We're really excited about becoming a tiny part of the Hollywood community and lore.
To celebrate, we share some of Hollywood history right here.
The first tourist attraction in Hollywood was the the site of the massive life-size set built for D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages in 1916. The set replicated the walls that once encircled Babylon and was 300 feet high and was wide enough for chariots. It was dismantled in 1919 and stored until resurrected and used as part of the architecture of the Hollywood Highland Center in 2001. You can't miss this towering gate, which reaches high above the three-story mall that surrounds it. The Hollywood Highland Center is also home to The Kodak Theatre (the official home of the Academy Awards) and Gruman's Chinese Theater.
The first motion picture studio in Hollywood — opened October 27, 1911 — was David Horsely's Centaur, opened due to bad weather conditions at his the New York/New Jersey production facilities. It stood at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street.
The major Studios — 20th Century Fox, RKO, Paramount, Warner Bros., Lowes (MGM) Universal, Columbia and United Artists Studios — did not arrive until the mid 1920s.
There are many accounts of how Hollywood got its name. The most popular lore is that the name Hollywood was derived from the abundant native Toyon (California Holly) shrubs that covered the hillsides. The first official appearance of the name Hollywood appears on a grid map filed with the county recorder's office on February 1, 1887. Hollywood's main street was named Prospect Avenue later changed to Hollywood Boulevard.
By the early 1900s Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality. It was annexed into the City of Los Angeles in 1910. At that time it was home to a population of 500, a streetcar, a post office, a newspaper, two markets, and the Hollywood Hotel (built and opened in 1902 where Hollywood & Highland now stands).
Hollywood, also know as Tinsel town, is a district in Los Angeles that did not have official boundaries until the Los Angeles City Council defined the borders in 2006.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a relatively recent creation. Likely inspired by the hand and foot prints that graced the sidewalk in front of Gruman’s Chinese Theater, the Walk of Fame was created in 1958 as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry — motion pictures, live theatre, music, radio, television. The first artist to be awarded a star was Joanne Woodward in 1960.
Perhaps the most unique stars are the four round stars awarded to Apollo 11 — the first mission to land man on the moon. The stars were awarded in 1993. Apollo 11 landed in 1969.