Copyright © 2015 Bert N. Langford (Images may be subject to copyright. Please send feedback)
Welcome to Our Generation USA!

Below, we cover
Hollywood Classics, 
​along with the Film and TV Industries that began in or are adjacent to Hollywood, California, including Actors, TV and Movies as well as other works originating from that classical Hollywood period.
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​Cinema in the United States ("Hollywood")
YouTube Video of the "Star Wars" Premiere at Grauman Chinese Theater
Pictured: The Hollywood Sign in the Hollywood Hills

The cinema of the United States, often generally referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century.

The dominant style of American cinema is Classical Hollywood Cinema, which developed from 1917 to 1960 and characterizes most films to this day. While the French Lumière Brothers are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, it is American cinema that soon became the most dominant force in an emerging industry.

Since the 1920s, the American film industry has grossed more money every year than that of any other country.

The United States was in the forefront of sound film development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Picture City, Florida was also a planned site for a movie picture production center in the 1920s, but due to the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, the idea collapsed and Picture City returned to its original name of Hobe Sound.

Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar. Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is frequently cited in critics' polls as the greatest film of all time.

The major film studios* of Hollywood are the primary source of the most commercially successful movies in the world, such as, 
Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, making the United States one of the most prolific producers of films in the world.
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Big Eight Film Studios:

During the "golden age" of Hollywood, The Big Eight referred to the eight major Hollywood movie studios. Since then, the number of major studios has fluctuated; with bankruptcies (RKO Radio Pictures), mergers (United Artists), downsizing (MGM) and the promotion of what was previously a minor studio (The Walt Disney Company), as of 2018, there is currently a Big Six.

Big Eight is sometimes used to refer to the eight corporations that own the Big Ten, the ten major Hollywood movie studios:
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Hollywood, California
YouTube Video of Paramount Studios
YouTube Video: Tour of Hollywood Boulevard & the Walk of Fame
YouTube Video of Forest Lawn Cemetery
Pictured below: Hollywood as seen from the Hollywood Sign

Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. This densely populated neighborhood is notable as the home of the U.S. film industry, including several of its historic studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry and the people associated with it.

Hollywood was a small community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, and soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, eventually becoming the most recognizable film industry in the world.

For the history of Hollywood, click on the following blue hyperlinks:
Motion Picture History:
Main article: Cinema of the United States

Nestor Studio, Hollywood's first movie studio, 1912By 1912, major motion-picture companies had set up production near or in Los Angeles. In the early 1900s, most motion picture patents were held by Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company in New Jersey, and filmmakers were often sued to stop their productions.

To escape this, filmmakers began moving out west, where Edison's patents could not be enforced. Also, the weather was ideal and there was quick access to various settings. Los Angeles became the capital of the film industry.

Hollywood movie studios, 1922:

Director D. W. Griffith was the first to make a motion picture in Hollywood. His 17-minute short film In Old California (1910) was filmed for the Biograph Company. Although Hollywood banned movie theaters—of which it had none—before annexation that year, Los Angeles had no such restriction. 

The first film by a Hollywood studio, Nestor Motion Picture Company, was shot on October 26, 1911. The H. J. Whitley home was used as its set, and the unnamed movie was filmed in the middle of their groves at the corner of Whitley Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

The first studio in Hollywood, the Nestor Company, was established by the New Jersey–based Centaur Company in a roadhouse at 6121 Sunset Boulevard (the corner of Gower), in October 1911.

Four major film companies – Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, and Columbia – had studios in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios. In the 1920s, Hollywood was the fifth-largest industry in the nation.

Hollywood became known as Tinseltown because of the glittering image of the movie industry. Hollywood has since become a major center for film study in the United States.

Development:
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In 1923, a large sign, reading HOLLYWOODLAND, was erected in the Hollywood Hills. Its purpose was to advertise a housing development. In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce entered a contract with the City of Los Angeles to repair and rebuild the sign. The agreement stipulated that "LAND" be removed to spell "HOLLYWOOD" so the sign would now refer to the district, rather than the housing development.

During the early 1950s, the Hollywood Freeway was constructed through the northeast corner of Hollywood.

The Capitol Records Building on Vine Street, just north of Hollywood Boulevard, was built in 1956, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame was created in 1958 as a tribute to artists and other significant contributors to the entertainment industry. The official opening was on February 8, 1960.

The Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

In June 1999, the Hollywood extension of the Los Angeles County Metro Rail Red Line subway opened from Downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley, with stops along Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue (Hollywood/Western Metro station), Vine Street (Hollywood/Vine Metro station), and Highland Avenue (Hollywood/Highland Metro station).

The Dolby Theatre, which opened in 2001 as the Kodak Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center mall, is the home of the Oscars. The mall is located where the historic Hollywood Hotel once stood.


Revitalization:

After years of serious decline in the 1980s, many Hollywood landmarks were threatened with demolition. Columbia Square, at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, is part of the ongoing rebirth of Hollywood.

The Art Deco-style studio complex completed in 1938, which was once the Hollywood headquarters for CBS, became home to a new generation of broadcasters when cable television networks MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Spike TV consolidated their offices here in 2014 as part of a $420-million office, residential and retail complex. 

