What did happen to the Young Frankenstein lab?

Young Frankenstein (1974) was played in black and white using the same settings from the laboratory of the Frankenstein's original movies by Universal;
(Universal studios - best known as Universal City - 5 miles far from Hollywood, is presently part of a sight-seeing tour for people visiting Los Angeles and, at the same time, one of the most important profits for the producer. Tourists get into a pretty little train, like in Disneyland)

In order to re-create the '30 years serials feeling, Mel Brooks used the same stagings from some old MGM's famous movies.

• The scene of the body stealing was shot near the church where Greer Garson was married in Mrs. Miniver, 1942
• The sequence of the railroad station was performed by the same setting used for the Ronald Colman's arrival in Random Harvest, 1942
• For the scene of the castle assault from the countrymen Brooks used the setting from The Brothers Grimm, 19..
• The film was shot in the same castle as the original Frankenstein (1910) (*)


• DIRCAMEO (Mel Brooks): the sound of the off-screen cat screaming when hit by a dart (*)

For the construction of the Frankenstein lab, Mel Brooks hired Kenneth Strickfaden, who was an 80 year old, art director in the 1931 original James Whale movie.
Kenneth Strickfaden had the laboratory set until he passed away in the early 1980's.
He left the set with Ed Angel, a friend of his, who kept it in his scenery shop, in Texas, where he rented out the equipment.
During this time, some of the scenery was used in several movies, including Powder and Terminator.
Two years ago, in 1996, this equipment was sold to a museum called Studios at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, where it is presently at the studios tour. People can tour through movie scenes and props.

References

1. "Cinema & film - La meravigliosa storia dell'arte cinematografica, Armando Curcio Editore, Roma, Italia, 1988, Vol. 8, pp. 2169-2170 ", under the headword "Frankenstein Junior" by Mr. Enzo Natta


2. (*) taken from "LIST: MOVIE TRIVIA: in -jokes, cameos, signatures", by muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au (Murray Chapman), Archive: movies/trivia-faq Version: 1.30 (July 1996)# Young Frankenstein (1974), http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~mgros/brooks/movieyo2.html

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