Historic WB studio site up for sale

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The former Warner Bros. Hollywood studio where the first talking motion picture was shot 80 years ago is up for sale.

While the asking price for the Sunset Boulevard site -- now occupied by KTLA-TV, Tribune Entertainment and Tribune Studios -- hasn't been divulged, one real estate expert thinks it will fetch about $175 million, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

City officials said they hope the Tribune Co. property, which includes a colonial-style mansion, will continue to be used for entertainment-industry purposes, but in Hollywood's hot condo market it could wind up as housing.

Once it sells, it means "Judge Judy," "Judge Joe Brown" and "Hannah Montana" will be evicted. Those TV shows currently are filmed there.

And just maybe someone will put up a plaque noting Al Jolson recorded the words and songs for "The Jazz Singer" there in 1927, the first time a movie was made with sound.