Since 2000, Hollywood has been increasingly gentrified due to revitalization by private enterprise and public planners.

​Secession movement:

In 2002, some Hollywood voters began a campaign for the area to secede from Los Angeles and become a separate municipality. In June of that year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors placed secession referendums for both Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley on the ballot. To pass, they required the approval of a majority of voters in the proposed new municipality as well as a majority of voters in all of Los Angeles. In the November election, both measures failed by wide margins in the citywide vote.

Geography:
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According to the Mapping L.A. project of the Los Angeles Times, Hollywood is flanked by Hollywood Hills to the north, Los Feliz to the northeast, East Hollywood or Virgil Village to the east, Larchmont and Hancock Park to the south, Fairfax to the southwest, West Hollywood to the west and Hollywood Hills West to the northwest.

Street limits of the Hollywood neighborhood are: north, Hollywood Boulevard from La Brea Avenue to the east boundary of Wattles Garden Park and Franklin Avenue between Bonita and Western avenues; east, Western Avenue; south, Melrose Avenue, and west, La Brea Avenue or the West Hollywood city line.

In 1918, H. J. Whitley commissioned architect A. S. Barnes to design Whitley Heights as a Mediterranean-style village on the hills above Hollywood Boulevard, and it became the first celebrity community.

Other areas within Hollywood are Franklin Village, Little Armenia, Spaulding Square, Thai Town, and Yucca Corridor.

​Demographics:

The 2000 U.S. census counted 77,818 residents in the 3.51-square-mile (9.1 km2) Hollywood neighborhood—an average of 22,193 people per square mile (8,569 per km2), the seventh-densest neighborhood in all of Los Angeles County. In 2008 the city estimated that the population had increased to 85,489. The median age for residents was 31, about the city's average.

Hollywood was said to be "highly diverse" when compared to the city at large. The ethnic breakdown in 2000 was: 
Mexico (21.3%) and Guatemala (13%) were the most common places of birth for the 53.8% of the residents who were born abroad, a figure that was considered high for the city as a whole.

The median household income in 2008 dollars was $33,694, considered low for Los Angeles.

The average household size of 2.1 people was also lower than the city norm. Renters occupied 92.4% of the housing units, and home- or apartment owners the rest.[39]

The percentages of never-married men (55.1%), never-married women (39.8%) and widows (9.6%) were among the county's highest. There were 2,640 families headed by single parents, about average for Los Angeles.

In 2000, there were 2,828 military veterans, or 4.5%, a low rate for the city as a whole. 

These were the ten neighborhoods or cities in Los Angeles County with the highest population densities, according to the 2000 census, with the population per square mile:
  1. Koreatown, Los Angeles, 42,611
  2. Westlake, Los Angeles, 38,214
  3. East Hollywood, Los Angeles, 31,095
  4. Pico-Union, Los Angeles, 25,352
  5. Maywood, California, 23,638
  6. Harvard Heights, Los Angeles, 23,473
  7. Hollywood, Los Angeles, 22,193
  8. Walnut Park, California, 22,028
  9. Palms, Los Angeles, 21,870
  10. Adams-Normandie, Los Angeles, 21,848

Radio and Television:

KNX was the last radio station to broadcast from Hollywood before it left CBS Columbia Square for a studio in the Miracle Mile in 2005.

On January 22, 1947, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, KTLA, began operating in Hollywood.

In December of that year, The Public Prosecutor became the first network television series to be filmed in Hollywood.Television stations KTLA and KCET, both on Sunset Boulevard, are the last broadcasters (television or radio) with Hollywood addresses, but KCET has since sold its studios on Sunset and plans to move to another location. 

KNBC moved in 1962 from the former NBC Radio City Studios at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street to NBC Studios in Burbank. 

KTTV moved in 1996 from its former home at Metromedia Square on Sunset Boulevard to West Los Angeles, and KCOP left its home on La Brea Avenue to join KTTV on the Fox lot. 

KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV moved from their longtime home at CBS Columbia Square on Sunset Boulevard to a new facility at CBS Studio Center in Studio City.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Hollywood, California:






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​Classical Hollywood Cinema
YouTube Video: From "Gone with a Wind": "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
YouTube Video: Trailer from "Citizen Kane"
Pictured: ​Theatrical Posters for (L) “Gone with the Wind” (1939); (R) “Citizen Kane” (1941)

Classical Hollywood cinema, classical Hollywood narrative, and classical continuity are terms used in film critique which designate both a narrative and visual style of film-making which developed in and characterized US American cinema between 1917 and the early 1960s and eventually became the most powerful and pervasive style of film-making worldwide.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Classical Hollywood Cinema:
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​Hollywood Walk of Fame including a List of Stars and Actors as well as Hollywood Boulevard
YouTube Video: ACTRESS KATHY BATES HONORED WITH HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME STAR
Pictured: Actress Reese Witherspoon receiving her Walk of Fame Star on Dec. 1, 2010

Click on the following for:
​The Hollywood Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,600 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California.

The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of actors, musicians, directors, producers, musical and theatrical groups, fictional characters, and others.

