The Origins of Hollywood

When you hear the word Hollywood first thoughts are about your favorite movie actor or actress. Bright lights fancy cars and movie stars. Lifestyles of the rich and famous with their VH1 shopping sprees and million dollar homes in the California Hills. But this is far from the truth about Hollywood's birth. In fact the first American motion pictures were made in the early 1890's, by employees of Thomas Edison's Laboratories in New Jersey. And for the first 15 years of movie-making history the New York/New Jersey area dominated the industry."

"What was to become Hollywood was a relatively small farming town northwest of a relatively small city (Los Angeles) in a relatively new state (California joined the union in 1850)" In 1853 a Kansas prohibitionist names Horace Wilcox and his wife Daeida were the first developers of the area and gave it the name "Hollywood" named after a friends home who lived in Chicago.

The area became a thriving development that was "short-lived" due to a lack of "adequate water supply" an effect of the average "320 days of sunshine per year." Eventually this brought about the complete annexation to the city of Los Angeles in 1910. In 1893 the birth of the Edison patented "Kinetograph" produced the first "movie."

The invention was quickly improved upon and in 1894 the first "Kinetoscope" parlor opened in New York City. This was a time when movies could only be made by natural light. So Hollywood with it's 320 days of sunshine and attractive terrain became an attractive place. So in 1911 the first studio was built and the rest is as they say history.

Source:
By Steve Sampson, Managing Editor
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