“No Dogs, No Actors”—Hollywood c.1908

“Hollywood was established in 1853, with a single adobe hut on land outside Los Angeles, California. Growing crops was so successful there that by 1870, Hollywood became a thriving agricultural community.”
History of Hollywood 

Hollywood Hotel in 1910

In the early ’80s I remember driving north on the 101 freeway in Southern California, exiting at  Santa Monica Blvd., turning left and driving into Hollywood for the first time. I was 21-years-old and not prepared for what I saw.

Sure the sun was shinning, but all it did was expose a town well past its glamorous prime. Buildings seemed ready to fall, while groups of shirtless young male prostitutes stood on corners waiting for rides. (Fresh from Florida the whole concept of “Chickens” had to be explained to me by someone at film school.) The glory had departed. (Rent Pretty Woman to get a glimpse of that era of Hollywood.)

But just as there was a time after Hollywood’s Golden Era, there was a time before Hollywood was really Hollywood.

The early films in the late 1800s and early 1900s were shot mostly in New York, New Jersey, Chicago or in Europe. Hollywood, California at the turn of the 20th Century was a five day train ride from New York. Not ideal for actors coming from New York—especially since movies were not only in the shadow of Broadway, but were short little films meant to be cheap entertainment shown in storefront theaters to working class people—many who were immigrants.

But the perception of Hollywood—and the movies—would change over time.

“Why Hollywood? The Pioneers were drawn to Southern California by the promise of cheap labor, spectacular locations, and a benign climate…The pioneers were a tough breed, unfazed by physical hardship, rattlesnakes, and gun-toting rivals.

Crude studios and outdoor sets were thrown up over a 300-square-mile area from 1908 on. Hollywood—then a bucolic settlement of 5,000—became the principle focus. It was conveniently close to the hills and to downtown L.A., but its first settlers—staid Midwesterners who had outlawed saloons and theaters—were unfriendly. Recalled pioneer director Allan Dwan: ‘We were beneath them. If we walked in the streets with out cameras, they hid their girls under their beds, closed doors and windows, and shied away.’ ‘No dogs, no actors,’ read a sign at the Hollywood Hotel.”
Hollywood: Legend And Reality
Edited by Michael Webb

Of course, the perception of Hollywood—the town and the movies—continues to change as it moves into the 21th century.

Update 1/27/12: “Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood was pretty much a shambles. But the neighborhood has undergone a major overhaul of late—along the lines of the reinvention of New York’s Times Square— that has turned the seedy area back into tourism central. It’s also where many of the hippest clubs in the city are found. The re-gentrification is ongoing, but I still don’t recommend heading down dark alleys on moonless nights. That said, Hollywood is definitely cleaner and safer than it has been in decades.”
Frommer’s Los Angeles by Tara de Lis 

Scott W. Smith