Places & Events > Cities

Hollywood

1900: Harvey Wilcox, a transplant from Kansas, buys 160 acres of land west of Los Angeles in order to found a conservative community. His wife Daeida meets a woman on a train who speaks of her summer home called Hollywood. She convinces her husband to name their new community Hollywood.

1903: The community is incorporated as Hollywood. Wilcox, a prohibitionist, bans the sale of alcohol in the community except by pharmacists.

1910: Hollywood officially becomes a part of Los Angeles in order to benefit from the water and sewage systems.

1911: David Horsley purchases the Blondeau Tavern on Sunset Boulevard and turns it into the Nestor Film Company, Hollywood's first film studio.

1914: The first feature-length film, The Squaw Man, is released. Its creators - Samuel Goldwyn, Cecil B. DeMille, and Jesse Lasky - made the film in a barn a block away from what is now the corner of Hollywood and Vine.

1917: The Charlie Chaplin Studios are built just south of Sunset.

1923: The Hollywood sign, which originally reads "Hollywoodland," is put up. It is an advertisement for a Hollywood Hills housing development. After the advertisement is over, the sign remains and is negelected.

May 18, 1927: Grauman's Chinese Theatre has its Grand Opening in Hollywood. The film shown that evening is Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings. A riot breaks out as onlookers try to see the stars entering the theater for the premiere.

May 19, 1927: Grauman's Chinese Theatre opens to the public.

May 16, 1929: The first Academy Awards ceremony and banquet takes place in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

1949: The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce takes charge of the Hollywood signing, removing the "land" and repairing the letters that now spell, simply, "Hollywood."

1956: The now-landmark Capitol Records building is erected on Vine Street.

1958: The Hollywood Walk of Fame is created.

1960: The first star is placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The celebrity honored is Joanne Woodward.

1968: Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is declared a historical and cultural landmark.

2001: The Kodak Theatre opens on Hollywood Blvd in the location of the old Hollywood Hotel.

2002: A group of Hollywood residents campaign for secession from Los Angeles.

Nov. 2002: The secession referendums go on the ballot during the November election. To succeed, there needs to be a majority of voters not just from Hollywood, but the whole of Los Angeles. The referendums are not voted in.