What Are Some Interesting Facts About Hollywood?

The first of the interesting facts about Hollywood deal with its famous sign.

Hollywood was originally an area called Hollywood land and the sign was put up by Harry Chandler, in 1923, to advertise.
It cost him $21,000 to put it up and he thought it would be temporary and it was built to last 18 months or so.
There were 4000 20-watt light bulbs installed to illuminate the sign in 1939 and a caretaker was hired to maintain the sign.
The letters L, A, N, and D, were removed in 1949 and the sign has stayed that way ever since.
When the sign started showing its age in 1978, Hugh Hefner held an auction for people to sponsor a letter.
Some famous people who sponsored a letter include Gene Autry who sponsored the L, Paul Williams who sponsored the W, and Alice Cooper who sponsored the O.
The Hollywood Sign Trust was set up in 1995 to take care of the Hollywood sign.

Hollywood Boundaries

Here are some interesting facts about the boundaries of the Hollywood subdivision:

The official borders were set in 2006 and on the south it is bordered by Melrose Avenue and Las Palmas on the north.
To the east is Western Avenue and to the west is West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

More interesting facts about Hollywood deal with the history of moviemaking in the famous city.

The first movie ever made was In Old California in 1910 and the first one that was made in a permanent Hollywood studio was The Squaw Man in 1914.
By 1935, Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, 20th-Century Fox, and Warner Brothers were all in full production as was the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Some of the famous movie stars of the Golden Age included Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, and Spencer Tracy.
Some of the best movies were Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and It’s a Wonderful Life.
The motion picture studios owned theatres all over the country and showed their movies with their stars in them.
The end of the Golden Age came when the Supreme Court said they could no longer own theatres that showed only their films.
The 1950s saw the introduction of 3-D but it was a passing fad.
In the 1960s, television made its way into homes and movie attendance dropped off sharply.
The blockbuster movie was born in the 1970s and the studios started increasing revenue with related products, national advertising, releasing movies at many theatres at the same time, and sequels.
The biggest blockbusters of this time were Star Wars and Jaws.
Innovative movie producers included Steven Spielburg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and William Friedkin.
From the 1980s and forward, the biggest changes in movie making has been digital and computer technology and of course, they make fantastic special effects.

Hollywood is home to many theatres and here are interesting facts about some of them.

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opened in 1927 and has grown into a legendary theatre and popular tourist attraction. Besides being an attractive theatre with Chinese artifacts, it has the footprints and handprints of famous movie stars. Other theatres include El Capitan Theatre, Kodak Theatre, Egyptian Theatre, and the Pantages Theatre.

The first nightclub in Hollywood was the Montmarte Cafe, where Joan Crawford was discovered. Other landmarks include the Capitol Records building and the Hollywood and Highland Center, which is the home of the Academy Awards. Points of interest are the Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood Wax Museum, the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard, and the Hollywood Bowl.

So, now you know plenty of interesting facts about Hollywood and what you'll find there.