The A&M Offices
Alpert and Moss started the company in the garage behind Alpert's house, with not much more than two phone lines, a piano, and a college student to help them pack and ship records. But the company found its real home in 1966 when they purchased the former Charlie Chaplin Studios from CBS. Built by Chaplin in 1917, this legendary complex near the corner of La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood still contains the sound stage where Chaplin made all of his classic silent films.
Groundplan for the A&M Records lot
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Herb’s brother David managed its conversion into the company’s home, retaining its English Tudor design but remodeling its facilities to accommodate executive offices and recording studios. In 1969 the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board named the complex a historic cultural monument; today, it houses the Jim Henson Company.
Mike Cotton and Prairie Prince of the theatrical rock group The Tubes, which recorded on A&M, designed a mural for the exterior of the soundstage. The photo above shows Cotton holding a rendering of the La Brea Avenue elevation, which shows the mural.
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