Tweet "Hollywood Cinema and the Real Los Angeles"

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles will be hosting a talk by the author of "Hollywood Cinema and the Real Los Angeles" on May 30. The book deals with how the geography of the city shaped filming, beginning in the 1910s through the end of the classical studio system in the 1950s. The book will focus on the silent period, slapstick, movies about the movies, and film noir.
http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/detail/program_id/1199

[Christopher Jacobs]

I wonder if it will discuss (or at least mention) the recent video game "L.A. NOIRE" and its interesting pastiche of classic Los Angeles landscape and landmarks.

He didn't discuss LA Noire in his talk, and it appears that his book mainly goes up to the 1960s. He basically covers ideas that have been discussed in books about Hollywood films about Hollywood and location books, as well as discussions here, just changing it into Academic verbalese. Nothing really new, though he claims it is. He talks a little about locations, but some of us pointed out that that material is widely known through books like Marc Wanamaker's and John Bengtson's. He claims he's doing virtual archaelogy, but that's been said about Bengtson's books. In his talk, he claimed that Hollywood really didn't make films claiming Hollywood as filmmaking capitol until SHOW PEOPLE, though I wanted to ask, what about the 1923 HOLLYWOOD?

In his talk, he claimed that Hollywood really didn't make films claiming Hollywood as filmmaking capitol until SHOW PEOPLE, though I wanted to ask, what about the 1923 HOLLYWOOD?

The earliest description Hollywood specifically as the 'film capital of the world' that I can think of is in a syndicated article Elinor Glyn wrote for British (and by extension, Australian) audiences in 1922. Like the 1923 movie, it seems at least partly a PR exercise: 'Don't believe what you've heard about the scandals, it's a great place and actors are good clean folk'. I've seen more generic references going back at least as early as 1917.

Can anyone think of any earlier ones? It makes me wonder if Glyn popularised the concept.

The earliest description Hollywood specifically as the 'film capital of the world' that I can think of is in a syndicated article Elinor Glyn wrote for British (and by extension, Australian) audiences in 1922. Like the 1923 movie, it seems at least partly a PR exercise: 'Don't believe what you've heard about the scandals, it's a great place and actors are good clean folk'. I've seen more generic references going back at least as early as 1917.

Can anyone think of any earlier ones? It makes me wonder if Glyn popularised the concept.

The idea of the town Hollywood becoming the brand "Hollywood" is the subject of Leo Braudy's book, The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon (http://leobraudy.com/books/the-hollywood-sign/" target="_blank" target="_blank), although I'm darned if I can remember the details. This book makes an excellent bookend to Miss Dupont's fine book on Hollywoodland.

It would seem, however, that Glyn and others had already picked up on "Hollywood" as a brand since she's talking about the scandals; neither Arbuckle nor Wm Desmond Taylor lived in Hollywood.

In his talk, he claimed that Hollywood really didn't make films claiming Hollywood as filmmaking capitol until SHOW PEOPLE, though I wanted to ask, what about the 1923 HOLLYWOOD?

There was also Souls for Sale, which came out about five months before Hollywood, and the 1922 Arrow release Night Life in Hollywood with a number of star cameos.

-HA