Old map supposedly shows how Hollywood studio used California to represent other countries

One of Hollywood’s historic movie studios supposedly created a map in the first years of the American film industry that shows locations in California that could be stand-ins for areas around the world.

The map says it is a “Paramount Studio Location Map,” and multiple blogs and websites say it is from 1927, but Paramount Pictures Corporation, as the studio is known today, has not confirmed this as of publishing time.

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The black-and-white map doesn’t show what movies were filmed in the state, but it shows most of the Golden State and Nevada and suggests what global location the different areas could represent in movies.

While some of the comparisons could potentially match, others are more…interesting. Most of the map consists of locations that could stand in for European, African and Asian locations, as well as other areas of the United States.

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Here’s a north-to-south rundown of the map of California and the world regions they supposedly resemble.

• State of Nevada — Sudan Desert
• North of Lake Tahoe — Siberia and the French Alps
• Lake Tahoe — Switzerland
• Sacramento River — Mississippi River
• Central Sierra Nevada — New England
• South Bay — Alaskan Rivers
• Santa Cruz — New England Coast
• Eastern Sierra Nevada — Wyoming Cattle Ranches
• Monterey — Nile River
• Central Coast — Africa
• Fresno — Swiss Alps
• Santa Barbara — Coast of Spain
• Southern Sierra/Mojave Desert — Kentucky Mountains
• Los Angeles/Long Beach/Orange County — Wales/Venice/Holland
• Joshua Tree area — Sherwood Forest, England
• Catalina Island — South Sea Islands (Polynesia)
• Indio — South Africa
• Salton Sea — Red Sea
• Southern Coast — Malay Coast
• San Diego — Spain
• Southeastern California — Sahara Desert

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