[
].]]
[
boulevard from kodak theatre.jpg|thumb|205px|[[Hollywood Boulevard], taken from the
Kodak Theatre]].
Hollywood is a district in
Los Angeles, situated west-northwest of
Downtown Los Angeles.
[City of Los Angeles Map - Larger View] Due to its fame and
cultural identity as the historical center of
movie studios and
movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a
metonymy of
American cinema. The nickname
Tinseltown refers to the glittering, superficial nature of Hollywood and the movie industry.
Today, much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as the
Westside neighborhood,
[[1]] but significant auxiliary industries, such as
editing,
effects,
props,
post-production and
lighting companies, remain in Hollywood, as does the
backlot of
Paramount Pictures.
Many historic Hollywood
theaters are used as venues and concert stages to premiere major theatrical releases and host the
Academy Awards. It is a popular destination for nightlife, and tourism and is home to the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Although it is not the typical practice of the city of
Los Angeles to establish specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods, Hollywood is a recent exception. On February 16, 2005,
California Assembly Members
Goldberg and
Koretz introduced a bill to require
California to keep specific records on Hollywood as though it were independent. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. This bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce and the
Los Angeles City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor on August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The border can be loosely described as the area east of
Beverly Hills and
West Hollywood, south of
Mulholland Drive,
Laurel Canyon,
Cahuenga Boulevard, and Barham Boulevard, and the cities of
Burbank and
Glendale, north of
Melrose Avenue and west of the
Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. This includes all of
Griffith Park and
Los Feliz—two areas that were hitherto generally considered separate from Hollywood by most
Angelenos. The population of the district, including Los Feliz, as of the 2000 census was 167,664 and the
median household income was $33,409 in 1999.
As a portion of the city of
Los Angeles, Hollywood does not have its own municipal government, but does have an official, appointed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who serves as an honorary "
Mayor of Hollywood" for ceremonial purposes only.
Johnny Grant held this position for decades, until his death on January 9, 2008.
[Scott (2005).]History
In 1853, one
adobe hut stood on the site that became Hollywood. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished in the area with thriving crops. A locally popular etymology is that the name "Hollywood" traces to the ample stands of native
Toyon or "California Holly", that cover the hillsides with clusters of bright red berries each winter. But this and accounts of the name coming from imported
holly then growing in the area, are not confirmed. The name Hollywood was coined by
H. J. Whitley,
[Keith (2006).] the Father of Hollywood
[^ "Death Calls H.J. Whitley. Real Estate Man Known as "Father of Hollywood". Pioneer in Many Southland Developments.". Los Angeles Times. pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/384306361.html?dids=384306361:384306361&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jun+04%2C+1931&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=DEATH+CALLS+H.+J.+WHITLEY&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2008-07-17. "H. J. Whitley, pioneer California real estate man and known as the "Father of Hollywood." died yesterday at the age of 83 years and after an illness of more than a year. Mr. Whitley died during his sleep while staying as a guest of his son Ross Whitley at the Whitley Park"]. He and his wife, Gigi, came up with the name while on their honeymoon in 1886, according to
Margaret Virginia Whitley's memoir. The name "Hollywood" was used by H. H. Wilcox when he laid out his 160 acre farm in 1887. On February 1, 1887 Harvey filed a deed and map of property he sold with the Los Angeles County Recorder's office. He had learned of the name Hollywood from his neighbor Ivar Weid and wanted to be the first to record it on a deed.
By 1900, the community then called
Cahuenga had a post office, newspaper, hotel and two markets, along with a population of 500. Los Angeles, with a population of 100,000 people at the time, lay east through the citrus groves. A single-track
streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent and the trip took two hours. The old citrus fruit packing house would be converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood.
[
], first hotel in Hollywood, at the corner of what is now Yucca Street. It was built by
Joakim Berg]], a famous artist back in the 1890s.
[] 1907.]]
The first section of the famous
Hollywood Hotel, the first major hotel in Hollywood, was opened in 1902, by
H. J. Whitley, the President of the Los Pacific Boulevard and Development Company of which he was a major shareholder. He was eager to sell residential lots among the lemon ranches then lining the foothills. Flanking the west side of
Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on
Prospect Avenue. Still a dusty, unpaved road, it was regularly graded and graveled. His company opened and developed the first residential area the Ocean View Tract.
