The 1920s was a prosperous era for Los Angeles, California, United States, when the name "Hollywood" became synonymous with the U.S. film industry and the visual setting of Los Angeles became famous worldwide. Plentiful job openings attracted heavy immigration, especially from the rural Midwest and Mexico. The city's population more than doubled in size from 577,000 to over 1.2 million between 1920 and 1929.[1] An influx of families immigrating from Mexico tripled the city's Mexican population, which reached 97,000 by 1930, and the city became known as the "Mexican capital of the United States".[2]
Extensive modernization took place in the 1920s, characterized by a dramatic increase in automobile usage, vast suburban sprawl, and the formation of western business and financial centers.[3]
Panoramic view of Los Angeles in 1921
Overview
Map of Los Angeles in 1917
In 1919, the community living in the downtown area formed 50% of the population of Los Angeles, and mostly Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Very few people lived in the hills and the suburbs were sparsely populated. As a city, it was ranked 17th in the list of cities in the US with hardly any industrial development, with the petroleum industry in its infancy. However, the only redeeming feature was the Hollywood film industry which dominated the world with its silent movie productions.[4]
A dramatic change took place over the decade, and in 1929, with the Great Depression, the city became a hub of Mexicanimmigrants and Blacks, resulting in some 85 square miles (220km2) of expansion and encroachment of the San Fernando Valley to its north and to the San Pedro Harbor in the south. The population was a cosmopolitan mixture of Caucasians,Protestants, Blacks (then the second largest group community after Baltimore), Jews, Armenians, Italians, and Russians, and small numbers of Chinese and Japanese. Internal mass migration also took place when 2 million Americans migrated to California, of which 1.2 million settled in Los Angeles.[5] There were no slums in spite of influx of a large migrant population.[6] The city's population skyrocketed from 102,000 at the turn of the century, to 577,000 in 1920, and over 1.2 million in 1929.
Aerial view of UCLA (formerly the University of California, Southern Branch) taken in 1922
Propelled by the boom, in 1920s, it became the fifth largest city in the US. Petroleum became a major industry with extractions planned from the large reserves of Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Santa Fe Springs. Manufacturing industries boomed and it became the aviation capital of the US and occupied the ninth position among the industrial cities of the country. Eight major Hollywood studios produced 90% of all major movies and also controlled all movie halls and held full film distribution rights.[7] The city also got the nickname of "Emerald City of Los Angeles".[8] Los Angeles Port became the second busiest deep water port and the banking sector became very large. As the emergent economy, fueled by oil and Hollywood real estate boomed, though with a growth fluctuation during 1924–25, one third of the homes in Los Angeles were privately owned by home owners, unlike other major cities in the US where the housing was largely rented.[9]
Los Angeles Museum of Natural History showing displays of prehistoric skeletons, ca.1920
During the process of development of the city the largest fossil area was found in North America, with prehistoric animals skeletons buried in tar pits (brea in Spanish) (an area with leakage of tar and methane from the ground), was found during the expansion phase of the city in the 1920. This area located on the Rancho La Brea, which was in the process of development was cordoned off and twelve city block were converted into the La Brea Tar Pits and designated as a county animal fossil area. Over the years more archeological finds were discovered by the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. These are prominent exhibits in the museum. The finds on display consisted of mammals, saber-toothed cats, the giant ground sloth, California lion (of more than 1000lbs), ground stork and golden eagle (800 numbers) and many more of Pleistocene age. The skeleton of only one human (that of a woman) was found and is on display in the museum under the title La Brea Woman.[10]
Jewish people prospered in Los Angeles.[11] Emigrants from the New York theatre world came to dominate the film industry.[12][13]
Chinatown declined in population but remained a gambling den and a red-light area. In contrast, the Japanese presence increased with recorded population of 35,000 Japanese in Los Angeles County by 1930. The Mexican-American population also tripled in the period 1920-30 from 33,644 to 97,116. The rise of the black population during this period was moderate and went up from 15,579 to 38,894.[14]
The famous Hollywood Boulevard was the main road of the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Sunset Boulevard added to the glamorous age of the Hollywood from the 1920s (continues to this day) and the Hollywood Hills in the backdrop, became the residential complex of the rich and famous of the Hollywood film industry.[15]
