Hollywood: A quick history of the U.S. movie capital

Hollywood had its roots as a thriving agricultural community, and when it was established in 1853, there was only a single adobe hut on land outside Los Angeles.  Today it’s the center of the movie industry in the United States, a part of LA in the western state of California.

By the 1870s, an agricultural community was flourishing in the area, and crops ranged from grain to hay to subtropical bananas.  In 1887, a man named Harvey Wilcox decided to sell some farmland he owned, hoping builders would put up houses there.  His wife thought the name Hollywood would be great for the housing development, although it should be noted that no actual holly trees grew in the state and she merely liked the sound of the term.

As there’s some disagreement around who first named the place Hollywood, another account states that the name was coined by H. J. Whitley, the Father of Hollywood, where he and his wife Gigi reportedly produced the name in 1886 while on their honeymoon.  At any rate, the subdivisions turned into a town with named streets and where commercial activity sprung.  With new technology, the idea of making pictures stirred inventors both in America and Europe.

In early 1910, director D. W. Griffith arrived with his acting troop, and there he filmed the first Hollywood movie ever shot, called “In Old California.”  In 1911, the Nestor Company opened the first film studio there, and not long after, Hollywood saw movies being regularly made.  The 1914 movie “The Squaw Man” heralded the beginning of the modern Hollywood film industry.

Mike Giuffrida is an LA-based student trying to break through the entertainment industry. Learn more on this page.