The Birth of Hollywood and 1910-1920s The Birth of Hollywood and Charlie Chaplin 1

Hollywood 1910 Hollywood started out as a farming community in the 1870s in the Cahuenga Valley, named after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains to the north. The name "Hollywood" was coined by H. J. Whitley, the "Father of Hollywood.” The name is a reference to the Toyon, a native plant with bright red winter berries that resembles holly. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903, and officially merged with Los Angeles in 1910. The sign “Hollywoodland” was first constructed in 1923 to specifically advertise a housing development. In 1949, during a restoration of the sign “Land” was dropped from the title so as to better represent the district.

The Birth of Tinseltown In the early 1900s, most motion picture patents were held by Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company in New Jersey, and filmmakers were often sued to stop their productions. To escape this, filmmakers began moving out west, where Edison's patents could not be enforced. Also, the weather was ideal and there was quick access to various settings. By 1912, major motion-picture companies had set up production near or in Los Angeles and Hollywood, and the area became the capital of the film industry. Hollywood became known as “Tinseltown” and “Movie Biz City” because of the glittering image of the movie industry. Hollywood has since become a major center for film study in the United States.

Hollywood Studios In 1910 director D. W. Griffith was the first to make a motion picture in Hollywood. His 17-minute short film In Old California, was filmed for the Biograph Company. The first studio in Hollywood, the Nestor Motion Picture Company, was established by the New Jersey–based Centaur Company in a roadhouse at 6121 Sunset Boulevard (the corner of Gower), in October 1911. The first film by a Hollywood studio, Nestor Motion Picture Company, was shot on October 26, 1911.The Whitley home was used as its set, and the unnamed movie was filmed in the middle of their groves at the corner of Whitley Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

Major Film Studios Emerge Four major film companies had studios in Hollywood: Paramount Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc. Columbia Pictures During the 1920s, Hollywood was the fifth largest industry in the nation.

Charlie Chaplin Charles Spencer Chaplin was born into poverty in South London in 1889. Throughout his childhood Chaplin performed on stage. By 13 he dropped out of school and worked to support his family. By 1908 at age 19 Chaplin was performing with his brother Sydney in Fred Karno’s London Comedians troop. During the troops second American tour in 1913, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company and Keystone Studios. The Tramp resorts to eating his boot in a famous scene from The Gold Rush (1925)

Charlie Chaplin He championed the underdog. His films used both slapstick combined with pathos, typified in all of the Tramp’s struggles against adversity. His movies used satire and comedy to deal with heavy issues, such as poverty, treatment of immigrants, social classes, and conditions of factory workers, as well as many autobiographical elements. Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. “It is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule… ridicule, I suppose, is an attitude of defiance; we must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature – or go insane.” --Chaplin, explaining why his comedies often make fun of tragedy.

United Artists Corporation Founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. United Artists was created with the intention of allowing the artists to control their own interests, rather than having to depend upon the powerful commercial studios. The company was established by the artists and for the artists. At that time, already established producers and distributors were tightening their control over actor salaries and creative decisions, a process that evolved into the present-day rigid studio system. Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith in 1919