For the U.S. motion picture industry, see Cinema of the United States.

For
other uses, see Hollywood (disambiguation).

Hollywood

Neighborhood of Los Angeles

Hollywood as seen from the Hollywood Sign

Map of the Hollywood neighborhood of Los

Angeles
as delineated by the Los Angeles Times
 Hollywood
Location within Central Los Angeles

Coordinates: 34°6′0″N 118°20′0″W

Country United States

State California

Elevation 108 m (354 ft)

[1]

Area code 323

Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles,

California, notable as the home of the U.S. film industry, including several
of its historic studios. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for
the industry and the people associated with it.
Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903.[2][3] 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.[4][5]

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Early history and development
o 1.2Incorporation and merger
o 1.3Motion picture industry
o 1.4Development
o 1.5Revitalization
o 1.6Secession movement
 2Geography
o 2.1Climate
 3Demographics
 4Radio and television
 5Government
 o 5.1Emergency service
o 5.2Post office
o 5.3Neighborhood councils
 6Education
o 6.1Schools
o 6.2Public libraries
 7Notable places
 8Special events
 9See also
 10References
 11External links

History[edit]
Early history and development[edit]
In 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera ("nopal field"), named for the
Mexican nopal cactus indigenous to the area.[clarification needed] 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.[citation needed]
Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United
States.[6][7]

Original 480 acre map of H. J. Whitley property developed by his company, Los
Angeles Pacific Boulevard and Development Company. Highland Avenue runs
through the center of the property. The square at the lower right hand corner is the
Whitley Estate and was not part of the Grand View development.

Whitley arranged to buy the 480-acre (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.

Glen-Holly Hotel, first hotel in Hollywood, at the corner of what is now called Yucca
Street. It was built in the 1890s.

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.[8][9] 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 intersection of Hollywood and Highland, 1907

Newspaper advertisement for Hollywood land sales, 1908

HJ Whitley is the man standing on the left wearing a bowler hat. The building at the
left is the Hollywood Hotel on the corner of Highland Ave. and Hollywood Blvd.

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.[10]
Whitley's company developed and sold one of the early residential areas,
the Ocean View Tract.[11] 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.[12][13] His 1918 development, Whitley Heights, was
named for him.
Incorporation and merger[edit]
Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality on November 14, 1903, by a
vote of 88 for and 77 against. On January 30, 1904, the voters in
Hollywood decided, by a vote of 113 to 96, for the banishment of liquor in
the city, except when it was being sold for medicinal purposes. Neither
hotels nor restaurants were allowed to serve wine or liquor before or after
meals.[14]
In 1910, the city voted for a merger with Los Angeles in order to secure an
adequate water supply and to gain access to the L.A. sewer system. With
annexation, the name of Prospect Avenue changed to
Hollywood Boulevard and all the street numbers were also changed.[15]
Motion picture industry[edit]
Main article: Cinema of the United States

Nestor Studio, Hollywood's first movie studio, 1912

By 1912, major motion-picture companies had set up production near or in

Los Angeles.[16] In the early 1900s, most motion picture patents were held
by Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company in New Jersey, and
filmmakers were often sued to stop their productions. To escape this,
filmmakers began moving out west to Los Angeles, where attempts to
enforce Edison's patents were easier to evade.[17] Also, the weather was
ideal and there was quick access to various settings. Los Angeles became
the capital of the film industry in the United States.[18] The mountains, plains
and low land prices made Hollywood a good place to establish film
studios.[19]

Hollywood movie studios, 1922

Director D. W. Griffith was the first to make a motion picture in Hollywood.
His 17-minute short film In Old California (1910) was filmed for
the Biograph Company.[20][21][22] Although Hollywood banned movie
theaters—of which it had none—before annexation that year, Los Angeles
had no such restriction.[23] The first film by a Hollywood studio, Nestor
Motion Picture Company, was shot on October 26, 1911.[24] The H. J.
Whitley home was used as its set, and the unnamed movie was filmed in
the middle of their groves at the corner of Whitley Avenue and Hollywood
Boulevard.[25][26]
The first studio in Hollywood, the Nestor Company, was established by the
New Jersey–based Centaur Company in a roadhouse at 6121 Sunset
Boulevard (the corner of Gower), in October 1911.[27] Four major film
companies – Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, and Columbia – had studios
in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios. In the
1920s, Hollywood was the fifth-largest industry in the nation.[18] By the
1930s, Hollywood studios became fully vertically integrated, as production,
distribution and exhibition was controlled by these companies, enabling
Hollywood to produce 600 films per year.[19]
Hollywood became known as Tinseltown[28] and the "dream
factory"[19] because of the glittering image of the movie industry. Hollywood
has since[when?] become a major center for film study in the United States.
Development[edit]

Hollywood Boulevard as seen from the Dolby Theatre, prior to 2006

Capitol Records Tower, 1991

In 1923, a large sign, reading HOLLYWOODLAND, was built in

the Hollywood Hills. Its purpose was to advertise a housing development.
In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce entered a contract with the
City of Los Angeles to repair and rebuild the sign. The agreement
stipulated that "LAND" be removed to spell "HOLLYWOOD" so the sign
would now refer to the district, rather than the housing development.[29]
During the early 1950s, the Hollywood Freeway was constructed through
the northeast corner of Hollywood.
The Capitol Records Building on Vine Street, just north of Hollywood
Boulevard, was built in 1956, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame was created
in 1958 as a tribute to artists and other significant contributors to the
entertainment industry. The official opening was on February 8, 1960.[30][31][32]
The Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District was
listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
In 1994, Hollywood, Alabama and 10 other towns named Hollywood
successfully fought Hollywood, California's attempt to trademark its name
and force same-named communities to pay royalties to it.[33] A key point
was that Alabama's Hollywood was the first incorporated Hollywood in the
nation, whereas the one in California did not incorporate until 1903, 6 years
after Alabama's. In addition, it merged with Los Angeles in 1910 and was
no longer identified as a separate city.
In June 1999, the Hollywood extension of the Los Angeles County Metro
Rail Red Line subway opened from Downtown Los Angeles to the San
Fernando Valley, with stops along Hollywood Boulevard at Western
Avenue (Hollywood/Western Metro station), Vine Street (Hollywood/Vine
Metro station), and Highland Avenue (Hollywood/Highland Metro station).
The Dolby Theatre, which opened in 2001 as the Kodak Theatre at
the Hollywood & Highland Center mall, is the home of the Oscars. The mall
is located where the historic Hollywood Hotel once stood.
Revitalization[edit]
After years of serious decline in the 1980s, many Hollywood landmarks
were threatened with demolition.[34] Columbia Square, at the northwest
corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, is part of the ongoing rebirth
of Hollywood. The Art Deco-style studio complex completed in 1938, which
was once the Hollywood headquarters for CBS, became home to a new
generation of broadcasters when cable television networks MTV, Comedy
Central, BET and Spike TV consolidated their offices here in 2014 as part
of a $420-million office, residential and retail complex.[35] Since 2000,
Hollywood has been increasingly gentrified due to revitalization by private
enterprise and public planners.[36][37][38] Over 1,200 hotel rooms have been
added in Hollywood area between 2001 and 2016. 4,000 new apartments
and over 30 low to mid-rise development projects are approved as of
2019. [39]
Secession movement