The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. It is a popular tourist destination, with a reported 10 million visitors in 2003.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
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​Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the west as a winding residential street at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood Hills West district.

After crossing Laurel Canyon Boulevard, it proceeds due east as a major thoroughfare through Hollywood, Little Armenia and Thai Town to Vermont Avenue. It then runs southeast to its eastern terminus at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district.

Parts of the boulevard are popular tourist destinations, primarily the fifteen blocks between La Brea Avenue east to Gower Street where the Hollywood Walk of Fame is primarily located.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Hollywood Boulevard:







Hollywood Blacklist
YouTube Video: Victims of the Hollywood Blacklist
Pictured below: The Hollywood Ten in November 1947 waiting to be fingerprinted in the U.S. Marshal's office after being cited for contempt of Congress.
Front row (from left): Herbert Biberman, attorneys Martin Popper and Robert W. Kenny, Albert Maltz, Lester Cole.
Middle row: Dalton Trumbo, John Howard Lawson, Alvah Bessie, Samuel Ornitz.
​Back row: Ring Lardner Jr., Edward Dmytryk, Adrian Scott.

The Hollywood blacklist - as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known - was the practice of denying employment to screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other American entertainment professionals during the mid-20th century because they were accused of having Communist ties or sympathies.

Artists were barred from work on the basis of their membership, alleged membership in, or sympathy with the Communist Party USA, or their refusal to assist investigations into the party's activities. Even during the period of its strictest enforcement, from the late 1940s through to the late 1950s, the blacklist was rarely made explicit or verifiable, but it directly damaged the careers of scores of individuals working in the film industry.

The first systematic Hollywood blacklist was instituted on November 25, 1947, the day after ten writers and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. A group of studio executives, acting under the aegis of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, fired the artists - the so-called Hollywood Ten - and made what has become known as the Waldorf Statement.

On June 22, 1950, a pamphlet entitled Red Channels was published. Focused on the field of broadcasting, it identified 151 entertainment industry professionals in the context of "Red Fascists and their sympathizers". Soon, most of those named, along with a host of other artists, were barred from employment in most of the entertainment field.

The blacklist lasted until 1960, when Dalton Trumbo, a Communist Party member from 1943 to 1948 and member of the Hollywood Ten, was credited as the screenwriter of the highly successful film Exodus, and later publicly acknowledged by actor Kirk Douglas for writing the screenplay for the movie Spartacus. A number of those blacklisted, however, were still barred from work in their professions for years afterward.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more abou the Hollywood Blacklist:









Major Film Studios, including a List of Movies by Studio in the United States
YouTube Video of the Movie Trailer for "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989)
YouTube Video of the Movie Trailer for "The Perfect Storm" (2000)
Pictured below: Major Film Studios in (T) the San Fernando Valley; (B) Hollywood and the  Westside.

Click here for a List of Films by Studio.

A major film studio is a production and distribution company that releases a substantial number of films annually and consistently commands a significant share of box office revenue in a given market.

In the American and international markets, the major film studios, often simply known as the majors, are commonly regarded as the six diversified media conglomerates whose various film production and distribution subsidiaries collectively command approximately 80 to 85% of U.S. box office revenue. The term may also be applied more specifically to the primary motion picture business subsidiary of each respective conglomerate.

The "Big Six" majors, whose operations are based in or around the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollywood, are all centered in film studios active during Hollywood's Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s.

In three cases--20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures—the studios were one of the "Big Five" majors during that era as well.

In two cases--Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures—the studios were also considered majors, but in the next tier down, part of the "Little Three".

The sixth, Walt Disney Studios, was an independent production company during the Golden Age; it was an important Hollywood entity, but not a major. 

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, RKO, and United Artists were Golden Age majors that survive now only as relatively small independent companies or, in UA's case, a brand name.

Disney is the only member of the Big Six whose parent entity is still located near Los Angeles (on Disney's studio lot and in the same building). The five others report to conglomerates respectively headquartered in New York City, Philadelphia, and Tokyo.

Of the Big Six, Paramount is the only one still based in Hollywood proper; furthermore, Paramount and Fox are the only ones still located within the Los Angeles city limits, while Disney and Warner Bros. are located in Burbank, Columbia in Culver City, and Universal in the unincorporated area of Universal City.

Most of today's Big Six control subsidiaries with their own distribution networks that concentrate on arthouse pictures (e.g. Fox Searchlight Pictures) or genre films (e.g. Sony's Screen Gems); several of these specialty units were shut down or sold off between 2008 and 2010.

The six major studios are contrasted with smaller production and/or distribution companies, which are known as independents or "indies". The leading independent producer/distributors such as Lionsgate, STX Entertainment, and Open Road Films are sometimes referred to as "mini-majors".

From 1998 through 2005, DreamWorks SKG commanded a large enough market share to arguably qualify it as a seventh major, despite its relatively small output. In 2006, DreamWorks was acquired by Viacom, Paramount's corporate parent. In late 2008, DreamWorks once again became an independent production company; its films were distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures until 2016, at which point distribution switched to Universal.

The Big Six major studios are today primarily backers and distributors of films whose actual production is largely handled by independent companies—either long-running entities or ones created for and dedicated to the making of a specific film.