1920–1923
Hollywood Bowl (1922)
In 1920, the Architectural Digest started its publications which published pictures of the picturesque gardens that were developed by wealthy settlers. It was also the period when women of Los Angeles took up the study and practice of landscape architecture.[16]
The iconic amphitheater, the Hollywood Bowl was formally opened in 1921 next to the location of the future Hollywood Freeway. [17] It was the venue of music concerts, university graduation ceremonies, and other events of the community. It came to be formally known as the Bowl after 27 March 1921 when its first formal event was the Los Angeles Philharmonic performance, an Easter sunrise service attended by some 800. The first official summer season of the Philharmonic was held here in 1922.[18]
In 1922, as per a referendum, a site was identified for locating the Civic Center in the precincts of an area surrounded by the streets of the Main, Broadway, First and Temple in Downtown Los Angeles and for building the Civic Hall, bonds worth $7.5 million were also approved to be issued.[19]
In the 1920s, the Hollywood residential complex, which has the iconic big sign “Hollywood”, was created by the Harry Chandler, the news baron of the Los Angeles Times. [20] The sign was erected in 1923 originally with the name as a billboard of "Hollywood Land Development". In a storm in 1943 most of the board was knocked out and subsequently only the word "Hollywood" was restored.[20]
1924-25 witnessed the beautification of street lights with ornamental lights, funds for which were approved by the municipal Art Commission, and later further approved in 1927–1928. Torrance, considered a model "industrial suburb", was incorporated into Los Angeles.[22]
In 1924 Jack Doyle was instrumental in building the Olympic Auditorium. He had full support of the Olympic committee for the 1932 Summer Olympic Games taking place in Los Angeles. The Auditorium was inaugurated on 13 January 1925. Jack Dempsey, World Heavy Weight Champion, and Estelle Taylor, film actress, were present. The stadium was built with a capacity for 10,400 spectators and was very well equipped.
At the time professional boxing was very popular with events held every day except Sundays. From the beginning of 1925, boxing events were held every alternate week at this venue. The first heavyweight card was held on 13 January 1925, the 10 round was between Jimmy McLarnin and Fidel LaBarba.[23][24]
In 1926, famous exotic lover and silent film star Rudolph Valentino died at the age of 31. He is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, previously called Hollywood Memorial Park. Since then, on the anniversary of his death, a mysterious "Lady in Black" comes to mourn at his grave. [27]
Grauman's Chinese Theatre opened in 1927 and became a notable location for holding movie premieres. It is best known for the numerous hand- and footprint impressions left by celebrities in the cement walkway in front of the theater. This practice was started accidentally when Norma Talmadge stepped on the wet cement here. However, the first formal hand imprints were of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford stars of the silent movies.[28] Apart from the cement foot and hand prints of the stars, the theater building has a red pagoda which is 30ft in height. It was built with financing provided by Sid Grauman and partners and also Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. However, the bells and other Chinese decorations and artifacts were imported. It was built at a cost of $2 million by Chinese artisans under the guidance of Moon Quon, the Chinese poet and film maker. In 1968, it was listed as an historic and cultural landmark. Cecil B. DeMille's film The King of Kings was premiered here. Befittingly, 85 years later a Chinese TV maker TCL bought this for $5 million in 2012.[29]
1928–1929
During the 1928 premiere of the Sam Goldwyn film, The Devil Dancer, actress Gilda Gray (who is credited with inventing the shimmy) infamously caused a commotion in the theater's dressing room.[25]
In 1928, the construction of City Hall was completed, which had been authorized in 1922 to replace the old 1888 Romanesque City Hall. This building is a skyscraper built over a colonnaded base, to project a sense of power and prestige on the hall.[19]
In 1928, the Los Angeles City Council selected 640 acres (1.00sqmi; 260ha) in the southern part of Westchester for the city's new airport. The fields of wheat, barley, and lima beans were converted into dirt landing strips without any terminal buildings. It was named Mines Field after William W. Mines, the real estate agent who arranged the deal.[30] The first structure, Hangar One, was erected in 1929 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[31]
Gladys Marie Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian actress resident in the U.S., and also producer, screenwriter and film studio founder, who was a pioneer in the US film industry with a Hollywood career that spanned five decades.
