Flashback Friday (1989): Earthquake: The Big One, at Universal Studios Tour (Hollywood), opened 33 years ago today. “Universal's "Big One" was built in an enclosed set at a cost of $14 million. Its original opening date in November was delayed because of design problems. Set in a San Francisco subway station, "The Big One" features a violently shaking platform on which Universal Studios tram cars sit, a runaway subway car littered with bodies, erupting sidewalks, a burst propane tank, a 60,000-gallon wall of water, collapsing ceilings, sparking transformers and several other disaster-related effects. Barry Upson, MCA's (Universal) Executive Vice President for Planning and Development (Universal Creative) stated having bodies in the attraction's runaway subway car “is simply show business." The 145-second simulation, staged as many as 200 times a day, is designed to mimic an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the open-ended Richter scale, estimated by seismologists to be about the same magnit...