Hollywood was incorporated as a
municipality in 1903. Among the town ordinances was one prohibiting the sale of
liquor except by
pharmacists and one outlawing the driving of cattle through the streets in herds of more than two hundred. In 1904, a new trolley car track running from Los Angeles to Hollywood up Prospect Avenue was opened. The system was called "the Hollywood Boulevard." It cut travel time to and from Los Angeles drastically.
By 1910, because of an ongoing struggle to secure an adequate
water supply, the townsmen voted for Hollywood to be
annexed into the City of Los Angeles, as the water system of the growing city had opened the
Los Angeles Aqueduct and was piping water down from the
Owens River in the
Owens Valley. Another reason for the vote was that Hollywood could have access to drainage through Los Angeles´ sewer system. With annexation, the name of Prospect Avenue was changed to Hollywood
Boulevard and all the street numbers in the new district changed. For example, 100 Prospect Avenue, at
Vermont Avenue, became 6400 Hollywood Boulevard; and 100 Cahuenga Boulevard, at Hollywood Boulevard, changed to 1700 Cahuenga Boulevard.
Motion picture industry
Filmmaking in the greater Los Angeles area preceded the establishment of filmmaking in Hollywood. The
Biograph Company filmed the short film
A Daring Hold-Up in Southern California in Los Angeles in 1906.
[Niver (1971), p. 262.] The first studio in the Los Angeles area was established by the
Selig Polyscope Company in
Edendale, with construction beginning in August 1909.
[Robertson (2001), p. 21.]
In early 1910, director
D. W. Griffith was sent by the
Biograph Company to the west coast with his troupe, consisting of actors
Blanche Sweet,
Lillian Gish,
Mary Pickford,
Lionel Barrymore and others. They started filming on a vacant lot in downtown Los Angeles. The company decided to explore new territories and traveled five miles (8 km) north to the little village of Hollywood, which was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first
film ever shot in Hollywood called
In Old California, a one-reel melodrama set in Mexican colonial-era California in the 1800s. The movie company stayed there for months and made many, many films before returning to New York.
The first studio in Hollywood was established by the New Jersey-based Centaur Co., which wanted to make westerns in California. They rented an unused
roadhouse at 6121
Sunset Boulevard at the corner of
Gower, and converted it into a movie studio in October 1911, calling it Nestor Studio after the name of the western branch of their company.
[Robertson (2001), p. 21. The facility later became the Hollywood Film Laboratory, which is now called the Hollywood Digital Laboratory.] The first
feature film made specifically in a Hollywood studio, in 1914, was
The Squaw Man, directed by
Cecil B. DeMille and
Oscar Apfel,
[Feature-length films made in the Los Angeles area before The Squaw Man include From Dusk to Dawn (1913) and The Sea Wolf (1913). American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures.] and was filmed at the
Lasky-DeMille Barn amongst other area locations.
By 1915, the majority of American films were being produced in the Los Angeles area.
[Koszarski (1994), p. 99.]
Four major film companies —
Paramount,
Warner Bros.,
RKO and
Columbia — had studios in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios.
1920s-1940s
By 1920, Hollywood had become world famous as the center of the
United States film industry.
From the 1920s to the 1940s, a large percentage of transportation to and from Hollywood was by means of the
red cars of the
Pacific Electric Railway.
Modern Hollywood
On January 22, 1947, the first commercial
television station west of the
Mississippi River,
KTLA, began operating in Hollywood. In December of that year,
The Public Prosecutor became the first network television series to be filmed in Hollywood. And in the 1950s, music recording studios and offices began moving into Hollywood. Other businesses, however, continued to migrate to different parts of the Los Angeles area, primarily to
Burbank. Much of the movie industry remained in Hollywood, although the district's outward appearance changed.
In 1952,
CBS built
CBS Television City on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and
Beverly Boulevard, on the former site of Gilmore Stadium. CBS's expansion into the
Fairfax District pushed the unofficial boundary of Hollywood further south than it had been. CBS's slogan for the shows taped there was "From Television City in Hollywood..."
During the early 1950s the famous
Hollywood Freeway was constructed from
Four Level Interchange interchange in downtown Los Angeles, past the
Hollywood Bowl, up through
Cahuenga Pass and into the
San Fernando Valley. In the early days, streetcars ran up through the pass, on rails running along the central median.
