As most cities do, Hollywood came from humble beginnings, starting as a small adobe house on the edge of Los Angeles in 1853. What is now synonymous with glitz and glamour was once a successful agricultural community.
It is said that the name “Hollywood” came from Daeida Wilcox, wife of real estate tycoon Harvey Henderson Wilcox, who heard about a town in Ohio of the same name. She loved the moniker so much that she named her ranch after the fabled town. It stuck and the rest became Hollywood history.
Movies didn’t make their debut in Los Angeles until the early 1900s. The 1910 short film, In Old California, was the first movie made entirely in Los Angeles. Sunset Boulevard became home to the first motion picture studio in 1911. Hollywood swiftly became the idyllic spot for movie producers trying to escape Thomas Edison’s movie production patents. The climate was also much more favorable than the harsh seasons of the East coast while the landscape provided the perfect backdrop.
By 1920, the Golden Age of Hollywood had arrived, bringing with it a certain sense of prestige and fame. The introduction of sound in the 1920s revolutionized the moviemaking industry. The Golden Age reached its peak in the 1930s. Even through the Great Depression, people flocked to movie theaters for a moment of joy and respite. An estimated 80 million people went to the movies each week.
The Golden Age of Hollywood is the era most remembered. Glitz, glam, fame, notoriety and sordid affairs mingled together to create an illustrious illusion. Many traveled far and wide for fame and to stake their claim in Tinseltown. Most ran out of money, but the ones who made it were larger than life.
They say legends never die, and in Hollywood they are forever immortalized on the silver screen. The Hollywood Hills stand as a testament to the first legendary stars and starlets. Here at the Villa Carlotta their energy lives on. Can you feel it?