Hollywood, California - Home of the Stars

CALIFORNIA LEGENDS

Hollywood - Home of the Stars

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Greetings From Hollywood, California

Greetings From Hollywood, California vintage postcard

In western section of metropolitan Los Angeles sits the famous city of Hollywood, California known almost exclusively as the global center of movie studios and film stars.

Though the district is now called home to an estimated 300,000 people, it began around 1853 with nothing more than one adobe hut. However, by the 1870s, an agricultural community had grown in the area. In the 1887 Harvey Wilcox, who had made a fortune in real estate, relocated to the area from Kansas along with his wife Daeida and soon bought 160 acres of land west of where Hollywood would soon be born.

When Daeida Wilcox went on a trip to the East, she met a woman on the train that spoke of her country home in Ohio named after a Dutch settlement called "Hollywood." Daeida liked the sound of it and when she returned to Southern California she gave the name to her and her husband's ranch.

Though Wilcox had lost the use of his legs due to typhoid fever, it did not stop the ambitious real estate investor. Before long, he drew up a grid map for a town, which he filed with the county recorder's office on February 1, 1887. Soon, Prospect Avenue, which would later be called Hollywood Boulevard, was lined with large Queen Anne, Victorian, and Mission Revival houses. Mrs. Wilcox worked with other residents to raise funds that were used to build churches, schools and a library.

Hollywood quickly became a prosperous community, sporting a post office, a newspaper, a hotel and two markets by the turn of the century. Lying seven miles east of Hollywood, through the citrus groves, was the already well established city of Los Angeles. A single-track streetcar connected the two cities, but ervice was infrequent and the trip took two hours. An old citrus fruit packing house was soon converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood.

The famous Hollywood Hotel, the first in hotel in Hollywood, was opened in 1902 by a developer who was selling residential lots along the foothills. The hotel's initial objective was to house the many people that he was trying to sell to. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted Prospect Avenue, which was then, just a dusty, unpaved road. Today the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards stands where the old hotel once was.

The community incorporated in 1903, but its independence was short-lived, as the lack of water forced annexation with the city of Los Angeles in 1910. During its seven years as a self-supporting town, several ordinances were passed which included outlawing the sale of liquor the driving of cattle through the streets in herds of more than two hundred.

n 1904, a new trolley car track running from Los Angeles to Hollywood up Prospect Avenue was opened. The system, called "the Hollywood Boulevard," cut travel time to and from the city drastically.

The famous Hollywood Hotel opened in 1902. Today,

the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards,

stands where the hotel once was.

The Selig Film Manufacturing Company was the first major film company to come to the Los Angeles area, shooting its first film entirely on location, entitled The Heart of A Race Tout in 1908 . The Next year the film company built the first permanent film studio.

At about the same time, motion picture production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to sunny California because of the good weather. Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for movie production was natural sunlight. Besides the moderate, dry climate, they were also drawn to the state because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery.

Another reason was the distance of Southern California from New Jersey, which made it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his motion picture patents. At the time, Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to motion picture production and, in the East, movie producers acting independently of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were often sued by Edison and his agents. Thus, movie makers working on the West Coast could work independent of Edison's control. If he sent agents to California, word would usually reach Los Angeles before the agents did and the movie makers could escape to nearby Mexico.

A second movie studio -- Nestor Studios, was founded in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley in an old building on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. In the same year, another fifteen independent film producers would also settle in Hollywood, replacing the lemon groves with movie sets, buildings, businesses and homes. 1912 saw saw the opening of the Idyle Hour Theatre.

In 1913, Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse Lasky leased a barn with studio facilities on the southeast corner of Selma and Vine Streets. The location soon became known as Lasky-DeMille Barn and is now home to the Hollywood Heritage Museum.

The Charlie Chaplin Studios, on the northeast corner of La Brea and De Longpre Avenues was built in 1917 and the following year Sid Grauman's "Million Dollar Theatre" began to entertain the public.

Continued Next Page

Also See:

California Fun Facts & Trivia

Celebrity Ghosts of America

Los Angeles Sightseeing

I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood.

They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but

I love plastic. I want to be plastic.

-- Andy Warhol

Charlie Chaplin, 1889-1977

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Four 66 Tin Signs - Set of four Old Route 66 weathered style signs. Measuring 10"x16", made of heavy gauge metal, signs have rolled edges for safe handling. Includes: Main Street USA - Chicago to L.A., Eat here and get gas - Alice's Eatery & Service Station, America's Highway, and U.S. Route 66.