# @cowmissing on YouTube - **Type:** Video - **Original URL:** https://youtube.com/watch?v=CJDuCfitX5w - **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/75901347-cowmissing-youtube - **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/ef2b477dca.jpg - **Posted:** 2025-04-04T03:50:27.000+00:00 - **Account Owner:** Cow Missing (@CowMissing) — https://gondola.cc/CowMissing ## Caption For decades, one of the most memorable moments on the Universal Studios Hollywood Studio Tour was the Parting of the Red Sea — a clever special effect inspired by the biblical epic The Ten Commandments. This sequence recreated the moment Moses divides the waters for the Israelites to cross safely — only this time, guests experienced it firsthand from aboard the Studio Tour tram. As the tram approached Park Lake, the tour guide would explain its long film history — it had served as a backdrop for productions like Creature from the Black Lagoon and McHale’s Navy. The guide then warned everyone to lift their bags off the floor — “You might get wet!” — before counting down to the main event. When the tram entered the lake, the waters parted dramatically, revealing a dry path through the middle. What guests were actually seeing was an ingenious combination of hydraulics and mechanical gates hidden beneath the surface. Massive metal plates, hinged underwater, would rotate open to let water rush down the sides, creating the illusion that the lake itself had divided. At its best moments, it was spectacular — water cascaded alongside the tram as the vehicle dipped below the lake's level, giving the feeling of driving through a parted sea. Behind the scenes, the system was originally fully automated — timed precisely to open and close as trams passed through. Early on, though, one tram got caught mid-crossing when the system closed too soon, briefly trapping guests as the lake refilled! After that, Universal added two safety features: Tour guides had to manually signal that the tram had cleared the area before the gates could close again. Infrared sensors were installed to detect whether the tram was still inside the effect zone. The illusion wasn’t perfect — observant riders could spot the rusty gates or hear the hydraulics groaning beneath the water — but that was part of its charm. Despite its age, it remained a fan-favorite set piece for decades. Interestingly, the effect drew inspiration from film history itself: in Cecil B. DeMille’s original The Ten Commandments (1923), the parting of the sea was achieved by filming a block of blue gelatin melting, then reversing the footage — a primitive yet effective trick that foreshadowed the mechanical version guests experienced on the Studio Tour. Eventually, as newer effects replaced older ones, the Red Sea sequence was retired — but it remains one of those quintessential Universal moments that perfectly captured the park’s tagline: “Ride the Movies.” Parting the Red Sea (1973 – 2017) Excerpt from A Universe of Cinemagic Universal Studios Hollywood Souvenir Video (1997), starring John Forsythe. ©1997 Universal Studios Hollywood, An MCA Company (http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/) Posted for entertainment and educational purposes only. No copyrights were infringed. All works are the property of the company listed above. Please do not reproduce without their expressed written consent. Seen in: The Mississippi Gambler Creature from the Black Lagoon McHale's Navy Gilligan's Island Sweet Charity The Blues Brothers The Nude Bomb The History of the World Part I Tales of the Gold Monkey Dawn of the Dead #universalstudios #universalpictures #universalhollywood #universalstudioshollywood #redsea #PartingOfTheRedSea #waterfeatures #charltonheston #UniversalParksAndResorts #studiotour #MCAUniversal #nbcuniversal #nbcu #unistudios #LifeAtUSH #cowmissing ## Stats - **Views:** 4,166 - **Likes:** 31 - **Shares:** 0 - **Comments:** 2 ## Credits No public credits are recorded here. This does not identify who made the post. ## Tags unistudios, universalstudios, waterfeatures, lifeatush, universalhollywood, partingoftheredsea, mcauniversal, universalstudioshollywood, universalpictures, cowmissing, universalparksandresorts, charltonheston, redsea, nbcuniversal, nbcu, studiotour --- Copyright (c) Gondola