Adolph Zukor, the Hungarian founding father of Hollywood, was born 150 years ago. He laid the foundations of the celebrity system in the American “dream factory”. The Hungarian man who made cinema popular and profitable was born in a small village in Zemplén on 7 January 1873.
Hollywood was laid out as a subdivision in 1887 by Harvey Wilcox, who was a prohibitionist from Kansas. However, real-estate magnate H.J. Whitley transformed Hollywood into a wealthy and popular residential area.
Daeida Wilcox, who donated land to help in the development of Hollywood, learned of the name Hollywood from an acquaintance who owned an estate by that name in Illinois. Wilcox is quoted as saying, "I chose the name Hollywood simply because it sounds nice and because I'm superstitious and holly brings good luck."
Established by ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, William Fox, Louis B. Mayer, and the four Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack), organized production of movies in Hollywood became standard.
Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, William Fox, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio.
Zukor and Fox: The Hungarian Founders of Hollywood
Who started the Golden Age of Hollywood?
The Golden Age of Hollywood began with the silent movie era (though some people say it started at the end of the silent movie age). Dramatic films such as D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and comedies such as The Kid (1921) starring Charlie Chaplin were popular nationwide.
The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris, France. They used a device of their own making, the Cinématographe, which was a camera, a projector and a film printer all in one.
Early movie producers also relocated to Southern California to escape Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company, which controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time. The first movie studio in the Hollywood area was Nestor Studios, opened in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley.
History. Hollywood California was first founded in 1853, though it didn't really start gaining popularity until the early 1900s. The area started as an agricultural and ranching community, then when the film wave hit the country around 1910 many filmmakers started flocking to the area, making the city what it is today.
Similar or associated terms include classical Hollywood narrative, the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood, and classical continuity. The period is also referred to as the studio era, which may also include films of the late silent era.
Babylon also has associations with the Hebrew word Balal, which, according to Screen Rant, means to confuse by mixing. Using Babylon as the film's title has led many to speculate that the director, Damien Chazelle, is making it clear that Hollywood is, in his eyes at least, a city of confusion and sin.
The term "Hollywood movies" is used by many to refer to American movies. However, the origins of Hollywood actually lie in British cinema. In the early days of cinema, most films were made in Europe.
Hollywood. Real-estate magnate H.J. Whitley, known as the “Father of Hollywood,” subsequently transformed Hollywood into a wealthy and popular residential area. At the turn of the 20th century, Whitley was responsible for bringing telephone, electric, and gas lines into the new suburb.
Even before the Wilcoxes founded Hollywood, the area – originally called La Nopalera by the region's Spanish-speaking residents for the numerous cactus patches – was renowned for its frost-free growing belt.
The site was covered with pine forests and palmetto with a few tomato farms until 1921, when Joseph Wesley Young, a developer from California (hence the name Hollywood), laid out the town, which was incorporated in 1925. The city was rebuilt after a devastating hurricane in 1926.
The cinema of the United States, often generally referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. The United States cinema (Hollywood) is the oldest film industry in the world and also the largest film industry in terms of revenue.
Roundhay Garden Scene is a short silent motion picture filmed by French inventor Louis Le Prince at Oakwood Grange in Roundhay, Leeds, in northern England on 14 October 1888. It is believed to be the oldest surviving film. The camera used was patented in the United Kingdom on 16 November 1888.
Hobart Johnstone Whitley (October 7, 1847 – June 3, 1931) was a Canadian-American businessman and real estate developer. Whitley is best known for helping create the Hollywood subdivision in Los Angeles. He is among those known as the "Father of Hollywood."
Dadasaheb Phalke, byname of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, (born April 30, 1870, Trimbak, British India [now in Maharashtra, India]—died February 16, 1944, Nashik, Maharashtra), motion picture director who is considered the father of the Indian cinema.
Chief among these innovators was D.W. Griffith. It is true that Griffith's self-cultivated reputation as a Romantic artist—“the father of film technique,” “the man who invented Hollywood,” “the Shakespeare of the screen,” and the like—is somewhat overblown.
William Clark Gable was an American film actor, nicknamed “The King of Hollywood” in his heyday. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time.
Hollywood's Golden Age finally came to an end due to two main factors: antitrust actions, and the invention of television. The iconic Hollywood sign. Reprinted from Hollywood 1940 – 2008 by Marc Wanamaker (pg. 19, Arcadia Publishing, 2009).
