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Posted by on May 25, 2018 in TellMeWhy |

Why Is Hollywood Famous?

Why Is Hollywood Famous?

Why Is Hollywood Famous? Hollywood is the center of the United States motion picture and television industries. Its situation in the north-west of Los Angeles, California, provided many attractions for pioneers of the film industry at the beginning of this century. The climate was ideal with maximum sunshine and mild temperature. The terrain was well suited with ocean, mountains and desert. And a large labor market was available.

Hollywood was a small community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, and soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, eventually becoming the most recognizable film industry in the world. One of Hollywood’s first movies to tell a story was The Count of Monte Christo, begun in 1908. By the end of 1911, there were more than 15 producing companies in the area.

Among the famous people working in Hollywood at the beginning of the First World War were Charlie Chaplin, Samuel Goldwyn, Douglas Fairbanks and Cecil B. de Mille. The advent of the talkie forced many famous stars of the silent screen to retire. For, although they could act well enough, their voices were often unsuitable.

Voice training had been unnecessary for actors and actresses working in the silent movies and, by the time the talkies came, it was too late for many of them to learn. But the greatest threat to Hollywood came from television after the Second World War. Many production companies disappeared. Others survived and met the competition by also making television films. Today Hollywood is not only the center of the motion picture industry, but also of the television, film and recording industries of America.

motion picture industry

How Hollywood did have its name? In 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera (Nopal field), named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished. The area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north.

According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, also known as the “Father of Hollywood”, on his honeymoon in 1886 he stood at the top of the hill looking out over the valley. Along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed. The Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, “I holly-wood,” meaning ‘hauling wood.’ H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood. “Holly” would represent England and “wood” would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States.

how hollywood did have its name

Whitley arranged to buy the 480 acres (190 ha) E.C. Hurd ranch. They agreed on a price and shook hands on the deal. Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and Ivar Weid, a prominent businessman in the area.

Daeida Wilcox learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon (now Lake Hollywood) and a prominent investor and friend of Whitley’s. She recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. H. Wilcox who had purchased 120 acres on February 1, 1887. It wasn’t until August 1887 Wilcox decided to use that name and filed with the Los Angeles County Recorder’s office on a deed and parcel map of the property. The early real-estate boom busted at the end of that year.

By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, and two markets. Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles (16 km) east through the vineyards, barley fields, and 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 was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood.

The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard and Development Company. Having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, which, still a dusty, unpaved road, was regularly graded and graveled. The hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years.

Whitley’s company developed and sold one of the early residential areas, the Ocean View Tract. Whitley did much to promote the area. He paid thousands of dollars for electric lighting, including bringing electricity and building a bank, as well as a road into the Cahuenga Pass. The lighting ran for several blocks down Prospect Avenue. Whitley’s land was centered on Highland Avenue. His 1918 development, Whitley Heights, was named for him.

Content for this question contributed by Annmarie Colucci, resident of Roselle, Union County, New Jersey, USA