The specialty divisions often simply acquire distribution rights to pictures in which the studio has had no prior involvement. While the majors still do a modicum of true production, their activities are focused more in the areas of development, financing, marketing, and merchandising.

Those business functions are still usually performed in or near Los Angeles, even though the runaway production phenomenon means that most films are now mostly or completely shot on location at places outside Los Angeles.

Since the dawn of filmmaking, the U.S. major film studios have dominated both American cinema and the global film industry. U.S. studios have benefited from a strong first-mover advantage in that they were the first to industrialize filmmaking and master the art of mass-producing and distributing high-quality films with broad cross-cultural appeal. 

Today, the Big Six majors routinely distribute hundreds of films every year into all significant international markets (that is, where discretionary income is high enough for consumers to afford to watch films).

It is very rare, if not impossible, for a film to reach a broad international audience on multiple continents and in multiple languages without first being picked up by one of the majors for distribution.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the Major Film Studios:







Hollywood Studio System
YouTube Video about the Rise of the Hollywood Studio System
​Pictured below: The Hollywood Studio System contributed massively to the success of film's as a whole. It allowed the largest studios of the time to control the majority of the film industry.

​The Hollywood studio system (which was used during a period known as the Golden Age of Hollywood) is a method of film production and distribution dominated by a small number of "major" studios in Hollywood.

Although the term is still used today as a reference to the systems and output of the major studios, historically the term refers to the practice of large motion picture studios between the 1920s and 1960s of (a) producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract, and (b) dominating exhibition through vertical integration, i.e., the ownership or effective control of distributors and exhibition, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulative booking techniques such as block booking.

The studio system was challenged under the anti-trust laws in a 1948 Supreme Court ruling which sought to separate production from the distribution and exhibition and ended such practices, thereby hastening the end of the studio system.

By 1954, with television competing for audience and the last of the operational links between a major production studio and theater chain broken, the historic era of the studio system was over.

The period stretching from the introduction of sound to the beginning of the demise of the studio system, 1927–1948, is referred to by some film historians as the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The Golden Age is a purely technical distinction and not to be confused with the style in film criticism known as Classical Hollywood cinema, a style of American film which developed from 1917 to 1963 and characterizes it to this day.

During the so-called Golden Age, eight companies constituted the major studios that promulgated the Hollywood studio system. Of these eight, five were fully integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and substantial theater chain, and contracting with performers and film-making personnel: 
Two majors--Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures—were similarly organized, though they never owned more than small theater circuits.

The eighth of the Golden Age majors, United Artists, owned a few theaters and had access to two production facilities owned by members of its controlling partnership group, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distributor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the Hollywood Studio System:






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The Burbank Studios
YouTube Video Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood (Burbank) California
YouTube Video: Walt Disney Studios Burbank California
Pictured below: Map and Identification of the Burbank Studio Lot in Burbank, CA

The Burbank Studios (formerly known as NBC Studios) is a television production facility located in Burbank, California. The studio is home to Days of Our Lives, the IHeartRadio Theater, and the Blizzard eSports Arena (home of the Overwatch League).

Click on the blue hyperlinks below for more about Burbank Studios.







The Big Eight Film Studios
YouTube Video: Welcome to Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
YouTube Video: Universal Studios + Studio Tour in HD (Hollywood, CA)
Pictured below: The 100 Greatest Props in Movie History, and the Stories Behind Them

During the "golden age" of Hollywood, The Big Eight referred to the eight major Hollywood movie studios.

Since then, the number of major studios has fluctuated; with bankruptcies (RKO Radio Pictures), mergers (United Artists), downsizing (MGM) and the promotion of what was previously a minor studio (The Walt Disney Company), as of 2018, there is currently a Big Six.

Big Eight is sometimes used to refer to the eight corporations that own the Big Ten, the ten major Hollywood movie studios:






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Hollywood Hills, CA
YouTube Tour of Hollywood Hills
Pictured below: Tom Cruise's Hollywood Mansion

The Hollywood Hills are a part of the Santa Monica Mountains and also a hillside neighborhood of the same name in the central region of the city of Los Angeles, California.

Geography:

The neighborhood touches Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollywood on the south and Hollywood Hills West on the west. It includes Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the Hollywood Reservoir, the Hollywood Sign, the Hollywood Bowl and the John Anson Ford Theater.

Hollywood Hills is bisected southeast-northwest by US 101. The neighborhood is bounded on the northwest and north by the Los Angeles city line, on the east by a fireroad through Griffith Park, continuing on Western Avenue, on the south by Franklin Avenue and on the west by an irregular line that includes Outpost Drive.

Neighborhood:
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The neighborhood of Hollywood Hills includes the Hollywood Bowl and Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) as well as two private and three public schools.
Hollywood Hills contains several neighborhoods:
Population:

A total of 21,588 people lived in the neighborhood's 7.05 square miles, according to the 2000 U.S. census—averaging 3,063 people per square mile, among the lowest population densities in the city or the county. The population was estimated at 22,988 in 2008. The median age for residents was 37, considered old for the city and the county. The percentages of residents aged 19 through 64 were among the county's highest.

