Hollywood 1940-2008
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Marc Wanamaker
Well-known Hollywood film historian Marc Wanamaker and lifeguard historian Arthur C. Verge have worked together to produce this colorful history of the beach that brought Hollywood to the world.
Read more from Marc Wanamaker
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Hollywood 1940-2008 - Marc Wanamaker
Productions.
INTRODUCTION
This volume is the second of a pair, beginning with Early Hollywood. The first volume dealt with Hollywood from the post-rancho period of the 1880s and the development of the Hollywood area into the 20th century. The years beginning with 1940 show Hollywood’s incredible development from a small farming community to a major Los Angeles landmark. In only 50 years, the Hollywood area was completely changed into a major business and residential community.
By 1940, Hollywood was going through another boom with the remodeling of many of the old restaurants, theaters, hotels, and apartment houses. The State of California decided to build the Hollywood Parkway, which later became the Hollywood Freeway, in 1954. By 1940, the Sunset Strip was also expanding and was becoming a place of dining entertainment rivaling the nightclubs of Hollywood proper with the opening of Ciro’s, the newest of the Hollywood nightclubs at that time.
With the coming of World War II, Hollywood was busier than ever as the studios churned out films by the hundreds created by thousands of employees serviced by the hundreds of businesses and publicity the town generated. The Hollywood Canteen, where servicemen were entertained, became world famous, resulting in a motion picture of the same name. It was at this time that many of Hollywood’s original farm and residential landmarks disappeared and were replaced by new public and private buildings changing the look of the town.
With the coming of the 1950s, television emerged as a major entertainment and communication force, and specialized studios were constructed. The Hollywood theaters remodeled as they adapted to the competition with new wide-screen motion pictures. In 1954, the Capitol Records building became one of the newest Hollywood landmarks. The Lasky-DeMille Barn, located on the Paramount Pictures back lot, became a California Historic State Landmark on December 27, 1956. The following year, the Hollywood Hotel was demolished to make way for a bank building, part of the new Hollywood development of the 1950s.
Hollywood lost many original landmarks throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The Hollywood Library burned, and many of the famed restaurants and nightclubs disappeared, such as the Hollywood Brown Derby and the famed Tiny Naylor’s Drive-In. But new Hollywood landmarks also were born with the opening of the Cinerama Dome Theater and the RCA Building. The old Moulin Rouge Theater, formerly the Earl Carroll Theater, became the rock ‘n’ roll venue the Kaleidoscope in 1968. In 1972, Columbia Pictures Studios moved out of Hollywood, and later become a rental studio where television production dominated.
The Pantages opened as a legitimate theater in 1977 in an attempt to bring the tourists toward the eastern end of the boulevard. In the 1980s and 1990s, several plans to rejuvenate Hollywood were met with success and failure. The greatest set back came with the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which severely damaged many buildings in Hollywood, including the historic Egyptian Theatre. In 1997, the most important redevelopment project took shape in the Hollywood-Highland project, which became a shopping and restaurant mall with the Kodak-Academy Awards Theater set in the center. Opening in 1998, the project that encompassed the Renaissance Hotel began a major redevelopment that continued into the next decade.
HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE AND ROBERT W. NUDELMAN
The late Robert W. Nudelman spent much of his time searching for memorabilia to create a unique archive for Hollywood Heritage. Most of the photographs and other printed memorabilia were acquired from various sources on a daily basis for several years. This book is dedicated to the longtime tenacity of Robert in finding Hollywood historical artifacts, whether they were photographs, books, costumes, or a 1,000-pound theater marquee sign. Hollywood Heritage Museum is indebted to Mr. Nudelman for creating a unique archive for future study and for leading efforts to preserve Hollywood’s historic landmarks.
After the devastating fire at the Hollywood Library, the Hollywood Heritage Museum Archive began to acquire museum-quality artifacts and materials for research and study. The Barn
was moved to its current site in 1983 and opened on December 13, 1985, with a small but important collection.
By 1996, the museum’s archive numbered about 500 items. After a September 1996 arson fire, the museum took a new approach under Nudelman, locating and acquiring materials related to the Hollywood community’s history, early filmmaking, and Paramount Pictures. Within 10 years, over 12,000 items were in the archive, where they were preserved and catalogued for museum displays and research.
HOLLYWOODLAND SIGN, 1941. The famous Hollywood sign at this time still read, Hollywoodland,
which originally was an advertisement for the largest housing development in Hollywood’s history, in 1923. With the introduction of television to Los Angeles, Don Lee’s KHJ television station was the first to have its transmitter located on the top of Mount Hollywood, in 1939. Los Angeles renamed the hill Mount Lee.
One
HOLLYWOOD PICTORIAL
Hollywood transformed after the Great Depression with the help of the motion picture and radio industries. People were streaming to Los Angeles from around the world looking for work in the entertainment industries, thus, fueling development. Housing, entertainment, and business services thrived, changing the physical landscape and creating new landmarks.
The Hollywood Brown Derby remained the leading restaurant. Retail stores in the area boomed during the radio days, making Hollywood a shopping destination to rival downtown Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. The nightlife in Hollywood expanded with the addition of the Hollywood Palladium and Ciro’s, among others. Record companies expanded recording studios, and many musicians worked in the industry supplying music for the movies, radio, and records and supplying live performances at the many bars, clubs, auditoriums, and theaters.
With the coming of World War II, soldiers passed through town 24 hours a day. The war saved many Hollywood nightclubs and rejuvenated others, and kept the hotels at a high capacity. Some historic theaters became radio theaters and legitimate theaters were transformed into cinemas.
The studios experienced great growth during the war years, bringing more jobs. The Academy Awards returned to Hollywood in March 1944, increasing their popularity through radio broadcasts. At the war’s end, television was already becoming the dominant industry in Hollywood, with radio continuing to supply entertainment nationally. Many thousands of ex-servicemen settled in Los Angeles, changing population demographics and resulting in a new boom.
Hollywood changed again in the 1950s with new housing, businesses, and infrastructures, including the Hollywood Freeway, which dramatically bisected the famous landscape. In 1954, Capitol Records built the first circular office tower in Hollywood, creating an enduring landmark that remains world famous. New television studios were built, such as CBS Television City, and some older theaters were remodeled, trading historic designs for something modern.
Development came to an abrupt halt by 1968; when Hollywood declined, rock ‘n’ roll transformed Sunset Strip into a music scene, and tourism generally flagged even as Universal Studios and Disneyland were major draws. Some industry support services closed, and Hollywood Boulevard showed that negative effect with empty businesses. Revitalization in the 1980s and 1990s meant both restoration