The set for Silverado was left up for years and used for many other projects, as I recall. Sadly the town was burnt to the ground for a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE movie. . . “Wild Wild West”, which oddly enough starred one of the actors from Silverado, Kevin Kline.
And seeing it bearing down on you when waking out of a Dramamine-and-beer-induced stupor is an experience I’d like to experience again, without the vomiting this time. Bounty was under sail for some festival or movie promotion in Chicago at the time and I believe I was fishing with some customers–I’m unclear about a lot of things that day.
The Tatooine Sets from Star Wars are still in use in Tunisia
Just saw this article a few weeks ago.
There are two places in my local area with film sets remaining. The television series of “The Man from Snowy River” was filmed 15km down the road at a place called Newbury. The set of a 19th century country town is still there, but the whole thing is a facade, but very convincing from the outside.
http://www.kattemingga.com.au/filmsets.htm
And another 15kms down the same road the barns built for the recent version of “Charlotte’s Web” are giving the local planning committee some grief.
While preparing to shoot On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the James Bond producers needed a mountaintop headquarters for the villain, Blofeld.
Some consortium had started to build a hotel/restaurant on top of the Schilthorn in the Swiss alps, but had run out of money. The producers paid to finish the place inside and out, even adding a helipad, in return for filming there. The place is still open and retains the name from the movie, Piz Gloria.
The only thing I can add to all this is my memory of walking in the Malibu hills. We were actually walking to the outdoor set of the MAS*H set, which was still being used (That will give you a time reference) when we passed the origional sets for The Planet of The Apes. The “Ape-City” sets were still there, although in disrepair. don’t know if they’ve finally disolved. This was some 20+ years ago.
For the 1988 Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm, filmed in Townsend, Vt., the production staff built a gazebo on the town common that’s still standing. It was improved upon after filming ended, and is more substantial than the structure originally erected, IIRC. My wife and I saw it a few years ago.
A lot of the Tunisian sets for Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth were re-used by Monty Python for Life of Brian.
Many of the studios have street scenes on their lots, where the storefronts are actually doorways into offices. I auditioned to be an alien in Star Trek IX on the Paramount New York street set. which has five streets, one resembling a typical block in each borough. They are astoundingly authentic looking, except for too much sunshine.
Die hard used the building it used because it was Fox’s newest office building. Still in use as one of their main corporate office structures.
When filming “Zulu” the apartheid laws meant that the filmakers could not pay the Zulu extras at the standard acting rate. To get round this they donated the livestock from the film to the tribes.
In the “Making Of” documentary it is also mentioned they built the sets to be sturdier than needed and donated them to the cast afterwards. I can’t find an online cite but apparently they were turned into a school and hospital, and are still in use.
And some of the “futuristic” sets were actually real pre-existing structures, notably Luke’s adopted home.
Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, CA is a frequent location when they need a roller rink, and has received exterior and interior work for various films.
Somewhat OT, my old apartment in Los Feliz was used in the perfectly horrible “Mulholland Falls”. They shot the exteriors/pool scene of the girl’s apartment there. If you drive south on Rodney Dr. from Los Feliz Blvd, you will spot it. A lot of stuff is still around LA if you know where to look. Roarke’s house from “Fantasy Island” is in the LA Arboretum, although it wasn’t constructed for the series. The batcave from the 60’s series is in Griffith Park. The house from “Happy Days” is in Hollywood, but doesn’t look the same. The owners of the “Brady Bunch” home have also taken measures to change the appearance and hide the house to discourage lookeeloos. The fact is, damn near every part of this city has been photographed for a film at one point or another. When going to the movies me and the GF often exchange a look when we spot a familiar place.
And around here, you never know. One Sunday evening, my girlfriend and I were picnicking in one of the flats, maybe Charlton Flats, up highway 2 past Mt. Wilson. There were a lot of “Paramount” trucks in the parking lot, but the place was otherwise deserted. My girlfriend went to walk the dog. She came back all excited and made me come with her immediately. Over a small ridge was the complete and relatively large earth set from “Star Trek- First Contact”, fully dressed and ready for shooting the next day. I had a beer in the bar where Troi drinks with Cochrane. The set was amazingly detailed. There was a lot of little stuff that would never show up on film. As a lifelong trekkie, I couldn’t have been more impressed. 
When you move to LA, it doesn’t take long before movie crews are perceived as a nuisance instead of a novelty, but that experience made up for a lot. 
Musicat- Where is this taco stand you speak of?
I was there over the summer and went on a tour (parent’s tour, put on by my daughter’s school), and it was back at the Museum, but not at the top of the steps. It was down at the bottom of the steps, on the right side, by some trees, easy to miss if you’re just driving by. Perhaps it was there as a prop again for the latest ‘Rocky’ movie?
I had the same experience when my group went on the “Sound of Music” tour around Salzburg, which stood in for 1940s Vienna in the movie.
In the film, we see Liesl and her boyfriend Rolph outside her house, and when it rains, they scamper into a nearby gazebo on her family’s grounds. They’re quite the scamperers. The house used as the Von Trapp residence is about a mile down the road from the gazebo where “16 going on 17” was filmed.
I logged on to mention “The Ten Commadments” but you beat me to it. This is definately my favorite story of still standing (or not standing, I suppose) movie sets. Here’s an interesting article about it:
I’ve read that Stanley Kubrick purposefully had the sets from 2001: A Space Odyssey wrecked after filming so that they wouldn’t be used in later cheapo sci-fi flicks.
None of the sets from Lord of the Rings were left up, including the Shire and the entire village of Edoras; there is nothing left to indicate anything stood there. However, Jackson does have Bag End in storage and hopes to reassemble it some day so he can live in it.
The M.A.S.H movie set was not only reused to make the TV Show of the same name, it CAUSED the TV Show to be made.
The execs realised they had spent a bundle on the set, and wanted to see if they could recoup some of the expenses. So they decided to write a “spin off” television series based upon the movie and re-used the sets. They had no idea that they were about to create one of the most popular TV Series of all time.
I have no real cite for this, just remember reading it in a bokk called “HOLLYWOOD HISTORY”
Regards
FML
I mean a BOOK… not a bokk… I only read Bokks about Bach and Spring Beer (Boch)
Regards
FML
I’d been told the old Uniroyal tire factory in LA had been modified for use as a set in Ben Hur. It’s a big, dramatic looking building with Babylonian style decor.
Alas, I just found out I was lied to. Though it was in the movie Ben Hur, it was actually built that way in the late 1920’s. Plus, it’s Assyrian, not Babylonian.
It’s now a mall. They actually have a pretty good history page on their website, considering that it is an outlet mall - http://www.citadeloutlets.com/info/ourhistory.cfm
The southeast corner of Burbank and Vineland, North Hollywood. El Mexicano, I believe, but I haven’t been by there for almost 10 years, so it might be a Starbucks now.
Back at you – where was the Rodney Drive location for ? I used to live 3 blocks south of Los Feliz on Rodney, 2052 1/2, but I see Mulholland Falls was made in 1996, so that was long after I moved away. Were we neighbors, separated only by time?
Since this has been bumped…
The Rockford Peaches’ home field in A League of Their Own was constructed from the remains of a 19-century ballpark and is still in use as a ballpark.