Universal Studios Hollywood

Hard-core Harry Potter fans who devoured the books, camped out for the movies and trekked through the theme park now have a new way to relive the boy wizard's adventures. PHOTOS: Making of Harry Potter studio tour Debuting Saturday, the Making of Harry Potter behind-the-scenes tour at theWarner Bros.studios in England will let wizards, mudbloods and muggles pull back the curtain on the movie-making secrets of the most successful film series of all time. Located 20 miles outside of London, the three-hour self-guided tour will take visitors past sets, props, costumes, models and special effects exhibits from the eight "Harry Potter" movies.

* Crane Aerospace, Burbank, a division of Crane Co., announced promotions at two of its operating units. Greg Ward has been named president of Hydro-Aire Inc. Ward joined Hydro-Aire as vice president of manufacturing in 1993 and most recently was senior vice president, operations and customer satisfaction. Elise Kopczick has been named president of Lear Romec. For the past four years, Kopczick had been vice president, people and processes at Hydro-Aire.

The battle for Southern California theme park supremacy intensified Monday as MCA Inc. announced that two of Hollywood's great icons, "E.T." and Lucille Ball, will be saluted with new attractions as part of a $100-million expansion of Universal Studios Hollywood. MCA executives said the changes will bring tour visitors closer to the filmmaking process. Universal plans to revamp its tram service, cutting the ride from 2 hours to 45 minutes.

VALLEY ELDER: MCA, the entertainment giant expected to be acquired by the Seagram Co. (A1, D1), has 80-year roots in the Valley. . . . In 1914, Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle paid $165,000 for 240 acres of ranchland northeast of the Cahuenga Pass. Twenty thousand people turned out on March 15, 1915, for the opening of Laemmle's state-of-the-art motion picture studio, now part of MCA. Its first feature was "Damon and Pythias" (1914).

Jet Skiers crisscross a turquoise lagoon, dodging explosions. As fireballs shoot skyward, a smoking airplane crashes into the water. What is this? Reshoots for the video release of "Waterworld"? No, it's actually "WaterWorld--A Live Sea War Spectacular," a new attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. The 16-minute stunt show is the most elaborate live production in the theme park's history. It is also the most expensive--which seems appropriate since the movie was the costliest ever made.

Boa constrictor snakes, black widowspiders, guillotine decapitations, electrifying electrocutions, sadistic insane asylums. Welcome toAlice Cooper's walk-through nightmare. The "Alice Cooper: Welcome to my Nightmare" maze at Halloween Horror Nights 2011 turns the shock-rocker's songs, characters and theatrical concerts into a walk-through haunted attraction. I took a tour of the Alice Cooper maze this week in the Jurassic Park ride queue at Universal Studios Hollywood with Horror Nights creative director John Murdy.

This post has been corrected The top theme parks in North America enjoyed an estimated 2.9% increase in attendance in 2011, with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Fla., accounting for about half of that rise. The attendance estimate was released Thursday by the Burbank-based Themed Entertainment Assn., a trade group for designers of theme parks, casinos, museums, zoos and other entertainment venues. The assessment is based on an annual estimate of theme park crowds by AECOM, a Los Angeles engineering and consulting firm.

Theme parks are being flooded with applications from job seekers, as unemployed mortgage agents, sales clerks and construction workers who can't find work elsewhere seek temporary positions that often pay little more than minimum wage. A job fair at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia last weekend drew 1,600 people -- in the rain. Universal Studios Hollywood took in more than 1,100 job applications on just one day last month. Disneyland in Anaheim and Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park have received so many job applications that they put off plans to hold jobs fairs this year.

The new Transformers ride has been generating positive early reviews from theme park enthusiasts and hard-core fans of the shape-shifting robots during a soft-opening preview at Universal Studios Singapore. > Photos: Transformers ride at Universal Studios Set to officially debut on Saturday, the five-minute Transformers motion-simulator dark ride , with high-definition 3-D images and special effects, will feature an original story line starring the heroic Autobots and villainous Decepticons -- anthropomorphic robots capable of changing into cars, trucks and planes.