History of Hollywood Motion picture industry

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.

In early 1910, director D. W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his troupe, consisting of actors Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore and others. They started filming on a vacant lot in downtown Los Angeles. The company decided to explore new territories and traveled five miles (8 km) north to the little village of Hollywood, which was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first film ever shot in Hollywood called In Old California, a one-reel melodrama set in Mexican colonial-era California in the 1800s. The movie company stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York.

The first studio in Hollywood was established by the New Jersey-based Centaur Co., which wanted to make westerns in California. They rented an unused roadhouse at 6121 Sunset Boulevard at the corner of Gower, and converted it into a movie studio in October 1911, calling it Nestor Studio after the name of the western branch of their company. The first feature film made specifically in a Hollywood studio, in 1914, was The Squaw Man, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel,[11] and was filmed at the Lasky-DeMille Barn amongst other area locations.

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