included on the tour and much, much more. The tour culminates with a visit to the museum in Stage 48 that features a tour through the filmmaking process, visual effects demonstrations and sets – like the coffee shop from “Friends” – props – like the microphone from “The Jazz Singer” – and artifacts from film history – like Jack Warner’s chrome telephone and personal address book.

This is a great opportunity for film buffs and tourists alike. Even for those who live close by and wouldn’t normally visit a tour like this, visiting the WB lot on an all-access tour is a rare treat and gives a greater depth of appreciation to those films we’ve loved over the last 95 years.

For more information, visit WBStudioTour.com. Tickets are $75, or $65 for children, and the “Classics Made Here” tour runs Fridays and Saturdays starting May 4.

  Charly Shelton