Imagine a time when the only stars in Hollywood were found in the crystal- clear night skies arching over rolling hills. This was the setting for the area’s native people, the Gabrielinos. Later, the Gabrielinos lived on missions for some time but reminders of their culture remain. Before Hollywood became the world’s entertainment mecca, it resembled other west frontiers – a landscape of farmers, cowboys, prospectors, bandits, and mostly undeveloped land. All land north of Sunset Boulevard, for example, was considered useless for anything but grazing. With more and more Easterners drawn by the promise of sunny skies and mild, dry weather, the area’s bedrock industry – real estate – soon kicked into high gear. Subdivisions begat more subdivisions, and by the end of the 19th century Hollywood was taking on the contours of a recognizable town. Thanks to Daeida Wilcox, it also had a name. In 1887, Mrs. Wilcox, wife of town founder Harvey Wilcox, met a woman on a train trip who referred to her Florida summer home, “Hollywood.” She…

All was quiet until 1907, when bad weather drove a small Chicago film company westward to complete a shoot. The first real studio, Nestor Film Company, soon followed from New Jersey, cranking out three pictures a week – one ‘western,’ one ‘eastern,’ and one comedy – for a grand total of $1,200. By 1912, word of Hollywood’s ideal film-shooting climate and landscape spread, and at least 15 independent studios could be found shooting around town. Old barns were turned into sound stages and Hollywood’s quiet time was over. It wasn’t just sunny skies that spurred the mass film migration to Hollywood. In 1897, famed inventor and early movie mogul Thomas Edison began suing rival producers who were utilizing filmmaking-projection devices based (he felt) on his Kinetoscope technology. Many of these movie ‘pirates’ fled from New Jersey (home…

By 1915, America was officially film crazed, and Hollywood was shaping into the glamorous, sometimes surreal landscape we’ve come to know and love. Hopeful actors and actresses filled the streets, dazzled by a new American dream: film stardom. Studios, meanwhile, sprung up like wildfires and engaged in a cutthroat battle for survival. As the industry matured, many of these independent companies merged, forming the big studios that would shape and control the industry moving forward. By 1920, 40 million Americans were going to the movies…

Hollywood, which by now represented not just a city, but also an industry, a lifestyle and, increasingly, an aspiration, was officially crowned when the “Hollywoodland” sign was erected in 1923. Built by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler as an epic $21,000 billboard for his upscale Hollywoodland real estate development, the Sign soon took on the role of giant marquee for a city that was constantly announcing its own gala premiere. Dates and debates swirl about when the Hollywoodland Real Estate development – and the massive electric sign that advertised it – actually came into being. But a review of local newspapers from the era (i.e., The Los Angeles Times, Holly Leaves, Los Angeles Record, Los Angeles Examiner and the Hollywood Daily Citizen) clears up any confusion. For instance, a Hollywoodland ad in the Los Angeles Times (June 10, 1923) states that the real estate development launched in late…

Hollywood has always been a place where visionaries harness technology for entertainment and communications. Mount Lee, the home of the Sign, bears the name of a famous entrepreneur who made this ridge in Griffith Park into one of the most important historical sites in television history. The W6XAO antenna alongside a powerful transmitter and fully-equipped TV studio on Mt. Lee in 1941. (courtesy of Steve Dichter) Don Lee was a classic California bootstrapping entrepreneur who owned the exclusive rights to sell Cadillac cars in California in the 1920s. He extended his business into radio in 1926 with the purchase of station KHJ and other stations on the West Coast. In 1930, Lee saw an opportunity to lead in the development of broadcast television, then just a promising but unproven technology. Using a portion of his substantial radio profits, he hired a team to expand on the television filming, transmission and receiving technologies that were just emerging. W6XAO went live in December 1931 from a location near Gardena, launching more than eight years before NBC began its broadcasts in New York. By 1932, Mr. Lee had moved the TV studio to downtown Los Angeles…

The advent of synchronized sound sent the picture industry reeling, as the big studios frantically re-tooled and acting careers were ruined and made overnight. Still, the “talkies” took movie mania to new heights, and Hollywood was booming in 1929 when the stock market crashed. Although the studios, which rely heavily on speculative capital, were hit hard initially, the Depression meant even bigger business as Americans flocked to theaters for ever more lavish, escapist productions. The “Hollywood Sign Girl” The element of sound promised new opportunities for vocally trained stage actors. Unfortunately, most of the thousands of would-be stars and starlets who flocked to Hollywood were met with cold rejection. In 1932, Peg Entwistle, a New York stage actress, became the symbol of the dark side of the Hollywood dream. Emboldened by her Broadway success, the ambitious young actress soon set her sights on the silver screen. She packed…

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Hollywood mobilized to become a full-time war industry. Studio trucks transported troops instead of movie sets. Stars like Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart and Victor Mature quickly enlisted. And patriotic fare dominated the silver screens. The War also had a more subtle effect on moviemaking and creative choices. Out of physical necessity (rationing, travel limitations, etc.) spare psychodramas and the age of Film…

The film industry’s high profile made it vulnerable in the postwar climate of anti-liberal hysteria. By the early 50’s, 400 actors, writers, directors and producers were blacklisted, and paranoia prevailed. By 1948, box office receipts plummeted 45% from wartime highs. The culprit: Television. From ’41 to ’51 the number of TV sets in American homes skyrocketed from 10,000 to more than 12 million. Studios slashed payrolls, back lots sprouted weeds, and sound stages went dark. Filmmakers and distributors responded with a series of gimmicks: wider screens, 3-D, Technicolor, stereo sound, even free dishes.With characteristic resilience, Hollywood soon managed a successful transition to the small screen. TV companies flocked westward and snatched up old studios and lots, and by 1950 more sound stages were producing television than movies. Around this same time, the Hollywood Sign was undergoing a major transition of its own. In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce finally came to the rescue of the ailing Sign, removing the…

During the 1960s, Hollywood suffered through a mass exodus of residents to the suburban San Fernando Valley. Even more distressing was the flight of film power centers to the Valley and other less cramped environs. By 1970, Paramount was the only studio left in town. In the void left by this civic and business flight, and against a backdrop of looser obscenity laws, redefining what could be shown in movie theaters. Hollywood became overrun with adult theaters, and the ‘adult’ culture they ushered in: massage parlors, porn shows, adult bookstores, etc. Crime soared, and the town’s storied boulevards were ravaged by the urban decay that marked most U.S. cities during the period. Meanwhile, by the end of the turbulent 60’s it didn’t take a Weatherman to know what the elements had done to the Sign. Hollywood’s once-proud emblem now served as a glaring badge of dis-honor – rusted, dilapidated, soon to literally crumble under its own weight. In 1973, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board gave the…

The Sign has always served as a barometer for the community; and as Hollywood re-blossomed, so too did the Sign, which benefited from a range of new preservation efforts.