For decades, talented and attractive young people from mid-America have dreamed of coming to Hollywood. What a shock when they arrive to discover that Hollywood doesn’t really exist. Hollywood is more a state of mind than a geographical location.
Much of the early movie industry, what’s commonly called Hollywood, was located on the west side of Los Angeles, in communities like our neighborhood of Culver City or Santa Monica or West L.A. Later, it poured through the Sepulveda Pass into the San Fernando Valley--cities like Van Nuys, Burbank and Universal City.
With the rise of the film industry in places like China and India, the American film industry suffered. For a while, filming in Los Angeles almost ceased, driven by soaring costs to other, cheaper cities, like Toronto or Prague or Indonesia.
Recently, we’ve seen more movies being shot in Los Angeles, but the old Hollywood of glamour and dreams may never return.
This website focuses on Culver City and includes articles on the History of Screenland, (Im)morality Plays, and a Walking Tour of Screenland sites. To respond to the website or tell your own Hollywood stories, write b.silvey@sbcglobal.net.
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