The famous
Capitol Records building on
Vine St. just north of Hollywood Boulevard was built in 1956. The building houses offices and recording studios which are not open to the public, but its circular design looks like a stack of vinyl records.
The now derelict lot at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Serrano Avenue was once the site of the illustrious
Hollywood Professional School, whose alumni reads like a Hollywood Who's Who of household "names". Many of these former child stars attended a "farewell" party at the commemorative sealing of a time capsule buried on the lot.
The
Hollywood Walk of Fame was created in 1958 as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry and the first embedded star on the walk—honoring actress
Joanne Woodward -- was set in place on February 9, 1960. Honorees receive a star based on career and lifetime achievements in motion pictures, live
theatre,
radio, television, and/or music, as well as their charitable and civic contributions.
In 1985, the
Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District was officially listed in the
National Register of Historic Places protecting important buildings and ensuring that the significance of Hollywood's past would always be a part of its future.
In June 1999, the long-awaited Hollywood extension of the
Los Angeles County Metro Rail Red Line subway opened, running from
Downtown Los Angeles to the
Valley, with stops along Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue, Vine Street and Highland Avenue.
[
].]]
The
Kodak Theatre, which opened in 2001 on Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue, where the historic
Hollywood Hotel once stood, has become the new home of the
Oscars.
While motion picture production still occurs within the Hollywood district, most major studios are actually located elsewhere in the Los Angeles region.
Paramount Pictures is the only major studio still physically located within Hollywood. Other studios in the district include the aforementioned Jim Henson (formerly Chaplin) Studios, Sunset Gower Studios, and Raleigh Studios.
While Hollywood and the adjacent neighborhood of
Los Feliz served as the initial homes for all of the early television stations in the Los Angeles
market, most have now relocated to other locations within the metropolitan area.
KNBC began this exodus in 1962, when it moved from the former
NBC Radio City Studios located at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street to
NBC Studios in Burbank.
KTTV pulled up stakes in 1996 from its former home at
Metromedia Square in the 5700 block of Sunset Boulevard to relocate to Bundy Drive in West Los Angeles.
KABC-TV moved from its original location at ABC Television Center (now branded
The Prospect Studios) just east of Hollywood to
Glendale in 2000, though the Los Angeles bureau of ABC News still resides at Prospect. After being purchased by
20th Century Fox in 2001,
KCOP left its former home in the 900 block of North La Brea Avenue to join KTTV on the Fox lot. The
CBS Corporation-owned
duopoly of
KCBS-TV and
KCAL-TV moved from its longtime home at
CBS Columbia Square in the 6100 block of Sunset Boulevard to a new facility at
CBS Studio Center in
Studio City.
KTLA, located in the 5800 block of Sunset Boulevard, and
KCET, in the 4400 block of Sunset Boulevard, are the last broadcasters (television or radio) with Hollywood addresses.
Additionally, Hollywood once served as the home of nearly every radio station in Los Angeles, all of which have now moved into other communities.
KNX was the last station to broadcast from Hollywood, when it left
CBS Columbia Square for a studio in the
Miracle Mile in 2005.
In 2002, a number of Hollywood citizens began a campaign for the district to secede from Los Angeles and become, as it had been a century earlier, its own incorporated municipality. Secession supporters argued that the needs of their community were being ignored by the leaders of Los Angeles. In June of that year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors placed secession referendums for both Hollywood and the
San Fernando Valley on the ballots for a "citywide election." To pass, they required the approval of a majority of voters in the proposed new municipality as well as a majority of voters in all of Los Angeles. In the November election, both referendums failed by wide margins in the citywide vote.
Hollywood is served by several neighborhood councils, including the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council (HUNC)
[2] and the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council.
[3] These two groups are part of the network of neighborhood councils certified by the City of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, or DONE.
[4] Neighborhood Councils cast advisory votes on such issues as zoning, planning, and other community issues. The council members are voted in by stakeholders, generally defined as anyone living, working, owning property, or belonging to an organization within the boundaries of the council.
