HOLLYWOOD, THE ENTERTAINMENT CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California – situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonym of American cinema. Today, much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as the Westside neighborhood, but significant auxiliary industries, such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies remain in Hollywood, as does the backlot of Paramount Pictures.

Filmmaking in the greater Los Angeles area preceded the establishment of filmmaking in Hollywood. The Biograph Company filmed the short film A Daring Hold-Up in Southern California in Los Angeles in 1906. The first studio in the Los Angeles area was established by the Selig Polyscope Company in Edendale, with construction beginning in August 1909.

Prolific director D. W. Griffith was the first to make a motion picture in Hollywood. His 17-minute short film In Old California, which was released on 10 March 1910, was filmed entirely in the village of Hollywood for Biograph. Although Hollywood banned movie theaters—of which it had none—before annexation that year, Los Angeles had no such restriction. The first film by a Hollywood Studio, Nestor Motion Picture Company, was shot on October 26, 1911.

Various producers and filmmakers moved bases from the east coast to escape punitive licensing from the Motion Picture Patents Company.

The first studio in Hollywood was established by the New Jersey–based Centaur Co., which wanted to make westerns in California. The first feature film made specifically in a Hollywood studio, in 1914, was The Squaw Man.

By 1911, Los Angeles was second only to New York in motion picture production, and by 1915, the majority of American films were being produced in the Los Angeles area.

Four major film companies Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO and Columbia had studios in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios. Hollywood had begun its dramatic transformation from sleepy suburb to movie production capital.

By 1920, Hollywood had become world-famous as the center of the United States film industry. From the 1920s to the 1940s, a large percentage of transportation to and from Hollywood was by means of the red cars of the Pacific Electric Railway.