The neighborhood is "not particularly diverse" for the city, the diversity index being 0.433, and the percentage of Non-Hispanic Whites is considered high, at 74.1%. Latinos make up 9.4%, Asians are at 6.7%, African American at 4.6% and others at 5.3%. In 2000, Mexico (7.9%) and the United Kingdom (7.8%) were the most common places of birth for the 22.8% of the residents who were born abroad, which was considered a low percentage of foreign-born when compared with the city or county as a whole.

The median household income in 2008 dollars was $69,277, considered high for the city but about average for the county. The percentage of households earning $125,000 or more was high, compared to the county at large. The average household size of 1.8 people was relatively low. Renters occupied 56.5% of the housing units, and homeowners the rest.
In 2000, there were 270 families headed by single parents, or 6.9%, a rate that was low in both the county and the city.

​Education:

In 2000, 54.8% of residents aged 25 and older held a four-year degree, considered high when compared with the city and the county as a whole.

There are five secondary or elementary schools within the neighborhood's boundaries:
  • Immaculate Heart High and Middle School, private, 5515 Franklin Avenue
  • Valley View Elementary School, LAUSD, 6921 Woodrow Wilson Drive
  • The Neilson Academy, private, 2528 Canyon Drive
  • Cheremoya Avenue Elementary School, LAUSD, 6017 Franklin Avenue
  • The Oaks, private elementary, 6817 Franklin Avenue

The American Film Institute is at 2021 North Western Avenue

Recreation and culture:

The neighborhood includes:
Click here for a List of Notable Residents.

See also:







Beverly Hills, California Pictured below: Beverly Hills Hotel -- Ranked #44 in our countdown of the 100 Best Hotels and Resorts in the World. (by International Traveller)
Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Located within 5.71 square miles (14.8 km2) and surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, it had a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census and an estimated population of 33,792 in 2019.

The city is home to many celebrities, luxury hotels, and the Rodeo Drive shopping district.
Originally a Mexican ranch where lima beans were grown, Beverly Hills was incorporated in 1914 by a group of investors who had failed to find oil, but found water instead and eventually decided to develop it into a town.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Beverly Hills, CA:







Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM Studios)Pictured below: Amazon boosts streaming ambitions, strikes deal to buy MGM studios for $8.45 billion
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, initialized as MGM; often referred to as Metro; common metonym: the Lion or Leo) is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. One of the world's oldest film studios, MGM's corporate headquarters are located in Beverly Hills, California.

MGM was formed on April 17, 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.

The new company grew and became one of the "big five" film studios of Hollywood. The studio built a stable of stars under contract, its motto was "more stars than there are in heaven". It was the studio that produced numerous big musicals and won many Oscars. The company was a complete production house, from studios and backlots to full technical facilities.

Its most prosperous era was from 1926 until 1959, bracketed by two productions of Ben Hur. The year 1959 also saw the beginning of the breakup of the company, with the divestiture of the Loews movie chain. Long-term contracts became a thing of the past. Film costs became more unpredictable and making films became more of a gamble. Built initially to produce twenty films or more per year to fill its movie houses, the studio became unsustainable at a reduced output in the 1960s, although it had diversified into television production and rentals of much of its facilities.

By the late 1960s, the company's stock price had declined to the point where the value of its assets well exceeded the value of its stock, making it the potential target for a takeover and the company fought off corporate raiders. The company fell under the control of outsiders with little experience in film-making.

In 1969, deal maker Kirk Kerkorian bought 40% of MGM and installed new management. The management immediately started a sell-off of assets and laid off much of its staff. Output was reduced to an average of five movies per year.

Kerkorian focused on other ventures, utilizing the company brand. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company was created in 1973 as a division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and in the 1980s became an independent company.

Over the next 37 years, the studio was bought and sold on multiple occasions. In all, Kerkorian bought and sold the company three times. Each sale was larger than the previous, and often funded with debt. The debt led to further sell-offs and divestitures. The company sold its Culver City studio complex, its backlots, film library and subsidiaries to pay off incurred debt and reduce ongoing costs.

To bolster its output and increase its film library, the company acquired United Artists in 1980. In 1986, Kerkorian sold the company to Ted Turner and bought most of it back, only to sell it again in 1992. Kerkorian bought the company a third time in 1996 and purchased studios such as Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Co. and their film libraries.

In 2004, Kerkorian sold the company to a consortium including Sony Pictures.

Finally, in 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

​MGM emerged from bankruptcy later that year under the ownership of its creditors, at which time the executives of Spyglass Entertainment, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of the holding company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Barber has since left the company and in 2020, the company began exploring a sale to satisfy its creditors. On May 26, 2021, Amazon announced it intended to acquire the studio for $8.45 billion, with no firm closing date.

Today, the company produces feature films and television series, and distributes films that it has produced as well as purchased distribution rights to.

In film, the company's major productions include the Rocky franchise and the James Bond franchise. Recent productions of MGM Television include The Handmaid's Tale.

​Overview:

MGM was the last studio to convert to sound pictures, but in spite of this fact, from the end of the silent film era through the late 1950s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the dominant motion picture studio in Hollywood.

