Hollywood

Hollywood is to every facet of the entertainment industry what Wall Street is to the financial industry. It represents the very soul of the business. Movie-star hopefuls arrive by car, train, plane, and bus to Hollywood with stars in their eyes and dreams of greatness in their hearts every hour of the day and night, every day of the year!

Hollywood is known for making stars as well as for breaking hearts. If you "make it" in Hollywood, you "make it" in the entertainment business all over the world.

But Hollywood is what it is. It's the center of the entertainment industry. Broadway in New York City would like to claim to be the center of the entertainment industry. Perhaps Broadway was, but it no longer is! No, the soul of the entertainment industry went west a long time ago.

In 1853, one little lonely adobe hut stood on what we call Hollywood today; not a very grand beginning for the sparkle and shine that is there today. At first the Hollywood area was claimed by farmers. The ground was fertile and crops flourished. Hollywood was named for the "California Holly" (or Toyon) that covers the hills with clusters of bright red berries in the winter.

The movie industry was conceived when the Biograph Company from New York went to California to shoot a movie called "In Old California" in 1910. The company shot several more movies and eventually relocated. The rest, as they say, is history. The seeds were planted and the industry began to grow — and grow, and grow.

Hollywood at first was only interested in making movies, but it didn't take long for the area to embrace television when it came along either. Today, Hollywood sits at the very center of the entire entertainment industry — the uncontested queen of entertainment!