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles County, California, mostly within the city of Los Angeles. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,765 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California. The stars are monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of actors, directors, producers, musicians, theatrical/musical groups, fictional characters, and others.
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre is a historic movie theater located on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Opened in 1922, it is an early example of a lavish movie palace and is noted as having been the site of the first-ever Hollywood film premiere. From 1998 until 2020, it was owned and operated by the American Cinematheque, a member-based cultural organization.
Pickfair is a mansion and estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California with legendary history. The original Pickfair was an 18 acre estate designed by architect Horatio Cogswell for attorney Lee Allen Phillips of Berkeley Square as a country home. Phillips sold the property to actor Douglas Fairbanks in 1918. Coined "Pickfair" by the press, it became one of the most celebrated houses in the world. Life Magazine described Pickfair as "a gathering place only slightly less important than the White House... and much more fun."
Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood Hills and its eastern terminus is at Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz. Hollywood Boulevard is famous for running through the tourist areas in central Hollywood, including attractions such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Ovation Hollywood shopping and entertainment complex.
TCL's Chinese Theatre is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.
Charles Edward "Buddy" Rogers was an American film actor and musician. During the peak of his popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was publicized as "America's Boyfriend".
A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American showman who established two of Hollywood's most recognizable and visited landmarks, the Chinese Theatre and the Egyptian Theatre.
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple is owned by The Walt Disney Company and serves as the venue for a majority of the Walt Disney Studios' film premieres.
The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's The Silent Man. It's the northernmost of the collection of historical movie palaces in the Broadway Theater District and stands directly across from the landmark Bradbury Building. The theater is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Marguerite De La Motte was an American film actress, most notably of the silent film era.
The C. E. Toberman Estate, also known as Villa Las Colinas, is a gated Mission Revival mansion and estate on Camino Palmero in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984.
Meyer & Holler was an architecture firm based in Los Angeles, California, noted for its opulent commercial buildings and movie theatres, including Grauman's Chinese and Egyptian theatres, built during the 1920s. Meyer & Holler was also known as The Milwaukee Building Company.
Charles Edward Toberman was a real estate developer and stenographer who developed landmarks in Hollywood, California, including the Hollywood Bowl, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, the Roosevelt Hotel, the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Masonic Temple. Toberman, along with H. J. Whitley has been called 'the Father of Hollywood'.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. was an American actor and filmmaker. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films, including The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro, but spent the early part of his career making comedies.
The following is a general historical timeline of the city of Los Angeles, California in the United States of America.
William Lee Woollett was an American architect practicing mainly in California. He designed theaters in Los Angeles in the 1920s including the largest movie theater ever built in Los Angeles, Grauman's Metropolitan Theatre which opened in 1923.
The history of Los Angeles began in 1781 when 44 settlers from central New Spain established a permanent settlement in what is now Downtown Los Angeles, as instructed by Spanish Governor of Las Californias, Felipe de Neve, and authorized by Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli. After sovereignty changed from Mexico to the United States in 1849, great changes came from the completion of the Santa Fe railroad line from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1885. "Overlanders" flooded in, mostly white Protestants from the Lower Midwest and South.
Gebhard, David; Winter, Robert (2003) [1985 (as Architecture in Los Angeles: A Complete Guide]. An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Revised and updateded.). Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith. ISBN1-58685-308-2.
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