Always slow to respond to the changing legal, economic, and demographic nature of the motion picture industry during the 1950s and 1960s, and although at times its films did well at the box office, the studio lost significant amounts of money throughout the 1960s.

In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr., whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios. Three years later, an increasingly unprofitable MGM was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, who slashed staff and production costs, forced the studio to produce low-quality, low-budget fare, and then ceased theatrical distribution in 1973. 

The studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were distributed through other studios, usually United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and an expanded film library when he bought United Artists in 1981.

MGM ramped up internal production, as well as keeping production going at UA, which included the lucrative James Bond film franchise. 

It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production. The studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few months later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt, while keeping the library assets for himself.

The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt. MGM was bought by Pathé Communications (led by Italian publishing magnate Giancarlo Parretti) in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. 

The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the studio's major creditor, then took control of MGM. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australia's Seven Network in 1996.

The debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGM's ability to survive as a separate motion picture studio. After a bidding war which included Time Warner (the current parent of Turner Broadcasting) and General Electric (the owners of the NBC television network at the time), MGM was acquired on September 23, 2004, by a partnership consisting of Sony Corporation of America, Comcast, Texas Pacific Group (now TPG Capital, L.P.), Providence Equity Partners, and other investors.

​After its bankruptcy in 2010, MGM reorganized, with its creditors' $4 billion debt transferred to ownership. MGM's creditors control MGM through MGM Holdings, a private company. New management of its film and television production divisions was installed. The creditors have since contracted Morgan Stanley and LionTree Advisors to explore a sale.

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Hollywood Sign Pictured below: 3 Versions of the Hollywood Sign due to pranksters (Upper Left "Hollyboob" & Upper Right "Hollyweed") vs. the real sign as the bottom picture.
The Hollywood Sign (formerly the Hollywoodland Sign) is an American landmark and cultural icon overlooking Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It is situated on Mount Lee, in the Hollywood Hills area of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Spelled out in 45 ft (13.7 m)-tall white capital letters and 350 feet (106.7 m) long, it was originally created in 1923 as a temporary advertisement for a local real estate development, but due to increasing recognition, the sign was left up.

Among the most well-known landmarks in both California and the United States, the sign makes frequent appearances in popular culture, particularly in establishing shots for films and television programs set in or around Hollywood. Signs of similar style, but spelling different words, are frequently seen as parodies. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce holds trademark rights to the Hollywood Sign.

Because of its widespread recognizability and its visibility from many points across the Los Angeles Basin, the sign has been a frequent target of pranks and vandalism across the decades (see above pictures). It has since undergone restoration, including the installation of a security system to deter mischief. The sign is protected and promoted by nonprofit The Hollywood Sign Trust, while its site and the surrounding land are part of Griffith Park.

Visitors can hike to the sign from the Bronson Canyon entrance to Griffith Park or from Griffith Observatory. There is also a trailhead near the Lake Hollywood Reservoir outside of Griffith Park, and although not an access point in itself, there is a popular scenic vista point around Lake Hollywood Park near the trailhead.

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Hollywood Bowl Pictured below: (2021): The Hollywood Bowl will be returning with their 99th summer season, along with its neighbor, The Ford. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced its concert schedule, and there are a lot of exciting options once again this year.
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheater in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by Rolling Stone magazine in 2018.

The Hollywood Bowl is known for its band shell, a distinctive set of concentric arches that graced the site from 1929 through 2003, before being replaced with a larger one beginning in the 2004 season. The shell is set against the backdrop of the Hollywood Hills and the famous Hollywood Sign to the northeast.

The "bowl" refers to the shape of the concave hillside the amphitheater is carved into. The Bowl is owned by the County of Los Angeles and is the home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the host venue to hundreds of musical events each year.

It is located at 2301 North Highland Avenue, west of the (former) French Village, north of Hollywood Boulevard and the Hollywood/Highland subway station, and south of Route 101.

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Universal Hollywood Studio Tours
YouTube Videos of  Tours of The Universal Studio Hollywood Theme Park: Pictured below: Entrance to Universal Studio Hollywood Theme Park
The Studio Tour (also known as The Backlot Tour) is a ride attraction at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Universal City, California near Los Angeles.

The Tour is the signature attraction at the park, and goes into a working film studio, with various film sets on the Universal Studios Lot. In recent years, guests have sat in multi-car trams for the duration of the ride.

​The Tour lasts about 45–60 minutes and is led by a live tour guide who can be seen throughout the tram on video screens. It travels through the Front Lot, Backlot and various attractions, passing sets and props from movies along the way.

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Warner Bros Hollywood Studio Tour Pictured below: ​Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood is a guided and walkthrough studio tour of Warner Bros. Studios*, Burbank in Los Angeles. It offers visitors the chance to glimpse behind the scenes of one of the oldest film studios in the world over a two to three hour period.

* -- See next topic below for Warner Bros. Studios

The studio tour in some form has been open for several decades, but it was renamed to give the Warner Bros. Studio Tours a more uniform identity after the success of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden. Previously, it was known as the Warner Bros. Studios VIP Tour.