[5]
Revitalization
After many years of serious decline, when many Hollywood landmarks were threatened with demolition,
[Russell Leavitt, In California: A Fading Hollywood, TIME magazine, June 14, 1982] Hollywood is now undergoing rapid
gentrification and revitalization with the goal of
urban density in mind. Many developments have been completed, typically centered on Hollywood Boulevard. The
Hollywood and Highland complex (site of the
Kodak Theater), has been a major catalyst for the redevelopment of the area. In addition, numerous fashionable
bars,
clubs, and
retail businesses have opened on or surrounding the boulevard, returning Hollywood to a center of nightlife in Los Angeles. Many older buildings have also been converted to lofts and condominiums,
Cosmo Lofts was the first live/work loft development in the Hollywood area. A W Hotel is currently under construction at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.
Hollywood neighborhoods and communities
[
Roosevelt.JPG|thumb|The [[Roosevelt Hotel (Hollywood)|Hotel Roosevelt] has long sat on Hollywood Boulevard near
Hollywood High School and
Grauman's Chinese Theater]].
Local Government
Politics
Much of the neighborhood of Hollywood that includes most of Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard falls within the 13th District of the City of Los Angeles. Recent city councilmembers include:
Michael Woo: 1985-1993
Jackie Goldberg: 1994-2000
Eric Garcetti: 2000-present
Urban revitalization
The city agency that spearheads revitalization within the Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area is the Community Redevelopment of Los Angeles located in the House of Blues Building at 6244 Sunset Blvd., #2206, Hollywood, CA 90028.
Demographics
As of the 2000 census, there were 210,777 people residing in the Community Plan Area of Hollywood. The population density was 8,443 people per square mile (3,261/km²). The racial makeup of the community was 59.84%
White (47.27% White Non-Hispanic), 9.44%
Asian, 0.13%
Pacific Islander, 4.28%
African American, 0.62%
Native American, 19.10% from
other races, and 6.59% from two or more races. 34.51% of the population were
Hispanic of any race. 49.63% of the population was foreign born; of this, 46.24% came from Latin America, 32.73% from Asia, 17.80% from Europe and 3.23% from other parts of the world.
[City of Los Angeles Census 2000 Statistical Profile, Community Plan Area: Hollywood]
Education
[
High School mural.jpg|right|thumb|[[Hollywood High School].]]
Students who live in Hollywood are zoned to schools in the
Los Angeles Unified School District. The area is within Board District 4.
[Board District 4 Map. Los Angeles Unified School District. Retrieved on November 24, 2008.] As of 2008 Marlene Canter represents the district.
["Board Members." Los Angeles Unified School District. Retrieved on November 24, 2008.] Canter announced that she will not seek re-election after her term expires in June 2009.
["Two LAUSD board members retire, Friedlander wins Shoah scholarship prize." The Jewish Journal. November 12, 2008.]
Elementary schools:
Middle schools:
Hollywood High School and
Helen Bernstein High School are public high schools in the Hollywood area.
Christ the King Elementary School is a private school in the area.
For many years, the motion picture Industry had its own private
Industry-run institution for child actors, the
Hollywood Professional School.
Public libraries
The Will and Ariel Durant Branch and the Frances Howard Goldwyn – Hollywood Regional Branch of the
Los Angeles Public Library are in Hollywood.
Landmarks
Special events
- The Academy Awards are held in late February/early March (since 2004) of each year, honoring the preceding year in film. Prior to 2004, they were held in late March/early April. Since 2002, the Oscars have been held at their new home at the Kodak Theater at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.
- CINECON Classic Film Festival & Exposition (Annual timing is five days—connected to Labor Day weekend) Classic film memorabilia, expert presentations, author signings, and movie screenings with celebrity guests.
- The annual Hollywood Christmas Parade: The 2006 parade on Nov 26th, was the 75th edition of the Christmas Parade. The parade goes down Hollywood Boulevard and is broadcast in the LA area on KTLA, and around the United States on Tribune-owned stations and the WGN superstation. [6]
See also
Hollywood history books
- Gaelyn Whitley Keith (2006) The Father of Hollywood: The True Story (Hardcover), Book Surge, An Amazon.com Company. (ISBN 1-4196-4194-8)
- Nudelman, Robert & Wanamaker, Marc (2005) Historic Hollywood: An Illustrated History (Hardcover), Texas: Historical Pub Network. (ISBN 978-1893619463)
- R. Jezek, George & Wanamaker, Marc (2003) Hollywood: Now and Then (Hardcover), California: George Ross Jezek Photography & Publishing. (ISBN 978-0970103611)
- Gregory Paul Williams (2005) The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History (Hardcover), BL Press LLC. (ISBN 0-9776299-0-2)