​History:

First tours:

In the early days of Warner Bros. Jack Warner would welcome friends and special guests to the studio for tours. If Warner could not provide the tour himself, Mail Room employees were entrusted to show guests around the lot. These tours were not offered to the public and could only be arranged through employees; however, they still proved popular.

Consequently, Warner sought to limit requests as he thought studio tours could cause a "slow-up" of the company's operations.

One Mail Room employee, Dick Mason, was noted for giving very informative tours and was frequently the requested guide for studio executive's guests. Mason's knowledge led him to be assigned to Jack Warner's office to assist the Vice President of Worldwide Production.

Public tours:

In 1972, Warner Bros. faced financial hardships and signed a deal with Columbia Pictures, which was also struggling. They combined to create The Burbank Studios, a joint venture where they would share studio space. 

In 1973 the new company opened a public facing Tour Department. Dick Mason was assigned to manage the new operation. All tours required an advanced reservation and cost $3.

Mason's department included seven tour guides, and tours were limited to twelve people at a time. Tours were unscripted but included the back lots, sound stages, prop house, depending on availability. Without a budget for advertising, news spread by word-of-mouth. The tour proved popular due to its unscripted nature and saw 15,000 guests a year.

As compared to the Universal tour, Dick Mason was interested in educating the public about film-making: "The entire tour is practical. There are no demonstrations or simulations. We're catering to families and kids. We just want to give insight to a business most people have misunderstandings about." The tours departed about four times a day and were around three hours.

In 1990, The Burbank Studios dissolved and Warner Bros. reclaimed the rest of the studio from Columbia Pictures when Columbia moved to the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot in Culver City. 

The Tour Department was relocated into a building next to the studio's Gate 4 on Hollywood Way which allowed the public to inquire about the tour without needing a pass. It shared the space with a Studio Store.

VIP Studio Tours:

Dick Mason retired from Warner Bros. in 2000 and Danny Kahn assumed leadership of the Tour Department. Kahn moved the location of tour to an office building previously occupied by Columbia Pictures across the street from Gate 5. He successfully pushed to increase the frequency of the tours but kept the size of the tour groups small and unscripted nature. The tour became more streamlined and began more aggressive advertising.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood:

In 2015, the tour rebranded itself with the launch of Stage 48: Script to Screen. The expanded tour uses a new name, a new logo, and newer tour carts.

Current Experience:

There are 2 tours currently available. The standard Studio Tour which lasts 2 to 3 hours and the Deluxe Tour which lasts 5 to 6 hours. The tours are a mixture of guided and self-guided, and each tour is different due to filming in certain areas. Pictures are allowed in certain areas.

Stops:

The following are included in every Studio Tour: The Deluxe Tour includes more time at all of the below with a few additions: a continental breakfast, lunch at Warner Bros. Fine Dining, a stop at the Property Department, and a stop at the Costume Department.
  • Soundstage - All tours include a visit inside at least one stage of a current production that is not actively filming. Frequent stages visited include those of The Big Bang Theory, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Pretty Little Liars.
  • The Backlot - A series of outdoor sets representing various location such as New York, a mid-western town, and a jungle.
  • The Archive - A collection of props and costumes from Warner Bros. movies and TV shows, currently featuring assets from the Harry Potter films and the DC Extended Universe.
  • Picture Car Vault - A garage with cars used in film and television. Currently featuring Batmobiles from Warner Bros. movies.
  • Stage 48: Script to Screen - An interactive soundstage which takes guests through the production process. The soundstage opened July 16, 2015 and is the final stop on the tour. Stage 48 is self-guided and includes the original set of Central Perk from the television show Friends where guests can take pictures on the couch. There is also a green screen video opportunity where guests can fly on a broomstick from Harry Potter or ride on a Batpod as seen in The Dark Knight. In addition to the attraction, the building includes a cafe and coffee shop themed to "Central Perk" from Friends as well as a gift shop.

Special exhibits:
  • Batman 75th Anniversary - A special display which opened on June 26, 2014 in both the Archive and the Picture Car Vault. In the Archive, there were displays of props and costumes from every Warner Bros. Batman movie. Batmobiles and other Batman vehicles were put on display in the Picture Car Vault. Beginning in September 2015, the Batmobile from the movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice joined the display when not used for filming.
  • Horror Made Here - Opened for Halloween in Stage 48, the temporary exhibit included assets from The Exorcist, Interview with the Vampire, Annabelle, and other horror movies.
  • "Mad Max: Fury Road" Costumes - Added to Stage 48 on February 24, 2016.
  • DC Universe: The Exhibit - Located in The Archive, this exhibit replaced portions of the Batman 75th Anniversary display. It includes first issues of comic books such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman as well as props and costumes from the films Batman vs. Superman and Suicide Squad.
  • DC Universe: The Exhibit was updated to include the latest costumes and props from Wonder Woman 2017.
  • The Cafe that Mia worked in from the Oscar Winning film La La Land has been dressed as seen in the production as part of a stop on the tour.
  • Stage 48 has been updated to include a look at props and costumes from all 7 years of the TV series Pretty Little Liars.

Horror Made Here: A Festival of Frights:

In 2018, this new annual special event featured dark mazes and attractions based on films and video games:
See also:




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WarnerMedia and Warner Bros Studios, Burbank (featuring founder Jack Warner) Pictured below: La La Land:  The Ultimate Los Angeles Filming Location Map. The 2017 Oscar Best Picture nominee La La Land captures the sweetest version of Los Angeles with its cotton candy sunsets, iconic architecture, neon signs, quiet streets and towering palm trees. “You can’t have a better tourism brochure than this movie,” Mayor Eric Garcetti told The Wrap at the musical’s Los Angeles premiere. “It highlights 60 locations. It shows that L.A. is not just about the stars. It’s about the romance.” Garcetti loves the film so much that he declared April 25, 2017 “La La Land Day” in honor of the film.
Warner Media, LLC, doing business as WarnerMedia, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by AT&T and headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally formed in 1990 by Steve Ross from the merger of Time Inc. and the original Warner Communications, and was formerly known as Time Warner from 1990 to 2001 and again from 2003 to 2018.

The company has film, television and cable operations, with its assets including WarnerMedia Studios & Networks (consisting of:
Despite spinning off Time Inc. in 2014, the company retained the Time Warner name until AT&T's acquisition in 2018, after which it became WarnerMedia. 

On October 22, 2016, AT&T announced an offer to acquire Time Warner for $85 billion (including assumed Time Warner debt). The proposed merger was confirmed on June 12, 2018, after AT&T won an antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed in 2017 to attempt to block the acquisition. The merger closed two days later, with the company becoming a subsidiary of AT&T. 

Under AT&T, the company moved to launch a streaming service built around the company's content, known as HBO Max. As of September 2020, the company was already renamed to WarnerMedia. In May 2021, nearly three years after the acquisition, AT&T announced that it had proposed to spin-off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery, Inc. to form a new publicly-traded company, Warner Bros. Discovery, under its CEO David Zaslav.

​The company's previous assets included: 
These operations were either sold to others or spun off as independent companies. The company was ranked No. 98 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

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Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank:

​Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, formerly known as Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Studios (1967–1970) and The Burbank Studios (1972–1990), is a major filmmaking facility owned and run by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. in Burbank, California. First National Pictures built the 62-acre (25 ha) studio lot in 1926 as it expanded from a film distributor to film production.

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Jack L. Warner, Founder

Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, born in Canada, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California (see above). Warner's career spanned some 45 years, its duration surpassing that of any other of the seminal Hollywood studio moguls. As co-head of production at Warner Bros. Studios, he worked with his brother, Sam Warner, to procure the technology for the film industry's first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927). 

After Sam's death, Jack clashed with his surviving older brothers, Harry and Albert Warner. He assumed exclusive control of the film production company in the 1950s, when he secretly purchased his brothers' shares in the business after convincing them to participate in a joint sale of stocks.

Although Warner was feared by many of his employees and inspired ridicule with his uneven attempts at humor, he earned respect for his shrewd instincts and tough-mindedness. He recruited many of Warner Bros.' top stars and promoted the hard-edged social dramas for which the studio became known. Given to decisiveness, Warner once commented, "If I'm right fifty-one percent of the time, I'm ahead of the game."

Throughout his career, he was viewed as a contradictory and enigmatic figure. Although he was a staunch Republican, Warner encouraged film projects that promoted the agenda of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. He opposed European fascism and criticized Nazi Germany well before America's involvement in World War II. 

An opponent of communism, after the war Warner appeared as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee, voluntarily naming screenwriters who had been fired as suspected communists or sympathizers. Despite his controversial public image, Warner remained a force in the motion picture industry until his retirement in the early 1970s.

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Paramount PicturesPictured below: Paramount and Disney sign up to distribute theatrical films via satellite
Paramount Pictures Corporation (common metonym: Par) is an American film and television production and distribution company and a subsidiary of ViacomCBS. It is the fifth oldest film studio in the world, the second oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures), and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios still located in the city limits of Los Angeles.

In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 22 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California, United States.

Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

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Sony Pictures (formerly Columbia Pictures) Picture Below: YouTube Video -- Columbia Pictures Intro - The Torch Lady QUITS !!
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and recorded videos) through multiple platforms.

Through an intermediate holding company called Sony Film Holding Inc., it is operated as a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., which is itself a subsidiary of the multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. 

Based at the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California, it encompasses Sony's motion picture, television production and distribution units. Its sales in the fiscal year 2020 (April 2020 – March 2021) was reported to be $7.16 billion.

​SPE is a member of the Big Five and the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

Some of Sony Pictures's film franchises include: 
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Universal PicturesPictured below: Universal Studios Tours Entrance
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.

Founded in 1912 by the following: 
Universal Pictures is the oldest surviving film studio in the United States; the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont, Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film; and the oldest member of Hollywood's "Big Five" studios in terms of the overall film market.

Universal's studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. In 1962, the studio was acquired by MCA, which was re-launched as NBCUniversal in 2004. Woody Woodpecker, who was created in 1940 by Walter Lantz and Ben Hardaway, serves as the mascot of the company.

Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and was one of the "Little Three" majors during Hollywood's golden age.

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